TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This is our 7th trip to Aulani. We have been visiting since the grand opening in 2011. We are not DVC owners. I do regret not buying during our first visit but I didn’t really see myself coming back to the same place so frequently. That was not our traveling style back then but ko olina has been home away from home. That said, as a non-DVC owner, I feel like we are priced out of Aulani. As the main building is for DVC owners, there is only one building left for hotel guests. With limited supply, the demand is high. During this visit, we only stayed for one night, simply so we can use the resort for 2 whole days. As we have visited frequently, we have seen the changes. Gone are the days of the welcome leis, no lines for the characters, and being able to use auntys beach house for the kids. Most of the things get booked out months in advance, way before we even decide to come. The biggest change, though, is how nuts it is to get a place to sit by the pool. It’s crazy. My husband woke up early for a work call and decided to sit by the pool to take the call. He witnessed so many people being rude just to get a seat. This turned us off. There really isn’t a good system to control it either. We only saw the policing of the chairs in the afternoon, and this is when there was the most availability. We have so many fond memories here but I’m not sure we will be back.

We have been to Disney Aulani 3 previous times, this was the worst. For context, we have been to disneyland hotel, hotel Californian, disneyland, disney world, disney sea, disney tokyo, disney Paris, and multiple Disney cruises. Aulani just isn't worth it anymore. They don't put the effort in to provide an authentic Disney experience. Gone are the welcome lei's, nothing at all special to welcome you to the resort. At this price point, turn down service and daily cleaning is no longer offered, it's every other day cleaning. Be prepared to go at 5:30 am to reserve your pool.chair. The character breakfast used to be a buffet, now send $57 for 3 pancakes, a donut, and juice out of a can. There isn't any fresh pog juice or orange juice. Gone are the fresh tropical fruit. Now you spend one minute with stitch and Pluto as your "characters", they used to have more. Overall over the years the experience has been diluted and the prices have only gone up.

The place was nice overall. But the pool seating was absolutely terrible, and it ruined a lot of the experience. They "Claim" to enforce a 1 hour chair policy, but in my entire week there I never saw it enforced. There should be no reason people can hold chairs all day and not be there. This should be more like a bar setting. The moment you get up, the chair is open. You have cubbies to store stuff. You should only be able to have a chair when you are in the chair

The main issue we had was there not being any room service available through out the resort. Given the insanely high price for a room at this resort, room service should be a given. You’re on vacation with family and little kids and may not always be able to go down to get food. Also, only restaurant for seated breakfast through out resort where you can order. Everywhere else was take out. They had 10 guys waiting on cars but not enough staff to properly host breakfast. They only clean rooms once every other day. We asked for our room to be cleaned an extra day and were flat out told no. This is NOT a Disney quality resort. They may charge Disney prices but it is not worth the money you pay. Four seasons next door is 1000x better for the same if not lesser price.

Honestly, for $1,000 a night, I expected way more than this. Aulani is basically a lesson in corporate greed disguised as "magic." The service is just poor. You’re paying a premium, but they don’t even clean your room every day—only every other day. It’s ridiculous to be tripping over trash or needing fresh towels at this price point. Then there’s the activity situation. If you didn’t know you had to book everything 45 days in advance, your kids are out of luck. We tried to find things to do when we got here and there is zero availability. None. But of course, they still charge those massive resort fees for "amenities" you can’t even use. The pool deck is a total nightmare. If you aren't out there by 7:00 AM to camp out and claim a chair, you won't get one. If you leave for a second, the staff removes your stuff. By 8:00 AM, it’s game over. The whole area is so packed it feels like the pool deck of a low-budget cruise ship, not a luxury Hawaiian resort. I’m giving it two stars instead of one only because the Cast Members themselves are actually great. They’re genuinely trying to be helpful, but you can tell they’re struggling with bad policies and major understaffing. It’s a shame management is ruining what could be a good experience just to save a few bucks.