Aulani is a Disney Vacation Club resort on the island of Oahu and when it opened in 2011, I knew I wanted to stay here someday! It's a stand-alone DVC resort (meaning it's not at Disneyland or WDW) and as we've now done a few times for other DVC properties, we rented DVC points to stay here. As I've stated before, we aren't DVC members and we don't want to become DVC members, so this is a great solution!
There are actually three stand-alone DVC resorts, and we've stayed at all three in the past nine months: Vero Beach, Hilton Head, and now, Aulani!
The day started with a stop by the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We didn't spend a ton of time there because one, it was very busy, and two, we'd been during our last trip to Oahu. We really just wanted to look around and get a Dole Whip before continuing on our way. We had planned to stop at several beach spots/lookouts along our drive, but it seemed so busy and crowded everywhere that we just admired the views from the car. It was a gorgeous, clear morning, which would have made for beautiful pictures, but we seriously couldn't find parking at any of our planned stops - at least not in parking lots. We didn't want to chance damaging the rental car by driving in any unpaved areas - it was a very nice, large sedan that was low to the ground (I won't name it here because I don't want to offend anyone!), but we were not fans of this car. On each of our three previous trips to Hawaii, we rented a Jeep, and we decided against it this time because we knew we'd only have the car for about 48 hours. It was absolutely fine for driving around the island, but we obviously didn't want to take it onto rocky/sandy spots.
Speaking of the car, we returned it today because we won't have any need for it while we're the resort. C dropped me off at Aulani with our luggage, and then drove the car to the airport and took a Lyft back. While he was gone, I wandered around the resort and figured out the lay of the land. I also got a rainbow Mickey shave ice, which I'd been claiming would be one of the first things I did here since we booked the trip last May!
I can't imagine the report is at capacity right now, but to be honest, it's more crowded than I'd like. Luckily, our room is on the eleventh floor and has a lovely view with a balcony, and by about 8 pm, it seemed like most people had gone to their rooms, so we were able to wander around the resort and take pics and it felt almost empty!
Looking forward to staying at this resort has kept me going throughout this crazy pandemic and after all of the worry about whether or not the trip would even happen - right up until 36 hours before we had to leave home for the airport! - I'm going to soak up every second of relaxation!
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| a Korean tofu burger... SO good! |
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| perfection |
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| I've had this beside my computer at home throughout the pandemic as a constant reminder that we'd eventually make it to Aulani! |
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| the Big Dipper over the resort reminded me of Maui's hook from Moana |
Happy Tails to you!
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