Disney Aulani Resort

Has anyone been to the new Disney Alauni hotel in Hawaii? Curious about more detailed information.

http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3138-avatar-announced-aloha-alauni-disneyland-projects-california-adventure-progress.html

Quote: "The new Aulani hotel on Oahu sets out to replace the clichés of tiki torches, totem poles, bamboo furniture and tacky luaus with a resort that celebrates Hawaii's history, traditions and cultures sprinkled with just a small dose of Disney's trademark pixie dust."

Der Plan • Moritz R® • FlickR®

[ Edited by: professortiki 2012-05-17 04:30 ]

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - Changed "Alauni" to "Aulani" in subject - 2013-08-27 10:15 ]

On 2012-05-17 04:28, professortiki wrote:
Has anyone been to the new Disney Alauni hotel in Hawaii? Curious about more detailed information.

Quote: "The new Aulani hotel on Oahu sets out to replace the clichés of tiki torches, totem poles, bamboo furniture and tacky luaus with a resort that celebrates Hawaii's history, traditions and cultures sprinkled with just a small dose of Disney's trademark pixie dust."

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So, in other words it is totally anti-tiki.

A thorough review of the subject can be found here.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=25843&forum=1&start=0&hilite=disney hawaii

DC

On 2012-05-17 04:28, professortiki wrote:
"sprinkled with just a small dose of Disney's trademark pixie dust."

And that pixie dust costs a pretty penny to experience.

No "totem poles"?! Sounds REAL promising... You won't catch me at the Aulani.

Aloha,

While I have yet to get out there now that it is completed, it is on my list. My pal did some etched glass work for them. His reports are that it is quite cool.

There ARE some large Rocky Jensen Ki'i carvings.
There are hidden menehunes scattered on the grounds.
I am actually looking forward to a visit.

Has anyone been to Aulani? I wonder if it's worth a day or two at the hotel.

I also thought they had a water park.

Sad, not even kitsch, just a come-on!

I mean its probably worth 2 days or so to check out and to say you've been there, but there's much cheaper and equally as nice resorts anywhere else. There's no water park, but there's a decent pool with a cool lazy river as well. As said above, its not your typical Hawaiian or even tiki-themed resort. Its very respectful of the culture, because the idea is that the Hawaiian culture and practices are NOT extinct, as many people make them out to be. For example, those who wish to work at Olelo Restaurant/Lounge must be fluent in the native Hawaiian language. Kinda cool when you realize that a lot of Hawaiians hate us "mainlanders" and all, its a respectful way to take their land a build a resort on it. :D

http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/dining/table-service/olelo/

Does the Disney resort also dispense with the phony exotic rum drinks? The Coco Palms had many native Hawaiian employees and did celebrate and respect the Hawaiian culture. They didn't have tikis out of respect for their employees beliefs but they did have torches and the fabulous torch lighting ceremony. In addition they had ample local talent shows by a genuinely welcoming staff. I'm saving my pennies for the soon to be revived Coco Palms and Disney can spread their politically correct Pixie Dust on people who appreciate that.

The design, décor, and architecture of the various island resorts is amazing. On my last trip I spent my second week on the Kona coast and some of the restaurants drew me in to the resorts. It was breathtaking and inspirational to see how the higher-end island resorts looked. It was also very interesting to see the contrasts between "classic" and "kitschy" island design aesthetics.

I'm sure the Aulani is beautiful, the photos and marketing videos I have seen probably don't do it justice. But it is still "Disney" and there must be a strong "show" element woven into the fabric of the resort. I'm sure I would enjoy Aulani, but I suspect that something more classic and less contrived would be just as enjoyable if not more enjoyable.

Aulani is part of the Disney Vacation Club which is a very profitable arm of the Walt Disney Company. They have a captive audience of owners who I'm sure appreciate this new vacation destination. I'd like to see it someday.

As I complete my friend's promo package I'll be hitting the hotel to see if they can handle the best live Hawaiian music available in trio form with steel guitar front and center via The Bobby Ingano Trio. It'll be my first time there and I'm hoping they have considerate attitudes and open minds towards making their establishment even better.

Aloha, Aulani-curious!

I was there this June, doing research for my story on the resort for the current issue of Tiki Magazine (which was released last month, copies still available!).

In my opinion, Aulani is ver much worth seeing, even if you just go there for a walk-around. It has a very large collection of contemporary Hawaiian art, and the design of the place is truly beautiful and very respectful toward Hawaiian history and culture, as well as being educational.

There is no "traditional" water park there, but there are several different water/pool experiences, including a lazy river style pool to float down, so, in a way, it is like a very classy water park!

