My adult daughter and I recently completed a 3 night stay at Aulani at the end of September. We rented points from David’s for an island/garden view studio. We saved at least $500 by renting points, doing so at the 7 month mark with no problems with availability. Our reservation was confirmed and paid for 2 days after the request.
After reading through the thread discussing views on this website, we knew to request a high floor studio ending in 79 or 73. We did not do online check-in and arrived at the Resort about 3pm on a Sunday. Our room was ready, we were booked in 1579, in the Eva tower which had a very nice view of the ocean if you looked to the right off the balcony. We also looked directly down to the luau lawn and we were able to watch a part of it one night. Once they start construction on the proposed Atlantis Resort, the rooms on this side of the Eva tower will not be nearly as desirable, you’ll look directly into the massive construction site. Sound proofing was good when the door was closed but when we sat outside on the balcony after 9pm, the roar of the massive air conditioning units to the left of the luau lawn was loud. I wouldn’t want to be staying in any of the rooms in that wing at all. (Sorry, I don’t know the name of that wing, I’m guessing it it the bank of rooms closest to the lobby that are classified as island/garden view.)
Couple of things about the studio...the room never really got cool. When we arrived, the thermostat was set at 76 and I immediately turned it down as low as it would go, which was 65. I never adjusted the temperature again and there is no way it got much cooler than the original 76 degrees. We stayed at Turtle Bay for a few nights before Aulani and had the a/c set to 68 and could really feel the cooler temps. Also, the lighting in the studio is awful. It’s very dark in the room and the bathroom lighting is probably the worst I’ve ever experienced. Couple that with no a/c vent in the bathroom made getting ready at night a sweaty proposition. My daughter didn’t seem to mind but I thought it was bad, maybe that’s just my old age kicking in, lol.
The lazy river and tube slide were closed for the majority of our first day, which was a bummer. Some sort of “contamination “ we were told. If that was the only reason for the closure, I’d be surprised. I’ve been to other water parks that experience closures for the same reason and they are able to cycle through and disinfect the water in far less time so I don’t know if that was the real reason for the closure. Other than the closure, we enjoyed the slides and lazy river for the next 2 days. Thank goodness, the resort seemed to empty out after our check-in on Sunday afternoon. When we first arrived , I was concerned about the crowds, it was pretty chaotic by the pools. Thankfully, I think a lot of the crowd were local families who were staying on property until the very end before heading home Sunday night. That proved to be true as the place definitely was less crowded on Monday..
One thing we did was walk over to the cove past the Four Seasons Resort to see turtles. It’s about a 10-15 min walk and is definitely worthwhile . Walk down the driveway between Aulani and the Four Seasons to the street and turn left. Go into the parking lot for the luau cove and look for the public beach access entrance.
We saw a turtle who was hanging out in the lagoon and swam quite close to us as we just stood in the water.( we didn’t harass him at all, just stood in the water while he made his way around)
We only ate 2meals at the resort, Off the Hook pool bar for a last minute dinner before they closed at 9pm and the character breakfast on my birthday. Sorry, I thought the breakfast was way over-rated. The food was just ok, for $50 all-in per person, it should have been better. The omelette station was great but there really wasn’t anything else that was special. We had 2 dinners at Monkeypod and they were fine, not anything super special, but fine.
Our flight back home didn’t leave until 10:30 pm so we had some time to kill. We checked out at 11am and moved our luggage to our car in the garage. The rest of the day we spent by the pool and headed to the lounge around 5pm. There are 3 showers and a bunch of lockers. We got lucky, there were only 2 other gals in there when we first arrived and they left quickly so we basically had the facility to ourselves. Once again, I thought it was very warm in there and tried to get out as soon as possible. We hung out in the lounge are for a good 30 minutes afterward s as it had s
After reading through the thread discussing views on this website, we knew to request a high floor studio ending in 79 or 73. We did not do online check-in and arrived at the Resort about 3pm on a Sunday. Our room was ready, we were booked in 1579, in the Eva tower which had a very nice view of the ocean if you looked to the right off the balcony. We also looked directly down to the luau lawn and we were able to watch a part of it one night. Once they start construction on the proposed Atlantis Resort, the rooms on this side of the Eva tower will not be nearly as desirable, you’ll look directly into the massive construction site. Sound proofing was good when the door was closed but when we sat outside on the balcony after 9pm, the roar of the massive air conditioning units to the left of the luau lawn was loud. I wouldn’t want to be staying in any of the rooms in that wing at all. (Sorry, I don’t know the name of that wing, I’m guessing it it the bank of rooms closest to the lobby that are classified as island/garden view.)
Couple of things about the studio...the room never really got cool. When we arrived, the thermostat was set at 76 and I immediately turned it down as low as it would go, which was 65. I never adjusted the temperature again and there is no way it got much cooler than the original 76 degrees. We stayed at Turtle Bay for a few nights before Aulani and had the a/c set to 68 and could really feel the cooler temps. Also, the lighting in the studio is awful. It’s very dark in the room and the bathroom lighting is probably the worst I’ve ever experienced. Couple that with no a/c vent in the bathroom made getting ready at night a sweaty proposition. My daughter didn’t seem to mind but I thought it was bad, maybe that’s just my old age kicking in, lol.
The lazy river and tube slide were closed for the majority of our first day, which was a bummer. Some sort of “contamination “ we were told. If that was the only reason for the closure, I’d be surprised. I’ve been to other water parks that experience closures for the same reason and they are able to cycle through and disinfect the water in far less time so I don’t know if that was the real reason for the closure. Other than the closure, we enjoyed the slides and lazy river for the next 2 days. Thank goodness, the resort seemed to empty out after our check-in on Sunday afternoon. When we first arrived , I was concerned about the crowds, it was pretty chaotic by the pools. Thankfully, I think a lot of the crowd were local families who were staying on property until the very end before heading home Sunday night. That proved to be true as the place definitely was less crowded on Monday..
One thing we did was walk over to the cove past the Four Seasons Resort to see turtles. It’s about a 10-15 min walk and is definitely worthwhile . Walk down the driveway between Aulani and the Four Seasons to the street and turn left. Go into the parking lot for the luau cove and look for the public beach access entrance.
We saw a turtle who was hanging out in the lagoon and swam quite close to us as we just stood in the water.( we didn’t harass him at all, just stood in the water while he made his way around)
We only ate 2meals at the resort, Off the Hook pool bar for a last minute dinner before they closed at 9pm and the character breakfast on my birthday. Sorry, I thought the breakfast was way over-rated. The food was just ok, for $50 all-in per person, it should have been better. The omelette station was great but there really wasn’t anything else that was special. We had 2 dinners at Monkeypod and they were fine, not anything super special, but fine.
Our flight back home didn’t leave until 10:30 pm so we had some time to kill. We checked out at 11am and moved our luggage to our car in the garage. The rest of the day we spent by the pool and headed to the lounge around 5pm. There are 3 showers and a bunch of lockers. We got lucky, there were only 2 other gals in there when we first arrived and they left quickly so we basically had the facility to ourselves. Once again, I thought it was very warm in there and tried to get out as soon as possible. We hung out in the lounge are for a good 30 minutes afterward s as it had s
), I will often call engineering and nicely ask them to come up and override the system so my A/C stays at the temp I want it to, NOT the temp the thermostat wants. 
I have wanted to get there for years. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. And yes, I had heard it was a bit tough to find, tucked away in an industrial area, yes?
