Food Bill at the Resort

[DCLCrazy64622]

Hi all, we are looking into going to Aulani for 4 nights before we jump on a cruise. I am blown away at the cost of food at the resort. Is it safe to say for a family of 3 adults and 1 child, that we will be spending an approximate extra thousand dollars during the time at the resort?? Please tell me I’m wrong because that’s a total deal breaker for me. What has been your experience while there? Are there any other charges I have to be concerned with that I’m not considering? Thanks.

 

[southerngirl528]

Holy cow!!! How did you come UP with that number?? I would be put off too if I thought I would be spending that much. YIKES!

I have stayed 3 different trips with 2 adults, and we are foodies. We've stayed longer than 4 nights, and no WAY did we spend anything remotely close. There are LOTS of ways to save $$ on food.

If you are staying in a DVC room, you'll have at minimum a little kitchenette, with an under counter fridge, a microwave, coffee maker, and toaster. Buy some breakfast, snack and lunch items at a very closely grocery and that alone will save you buckets! Also, for dinner, we went to one of the 2 lounges to listen to the outstanding live Hawaiian music and just grazed and called it dinner.

You can do aloha/happy hours and get lower priced pu-pu's (app's) and a beverage and call that dinner. We do it ALL the time in Hawaii, and we go yearly, so we know how pricey it can be.

As for AMA AMA, which surely is expensive, especially for dinner, we MUCH prefer breakfast and lunch there. The view is lovely and the portions are very generous, so much so you could share unless you have someone with lumberjack appetites!

Across the street from Aulani is Ko Olina station, which has a taco place, a Hawaiian BBQ place, Monkeypod Kitchen, which has a decent happy hour and their Hamakua wild mushroom flatbread pizza is DIVINE and far and away my favorite thing there! Their Mai Tais with the lilikoi foam are great too. There is a Vintage Coffee at Ko Olina Station as well (unless they've closed since I was there) and an EggsNThings just opened and will have lunch as well as breakfast soon.

Hope that gives you some great ideas. One need NOT spend a fortune to eat while at Aulani. I promise! Just gotta think outside the Aulani box.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

Holy cow!!! How did you come UP with that number?? I would be put off too if I thought I would be spending that much. YIKES!

I have stayed 3 different trips with 2 adults, and we are foodies. We've stayed longer than 4 nights, and no WAY did we spend anything remotely close. There are LOTS of ways to save $$ on food.

If you are staying in a DVC room, you'll have at minimum a little kitchenette, with an under counter fridge, a microwave, coffee maker, and toaster. Buy some breakfast, snack and lunch items at a very closely grocery and that alone will save you buckets! Also, for dinner, we went to one of the 2 lounges to listen to the outstanding live Hawaiian music and just grazed and called it dinner.

You can do aloha/happy hours and get lower priced pu-pu's (app's) and a beverage and call that dinner. We do it ALL the time in Hawaii, and we go yearly, so we know how pricey it can be.

As for AMA AMA, which surely is expensive, especially for dinner, we MUCH prefer breakfast and lunch there. The view is lovely and the portions are very generous, so much so you could share unless you have someone with lumberjack appetites!

Across the street from Aulani is Ko Olina station, which has a taco place, a Hawaiian BBQ place, Monkeypod Kitchen, which has a decent happy hour and their Hamakua wild mushroom flatbread pizza is DIVINE and far and away my favorite thing there! Their Mai Tais with the lilikoi foam are great too. There is a Vintage Coffee at Ko Olina Station as well (unless they've closed since I was there) and an EggsNThings just opened and will have lunch as well as breakfast soon.

Hope that gives you some great ideas. One need NOT spend a fortune to eat while at Aulani. I promise! Just gotta think outside the Aulani box.

OK, so what I am hearing is that you mainly eat off property? We will probably rent a car, so that is doable for us.

 

[keaster]

You definitely don't have to eat at the resort every night. There are some options across the street and if you have a car you can venture further out!

 

[southerngirl528]

OK, so what I am hearing is that you mainly eat off property? We will probably rent a car, so that is doable for us

Well, truthfully for us, we ate the majority of the time at Aulani and I would say about 30% tops, we ate elsewhere. I love Costco, and there is a very nice one about 5 -8 minutes drive from Aulani so we could buy poke, and some items to eat, there is a BigTarget caddy-corner across from this Costco in Kapolei and a Safeway close too.

The Ko Olina Station places are easily walkable. It's just out the resort and across the street. There is also a Roy's, which we love, but have not yet tried the one in Ko Olina, it would be a slightly longer walk across from Aulani overlooking the golf course. I believe they serve lunch and the prices are not cheap but I think a good value for Hawaii. Again, large portions you can share. Hope that helps!

 

[cgattis]

We ate at Pizza Corner across the street for dinner one night and had the leftovers for lunch the next day. We did the same with grab and go stuff from the ABC store another day. We did Ulu for lunch one day, Makahiki for one breakfast and one dinner, and got snacks once or twice. All other meals we ate while our day tripping or made easy stuff in the room. Resort food is definitely too expensive for every meal for a week stay IMO.

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

Hit the happy hour at Monkey Pod across the street, it was very good and the happy hour made it much more reasonable. We also went to Costco and ate a lot in the villa.

