Aloha! Welcome to part 1 of my Hawaii O'ahu Aulani trip report! In this post, I will share the details of the planning process of our trip as well as our booking and wait listing experience for the first time as a Disney Vacation Club (DVC) member. The main purpose of our trip was to attend our friend's wedding at Turtle Bay resort, which is located at North Shore; therefore, we have a little more restriction in our vacation plan in terms of date and location.
FLIGHT
I always like to start planning vacation by looking into our flight options. I usually start looking for suitable flight options at Kayak.com, which give you option to receive fare alert thru e-mail, or Google Flights, which give you fare calendar and filter options of airline alliances, # of stops, price, time and more. When searching for flights, remember to include nearby airport for a cheaper option. There are no direct flight from Philadelphia to Honolulu, so we have the option of different connections or drive to New York for direct flight. Generally, when I pick connecting flight, I tried to avoid LAX since a lot of the terminals are not connected, so you might have to go thru security check again when changing flights. We ended up booking US Airways/American Airline from PHL - DFW - HNL with $880 per person round trip with less than 2 hours layover both way.
CAR RENTAL
Unless you have really good corporate or personal discount with one of the car rental company, I highly recommend Priceline.com, and take advantage of the "Name Your Own Price" tool. If you only plan to stay around Waikiki and Honolulu area, you might not need to rent a car. There are plenty of tour bus and taxi to go around. But if you like to control your own schedule or travel around the island (like to the North Shore, Kualoa Ranch or the Pali Lookout, which are all highly recommended by me), then renting a car is the way to go. Since there are only 2 of us, we were able to get a compact car for 4 days with only $20/day from Priceline.com.
HOTEL
As noted on the previous post, we have recently became a Disney Vacation Club member, so our goal was to get a studio or 1-bedroom at Aulani, which is one of the thirteen Disney Vacation Club Resorts. However, since we got our contract closed late, we were not able to get any room with full-availability. I signed up for 2 wait list (maximum allowed) with 2 different room types and hoping one will go thru. In the mean time, I booked a back up hotel near Waikiki beach via Expedia.com with Free Cancellation policy. Luckily, one of our wait list came thru 3 weeks before our trip. You can also check for partial availability of different room types at Aulani and combine your trip that way. We ended up getting a Deluxe Studio - Island Gardens View for all 4 nights at Aulani.
OTHERS
1. Kualoa Ranch - Beautiful ranch, Movie site for a lot of famous movie, with plenty of activities available including ATV, horseback riding, and zip line. This is a very popular sightseeing site, so it is better to book in advance. There is also a 10% off discount for making reservation online.
2. PEARL HARBOR HISTORIC SITES (USS Arizona) - You can reserve free tickets on the website instead of joining tour group.
3. Go Oahu Card - Like for many city, there is a Go Oahu Card that you can get for discount pass online, or thru other wholesaler (like Costco). It is definitely worth it if you plan to attend many of the activities included with the card.
4. Dining @ Aulani - You can make free reservation online for 2 of the restaurants at Aulani, Ama Ama and Makahiki - Character Breakfast. The character breakfast is quite popular, so if it is something you are interested to try, you should definitely make a reservation in advance.
Hopefully you find this post useful in planning your own dream vacation!
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