Is this doable?

[Anna Chassereau]

Hi everyone!

I'm wanting to possibly book a stay at Aulani for next summer...I have a budget of about $7,000 give or take. This is for the stay and plane tickets from the east coast. Is this doable? It's for three people...two adults and a 6 year old. Is there an inexpensive way to fly to Hawaii? The plane tickets that I've seen so far are about a $1,000 a person.

How expensive is it to eat there? I was wanting to stay about 5 nights.

We were either going to do Aulani or book another Disney cruise. I see people posting about renting points...is this a better way or less expensive way to book a stay here? Would a travel agent be able to help me stay within this budget or is my budget to small to even think of this trip?

Thanks for any advice! Trying to figure out the best trip to take and I appreciate your help!

 

[cgattis]

You'll hear (not just here) all kinds of things about cheap airfare to Hawaii (a friend swore the two of them could fly first class in Msy for $1200 total). However, I've been planning a trip for two years, so two full cycles of calendar months to watch. I've seen those fares, but never for summer. The last two summers have been $1000 or more from east coast. I paid $1100--DON'T TELL DH!! But hopefully you'll find something cheaper. I just know seats started booking at that price on the flight I decided was best for us, so I went ahead and took it.

 

[alldiz]

I just booked air from NY. I am stopping in DL 1st and the 3 flights could have been $1260.
Was like $1050 for just RT.
Add economy comfort seats.... Yikes yea expensive airfare!
Happy planning
Kerri

 

[travelwith2]

We are going this May for a week, splitting our time between Waikiki and Aulani. 2 adults, 2 kids (14, 10), we booked rt flights from ATL to HNL, on AA back in August for $763 pp. We rented points for our Aulani stay. Our budget is $8,000.00 for the whole trip, and I think that's realistic. We are doing surf lessons, a luau, Pearl Harbor, sight seeing, groceries/snacks, eating dinner out every night while in Waikiki, and dining in the restaurants while at Aulani. We also contemplated another Fantasy cruise, but the cruise came out costing more due to the summer price increase.

 

[KBinCO]

We are going for the first time in 2 and a half weeks so I haven't been yet. Take this with a grain of salt but I think that's absolutely possible. We are on a budget and doing this as inexpensively as we can. There are four of us (two adults, a six year old and an 8 year old) and this is the cost breakdown and ways we have saved so far.

We are using points to fly to the San Francisco area. We are staying overnight the night before our trip and night after. Four round trip tickets from there was $1700. We are getting hotel rooms with free hot breakfast and free airport shuttle so that is an additional $300 into our cost to get there so our travel cost is $2000 for the 4 of us, while it would have been nearly twice that without our SF stop.

We were going to rent points but I booked this pretty last minute so it wound up not being an option. We are getting the least expensive room type/view for 6 nights at about $2400. View isn't important to us, although I am a little hopeful that an upgrade may be possible at check in.
This included free shuttle to and from the airport and one free rental car day so we are not planning on renting a car the entire time.

We decided to do the paradise cove luau and used an entertainment book coupon. Also did that for our catamaran excursion so about $600 for both of those and that knocks out some meals.

We are going to pack snacks and some food and also pick stuff up when we have the car. We plan on snacking and making sandwiches in the room so probably only eating dinner out and taking advantage of happy hours.
So for 4 of us, I have paid $5000 so far and plan on spending no more than $1000 more when we are there.

We also debated another cruise but wanted something different.

 

[LookOutBelow]

Are you within comfortable driving distance to Toronto Pearson Airport?
Check out their flights on United!

 

[Soccerluvinmama]

I suggest you look into the Alaska Airlines Visa. The annual fee is $75, but every year you will receive a companion pass, which means you can purchase your second ticket for about $120. When we go I pay full price for my ticket, get the second one on the companion, and the third on miles (EVERYTHING I buy that I can put on my Visa goes on that card). Granted, these will be coach tickets, but it's a way to save some serious money.

 

[nkereina]

We flew from Buffalo to Atlanta to Honolulu on Delta and paid about $980 per person. That was the cheapest we found. We booked about 10 months out, and we traveled in September which is slow season. The Delta flight was worth it, even if slightly more expensive, because the plane was brand new and it had tons of amenities for coach passengers - movies/TV shows at your seat, meals, free alcohol, etc.

IMO, 5 nights coming from the east coast is not enough time. It took us 2-3 days just to adjust to the time difference because Hawaii was 6 hours behind us at the time we traveled. I'd also recommend looking at renting DVC points. With your family, you could rent points for a studio and have quite a savings over booking directly with Disney. We booked 6 nights in a standard studio and paid just under $1600.

Keep in mind that summer is a busy travel time, so prices will reflect that. If you are at all flexible about when you travel, you may find a savings traveling in the spring or fall (especially fall) as well.