Who has done Aulani? Worth it?

[smilequeen]

We are thinking about taking a more relaxing family vacation next year and going to Hawaii for 10 days or so. I was thinking of splitting it between Aulani and a nice resort on a different island. DS1 would like to see Pearl Harbor and I know they'd enjoy some of the things on Oahu as well (dying for some Matsumoto's shaved ice!).

Is Aulani fun? Overcrowded? Worth it? Kids are going to be 5, 9, and 11 next summer (all boys).

[MMMommy]

We were just at Aulani. Are you thinking of summer? Honestly, we felt that 2 nights Aulani was sufficient for our family. For us, the slides and pools would get old after more than two days. The pools are crowded.

A few notes based on our summer trip (high season):

-- the pool chairs were all pretty much saved by resort guests and taken up very early. The pools and slides open at 8am, and people were saving chairs as early as 7am. Between 8am to 9am, all the chairs were pretty much occupied.
--the lines for the water slides are the shortest when the pools first open and can get long as the day goes on.
--food is very mediocre and not cheap, which I expected of a Disney resort anyways
--we booked the cheapest standard room, but got upgraded to a partial ocean view at no cost, which was nice. So do not hesitate to ask for an upgrade, as it doesn't hurt to ask!
--you can use the pool facilities the day of check in, even if you do not have your room yet. You can also use the pool facilities all day on the day of checkout, so long as you get your daily pool wristbands prior to the 11am checkout time. You have to get your daily pool wristbands before using the pools and slides, and the wristband kiosk opens at 8am each day.

All in all, Aulani is enjoyable, but I personally would not do a long trip there.

[rkold]

I've never stayed at Aulani, but was just talking to another Mom up here who is also a DVC member and was there in March. She said the resort is lovely, the food pricey (it is Disney) and the area beautiful. (She has 1 DS 12) The big negative is, it is quite far from Honolulu and she said traffic regularly made the drive 1 hour. She was there for ~a week. No other islands.

We're using in-laws Marriott points to do K'Olina (next door to Aulani) for 2 nights, before visiting Maui and Kauai in December. I figured after flying 10 hours I was not going to want to change plans to go to Maui or Kauai. I'm a little nervous about the traffic now for Sat.