Aulani excursions

[palaemon]

Does anyone know if there are inter-island excusions available through Aulani?

Are there any excursions that DVC members get a discount?

We're looking to go next year, and my MIL wants to cruise for a week THEN stay at Aulani for 'a few days' after. She feels that the ship is the best way to see Hawaii, but all I can see is the terribly cramped quarters, mediocre food and no wifi.

I want to stay at Aulani for 10 nights and take day trips to see all the islands.

We're not members, so the cost is comparable. (exluding excursions)

Anyone done this?

 

[abdmom]

Pride of America doesn't get good reviews, so I would agree that a cruise isn't the greatest idea. However, I definitely would not do day trips to other islands from Aulani. There's about 13 hours of daylight in summer and 11 hours of daylight in winter. It takes about an hour to get to the airport from Aulani, +1.5 hours to checkin and board + 1 hour flight + 0.5 hours for rental car. So, it would take 1/3 of the day just to get there, assuming you start at 5:30 a.m. Shudder. You might "see" the island, but you wouldn't experience it. You can always choose one other island - my favourite is the Big Island - and split your stay with Aulani. One week per island is generally the recommended length of time.

BTW, cruise ships do have wifi.

 

[abdgeek]

Does anyone know if there are inter-island excusions available through Aulani?

Are there any excursions that DVC members get a discount?

We're looking to go next year, and my MIL wants to cruise for a week THEN stay at Aulani for 'a few days' after. She feels that the ship is the best way to see Hawaii, but all I can see is the terribly cramped quarters, mediocre food and no wifi.

I want to stay at Aulani for 10 nights and take day trips to see all the islands.

We're not members, so the cost is comparable. (exluding excursions)

Anyone done this?

Although I haven't done them, Aulani does offer day excursions to the other islands for $360 a person. As the PP said, you have to be at the airport at 5:30am and it will be a long day. That is really the only way I would do it. I wouldn't try to do it myself. With the excursion, they will guarantee that you see whatever is on the itinerary.

 

[palaemon]

Thanks for the info.

I looked up a few travel companies that also do 'day trips,' and I know it would be your whole day, but that would only be maybe 3-4 days of our 10 nights, and we'd want to come back to Aulani's space and comfort each night.

True we could split up our stay, but my MIL nixed the idea of packing and unpacking. Plus we can't do 2 weeks.

True cruise ships have wifi, but in my experience it's crazy expensive and really really slow. Aulani's is free (plus AT&T LTE)

 

[amym2]

Which islands are you thinking? I could maybe see taking a day trip to the Big Island (although we enjoyed 4 nights there) to see the volcano, although you'd likely miss seeing it at night unless you stayed overnight.

Are there particular sites you want to visit? Or you just want to get a taste of each island? I would think I could handle 1 or 2 day trips but 3 or 4? You'll run yourselves ragged! If you are really intent on seeing other islands, I would agree that the cruise is your best option.

We're doing 10 nights- 5 at Aulani and 5 on Kauai.

 

[Pakey]

As nice as Aulani is, I would not stay at that resort for 10 days. Even to do things on Oahu you are going to be driving and then you plan to add on island hopping; you are going to spend a lot of time in some form of transportation.

On my first trip to Oahu, we island hopped and hated it. Twi long exhausting days with a lot of time spent in airports. The airports on Maui and Hawaii are quite a ways from what you will want to see. So you have long drives to Oahu airport, all of the airport time and then the long drive from the other island's airport. And you get to do it all again at the end of the day too.

The cruise then Aulani would require you to pack mid-trip anyway. So I'd pick another island and do 5 on Aulani and then 5 somewhere else. I've been to Hawaii many times and it took me a few vacations to figure out that the best thing about Hawaii is relaxing.

 

[palaemon]

Thanks for the input.

You all convinced me. (And my family)

We're going to plan the NCL cruise then 4-5 nights at Aulani.

Day tripping wouldn't be that big of a deal to me IF the airport side was streamlined - where you didn't have go to the big airport and wait in the same long security lines 3-4 days each way.

Plus I just read that the Pride of America is about to have a refit next month.

