Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa

This is an amazing hotel if (1) you enjoy really crowded pool areas where you’re SOL if you haven’t claimed a lounge chair shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers by 8am, (2) you love booking all of your activities and mandatory reservations for breakfast and dinner 45 days out, and (3) have lots of money to spend, as in haunt a bigger budget than the next door Four Seasons. If this isn’t you, then perhaps you should stay somewhere else. We’ve met plenty of families over the years that just rave about this resort. As part of a longer Hawaiian vacation, we booked 2 nights here with our boys (9 and 5). We booked the stay about 40 days out. To our surprise, basically EVERYTHING at the resort was already booked when we made our reservation! Breakfast at one of the full-service restaurants? Already booked. Dinner at one of the restaurants? We snagged literally the last option for a family of 4 for only 1 night of our stay - the other nights were already full. Kids club? Literally only 1 activity had room remaining for 2 kids during our stay. Star gazing or the outrigger canoe? Those and everything else completely booked. Think you can still arrive at the property and still drop in or sign up then for activities or dinner? Sorry, no, everything is full. Without a reservation, surely there must be good breakfast options, right? Yes, there’s Ulu, which basically provides the equivalent of a 7-11 to-go breakfast with eye-watering prices for overcooked drip coffee with Carnation creamer and mediocre food. The good news is the ocean lagoon is really enjoyable and you can easily lounge your time away there. Though the reality is you can do this same thing at any number of nice Hawaiian resorts at a whole lot less money than here. We’re not against mass-market family-friendly resorts. We’re big fans of ClubMed, which always provides a great time with lots of great activities for the whole family at generally reasonable prices. we’ve never had a problem enjoying endless activities, and there’s always ample delicious food. The value proposition at Aulani is absurd. We most definitely won’t be back.

Absolutely fantastic stay. The deluxe studio and the 2 bedroom villa were clean and very comfortable. The entire resort is beautiful. The staff are incredibly nice. Doesn't matter on the department. They were all very kind, helpful, took great initiative to go above and beyond and overall....exceeded our expectations. There are "adults only" areas such as a pool with a bar close to the pool and seating area and whirlpool overlooking the ocean and beach. There are great activities for families and they look like they were having a blast. This trip was for adults only for us and we loved it. The lazy river is fantastic! It really worked out great after I broke my foot a month before we were going. I was able to use a float and the other foot to guide me, when needed. I highly recommend and we plan on going back every couple of years. If we lived closer, we would be there at least every year. It was evident that people who frequent the resort, including staff, don't have visitors from Maine that often. Every time we were asked where we were from, they were all shocked. It's not an easy haul to get there.

Please explore the island this place wasn’t it! I went with my kids so they loved it but I felt like I was on the game show “survivor” because in order to get a decent seat by the pool, you had to be out there in your chair at seven in the morning! Yes, I did go around the holidays so that might have been a contributing factor, but the people are so rude and the food is not great. We ended up exploring the island with our rental car, which saved us in the end because the resort was really disappointing. The room service was spotty and there isn’t much going on around the hotel apart from a few restaurants and one Starbucks.

We loved this property. Aesthetically this hotel is what you expect of the Disney brand. We thought it blended Disney and Hawaiian culture seamlessly. From the moment you arrive at the wonderful valet and you enter the open air lobby and slowly walk across the lobby floor to the open air balcony overlooking the pool area you realize they did this right. The property is gorgeous. There are trees and plants everywhere creating a Polynesian feel throughout the pool area. The lazy river winds through the lush grounds like you are on some ancient tropical river, with hidden water slides dotting the landscape. Past the pool area onto the beach the man-made Cove is absolutely stunning. The water is blue and clear and creates a perfect setting for the focal point of this property. As you make your way around the walking path, you’ll come to a point behind the cove of water where you realize wow Disney really created a very magical place just outside a bustling city. Our experience with the staff was good. It wasn’t exactly what you would expect from a luxury hotel. There were a few snafus along the way, but overall the staff were very good especially considering the throngs of people they have to deal with on a daily basis. We ate at most of the restaurants and honestly the food was really darn good. On all of our vacations we do venture out and try a variety of restaurants. We ate at a bunch in Ko Olina and the food everywhere was excellent. But we were very impressed by the food at the Disney resort. Each morning we would have breakfast at the café. We would order it when finishing the gym. It would be ready right when the app said it would and the food was delicious. We attended the luau on New Year’s Eve. Although it is an expensive endeavor especially for a family of our size it was a tremendous experience. The show itself is amazing and for a buffet the food was really good. Our entire family had an absolutely wonderful time. We were booked into partial Ocean view rooms. We stayed at the property over my wife’s birthday, my birthday and New Year’s Eve. It’s obviously an expensive time to travel anywhere. We spent a whole lot of money on 4 rooms and each of them had a terrible view, considering the cost. When we all complained to the front desk and concierge, there wasn’t much they could do for us, considering the property was at capacity. So when you book do your research and get the room with the view that you really want. Whats shocking is when you view the property from the beach and you see how many rooms there are you realize to get a bad view you have to really have pretty poor luck like we did. It seems most of the rooms at least had a view of the pool and many had views of the ocean. There was only one side of the hotel that is pretty poor where they claim you have a partial ocean view, but you’re really just staring at the back of the four seasons. From what we were told about the resort, most of it is villas or timeshare units. It seemed most of the premium views on the property were not considered hotel rooms. They were the villas or timeshare units through Disney vacation club. So book accordingly. Also, this property is huge. I was told around 1000 rooms. You have to bring your patience. There were times we were so delighted to be off property because it was so unbelievably crowded. The pools were packed, the beach was packed and pretty much everywhere you went there were just a whole lot of people. So you have to be prepared for that. And lastly, this is just a tip for improvement at the hotel. They need more water stations. We’ve stayed at many Hawaiian properties and each and every one of them provide you a logo reusable water bottle where you fill up throughout the property. Most of these properties have water stations everywhere. At Disney, for some reason they didn’t. The water stations were very difficult to find. Many of the ones we had to rely on we’re actually in the restaurants and you’re filling up water from a soda machine. I think it’s very apparent Disney is trying to be environmentally conscious which is similar to every top hotel in Hawaii that we’ve stayed. They did a great job with this, but I think they really could improve the experience pretty easily. For the price you’re paying for these rooms they should include a reusable water bottle and put up a few more stations around the resort! Overall we loved the property. As I stated above, aesthetically, it is such a sublime hotel. In the evenings when it seems a little less crowded or in the early mornings, it’s such a beautiful property to walk around and just kinda get lost in its environment. You do have to come prepared for the crowds though. We would without a doubt come back and try another stay at the Aulani, but we would probably be a little bit more diligent about the room we booked because I tell you if we had a beautiful view from our room the whole experience for our entire family would’ve changed!