aulanidreamer
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2014
Just a short trip report for our April stay first for 3 nights on Maui and then 7 nights at Aulani. We are DVC members and this is our third trip to Aulani. We haven’t been to Maui in 10 years. It’s me, DH, DD 11, DS 9, and DD 8 who just had a birthday the week prior and sported her birthday button all over the island.
Day 1 leave Seattle to Honolulu on Alaska Air and fly to Maui on Hawaiian Airlines. This was mostly smooth sailing as Alaska checks your bags all the way through for you. Our flight arrived only a few minutes late and after figuring out the connection gate was far, we found there bus shuttle and got to the inter-island gates. Had we decided earlier to add Maui I would have booked the flights differently to go directly to Maui, but since we added it after our initial flights, this was our best option. We gave ourselves 2 he’s between flights which seemed perfect. We weren’t rushing but had time for food and bathrooms. The flight to Maui was good and we arrived late afternoon about 4 pm. Bags were easy and the shuttle to Avis was fairly quick. The Avis line was long, but they got us in our car which ended up being a huge Suburban (reserved standard SUV).
We were off to Kaanapali area, which with traffic was just over an hr ride. It was partly cloudy with areas of dark clouds over the west Maui mountains. We had some beautiful beaches we were passing and my kids wanted to go directly to the sand but my DH hadn’t eaten much and was anxious for dinner, so we went directly to the resort. We stayed at Kaanapali Shores, which is an older timeshare and has some pluses and minuses. It had beautiful grounds (but nothing as special as Aulani) and the kids really enjoyed the pool. The 1 br garden view also had a partial ocean view that was lovely. The room was old, the windows were so thin they didn’t block any noise, the location was good, the restaurant was good. (Only 1 dinner there) I will likely choose another location next time, but we did get a great deal on Orbitz so it’s hard to complain. There was a $20 resort fee, $9 parking and $30 for a rollaway that was needed to sleep all three kids in a room with 6 occupancy. (Was not pleased about that) We had to call the desk about our door sticking so much that we couldn’t open it at times and I was worried about getting out in an emergency. They worked on it for awhile and finally offered to move us, but by that time it was 9pm (midnight Seattle) and the kids just needed to sleep. Packing back up and moving was not happening.
Anyway, back to the resort experience...after getting our room settled we went down the resort beach restaurant which had no wait and had a great view. It was nothing fancy but my kale salad with Ahi was fantastic. During dinner it started raining and it really poured for 30 min or so. It was still warm and after the rain we let the kids hit the pool before bed. The pool had a fun volcano with lava lights at night. After making the quick decision to just stick with are originally assigned room, we hit the hay.
Day 1 leave Seattle to Honolulu on Alaska Air and fly to Maui on Hawaiian Airlines. This was mostly smooth sailing as Alaska checks your bags all the way through for you. Our flight arrived only a few minutes late and after figuring out the connection gate was far, we found there bus shuttle and got to the inter-island gates. Had we decided earlier to add Maui I would have booked the flights differently to go directly to Maui, but since we added it after our initial flights, this was our best option. We gave ourselves 2 he’s between flights which seemed perfect. We weren’t rushing but had time for food and bathrooms. The flight to Maui was good and we arrived late afternoon about 4 pm. Bags were easy and the shuttle to Avis was fairly quick. The Avis line was long, but they got us in our car which ended up being a huge Suburban (reserved standard SUV).
We were off to Kaanapali area, which with traffic was just over an hr ride. It was partly cloudy with areas of dark clouds over the west Maui mountains. We had some beautiful beaches we were passing and my kids wanted to go directly to the sand but my DH hadn’t eaten much and was anxious for dinner, so we went directly to the resort. We stayed at Kaanapali Shores, which is an older timeshare and has some pluses and minuses. It had beautiful grounds (but nothing as special as Aulani) and the kids really enjoyed the pool. The 1 br garden view also had a partial ocean view that was lovely. The room was old, the windows were so thin they didn’t block any noise, the location was good, the restaurant was good. (Only 1 dinner there) I will likely choose another location next time, but we did get a great deal on Orbitz so it’s hard to complain. There was a $20 resort fee, $9 parking and $30 for a rollaway that was needed to sleep all three kids in a room with 6 occupancy. (Was not pleased about that) We had to call the desk about our door sticking so much that we couldn’t open it at times and I was worried about getting out in an emergency. They worked on it for awhile and finally offered to move us, but by that time it was 9pm (midnight Seattle) and the kids just needed to sleep. Packing back up and moving was not happening.
Anyway, back to the resort experience...after getting our room settled we went down the resort beach restaurant which had no wait and had a great view. It was nothing fancy but my kale salad with Ahi was fantastic. During dinner it started raining and it really poured for 30 min or so. It was still warm and after the rain we let the kids hit the pool before bed. The pool had a fun volcano with lava lights at night. After making the quick decision to just stick with are originally assigned room, we hit the hay.
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