TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

I did not stay at the resort but had a day visit. I booked the character breakfast and this review is primarily about the character breakfast. I did have a chance to walk around the resort, check out the beach and stop at the gift shop. All of those were great. I really enjoyed the breakfast. Staff were very friendly. Everyone gets a picture with Mickey on the way in. They had three other characters walking around the breakfast. The characters made sure they stopped at each table multiple times for multiple photo/interaction opportunities. Food was good. Expensive for breakfast, but not really so expensive for Hawaii and for Disney, and for characters. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and everyone should give it a try. I have food allergies so always appreciate Disney’s allergy conscious restaurants. Valet was free for 2 hours as a breakfast guest.

We have been to the Aulani several times and are Disney Vacation Club members. If you have young kids and can come when it is not a school break, the hotel has many positive features. It is very kid friendly, and you can get one or two bedroom rooms with full kitchens. On the negative side, it is definitely not luxurious compared to any luxury hotel, although it is expensive. The rooms are worn. The service is very hit or miss. But the very worst part is the chair policy. It is very strictly enforced. If you want to hold a chair before 8 when the pool opens, someone in your party must be in one of the chairs at ALL times. Then they mark the chairs and if you are gone for more than an hour, they remove your stuff. So, for example, I went and got chairs and sat there. At 9:30 we went to the character breakfast which cost over $300 for five of us, but I had to leave in the middle of my breakfast, which took over an hour, or they would have removed my stuff from our chairs. When I got to our chairs, they were already starting to remove stuff but fortunately I stopped them. Nevertheless, my breakfast was ruined, but the kids did enjoy seeing the characters. If it wasn’t for the nasty chair police and policies, I could put up with very outdated rooms, mediocre service and everything else. The pools are nice, water stuff is kid friendly, and the beach has large rock formations breaking the waves before they enter the lagoon, so kids can easily go in the ocean, which is nice. There also decent activities for the kids, like a character pool party twice a week, scavenger hunt, arts and craft activities, plus a club you can deposit kids in, that they like. But they just do not have enough chairs and very frustrating chair experience. Overall, if you have kids and are okay with their crazy approach, worth checking out. If you don’t have kids, stay away!

Staff was great. Guests were not! Rudest I've ever encountered. Selfish, privileged jerks!

This is an amazing hotel if (1) you enjoy really crowded pool areas where you’re SOL if you haven’t claimed a lounge chair shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers by 8am, (2) you love booking all of your activities and mandatory reservations for breakfast and dinner 45 days out, and (3) have lots of money to spend, as in haunt a bigger budget than the next door Four Seasons. If this isn’t you, then perhaps you should stay somewhere else. We’ve met plenty of families over the years that just rave about this resort. As part of a longer Hawaiian vacation, we booked 2 nights here with our boys (9 and 5). We booked the stay about 40 days out. To our surprise, basically EVERYTHING at the resort was already booked when we made our reservation! Breakfast at one of the full-service restaurants? Already booked. Dinner at one of the restaurants? We snagged literally the last option for a family of 4 for only 1 night of our stay - the other nights were already full. Kids club? Literally only 1 activity had room remaining for 2 kids during our stay. Star gazing or the outrigger canoe? Those and everything else completely booked. Think you can still arrive at the property and still drop in or sign up then for activities or dinner? Sorry, no, everything is full. Without a reservation, surely there must be good breakfast options, right? Yes, there’s Ulu, which basically provides the equivalent of a 7-11 to-go breakfast with eye-watering prices for overcooked drip coffee with Carnation creamer and mediocre food. The good news is the ocean lagoon is really enjoyable and you can easily lounge your time away there. Though the reality is you can do this same thing at any number of nice Hawaiian resorts at a whole lot less money than here. We’re not against mass-market family-friendly resorts. We’re big fans of ClubMed, which always provides a great time with lots of great activities for the whole family at generally reasonable prices. we’ve never had a problem enjoying endless activities, and there’s always ample delicious food. The value proposition at Aulani is absurd. We most definitely won’t be back.

Absolutely fantastic stay. The deluxe studio and the 2 bedroom villa were clean and very comfortable. The entire resort is beautiful. The staff are incredibly nice. Doesn't matter on the department. They were all very kind, helpful, took great initiative to go above and beyond and overall....exceeded our expectations. There are "adults only" areas such as a pool with a bar close to the pool and seating area and whirlpool overlooking the ocean and beach. There are great activities for families and they look like they were having a blast. This trip was for adults only for us and we loved it. The lazy river is fantastic! It really worked out great after I broke my foot a month before we were going. I was able to use a float and the other foot to guide me, when needed. I highly recommend and we plan on going back every couple of years. If we lived closer, we would be there at least every year. It was evident that people who frequent the resort, including staff, don't have visitors from Maine that often. Every time we were asked where we were from, they were all shocked. It's not an easy haul to get there.