reopening worries?

Disneybridewifemama

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 17, 2013
Is anyone else worried about rescheduling their canceled Aulani trip to the end of this year? I keep hearing horror stories about the resort being open but no character interactions, no kids club, no lazy river, etc. Is that even possible? Could they reopen but not offer the amenities? Should I worry about rescheduling to September?
 
I think reduced amenities is quite possible at Aulani (as well as all Disney resorts). If it was me and was booked on the cash side....I would probably reschedule until 2021. If renting DVC points I would also try and reschedule, but that might be easier said than done.

I'm hopeful that things get back to normal quick, but I would be surprised if visitors to Aulani this year get the whole experience.
 
I think reduced amenities is quite possible at Aulani (as well as all Disney resorts). If it was me and was booked on the cash side....I would probably reschedule until 2021. If renting DVC points I would also try and reschedule, but that might be easier said than done.

I'm hopeful that things get back to normal quick, but I would be surprised if visitors to Aulani this year get the whole experience.
What do you think will be taken away as far as amenities?
 
I think we could see pool chairs being limited to 1 or 2 per family. If social distancing is still in affect it's hard to have anywhere near the same amount of chairs in the pool/deck area. I could see Aunties being completely shut down. It's a lot of kids in a relatively small space. As far as the pools themselves I could see the lazy river not open due to flotation tubes being shared....unless they wipe them down after each use.

I would think their buffet restaurant would turn into table service (not a bad thing in my book :laughing: )

The beach area would probably space out the chairs further away from each other. If the state places any restrictions of beach use that could have an affect on Aulani as well.

We've used our DVC 4 times to stay at Aulani. We LOVE it! We actually considered going this November once our summer Europe trip got scraped. But we decided against it as we don't a partial Aulani experience. From Chicago it's too far and time consuming to not get the full experience.

OP, I hope that things are up and running if/when you go this year. I just worry since Hawaii has been overly protective compared to many states.
 


I think there are just so many unknowns at this point that everyone is guessing as to what it will be like. Not sure how social distancing can still be a thing at Aulani if we are all flying next to each other on a full flight? We had our May trip canceled along with our DCL Hawaii cruise and while I want to reschedule we will wait until Pearl Harbor and other sites we want to visit are open again.
 
I think there are just so many unknowns at this point that everyone is guessing as to what it will be like. Not sure how social distancing can still be a thing at Aulani if we are all flying next to each other on a full flight? We had our May trip canceled along with our DCL Hawaii cruise and while I want to reschedule we will wait until Pearl Harbor and other sites we want to visit are open again.
I'm not sure if this is a thing yet, but airlines are talking of blocking all middle seats. I'm not sure how it works if you book tickets together, such as keeping families sitting by one another. Flights will also probably not be full for a while. My brother is a pilot and I think last flight had two passengers and LOTS of medical supplies!
 


I'm not sure if this is a thing yet, but airlines are talking of blocking all middle seats. I'm not sure how it works if you book tickets together, such as keeping families sitting by one another. Flights will also probably not be full for a while. My brother is a pilot and I think last flight had two passengers and LOTS of medical supplies!
I'm not sure if this is a thing yet, but airlines are talking of blocking all middle seats. I'm not sure how it works if you book tickets together, such as keeping families sitting by one another. Flights will also probably not be full for a while. My brother is a pilot and I think last flight had two passengers and LOTS of medical supplies!
After our WDW trip was canceled we used our airline credit to book tickets to Hawaii on Westjet. All of their middle seats are blocked out, which is just fine by us since we are chubby.
 
fyi it is now official...state has extended visitor quarantine and stay at home orders through may 31st.

based on the timing of the 2 announcements (in march and april)...it seems likely that an announcement regarding june won't be made until the last week in may.

since both stay at home order and visitor quarantine were extended...it seems unlikely that june will see the visitor quarantine dropped as many cities/states/countries that have started to re-open have started at the local level...leaving travel restrictions in place until...well doesn't seem like anyone's dropped their travel restrictions yet...
 
We are optimistic for an August trip, rescheduled from May. I'm expecting some reduced amenities, but honestly don't have a problem with it. We weren't going to use Auntie's or the spa on this trip anyway. If buffets become table service, that's fine, but I do see a way for them to stay open with servers on the other side of a barrier and you pick up your plate at the end of the line. I would prefer that become a permanent change myself.

