Lilsia
Registered
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2018
Keep checking back for prices for car rentals they usually go down around 6 weeks out of your trip. Also don't forget to factor in the cost that you're paying for round trip transfers to and from the airport to the resort. People sometimes forget to factor that in as an overall cost. There's no way around it, Hawaii is an expensive vacation and having a rental car is part of that. I also compare it to some place like going to Paris. If you stay at a prime hotel the cost is going to be high, but that doesn't mean because the cost of the hotel is high that you never leave the hotel. You are there to visit and sightsee, not to just sit at your hotel. That's the way I look at it anyway. There's no way that I'm going to fly all the way to Hawaii and just stay at my hotel because it cost a lot of money. I also think that for the way you vacation, DVC would be a good investment. After two trips to Aulani, if I would have paid cash for those stays, it would have been what I bought into DVC for. For what part of the country we live in it's cheaper for us to take a cheap Southwest airlines flight to LAX, stay the night and then fly out on Hawaiian airlines the next morning. There are ways that you can save money if you're willing to be flexible.Thanks. Unfortunately we don’t have access to additional or better discounts. The other programs we are entitled to (USAA, etc) or looked into are actually more than Costco.
I think we booked too close to travel to see the lower prices others are quoting above.
I agree it may just be easier to keep a vehicle all week, though with this being our first trip to Aulani and paying rack right prices for a one bedroom my husband and I feel fairly strongly that we want to spend a lot of our time enjoying the amenities of the resort/nearby area and our family will enjoy that very much. So we’re only thinking of venturing out at most two days out of our week since one of those days is really taken up with arrival (landing at 12:30pm), we’re really only there for six full days.
Bummer we can’t get free parking after spending so much on the rental and 11K on the cash reservation for Aulani.
After spending cash on a one bedroom at Aulani for this July trip and at Riviera the past two thanksgiving 10-day trips I am beginning to question why we are not just DVC members… Every time I do the math I just can’t get past how the annual dues end up changing the equation and timeline for the breakeven point! I also worry about the ability to actually book what I want with DVC because it seemed there was a limited availability or no availability for this July for DVC members when I wanted to book it. I would’ve had to know we wanted to do this trip for sure at 11 months out if an Aulani owner and at 7 if another home resort owner. And then it’s still questionable availability it seems - I especially worry about it with Riviera which is where I would want my home resort. With the resale restrictions how will there be availability to book if resale contracts can’t book anywhere else?
Anyway, I’m off topic… Early morning ramblings. Just disappointed I can’t find a better deal on car rental and flights aren’t exactly a bargain. But Google flights show we booked flights in the “lower price” of the average prices for this timeframe
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Convincing myself to go ahead and book cause the prices wont go down. Opinions?
