Some more Aulani tips. Go here for my first 8 tips.
Look at the Character List
The character list goes up about 8:30-9 am every morning. Plan to be in line about 5 or 10 minutes before the major characters show up, like Mickey and Minnie, Stitch, or Moana, because they are only there for half an hour and the line can get long. The characters also roam the grounds. We saw Moana a few times, and also the Aulani mascot Shelley. Moana even helped my girls solve a clue on the scavenger hunt and it was magical to see their excitement!
Weekday Stays are the Best!
Stay on the weekdays. There aren’t very many people and it’s so relaxing. We stayed on Wednesday through Sunday, and Sunday was much busier than Wednesday. On the weekdays, they don’t even move towels if you’re gone from your lounge chair for more than an hour. On the weekends, be prepared to go to the cabana to retrieve your things if you’ve left your chair for more than an hour.
Snorkel the Day Away
When you buy a snorkeling pass at Rainbow Reef, it’s good for the whole day, and you can go at any time. So you can snorkel in the morning, take a break and warm up, then go again the in the afternoon, and then even again if you want to later. This didn’t matter much to us. Our 8-year-old and 6-year-old were done after one 10 minute snorkel. But it could be helpful to other families with snorkeling-loving kids (or adults!).
Waterslide Fun
Go on the waterslides in the morning or right before it closes. The lines are much shorter, so much so that often we would go down a slide, run back up, and go down again without waiting at all. The lifeguards grew to knew our family because my kids had a competition to see who could scream the loudest going down the slide. Which brings me to my next tip…
Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number
They let anyone who wants to go down the slides. My 4-year-old was going down the body slide by herself and my 2-year-old was going down the tube slide with me or my husband. I asked the lifeguard, and he said that if my 2-year-old wanted, he could go down the tube slide by himself too (obviously he’s in a lifejacket). I think he would’ve loved it, but going down a dark tunnel by himself would probably have been traumatizing. If I had been able to go with him, we would’ve done it in a heartbeat.
Get Your Money’s Worth
We spent our time at Aulani solely at Aulani–we only left the resort to go out to eat a few times. I highly recommend this. We paid a ton of money and wanted to squeeze every bit of value out of it for our family. We succeeded. I am super happy with how everything turned out, and I think our kids were the perfect ages to enjoy this.
Pass It Along
Leave things for the next guests. There’s a Facebook group called Aulani DVC Info and Pay it Forward Group where people post things they’ve left in the ice machine rooms. Want a boogie board or a gallon of POG? How about sunscreen or a beach chair? If you check those groups, you’ll find all sorts of things listed.
When in Doubt…
Ask! My final Aulani tips is to always ask if you’re not sure. This is Disney–they’ll be nice 🙂
I hope these Disney Aulani tips gave you some ideas to make your stay fantastic!
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