My family would be perfectly happy sitting on the beach together and taking walks. We just crave a change in scenery more than anything. I'm more nervous about the trip out there, we have to overnight in CA.
 
I think we could see pool chairs being limited to 1 or 2 per family. If social distancing is still in affect it's hard to have anywhere near the same amount of chairs in the pool/deck area. I could see Aunties being completely shut down. It's a lot of kids in a relatively small space. As far as the pools themselves I could see the lazy river not open due to flotation tubes being shared....unless they wipe them down after each use.

I would think their buffet restaurant would turn into table service (not a bad thing in my book :laughing: )

The beach area would probably space out the chairs further away from each other. If the state places any restrictions of beach use that could have an affect on Aulani as well.

We've used our DVC 4 times to stay at Aulani. We LOVE it! We actually considered going this November once our summer Europe trip got scraped. But we decided against it as we don't a partial Aulani experience. From Chicago it's too far and time consuming to not get the full experience.

OP, I hope that things are up and running if/when you go this year. I just worry since Hawaii has been overly protective compared to many states.
Agree with all this. I also think that the hotel could operate at a reduced capacity as well, because there's no way the resort could safely distance people with these things out of commission if they were at a greater than 50-60% capacity.

OP, if you are considering when to re-schedule, I would probably shoot for 2021 but mostly because of the flight factor. I know for us coming from the east coast, the flight is a big factor - we like certain flight times so we can maximize our time there, we like certain seats so we can be comfortable for the 9+ hour trip, and of course the price point. With the big possibility of having to change flights and potentially shell out more money, I'd rather just wait to do anything until we see how everything plays out over the next few months.
 
We rescheduled from May to September using our dvc points. I’m not worried about it. We just sit by pool anyway. I’d hope restaurant s would be open. Hawaii and aulani will find ways to make it work. The state can’t afford to stay locked down too much longer. But I’m an optimist.
 
I've heard that the 14 day quarantine for travellers will continue even after Hawaii businesses open. They're even talking about things such as putting visitors up a few hotels under the State's control (at your cost) or ankle monitoring bracelets for the 14 days. I don't have much hope for summer travel without restrictions.
 
Several comments about not opening at various levels of occupancy. I'd just like to observe that some revenue, even if only at 25% capacity, is better than none. You just need to cover the variable costs since the other costs are fixed and don't change according to occupancy levels. So, as long as they can cover payroll, etc they will be better off opening.
 
the reduced occupancy requirements on their own wouldn't be much of an issue for many hotels...the problem for many of them is that those reduced capacity requirements are likely to come with increased cleaning and monitoring requirements...as well as possibly the removal of the very profitable luaus, buffets, and other such amenities.

it could be similar to telling a night club "ok you can open...but your capacity is now reduced to 25%, you can't sell alchohol, and now you have to clean every surface after someone leaves a table/the bar...and at hospital levels of clean...you have to check ID, birth certificate, and dental records to make sure they aren't using a fake ID, and you have to keep track of everyone that each person comes into contact with"

the capacity part...is probably not much of a problem...but the other 4 added on to it...problem...the really bad part is...businesses won't know how much all the extra stuff is going to cost them until after they re-open...and thats assuming that each business can sustain a sufficient supply of cleaning and safety gear going forward (without bidding wars making it prohibitively expensive).

oddly enough I think disney world is sitting in a really good position to test opening...*cough cough* magic band rfid tracking *cough cough*...as they kinda have ways to get you to volunteer to be tracked already in place...for years...
 
Is anyone else worried about rescheduling their canceled Aulani trip to the end of this year? I keep hearing horror stories about the resort being open but no character interactions, no kids club, no lazy river, etc. Is that even possible? Could they reopen but not offer the amenities? Should I worry about rescheduling to September?
I would wait until things are way more "normal". No way would I spend that kind of money for reduced experiences. I know right now we all want to be somewhere else, but just hold on the time will come. It may not be as fast as we would like but it will happen. Plus the longer you wait the more money you are saving up the more souvenirs and side tours you can buy.
 
Honestly we chose Aulani because of the kitchenette (3/5 of us have dietary restrictions). The amenities were just an added bonus, not our reason for choosing Aulani. If things are improved by the time of our trip (which of course we can all speculate but won't really know that means til the time comes), we will go. We just want beach time and hiking time. However, if it's still risky and/or there is a visitor's quarantine in place we won't go. We want to relax not feel stressed out. And our trip wasn't planned to be two weeks long anyway.
 

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