I tried a Mai Tai in one of their two restaurants, and thought it was quite delicious.

Feel free to p.m. me or chat back right here if you have more questions that I might be able to answer for you. I really enjoyed my visit here, and left feeling that I had truly learned some new things.

~ Kari Hendler

I plan to go there hopefully next year...but I am not looking for it to be "tiki" as we know it...just to have a good time in hawaii and with Disney. I know that all the disney hotels are top notch...this won't be different!

Lucas, it's definitely top-notch. And, yes, it's not the Poly-Pop Tiki that we know and celebrate. Instead, everything about it is based on Hawaiian art and culture. I think you will find it really interesting, though. After spending the day there, I couldn't help but think that so many of the artists that we know in our community would get a lot of inspiration from seeing all the design elements and artwork there. Hope you have a good time.

Here are some more details on Disney’s Aulani Resort. This is a transcribed segment from the Walt Disney World Radio Show (a free podcast) by Lou Mongello, show #332, released on 8/4/2013. The segment runs from 26:11 to 28:15. Note that this podcast often serves as a thinly-veiled advertisement for a travel agency which Lou is affiliated with. His show is Disney-centric, very well produced, and has won “best travel podcast” for the last 6 or 7 years in a row due to the excellent content. All rights are his (alright!) and this material is provided with the understanding that it furthers his mission and goals – to get this sort of information out into the general travelling public. Now on to the material itself…

L = Lou Mongello, host of the show
B = Beci ("Becky") Mehnken, owner/spokesperson of an affiliated/sponsoring travel agency

L: Next question comes from Laura who says, “Lou, I have a quick question about visiting,” timing is everything, Beci, “Aulani. I’m in Hawaii on business…” What kind of business takes you to Aulani? That’s where I want to go. “...I want to visit the Aulani resort. Unfortunately it’s completely booked, but I’d still like to check it out since I’m here, especially after watching all of your coverage of it. Do you know, can people just visit the resort to look around for a few hours or do you know need to be a guest? Again, thanks. Laura.” Laura, I agree with you, if you’re on the island and you’re able to get over to Aulani, you can, and you should, go and check it out because even if you are not a hotel guest you can go and check out Aulani and enjoy the restaurants and look through the property. They’ll validate your parking for four hours or less if you spend $35 or more at the resort otherwise you have to pay for parking. Obviously, you can’t use the pools, you have to have a wrist band to enter the pool. Kids can’t go to Auntie’s Beach House, you can’t use those facilities, they don’t really have a “day pass” option without being a hotel guest, but you can certainly go wander and explore, and if you get a chance to eat while you are there, the restaurants are wonderful.

B: Uh, yes, you can shop, eat, browse, walk around, check it out, just even hanging out in the lobby for a while to look at all of the art and to soak up all of the history that they’ll tell you about, the Hawaiian history, it’s amazing, I am so in love with that resort and I want to go back – now. But I highly encourage anybody, if you haven’t been over there, or if you are there and you just want to go check it out, go, definitely. Eat something, or go to the Happy Hour for $5 appetizers and make a meal for $30 bucks.

L: The Olelo Room is our favorite place! What a lot of people do, and we see especially on weekends, is they’ll go to the Character Breakfast like on a Saturday or Sunday morning, so you can certainly go as well too.

B: I saw a lot of locals there too. That really is an amazing place to have a meal with your family and friends.

L: There you go!

Micechat wrote up an article about Aulani celebrating its two year anniversary if anybody is interested.
http://micechat.com/44244-disneys-aulani-resort-celebrates-two-years/

Good review.
Snorkling and water tubing for the family is emphasized.

Aulani opts for Menehune over Tiki:

looks like a Hawaiian version of atlantis in the bahamas....

Haha, Savoy6, that sounds like a very good encapsulation. Only one way to be certain - to go visit and check it out.

I'm guessing that Disney's Aulani isn't oceanfront - I have not heard of any beaches associated with the resort.

The Atlantis built a new timeshare resort adjacent to the original. This has made it virtually impossible to visit the famous "movie beaches" of that part of the island without being a paid guest, although you may be able to walk from adjacent resorts if you are willing to spend the time and a little extra cab fare. In years past I took great pride in sneaking in to all sorts of things on and around Atlantis.

It is oceanfront, but with man-made beach/lagoons....actually, there are no mellow family friendly beaches on the west coast over there....it's always too rough!

Here's the beach / lagoon at the Aulani, I took this last year the morning after a tsunami warning and the beach was closed.