Aulani, A Disney Resort And Spa

This is the ultimate Disney resort experience away from the mainland. The accommodations are top notch and the beach access is within a few feet of the resort. The restaurant offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner are affordable. The service is great…as you would come to expect with Disney Resorts. Everyone is so nice and you will definitely feel the Hawaiian hospitality.

This is truly a five-star resort. Ko’Olina is away from Waikiki along a series of lagoons that are bordered by fancy resorts and public beaches, so it’s an interesting area. We were upgraded to a partial ocean view, which was a pleasant surprise. The beds were extremely comfortable and we were able to make tea and coffee in the room. We could unfortunately hear the unhappy screaming child upstairs, but it was manageable. Aulani is a Disney resort, but it’s not Disnified to the extent that a non-Disney fan (like my husband) would dislike it. There’s a noticeable effort to explain Hawaiian culture and live Hawaiian music every night. The two main restaurants are expensive, but there’s a bar that serves sushi at night and masaladas in the morning that is affordable, as well as fast food shacks throughout the pool area. The pools are fantastic—there is an adult pool and adult infinity hot tub; multiple pools that are for everyone, including a second infinity pool; and two crazy slides plus a lazy river. Service was extremely good everywhere we went and both of us were pleased with the stay. I would suggest that anyone wanting poke go across the street to Tropical Poke, which was the best poke I have ever had!

Since my brother was getting married on Oahu in May and we were spending some time in Waikiki anyway, we decided to include a stay at Aulani in Ko Olina. I knew that staying at Aulani would be an expensive chunk of my budget for Oahu and debated doing Aulani before or after the wedding. While it would have been nice to do the stay after the wedding, it also happened to be Mother's Day that weekend so we opted to stay there before the wedding. To be honest, any stay at Aulani will be relaxing and peaceful. We booked two nights through DVC as a guest of a member. If you know, you can book a stay through a 3rd party and get a significant discount through a DVC points reseller. For instance, we booked an ocean view studio through said 3rd party, for 20% less than the advertised price for the same room. While there were discounts offered with my Disneyland Magic Key, we were only going to be there for 2 days so we would not have qualified for the discount, which required 5 days. We were also offered a small gift for stopping by the DVC desk which was a "Welcome Home" Mickey Mouse print. Everything at Aulani is available via their app and you can link your MagicBand+ to the resort which enables you to use it as a room key or charge food and merchandise to your room. It's very convenient and I can see the appeal for its use at Walt Disney World. That same technology is barely used at Disneyland but they are slowly incorporating it. Our studio came with a comfortable queen-sized bed and a sofa with queen-sized pull-out bed. There was a ceiling fan as well which helped due to the warmer weather we were experiencing. We had a small fridge, microwave, a small sink, coffee maker, hot water kettle, and cabinet full of essentials like plates, cups, utensils, and dish detergent. I expected more Disney touches but it was mostly island themed with small Disney elements like the Mickey Mouse desk lamp. The bathroom was spacious with a tub and shower, with the toilet area being separate. They offered bulk shampoo, conditioner, and body wash with a pleasant tropical scent. The pools are open at 8 am and you need an Aulani wristband to distinguish you as a guest of the resort. When you get your wristband, they also hand out the beach towels. They have Adults Only Infinity pools and jacuzzis along with the different family friendly pools. There are two water slides, one plunges you into a vertical drop while the other enables the use of the pool float that dumps you into the lazy river. There is also a private cove with sand so you can swim in the salt water if chlorinated pools aren't your thing. We even saw schools of small fish in the water while we were swimming, so wear reef safe SPF when at the resort. There were plenty of chairs throughout and we did not have any issues finding chairs during our stay. I spent some time in the lazy river, pools, and beach cove. It was so relaxing and the color of the water was unreal. The light warm breeze with sand in my toes, made me so happy. They let us check out an hour late since we were moving hotels and did not want to leave. They even have a lounge where you can relax and shower if you want to stay longer to use the pools. We checked out and thought we were saying goodbye to the resort BUT we accidentally left behind clothing in the closet. We immediately called the resort front desk once realization hit and we needed that same clothing for the wedding we were attending the following day. We were redirected to the Lost & Found website, filled out a form and called the resort back to speak with the L&F department. The person who helped us explained the process and we let them know we would be able to come back to pick up the items that very evening once the room is turned over. Luckily, we were able to borrow a vehicle to drive back to Aulani to retrieve our items. Mahalo to the staff at Aulani who truly made our stay magical and saved our items for the wedding! If you're on the fence about staying at Aulani, I say go for it because it was one of the best resorts on the island. We truly felt like we were home.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful and magical this resort was! The ambience is amazing and every restaurant has a wonderful view! The best part of the resort was by far the cast members! They all went out of their way to make our anniversary trip special! There is an amazing amount of activities to do on the resort and I would highly recommend the rainbow reef snorkeling! The resort even has special characters that are hard to find in the Disney parks which made this trip unique! We are definitely coming back after having one of the best trips of our life here! Thank you Disney for a magical stay!😄

Over priced nothing is included with your room everything needs to be reserved at a very high price before hand even pictures with Disney Characters, the website says no resort fees. They only charge for room. But you do get charged extra even if your room sleeps four people. The first 2 are no extra charge but the other 2 there is a fee so just be aware because the site does say they charge by the room and not by the person.. Staff is amazing. 20 min wait to go down a slide and there is no seating unless you get up at 7am to save a seat for your family or you book a privet cabana for 500$ a day.. While we were there an elevator broke fell down 12 story's with guests in the elevator..

