Aulani

[Disney4us2]

Well my plans for the VGC fell through for June 2013. So what to do with the points... first thought WDW.

DD really wants to go to Hawaii. We were last there when she was 21months old. I plan on renting a car. I know I will like it as I have seen the models at the Disneyland DVC sales center.

Now for the questions:
Do they let you mail boxes there like they do at WDW?
How much are the taxes that have to be paid (generally speaking)?

Are there grocery stores close by?

What are the chances of getting a standard view at 7 months? Going 9/5/2013 or that time frame.

Has anyone seen the view from the standard rooms?

Is there a car rental near Aulani? (Instead of pick up/drop off at the airport)

I used to live in Hawaii (Honolulu area), so I am not that familiar with the area where Aulani is.

Thanks and Aloha

[DVC2004]

We were just there last month so I will try to answer as many questions as I can:

-Mailing boxes- don't know.

-Taxes- It's based on the number of points used. I think we used something around 270 and it was $58 in tax, paid at time of check in. It's not much.

-Grocery stores: right across the street there is a place I thinlk called Country Market that had alot, but we had a rental car and went about 10 minutes away to Safeway. There is also a Target and Walmart near the Safeway as well.

- I called right at 7 months and least priced view was booked. We had to move up to the garden view.

-Not sure on standard view. Our Garden view was on the ground floor and looked out to a path. There were two patios for the 1 BR and we were right next to the spa. It was very quiet.

-Rental Car near Aulani, not certain as we rented ours at the airport. I felt like we needed one the whole trip.i think the transfer cost was alot and I know they had a bus that would take you to Ala Moana mall in Honolulu to shop at a cost of $35 per person. We did not want to eat at the hotel restaurants for most meals and the car gave us the freedom to go get fast food for lunch sometimes as well as explore other parts of the island. For 1 week we were able to rent a full size car for $150 from Enterprise at the airport.

-Aulani is west of Honolulu about 20 minutes away. It is in Ko Olina and there's not a ton there. There is a JW Marriott, a golf course, condos, and a Marriott vacation club. Few restaurants or places to walk to close by although JW next door has some and there was a taco place across the street (where the Country Market was, called Just Tacos, avereged $15 a plate and sit down) and a little barbecue place that had more of the local type food. I remember we passed an industrial area before we arrived in Ko Olina. We did not travel any further west than our resort, so I am not sure what else was there. It was very beautiful but not a very built-up area. The Paradise Cove Luau is also a block away.

[TinksPixieDust]

Just got back from 13 days there! Its amazing!

We stayed at the ocean view level (highest) because when we booked it was one of the only things left. We had "ocean view" but we looked out at the ocean and the ugly back of the JW MArriot. So I am not sure about some of the other views


We got a limo to transport us to and from the airport and our first day there we rented a car for the day to get groceries from Safeway and Costco, like DVC2004 said its like 10 minutes away. You can also walk to the ABC Market. Not as MUCH of a selection but they did have stuff ( and some of it was cheaper than Safeway) We then rented a car for the second week of our stay so we could explore. We rented both of these cars through alamo which has a desk right at Aulani. So my dad booked them and then on the days of our rental we just went down to the desk at the holoholo tours (off the lobby around the corner) and the desk is right there, they give you your keys, you give the keys to valet and valet brings the car around for you. DVC is free parking for up to two cars (which we needed because we had 6 people and they didn't have a car that would seat all of us). Next time we will try and book the car earlier because all the bigger cars were sold out for the week. And when you're ready to return the car you just drive it up to valet and say I'm returning the Alamo rental and they take it for you. We had two chevy malibus that were great driving.


Ko Olina is definitely a lot quieter than say Wiakiki, but we enjoyed going to Wiakiki for 2 day trips, but liked our quietness at night.