Since the cruise stays over in Kauai and Maui with 2 stops on the big island - we won't miss the volcanoes at night or anything.

I am thankful for this board.

I would have been miserable waiting in those lines all those days.

I guess I just had the fantasy of staying at Aulani for 10 nights in my head.

 

[Anal Annie]

I think that's your best move. While I wouldn't do the Pride cruise - I would simply island hop and switch islands every few days I think you'd regret spending all that money on your stay at Aulani (esp. if you are not DVC members) and then you leave this gorgeous resort all day to go to another island. My recommendation for doing it that way is to book a cheap hotel in Waikiki if you're not going to be using the room all day. We used to do day trips way back when (before 9/11) and it was much easier then. You could basically book a flight the day before and just show up at at the airport and zip right through (we used to just take backpacks for the day). The inter-island flights also used to only be like $90-95 pp round trip. Now you're lucky to get $130 pp. It is much more complicated now with all of the security etc...

 

[trishypoo]

I think that's your best move. While I wouldn't do the Pride cruise - I would simply island hop and switch islands every few days I think you'd regret spending all that money on your stay at Aulani (esp. if you are not DVC members) and then you leave this gorgeous resort all day to go to another island. My recommendation for doing it that way is to book a cheap hotel in Waikiki if you're not going to be using the room all day. We used to do day trips way back when (before 9/11) and it was much easier then. You could basically book a flight the day before and just show up at at the airport and zip right through (we used to just take backpacks for the day). The inter-island flights also used to only be like $90-95 pp round trip. Now you're lucky to get $130 pp. It is much more complicated now with all of the security etc...

We are going in August to Maui first for 5 nights and then flying to Oahu and staying at Aulani for 5 nights. Our Inter island flight is only $70 per person and a 30 min flight.

 

[Anal Annie]

We are going in August to Maui first for 5 nights and then flying to Oahu and staying at Aulani for 5 nights. Our Inter island flight is only $70 per person and a 30 min flight.

That's $70 for one-way tho, right? I think we booked ours this summer for $68. Way back in the day you used to be able to fly round trip for like $90. Made it much easier to "day trip" to the other islands. It's not worth now (to me) for what the flights cost an the hassle of Security.

 

[Iceman93]

That's exactly what my parents did last year--the NCL cruise around the islands followed by a week with us at Aulani. I was already on Maui for a conference so my family joined me there for a week, then the whole family got together at Aulani.

I certainly wouldn't call them snobs, but my parents do recognize and appreciate good food, service, and experiences. They were VERY pleasantly surprised by the cruise after all the mixed reviews they read online. They found it a great way to "dip their toes" at several islands and found the ship and staff more than acceptable.

 

[sandyam76]

We did the opposite...we did Aulani for 7 days and then the NCL cruise around the islands for the next 7 days. We had an amazing time. The POA is perhaps not the best ship I have been on, but we had an excellent time. This was the most convenient and cost effective way to be able to see the islands. Hope you have a great time!!!

 

[Doingitagain]

Moved to trip report thread

 

[Doingitagain]

Moved to trip report thread

 

[Doingitagain]

Moved to trip report thread

 

[Doingitagain]

Moved to trip report thread

 

[Doingitagain]

Moved to trip report thread

 

[CocosMeme]

We just did the NCL Pride of America cruise and then spent a week at Aulani in November and loved it. My advice is cruise 1st and relax at Aulani after. We really enjoyed having 2 days at each island but since we had never been before we took long excursions each day of the cruise to see everything we could and we were tired when we got to Aulani! The ship is nothing spectacular (we have cruised on very nice ships before), but the crew was wonderful. We really were not on the ship that much. Each island is SOOOO different. The ship docks at commercial shipping places so you have to take an excursion or a cab to see anything, but they offer some really good day trips. We rented a car while at Aulani and took half day trips on our own to see Oahu. The drive up the west side of the island to the North Shore (we stopped at Turtle Bay Resort) was a really nice half day. We stopped also at the Dole Palntation that day. We spent 2 half days at Pearl Harbor (DH is retired Air Force), and another half day on Wakiki Beach and driving the east side. I was happy just hanging out at Aulani. Have fun!!!