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Maui and Oahu. During our Oahu stay, we stayed at Disney's Aulani resort. We had a Deluxe Ocean View Studio. The room was small, but clean and authentic Hawaii. It was pretty and with an awesome view of the ocean, while overlooking the pool area. The staff was "Disney quality" by day one. We were only able to stay for 3 nights, but I felt like I knew half of the staff members by the time we left and they all looked so excited to see us every time we walked by. Everyone from the front desk to the gift shops to the DVC cast members were outstanding. The food at Off the Hook was really good. The poolside food was great, the Mickey shaved ice was HUGE and so good! The beach and pool were not crowded at all. I highly recommend going the first week of May. The luau was amazing! We went to a luau in both Maui and Oahu and the Disney one blew the other one away! It was very entertaining and the talent much surpassed the other. We really enjoyed our stay and are already looking forward to returning one day. If there is anything that could be improved it would be that the drink stations are FAR from the rooms! And the premium luau package stated "upgrade lei's" which was not the case. I wish the lei's for the ladies would be the flower leis. But those are little wishes. Honestly, the experience was as magical as ever.

This is a lovely Disney resort. It’s part water park, part Disney character meeting, part beach and a lot Hawaiian. It’s an expensive resort, but Hawaii is expensive and interestingly you get value here for the expense. Other Hawaiian resorts are just as expensive or more and don’t have the activities offered. It seems that Disney has taken a lot of time to research and add Hawaiian culture and art. That is really a nice part of the resort. Also, the staff is friendly and helpful. They are well trained and it makes for a pleasant stay. We had a good time here. In fact I can’t complain. I just can’t offer 5 stars as it’s not a luxury property. The rooms are clean and the couple of things we needed( conditioner refill, remote battery) were handled immediately. The spa is really wonderful. The restaurants are fine, not spectacular. Even AMA AMA their high end restaurant was slightly above average. The tasting menu was good- some things were delicious. One of our party has the plant based meal that was almost inedible. The pools, lazy river and water slides are fun. Lots of chlorine! Hot tub is tepid. The little ocean cove is cloudy and very mild waves. Wonderful for children. I don’t know that we will go back, but we had a good time. One other note: you are a little isolated in Ko’olina if you don’t rent a car. But if you are enjoying the resort it doesn’t matter.

The Mahaki Resturant service stinks . It took ten minutes of arguing to stop at the high chair bar table for our family . Hundreds of questions . Very rude. It looks like they don’t really give a damn - may be too much demand because of Disney brand ( that is already dicining ) . Sad state of affairs manage By is oblivious to !

My family stayed here for a week and paid $800-900 dollars a night per room. This is a hotel for Disney obsessed adults and Aulani time share members. The hotel is chaotic, packed full of people and screaming children. You spend more time searching for a chair around the pool than you do actually enjoying the pool. The dining options within the resort are VERY limited and to add to the difficulty of finding food there is NO ROOM SERVICE. We paid $209 dollars a ticket to get into the Luau and while we were waiting for preferred seating to find their seats we were all swarmed and attacked by mosquitos which went on for a good 30 min until they finally let us into the staging area. The luau was located in the garden area nowhere near the beach with everyone on their hotel balconies looking down at you. The food was mediocre and you had to serve yourself. Overall we feel disappointed and scammed. We learned our lesson and will never stay at a Disney property again.

We have just returned home from Aulani, it was our third trip and we still absolutely love it! It was busy with Spring Break but didn't feel too crowded and lines were rarely very long for anything. We rented points and were in an island view 1bed villa on the 16th floor which initially was disappointing as we'd previously enjoyed the view of all the action from poolside villas in past trips. BUT I grew to love the view out to the golf course with the mountains, the lanai was huge and the 16th floor meant the lift was always empty when it got to us so we never had to wait for room in the elevator! The cast members were all very friendly, especially those in Aunty's Beach House where my youngest (age 7) spent some time. I booked early for the 90 minute sessions and he loved it there. Super efficient check in systems. We loved Off the Hook but also went to Monkeypod across the road and Mina's Fish House at the Four Seasons. We loved the character breakfast at Makahiki. Best experience was the characters, they were out so much of the day and far more frequently than our previous visits! My kids got loads of quality time and lots of autographs and pin trading opportunities. I agree with a previous recent review that although getting a pool lounger is near impossible after 8am, one of my favourite memories of the trip is waking up at 7am, refilling my Aulani mug with coffee and reserving our chairs for the day. Staring out at the gorgeous ocean in the morning light with my coffee and a book while the rest of the family got themselves ready in their own time ended up being a perfect start to the day. We will definitely be back!!