blondietink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
Just got back from 3 weeks in Hawaii. Bummer that we had to come home.
Started with 4 nights in Waikiki at the Ilima hotel 2 blocks back from the beach. Had an awesome studio with full kitchen on the 14th floor and a view of the ocean looking right at the Royal Hawaiian hotel. Also FREE PARKING, which is almost unheard of in Honolulu. Had lots of fun here and will stay here again to take in the sights and sounds of the east side of Oahu.
Then we moved on to 7 nights at the Aulani and received VIP DVC services. Don't ask me why or how, but we got the VIP treatment.
We had a one bedroom looking right out onto the pool/waterslide area and the beach/ocean beyond on the 14th floor. I will say that this resort is the best DVC resort we have ever stayed at, and we have stayed at them all. There are tons of CM's everywhere. Everybody has an Aloha to say when you meet them in the hall, at the pool, on the beach, at the valet, etc. If you ask a CM where to find something, they will most likely take you there. Wish that the new pool area was opened but it sure did look nice. We got our groceries at the local Target and only ate out once at Roy's for happy hour. There were plenty of lounge chairs both at the beach and towards the beach side of the resort in front of the restaurant. Plenty of character meet and greets and plenty of photopass photographers around. We watched many weddings come out for photos on the beach, and were surprised at the couples who got married by themselves, no family or friends, from Asia somewhere. The fireworks off the beach on the Food & Wine fest Sunday were the best 10 minutes of fireworks I have ever seen. Non-stop and the finale was set to the Hawaii 5-0 theme song.
The only negatives I have about the resort are: there are only 3 handicapped parking spaces in the self-park garage. At the time we visited, there was only one handicapped accessible ramp down to the beach. This should change when the new pool area is opened, I hope. We traveled all over the island in our rental car and loved it.
The day before we left for Maui, we saw the general manager of the Aulani on TV being interviewed for a job fair being held on the island. He stated that they were hiring an additional 250 employees in anticipation of opening the final 300 rooms by the middle of December when the resort will be complete. Now, we visited in "shoulder season" and had no problems with a crowd of any sort but on the weekends when locals seemed to be visiting and the pool area was more crowded, I have a feeling that with an additional 300 rooms opening soon, that the pool area will become very crowded.
This resort is also highly popular with the Asian population and many of the CM's speak Japanese/Korean/Chinese as a second language. There was lots of filming going on when we were there in and around the resort, so I assume that they are going to heavily market this resort with new ads either in the US or overseas markets in the near future.
Then we went to Maui for 11 days and stayed at the Westin Ka-anapali Ocean Resort Villas North. Another great resort and the island of Maui is beautiful. This island is so laid back compared to Oahu. We went to the Hakealaka Crater, the road to Hana (big disappointment), the south shore, west shore and just about everywhere a car could go without violating the car rental contract. The only thing negative we could say about Maui is our one DS broke his arm.
But, the people at the Maui Medical Group are very nice! The sunsets on Maui are to die for.
Weather: throughout our entire stay the weather was absolutely perfect. 88 - 92 degrees everyday, low humidity, no rain to speak of, just some sprinkles. The locals were complaining about the no rain part and it was too hot for them, but we found it perfect. We never once had to turn on the air conditioning in either our resort room or our rental cars. Much better than Florida weather for sure! After our stay at The Aulani and Westin, we threw our leis into the ocean and they all came back predicting that we will come back someday to the islands, hopefully sooner than later.
Started with 4 nights in Waikiki at the Ilima hotel 2 blocks back from the beach. Had an awesome studio with full kitchen on the 14th floor and a view of the ocean looking right at the Royal Hawaiian hotel. Also FREE PARKING, which is almost unheard of in Honolulu. Had lots of fun here and will stay here again to take in the sights and sounds of the east side of Oahu.
Then we moved on to 7 nights at the Aulani and received VIP DVC services. Don't ask me why or how, but we got the VIP treatment.
We had a one bedroom looking right out onto the pool/waterslide area and the beach/ocean beyond on the 14th floor. I will say that this resort is the best DVC resort we have ever stayed at, and we have stayed at them all. There are tons of CM's everywhere. Everybody has an Aloha to say when you meet them in the hall, at the pool, on the beach, at the valet, etc. If you ask a CM where to find something, they will most likely take you there. Wish that the new pool area was opened but it sure did look nice. We got our groceries at the local Target and only ate out once at Roy's for happy hour. There were plenty of lounge chairs both at the beach and towards the beach side of the resort in front of the restaurant. Plenty of character meet and greets and plenty of photopass photographers around. We watched many weddings come out for photos on the beach, and were surprised at the couples who got married by themselves, no family or friends, from Asia somewhere. The fireworks off the beach on the Food & Wine fest Sunday were the best 10 minutes of fireworks I have ever seen. Non-stop and the finale was set to the Hawaii 5-0 theme song. The only negatives I have about the resort are: there are only 3 handicapped parking spaces in the self-park garage. At the time we visited, there was only one handicapped accessible ramp down to the beach. This should change when the new pool area is opened, I hope. We traveled all over the island in our rental car and loved it.
The day before we left for Maui, we saw the general manager of the Aulani on TV being interviewed for a job fair being held on the island. He stated that they were hiring an additional 250 employees in anticipation of opening the final 300 rooms by the middle of December when the resort will be complete. Now, we visited in "shoulder season" and had no problems with a crowd of any sort but on the weekends when locals seemed to be visiting and the pool area was more crowded, I have a feeling that with an additional 300 rooms opening soon, that the pool area will become very crowded.
This resort is also highly popular with the Asian population and many of the CM's speak Japanese/Korean/Chinese as a second language. There was lots of filming going on when we were there in and around the resort, so I assume that they are going to heavily market this resort with new ads either in the US or overseas markets in the near future.
Then we went to Maui for 11 days and stayed at the Westin Ka-anapali Ocean Resort Villas North. Another great resort and the island of Maui is beautiful. This island is so laid back compared to Oahu. We went to the Hakealaka Crater, the road to Hana (big disappointment), the south shore, west shore and just about everywhere a car could go without violating the car rental contract. The only thing negative we could say about Maui is our one DS broke his arm.
But, the people at the Maui Medical Group are very nice! The sunsets on Maui are to die for. Weather: throughout our entire stay the weather was absolutely perfect. 88 - 92 degrees everyday, low humidity, no rain to speak of, just some sprinkles. The locals were complaining about the no rain part and it was too hot for them, but we found it perfect. We never once had to turn on the air conditioning in either our resort room or our rental cars. Much better than Florida weather for sure! After our stay at The Aulani and Westin, we threw our leis into the ocean and they all came back predicting that we will come back someday to the islands, hopefully sooner than later.
