Aloha Aulani! 🌺

10 years ago I watched the Disney Aulani being built in Ko Olina, Hawaii. Even at 18 years old, I knew that when I had a family, I was going to want to take them to Aulani. Since that time, we have frequented the Marriott Ko Olina next door every few years. Each time, we walk down to Aulani and I daydream about taking future kids through the lazy river, checking out the aquarium, eating Mickey shaped shaved ice, and watching excitement in their eyes as they meet characters. 10 years later and that dream came true!

We had an absolute blast! It's true that once you become a parent, you find more joy when your kids are having fun. That was definitely the case! Since I know many people have the Aulani on their family bucket list, I wanted to provide a full breakdown of the 3 days we were there.

Booking: In true spontaneous Ali fashion, I waited too long to try to find a reservation because I had no idea that the Aulani would reach full capacity. We decided relatively last minute to add on the Aulani, and checking the booking calendar brought up no availability for any month of the summer. Thankfully I thought outside the box, joined a few Aulani groups on Facebook and reached out to see if we could still make these plans happen. And thank goodness I found this group! It was recommended to me to use David's Vacation Club Rental or DVC Rental Store. Part of the Aulani is a hotel, and part is a timeshare. So these sites allow timeshare owners to either sell already booked weeks that they can't attend, or owners can book for you if they have the points available. By the grace of God, there was a 2 night stay available around the time we wanted to go. We just had to kill a day in Waikiki, but that meant checking out all the shops to kill time. Tough life ;) The great thing about these sites is that it's typically discounted from the hotel website. For reference, I had looked at Aulani prices randomly at the beginning of the year and found a studio room available. I was able to book a 1 bedroom suite through DVC Rentals for only $300 more, which is a pretty great deal when you're talking Disney prices.

**Note: these sites also work for Grand Californian in Disneyland and we will definitely be using them when we go to Disneyland in several years to save some money!

When booking hotels with kids, I highly recommend a 1 bedroom (at least) suite if it's reasonably priced! It allows you to keep your kids on a relative schedule similar to home, but means that you aren't going to bed at 8pm when you put them down. Our kids are also noisy sleepers, so it allowed us to get a little peace and quiet. A great perk of the Aulani was that each room automatically comes with a pack n play and a highchair on request!

Transportation: I believe there is a shuttle through Aulani to the resort, but it is not complimentary. Depending on the time of day and traffic, I was told that a taxi was about $75-90 from Waikiki to Aulani. We decided to splurge a little and got a limo from Super Limo, Aulani recommends this company, for only a little more than a taxi would have cost. On the way back to the airport, I just scheduled an Uber for about $50.

Access Before Check In: One of the great things at the Aulani is that on days you check in and check out, you have access to facilities the entire day. On the day we arrived, we got to Aulani around noon. Our room wasn't quite ready yet, so we were able to go grab some lunch, hop in the pool, go for a lap in the lazy river, and then received the text that our room was ready. Similar to the day we checked out, we still had several hours to kill so we had lunch, did some shopping, and got a shaved ice. We opted not to swim after check out because the locker rooms are still closed and we didn't want to smell like chlorine on the plane ride home.

Costs: Hawaii is expensive. Aulani is even more expensive! We knew that the Aulani was going to be an expensive add-on, but I don't think I realized quite how expensive it would be. The room itself was on the higher price of what we've ever spent for a room on vacation, and the food and drinks were definitely a higher price point. I'm more than happy to provide a more detailed breakdown if you're interested to prepare for your trip. For reference, 2 16-oz lattes were $8 each…ouch, and lunch and dinners were around $100….another ouch!

Restaurants: As mentioned above, the food situation was not very cost effective, to say the least. I think one of the downsides of Aulani was the lack of restaurants. Granted, I know half the rooms are condos so many people will get groceries delivered, but for the hotel side, there weren't a ton of restaurants.

• Makahiki- Only open for breakfast (character breakfast) and dinner and reservations need to be made about 60 days in advance. This restaurant fills up FAST! Each meal is a preset 3 course meal, breakfast is $45/person and dinner is $68/person

• The Olelo Room - open only for dinner and is more targeted for adults. It's more of a lounge, focusing on sushi, sashimi, and cocktails.

• Off the Hook- This is where we ate at most. Open for Lunch and Dinner near the pool and features a kids menu, burgers, sandwiches, salads and appetizers.

• Ulu Cafe - Cafeteria style. You can grab prepackaged sandwiches, salads, and desserts, or get several items cooked-to-order. There are a few tables outside the cafe that you can sit and eat at, but seating is very limited and fills up quickly. This is where we would grab breakfast and bring it back to our room as we got ready for the day. The pool opens at 8am, so I saw several people grabbing pool chairs and eating breakfast from Ulu Cafe on those chairs around 7:30 and would just hang out there while waiting for the pool to open. This is defintiely something we'd do once our kids are older.

• Wailana Pool Bar - This is a coffee bar from 6:30am - 10:30am and then turns into a typical pool bar. You can order food to go from there, but we typically would grab drinks to go and enjoy them in our room during naptime.

• Mama's Snack Shop - Open from 11am- 5pm. They have smaller meals and snacks to go. I'm bummed that the day we were going to try it that it was closed. Again, another to-go location to bring back to the pool or your room.

Pools: There are so many pools at Aulani, each one more incredible than the next! There is an adults only infinity pool overlooking the beach, a pool with fish for controlled snorkeling, a splash pad, lazy river, playground area, 2 water slides, and a wave pool. Kent and I were able to go on the inner tube slide and it was a blast! The line gets pretty long for the slides, but we found right when they open at 8am it is pretty manageable.

As mentioned previously, there were several families that would grab chairs around 7:30am and eat their breakfast there until the pools opened up. For younger kids who aren't strong swimmers, they provide life vest free of charge. There also is beach access on the property with a lagoon for snorkeling, playing in the water, paddleboarding, and laying in the sun.

Aulani Specific Items: One of the cool things about Aulani is that there are several Aulani specific items to buy in the giftship. There are several Minnie Ears that have a Hawaiian twist to them. There are a few Loungefly specific purses and wallets and some fun jersey shirts. You'll want to pick up something to show off the next time you hit Disneyland.

Lounge: One of the great ways to conclude your trip to Aulani is the airport lounge when you leave. This lounge is relatively new, and only open to people who are staying at one of the Ko Olina resorts (Marriott, Four Season, or Aulani). It's a complimentary liunge, located near the Alaska Airline's gates.

There's free coffee, soda, and water and some snacks for purchase. Most people aren't aware of it, so it's typically unoccupied. When we went, we were the only family there, which was great so Kent could run around, Jameson could roll on the ground, and we had a place to corral the kids for a few hours. You have to make a reservation online ahead of time, but like I said, it's free. It can be a little difficult to find if you don't know where to go. It's past the Kate Spade, on the ground floor next to the Japanese Garden. We didn't know about this lounge the last time we were in Hawaii and it's something we will definitely utilize in the future.

All in all, our time at Aulani was incredible! We felt like 3 days was too short, although our bank account might say otherwise ;) To recap the Aulani experience, it's a gorgeous Hawaiian resort focused for families, with touches of Disney. There are characters walking around at certain times, PhotoPass opportunities, and Disney related food and items for sale. This was an incredible experience and one we will definitely do again in the future when the kids are a little older!