Aulani With Kids?

[Daggyfamily]

My husband and I are considering booking a trip to Aulani with our three children. At the time of the trip they will be 4, 2 and 9 months old. We would have an 8 hour airplane ride to get to/from Hawaii. Has anyone done the trip with three young kids and found it worth the travel? Thanks so much for the input!

 

[tankin]

My husband and I are considering booking a trip to Aulani with our three children. At the time of the trip they will be 4, 2 and 9 months old. We would have an 8 hour airplane ride to get to/from Hawaii. Has anyone done the trip with three young kids and found it worth the travel? Thanks so much for the input!

You know your kids better than anyone else... What does your gut tell you? Can they sit for 8+ hours? It was a challenge the first time we went with our, then, 10 yos

 

[badiggio]

Long plane ride aside,I think your kids would enjoy Disneyworld or land much much more.

 

[Daggyfamily]

Long plane ride aside,I think your kids would enjoy Disneyworld or land much much more.

Yes, we have been but were considering something different to change it up.

 

[Daggyfamily]

You know your kids better than anyone else... What does your gut tell you? Can they sit for 8+ hours? It was a challenge the first time we went with our, then, 10 yos

This is the million dollar question HA!! Thanks for the reply.

 

[kyton]

First time we took ours they were 6, 4 and 2 - coming from Australia it was a 2hr car trip followed by 2hr sit at the airport then almost 10hrs on the plane. we made sure we had backpacks for each of them with 2 sets of clothes, diapers & dummies (bikkies/comforters) for the youngest, their favourite soft toy plus warm jackets. We also had lollipops to help with ears popping upon takeoff and landing. I also had a change of clothes for both myself and my husband, just in case of accidents.

Our kids handled it fine - we don’t have much of a time difference which helps plus our flights over depart around 9pm landing on Oahu at 7am so the kids went to sleep as per “normal” Then when they woke up we had arrived. They’ve now been something like 11-13 times, I’ve lost track at ages 16, 14 and almost 12. Oahu is still their favourite place, even moreso then Disneyland.

 

[Daggyfamily]

Very helpful! Thanks for the details!

 

[vacay77]

I haven't traveled with 3 kids (just one), but my son was 3 years old when we first visited the Aulani and he had a blast even though he doesn't remember it now. Our flight was 6 1/2 hours long and overall, he did fine. Prior to the pandemic, we traveled a lot, taking long flights and for the most part, he did okay with the exception of one incident. I agree with @kyton, prepare ahead as much as possible, including a change of clothes for everyone, lol.

 

[nkereina]

I don't have kids so I can't speak to those challenges. But one thing I would tell anyone is that people should travel to Aulani wanting a Hawaiian vacation. Not an Aulani vacation or a Disney vacation or even a beach/resort vacation. Aulani makes a great home base for Disney fanatics and families while they explore Oahu, but IMO, its not a great resort for a resort-only stay or even a beach focused vacation. There are many places in the Gulf and Caribbean that are much closer to home and a fraction of the cost that would be better for that.

If you are interested in exploring Hawaii, obviously that raises the question of what you can and would want to do with kids those ages and what logistical challenges that might impose. Hawaii is also 6 hours behind EST so its quite a time change to adjust to at first, which is a challenge for anyone. I always recommend at least 8+ days when visiting there to allow time for the time adjustment.

 

[ipuffyheartdisney]

I just returned from a trip there. I traveled alone with my three kids, ages 10, 8 and 3, from the east coast. My sister lives on the island and I really wanted to visit her before she moved again, so I just went for it. I was so worried about my youngest with mask wearing and traveling for so long and she was the best behaved the entire trip! My older two got restless but handled everything very well. Aulani was amazing! We spent two nights there but three full days there to utilize the most of the pools and beach. We stayed a total of 8 days on the island, staying with my sister after our stay at Aulani. If you really want to go to Hawaii, I say go for it, it is so worth it. My kids loved it and though it was stressful on my part to travel alone, it was worth it!

On the jet lag there, depending where you live, our time difference was 6 hours. We would go to sleep super early around 7:30-8pm and wake up around 5am everyday. Which turned out to be good because once it got dark there, everything tended to shut down. Aulani doesn't have much at night, other than looking at the stars or the luau. Waking up early was great because we got ready, breakfast and got chairs easily at the pool. After 9:00am it is really hard to find pool chairs. It took almost the whole time to get adjusted to Hawaii time, then we left haha.

The only regret I made was the redeye I took back home. I thought it would be great because we could still have most of the last day and sleep the whole flight. Which was true, but I did not think about the time change coming back. The flight flew by super fast, but even with upgraded seats for more leg room and chair tilt, it was uncomfortable to sleep. We also landed at 9am on the East Coast and that was 3am Hawaii time. So I was so exhausted and I needed to drive home from the airport. It took me three days to recover from the jet lag! My other sister traveled a year before to visit and she had a three year old and 9 month old. She said it took them two weeks to get back on track with their sleeping because she took the overnight redeye trip back home as well.

