Great Trip report!!! So, I was wondering, my DD and I want to go to Hawaii. Do you think Aulani is worth the money? Are there other places that you saw that was better priced? I would like to stay about 10+ days and so I'm not sure I can afford it but it looks so wonderful and its DISNEY!!! Also, food seems to be expensive but we are not foodies so I guess we could stop somewhere and have some things on hand. Did you go to other islands? Is that hard to arrange? Love your report and all of your pictures. You are a lovely couple. Thanks for answering any questions.
Scrapbookqueen
Hi! So exciting that you're thinking of going to Aulani! We actually own DVC, so I can't comment on the dollar amount because while we paid for it with our dues and points, we did not pay out of pocket. I will tell you though, I'm rather cheap and I priced it out just to see and for a studio oceanview for 6 nights it was somewhere in the $4,000's.. Yikes and no way would I have paid that outright. Have you considered renting DVC points? There are multiple places that do this as a service and you pay a lot less than rack rate! Definitely look into that if you have not already.
As far as was the resort with it... hmm.. my husband and I would give you two different answers! We stayed in Maui for 3 nights beforehand and I thought the room was equally as nice, actually even bigger, but the resort itself did nothing for me. Disney did everything for me. My husband actually preferred Maui because he wasn't as into the resort as I was. I can tell you that I did not even want to leave Aulani property.. It was that peaceful, beautiful, and entertaining all a the same time. We went to Target beforehand (one exit down the highway on your way to Aulani) and stocked up on breakfast/lunch stuff. This helped a lot. For the two of us to go out to eat at a *nicer* (think Disney signature) we probably spent around $100. By eating most breakfasts and lunches in the room, we got to experience nicer dinners out! We also stocked up on snacks and drinks so we saved some money there. I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you go all the way to Hawaii and eat solely at Aulani. There are so many great places to try!
We started in Maui and flew to Oahu- it was so simple! We booked a "multi-way" ticket through United. So we started from LAX, went to Maui, and then from Oahu back to LAX. You can set it up as Multi-way or multi-stop when you're booking your trip. We then booked inner island flights through Hawaiian Airlines. Those were pretty cheap, maybe $70 a person. I highly recommend it, it only took a few hours to shuffle to the airport and get on the plane, the flight was minimal. I have a few friends who have gone to Maui and rented condos there (I'm sure you could do this on any of the islands) and it's cheaper than the hotels.
So all that to say, if you can do 10 days (we did about the same), I would split it up between two islands. There is just so much to see. I'm a Disney lover at heart but I knew there was more out there to see! We did 3 nights in Maui, 6 nights in Oahu - so maybe you can splurge on Aulani and split up your trip!? Even just a few nights there would be worth it, IMO. I loved it! If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!