 

[spacecanada]

It's all perspective. We ate at least one meal a day on property and fully indulged in appetisers, desserts, and nonalcoholic specialty drinks. Plus shave ice every day ($4 each). I don't remember what our final bill was, but it was around $80-120 per meal for two adults, which I thought was reasonable for the food, service, and unique venue. For us, that was part of the experience and we looked forward to it. I have multiple severe food allergies and never eat in restaurants except at Disney.

I echo what others have said to cook meals on your own if you can - we had a villa and cooked our other meals in there, using food from Costco in and the natural foods store just down the street from Costco. We kept our meals simple and quick so we weren't spending extra time in the kitchen. We had wraps, tacos, oatmeal, rice and beans, salads.

 

[nkereina]

We did a few breakfasts on property, which are cheaper than dinners. Otherwise, we used our rental car to stop at Target and pick up some groceries so we could have quick and easy snacks and lunches in our room. On the days we were out exploring, we ate off-site which was more affordable. And as mentioned, there's places across from Aulani as well. They are still on the expensive side because its a tourist high-end area, but some of the portions are large. For instance, Pizza Corner we had for dinner and then were able to heat up leftovers for lunch the next day.

 

[newdeal]

$1000 does seem reasonable for 4 people for 4 days. $250 a day for breakfast lunch and dinner can be spent for sure. Food is expensive in Hawaii as almost everything is imported. Its not just Aulani but Hawaii in general. That said, there are cheaper places to eat than Aulani, some within walking distance but anything walking distance isn't that much cheaper. If you really want cheaper you need a car. If you don't have DVC and rent a car be prepared to be dinged on parking at Aulani also. Everything in Hawaii is more expensive than on the mainland near as I can tell

 

[drcoulsey]

Where can I buy fresh fish to cook in our villa? I don’t have a Costco membership so that place is out. I was planning to buy groceries at Target but I suspect they don’t sell fresh fish.

 

[southerngirl528]

Where can I buy fresh fish to cook in our villa? I don’t have a Costco membership so that place is out. I was planning to buy groceries at Target but I suspect they don’t sell fresh fish.

I don't go to Oahu often enough to know if there's a good local fish shop, but when in Hawaii we DO love the seafood counters at Woodland grocery stores! It's where we often get our poke, so I'm betting they would have some yummy local fish.

 

[kyton]

Foodland and Safeway will both have fresh fish available.

 

[94bruin]

Foodland is also know for their award winning poke.

 

[jodybird511]

$1000 does seem reasonable for 4 people for 4 days. $250 a day for breakfast lunch and dinner can be spent for sure. Food is expensive in Hawaii as almost everything is imported. Its not just Aulani but Hawaii in general. That said, there are cheaper places to eat than Aulani, some within walking distance but anything walking distance isn't that much cheaper. If you really want cheaper you need a car. If you don't have DVC and rent a car be prepared to be dinged on parking at Aulani also. Everything in Hawaii is more expensive than on the mainland near as I can tell

I agree--$1000 is not outside the range of what I would expect if I were to eat all meals at on-property restaurants. Have you considered renting points and staying in villa? That will cut down the cost of your room and also give you a kitchen where you can definitely do breakfasts and lunches if you're up for it. We also bought our own rum and mixers to make mixed drinks. There is a LOT of money to be saved by eating at least some of your meals in your room.

 

[scrappydew]

I think we averaged $100/day, and that was with eating in our room a lot....soups, frozen lasagna we put in the micowave, etc. It does add up! That was for four of us.

 

[Dug720]

Is there any food delivery like people get at WDW? I'm really wanting to go to Aulani, but I don't drive (I have a license but have not driven in 13 years and a rental car in a totally unfamiliar place is NOT the way to start back), and I'd like to have some options besides just what is there.

I guess I could always pack Luna bars and stuff...

 

[Gorechick]

There are ways to make the food on property or nearby affordable and last more than one meal. My daughter and I split a turkey wrap from Ulu for lunch on several days, we had a fruit platter delivered to our room and we ate that several mornings for breakfast, if you get pizza from down the street I'm sure that could last a meal or two, etc...

 

[southerngirl528]

I don't go to Oahu often enough to know if there's a good local fish shop, but when in Hawaii we DO love the seafood counters at Woodland grocery stores! It's where we often get our poke, so I'm betting they would have some yummy local fish.

That should have read "seafood counters at FOODLAND grocery stores"!! Spellcheck changed it on me....

 

[Jamesmom7]

You can expect to way overpay for mediocre food at best if you eat at aulani. We are a family of 3, bought the refillable cups, and the average breakfast alone was 60. I dont want to think about how much we payed for the buffet dinner for my son to eat a french fry. Monkeypod is a short walk and is really good. Most places offer aloha hour and have half priced drinks and appetizers. We ate way too many meals at aulani but also had a car and explored and tried some local places. Its definitely worth having a car. Outside of aulani i dont recall paying more for meals than i would at home dining out. Parking is high but it definitely counters food cost. I reccomend renting a car for that and to see the island. We are most excited to hit Giovanni’s shrimp truck when we come back in September. We also loved visiting the north shore and watching the surfers and having matsumotos shaved ice as well as teds bakery. The north shore was a highlight as simple as it was. We are kinda into food and loved hitting local places. There’s a target and Costco fairly close. I want to say maybe 4 miles. There’s options if you are willing to rent a car and I honestly don’t see any other way. It’s not worth paying for the food there.