Ko Olina DVC

[DisneyMom]

A review from the LA Times.

Water slides and lazy lazy rivers and Dumpsters and menehune elevators and $21 burgers oh my.

Sounds very nice...Can't wait to hit the Lotto
Guava BBQ ribs sounds like something I'll want to try soon! :)

[hobie16]

With the APEC meeting hitting Oahu soon the whole Ko Olina area is being locked down. It should be lots of fun for any visitors getting in and out. More info.

[hobie16]

From MiceAge:

In case you couldn't read between the lines in all of Bob Iger's comments to investors this past week, Aulani is really struggling. The concept just hasn't taken off with consumers, and the back of house operation is a real mess according to some of the Disneylanders they've shipped over there recently to clean up things. The latest proof of Hawaiian headaches is that they are now offering Cast Members an unprecedented 70% off rooms until the week of Christmas to try and keep the place from becoming a ghost town. Jay Rasulo's once-grand plan to open more of these types of developments away from the parks is dying quickly. Now if they could only get rid of his "One Disney" branding disaster too.

[shilohmm]

The concept just hasn't taken off with consumers, and the back of house operation is a real mess according to some of the Disneylanders they've shipped over there recently to clean up things.

I don't think Disney does a very good job managing hotels or TS facilities. IMHO, they get away with charging such outrageous prices around the parks -- high enough to cover their ineptitude and still get a profit -- because of their location and because they're part of the whole park experience. They're like places at the beach -- expensive and the units are small, but people pay more for the location. But without the parks, they're just a nicely themed, ridiculously expensive hotel/TS with small rooms. I'm guessing they didn't realize that.

Plus Aulani doesn't just lack the parks, it's far from any action, and you need a car to get anywhere -- many, many people who love the onsite DVC resorts, love them precisely because of the onsite transportation and the fact that you can do a lot without a car; Aulani doesn't offer that. And the Aulani restaurants are expensive, even compared to other Hawaiian restaurants, Worse, the Aulani restaurants are too much like the WDW restaurants in a way that even onsiters complain about. To quote someone on the TUG board, " our dinner was accompanied by several pre-schoolers intent on re-enacting the Battle of Midway." :D: People put up with that at the parks because going to a Disney park is a high energy endeavor, and you expect crowds and noise. People go to Hawaii to try to get away from all that and relax. But the way the resort is designed, and the number of people it's supposed to hold, crowding is inevitable when it's full -- lots of muttering about the crowds at spring break, etc.

I have yet to see a longish thread on a TS board about Aulani without most people saying it makes tons more sense to stay in the Marriott next door, or arguing that the Marriott has better facilities for anyone not traveling with a kindergartner or little one. :shaker: The grounds on the Marriott are supposedly opener, and you can sit in the hot tubs and watch the sunset; the DVC resort is much more closed in. And whatnot. Marriott designed a resort that compliments the experience people come to Hawaii for; sounds like Disney didn't. People on TS boards weill recommend staying at the Marriott for a week, while renting studio points at the Aulani for one night to make use of the Aulani facilities that day (or those days -- I know the WDW resorts, you can use them pretty early the day you check in and late the day you check out). While there's usually a few people arguing that staying onsite isn't worth it in threads about the WDW resorts, there are always way more saying DVC is totally worth it; have yet to see that on the Aulani threads. On the Aulani threads, there are more naysayers than fans. Not a good sign.

From what I can tell -- and I'm only following it on the TS boards, not hotel boards -- Aulani has all the disadvantages of the WDW DVC resorts, but the only advantage it has in common with them is the theming. Which is wonderful, I love Disney theming myself, but if I'm going to Hawaii, I'm going for Hawaii, not for Disney, if you see the difference. Disney may have integrated a lot of Hawaiian history and mythology and whatnot into the resort, but it's still "Disney theming", still filtered and not real. The Polynesian is fun because it's pretending to be Polynesia; but what would be the point of going there if you've got Polynesia all around you?

[hobie16]

It would be interesting to find out how sales of the time share units have been. I was doing a one off sailing class for two kids. Their mom was telling me about her husband, a bartender, who was being laid off from the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences on Kapalua Bay. This development took a perfectly lovely hotel that had a huge customer base and leveled it to build a monstrosity that was suppose to attract the monied elite.

A major problem arose before the project was completed. Lehman Bros., the money source went poof and Marriott, the builder, had to cough up $35 mil to complete construction. By the time it was completed the economy had tanked and the monied elite had better things to do with three to six mil for a part time condo. In fact, that amount of money would buy a humgo home with two acres of land a mile away that you didn't have to share with anyone.

As there's so little activity with the few owners that are there, all the services, including the bartender, are being eliminated. It'll be years before this place shows a profit.

[shilohmm]

A major problem arose before the project was completed. Lehman Bros., the money source went poof and Marriott, the builder, had to cough up $35 mil to complete construction. By the time it was completed the economy had tanked and the monied elite had better things to do with three to six mil for a part time condo. In fact, that amount of money would buy a humgo home with two acres of land a mile away that you didn't have to share with anyone.

Yeah, lot of that (i.e., financial miscalculations) going around. People love it when the government messes with the money supply and they get "good times," but no one considers that doing that sends the totally wrong message to developers and entrepreneurs. People who know how to work the system can dodge the consequences, but that takes resources, too, and sometimes a hard heart, so most people end up paying pretty highly for those governmental manipulations. I don't know why it's so hard to understand that money only represents wealth (i.e., useful or wanted goods), meaning you can only inflate the money supply so far before the whole ponzi scheme collapses. But no one ever mentioned it in school, even though it was shown to be the case before I was even born, so that's pretty clearly a reality that we as a culture want to ignore. If only we could figure out a way to make reality stop stomping on our dreams! :D:

[hhsrat]

I seem to recall hearing about an upcoming rehab project and/or opening of Phase 3 at Aulani that will involve a fairly significant amount of construction noise. Perhaps that's an explanation for some of the discounts?

[hobie16]

Aulani, Ko Olina beaches shut down for second day due to sewage spill.

[hobie16]

Aulani is hiring. Does Disney do transfers?

[Big Wallaby]

I know from several friends that you can't transfer from WDW to DL. You also can't transfer from the resorts to the cruise line. So I am going to guess no.