The literal answer to your question, from my perspective, would be walking through the lobby and breathing the air.
Or sitting on the beach in the evening close enough to Ama'Ama to hear the live music.
OK, so I clearly loved my Aulani trip. No lazy river anywhere is going to have the magic of the hidden animals, and we thought it was great fun to happen upon characters just wandering the resort. However, after our weekend staycation (not that it matters - but the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Arizona) - it was hard not to make some comparisons. One thing I realized was that the Aulani chair issue will never, ever be resolved - b/c there just isn't physical space for enough chairs for the capacity of the resort. The Desert Ridge resort had the usual 30-min signage but absolutely no reason to monitor the chairs. It probably wasn't at capacity, but I don't even think that matters. At any point on Saturday afternoon (this is Labor Day weekend) - we could have had a number of choices of 4-lounger groupings. Can you imagine heading to the Aulani pools at 1pm and asking your family of 4 - should we put our stuff there, or there, or there? (We chose a shady spot along the man-made freshwater lagoon sort of thing that surrounded the resort.) There were rows and rows of completely unused loungers on a hill overlooking the lazy river. Aulani just doesn't have that physical space around the pools. I do now wonder why no one thought of that when it was in the planning stages. I can only guess that they thought more people would be on the beach loungers than actually are, since so many of those are empty throughout the day?
Otherwise, there were some things that definitely affected our perception of Aulani vs. "other". The Desert Ridge resort had far more employees wandering the pool area. Far, far more. If they wanted to monitor chair usage, they could have done so much more easily. They walked around passing out little cups with strawberries topped with chocolate and whipped cream. They brought around pitchers of water and cups, leaving them without asking if you weren't in your loungers. They stopped to check that you had everything you needed. BUT there were no lifeguards. Ugh. I think we all forget that Disney posts lifeguards in situations other resorts/cruiselines just do not. I felt like I had to keep my 7yo right by my side in the lazy river, even though he's a great swimmer, b/c no lifeguards means more nonsense from other guests. With kids, I would rather have the lack of chairs stress than the no-lifeguard stress, but that's something only parents of younger kids are ever going to say. One thing that stays the same is ridiculous resort food pricing... so from now on, when people complain about Aulani food prices, all I can say is - stay at another similar type of resort outside of Hawaii and you'll still find it to be stupidly high. Except you can't say "food is always expensive here" in Arizona.
We'll go back to Aulani one day, b/c you really can't replicate the atmosphere, and it left me with a relaxed, happy feeling every time I walked in the lobby doorway. But if you're not feeling that, then there are plenty of other options! We don't all have to love the same resorts, and that is totally ok.
