WWYD - Deluxe Studio Ocean View or 1 Bedroom Standard

Domer87

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
What would you do? Just DH and myself for a 7 night anniversary stay at Aulani using DVC Points.

183 points for an OV Studio
263 points for 1 Bedroom Standard

Is the extra space, washer and dryer, and kitchen of the 1 bedroom worth the extra points? Or, would an Ocean View studio, which while smaller could do well to accommodate two people, be more your style?

I'm leaning towards the OV because, hey, we're in Hawaii and the points we are saving could be sold and used towards dining out since we wouldn't have a kitchen.

Thanks.
 
The first time my DH and I went to Aulani was 2015 for our 25th wedding anniversary. We got an OV studio for a week and we were thrilled! We stopped at a grocery store and bought groceries and beverages for breakfast and lunch meals. There is plenty of room for two people and it was heavenly sitting on our balcony watching the beautiful view, sometimes we even heard the music from the entertainment below : ) When we are with the entire family it is nice having the washer/dryer in the room, but since it is only 2 of you, one trip to the first floor laundry facility should be fine during the week! I would definately vote for the OV!
 
Since it's just the two of you go for the studio. Plenty of room and the oceanview is awesome. The 80 points difference is considerable - use these points elsewhere ;) Have fun and enjoy it!
 
I agree with OP that the studio should be sufficient. I travel solo all the time and always book studios. The one time I booked a 1 bedroom, it was too much space. The studio will have a microwave, toaster, and mini fridge. While you may have to adjust what you eat, you can easily cook in the studios. I normally buy the individual packages of oatmeal to eat for breakfast, but you can also buy cold cereal, milk, bagels, pop tarts, etc. to supplement the meal. Aulani’s store also sells breakfast meats and you can buy boiled eggs at Ulu Cafe, the quick service restaurant. You won’t go hungry, you just have to be a little more creative with your menu given that everything has to be cooked in the microwave.
 


I could go either way on it, but would probably lean towards the studio only because its cheaper. DH and I spent part of our honeymoon in a standard studio for 6 nights. We did find it to be small, its smaller than a standard hotel room with little storage space, but we made do with just the two of us. The OV would be nice to enjoy the balcony more frequently and also to have more sunlight in the room. Our room faced the courtyard of the convention space. We had a good view of some events going on, but otherwise it made the room dark and we didn't spend a lot of time on the balcony.

We used the communal laundry facilities - a little bit of a hassle because each tower's laundry room only had 2-3 washers, and one of them was out of order. But, the machines worked fast and we only had to do laundry once during our stay. With a 7 day stay, you could get away with not doing laundry at all or maybe only once. For those staying on points, you can get free laundry tokens from the front desk. The benefit of the 1BR would be that you could pack less and throw in wash more frequently having it in-room, but I still don't think that would be worth the extra points.

As far as kitchen facilities, the studio was sufficient for us but we kept it simple. We stopped at Target and got easy breakfast items like muffins, cereal. Also got bread and lunch meat for quick sandwiches when needed. Re-heated leftover pizza from Pizza Corner across the street for lunch another time. We didn't do any dinners in-room and didn't want to do any cooking. If you want to do anything more than that, you'd need the full kitchen.
 
I would definitely do the OV studio. The price point really jumps up on the 1 bedrooms and you can save those points for another trip to either Disney or an island view Aulani trip later ;)
 
Thank you EVERYONE for your replies! Your insights are a great help.

Just one last question, and this probably belongs on the DVC boards and not Aulani, but how is DVC about handling room requests? I'm now thinking of saving even more points by seeing if we could get a Island View studio the ..73 or ..79 of Ewa.

We just got our Welcome Home email from DVC so this is all very new to us.
 


Thank you EVERYONE for your replies! Your insights are a great help.

Just one last question, and this probably belongs on the DVC boards and not Aulani, but how is DVC about handling room requests? I'm now thinking of saving even more points by seeing if we could get a Island View studio the ..73 or ..79 of Ewa.

We just got our Welcome Home email from DVC so this is all very new to us.

Putting in a room request is really easy, you can call Member Services for specific requests. I've only made a request once, but it was honored. I've heard they really do try. I would recommend waiting until things calm back down though, phone lines with DVC are slammed right now with people cancelling and rescheduling.
 
We struggle with this decision (ie studio Vs 1 bedroom) all the time. We’ve done both. There is no doubt that we prefer the one bedroom so It normally just boils down to our other vacation plans over next year or so I.e. do we need points for upcoming WDW trip.
 
We chose Ocean View. Family of 4 - two being teens no less. View over comfort ;) One will probably live on the balcony anyways.
 
For the two of you, I agree with the studio choice. We spend a lot of time at aulani..3 or 4 week long stays a year. We are very partial to the one bedrooms, being a family of 4. We will often cram into a studio the first night (as our flights don’t usually land until 10pm and we don’t get to the reset until close to midnight) and I have to say that it’s a tight squeeze, but for two with an ocean view it should be dreamy! Also, there are a lot of great dining options outside of the resort, so the lack of full kitchen isn’t horrible. Happy hour hopping is one of our favourite activities. Be sure to try Mina’s Fish House next door at the Four Seasons, Monkey Pod, and Longhi’s down the path at the Marriott. Most run 3-5pm.
 
I would go with the studio and stay longer. A week is way too short of a trip for Hawaii. You are not in your room that much anyway.
 
I'll go against the crowd because I would choose a one bedroom. We love the extra room and being able to spread out. The kitchen was invaluable for us and we didn't even cook all that much.
 
We've been to Aulani 4 times (just the two of us) and stayed in a studio 3x and once in a 1BR. We really didn't use the amenities of the 1BR at all. We bought $200 worth of food to cook in the room and actually cooked about $20 worth. We just don't want to cook on vacation. We watched a movie in the room one night when it rained but besides that didn't spend much time in the main room.

My vote is the OV studio. Sitting on the balcony staring at the ocean having some drinks seems like a better time during an anniversary trip than making dinner or doing laundry!
 
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