I also rented a car because there is really cool things to do and see on the island that Aulani does not have. I used the Sixt company and they were great. There was a shortage for every other car company.

 

[nkereina]

We would go to sleep super early around 7:30-8pm and wake up around 5am everyday. Which turned out to be good because once it got dark there, everything tended to shut down. Aulani doesn't have much at night, other than looking at the stars or the luau.

We were on similar sleep schedules our first 2-3 days in Hawaii while our bodies adjusted. At home we go to bed around 11ish and will wake up around 8am, but I agree its better in Hawaii to go to bed early and wake up early. I also agree that Ko Olina/Aulani is a dead zone after dinner time. We were in Hawaii for a total of 16 days with Aulani being our last stop, so by the time we got there, we had acclimated to the time change. We were quite bored in the evenings and usually ended up back in our room by 8pm watching Netflix on the iPad.

The only regret I made was the redeye I took back home. I thought it would be great because we could still have most of the last day and sleep the whole flight. Which was true, but I did not think about the time change coming back. The flight flew by super fast, but even with upgraded seats for more leg room and chair tilt, it was uncomfortable to sleep. We also landed at 9am on the East Coast and that was 3am Hawaii time. So I was so exhausted and I needed to drive home from the airport. It took me three days to recover from the jet lag! My other sister traveled a year before to visit and she had a three year old and 9 month old. She said it took them two weeks to get back on track with their sleeping because she took the overnight redeye trip back home as well.

We took the same flight home. We slept very little which made time go by veryyyy slowly. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but we forced ourselves to stay awake and go to bed at our normal east coast time that night. I think that helped us to adjust more easily coming home. We got up at our normal east coast time the next morning and felt fine after that. Its definitely subjective though!

 

[Gramingo]

I'm thinking some Benadryl might help make the youngest sleep

 

[BayGirl22]

We're on the west coast, but have traveled coast to coast with kids since they were babies (SF to Key West to visit family, Paris). Its all what you make of it. We allow unlimited screen time on planes, let the kids help plan snacks, and make sure they each have an ipad or can use the airplane screen. Sleeping may be tough, may be ok for them, depends on the kid and flight timing. Right now its a bit harder with masks but if your kids are used to wearing them at home/school it won't be much different on a plane.

Never take a red eye back - kids or not - it sounds good in theory but makes it much harder to recover and ends your vacation on a bad note.

The schedule people are mentioning above (get up early, less night life) is typical of Aulani, and I would say in general more common on the west coast than the east coast. Most people at Aulani are coming from earlier time zones, I would get up at 5am to work and see many others lingering around. Not a bad thing at all, there's a lot to be said for watching the sunset totally refreshed.

 

[jacec]

We just moved our trip today for next week from Polynesian to Aulani and will be traveling DH & DH with daughter 7 and son 3, doing the direct flight from Chicago to HNL. Will be fun to see how the 3yr old does, to be fair , we did book lie flat seats on United

 

[Inga]

[QUOTE="jacec, post: 63283241, member: 674604" to be fair , we did book lie flat seats on United
[/QUOTE]
we are flying Newark to Honolulu United Airlines (we come from Nova Scotia so do Halifax-Newark then direct to Honolulu) but hadn’t heard of the lie flat seats - what class of seat are they?

 

[jimmymc]

Pros:

• The flight is definitely doable, but you really should get the 9 mo their own seat on the plane. Having to hold a baby for 9 hours each way will get tiring on you and your husband.
• Aulani's beach is very calm and I would feel comfortable with kids of any age swimming there.
• The pools are kid friendly and there are plenty of characters

Cons:

• It is expensive, both the flights and resort. If you just want to go to the beach and pool then you can get the same experience in Florida or the Caribbean for less money.
• The kids might be too young to experience the rest of the island. Things like Pearl Harbor, the crater hikes, surfing, and snorkeling/diving are some of the best parts of Hawaii.

For me the travel distance isn't the issue, but that is a lot of money just for the kids to play in sand. I would look at a cheaper beach resort now and do Aulani when the kids are old enough to experience Hawaii outside of the resort.

 

[jacec]

[QUOTE="jacec, post: 63283241, member: 674604" to be fair , we did book lie flat seats on United

we are flying Newark to Honolulu United Airlines (we come from Nova Scotia so do Halifax-Newark then direct to Honolulu) but hadn’t heard of the lie flat seats - what class of seat are they?
[/QUOTE]
United has 777 service from Chicago. Currently it’s operated by the 777-300ER which in First is lie flat suites.