Room & view selection advice

[Raya]

I'm feeling pretty lost on the whole room selection process. A lot of threads talk about the view categories not always meaning what they say. For example "partial ocean view" could actually be a view of another resort, but when you lean out of the balcony looking left there's a sliver of ocean. That's not really worth paying extra for. OTOH, I don't want to spend our potentially once-in-a-lifetime Hawaii trip looking at a parking lot.

We are two adults who spend a good bit of time in our room. We're very sensitive to noise, so quiet is a must. We'd like to be able to see sunsets from the room. An ocean view would be nice, but isn't required. We'd like to be able to have a few meals in the room, but not enough to double our cost to have a full kitchen. We aren't DVC members, so we can go with a hotel room or a villa.

Any suggestions as to which type of room and view we should get?

 

[Noodlez]

For a wonderful sunset I would recommend an ocean view room in the Ewa tower, but the problem is that there is another resort in that direction! It's definitely not what I would consider an obstructed view, but you can see a resort that is not Aulani. The Waianea tower faces in the opposite direction so the ocean view rooms can't see any other resorts, but the sunset views aren't as good.

I stayed in a studio (DVC) so I'm not sure how the standard hotel rooms face. I have attached a couple of pictures taken on the same day. The first shows just how much of the other resort you can see. It's not a sliver of ocean, but it's definitely there. It didn't bother us at all, and the other picture was taken turned a couple of degrees to the left and zoomed slightly!

Edited to add that the views I mention are from the inner of the 'horseshoe'. I haven't been in an outer ocean view room.

 

[OKW Lover]

Edited to add that the views I mention are from the inner of the 'horseshoe'. I haven't been in an outer ocean view room.

Thanks for the sunset picture. What time of year were you there? I ask since the sun's position will change throughout the year.

 

[Noodlez]

That was in October. Although the sun will move I think the inner Ewa tower rooms will always be the ones with the better sunset view as the inner Waianea ones are more Southern facing. The best sunset views were from Ama Ama and Paradise Cove, though. When looking for these yesterday I realised just how many hundreds of sunset pictures I took in a week!

 

[tankin]

@Raya We're owners at Aulani so we've been there a few times. I'm also not a big "pay for a view" person. The short answer is I think there's one studio per floor that provides the view you're looking for (unobstructed ocean view with no buildings). I maybe wrong because I can't find a map anymore with exact locations. Keep in mind that Disney tends to prioritize DVC room requests.

So for me, I'd go with a Island view room on a high floor. If you look at the first post in this thread, you can find some of the rooms that are classified as island view but have a partial view to save some money. The other option is to go with a ocean view (realizing its probably going to have buildings in it too) on a high floor so you get your quiet. If you go with the ocean view, I'd request high floor in the Waianae Building so you avoid luau noise at night understanding that you'll probably be looking out over the pool or the resort next door.

I will say we've been there over Christmas the last few times when the resort is sold out. We've always been able to find chairs or a quiet spot to just look out over the ocean.

All depends on what's the most important to you!

 

[Noodlez]

I think there is a difference in the terminology people use. Only the grand villas are ocean front, i.e. at the ends of the buildings with nothing between them and the ocean. The ocean view studios may also be able to see buildings, but all that I have stayed in or seen pictures from have a large expanse of ocean visible. I have been on cruises where the term obstructed view tends to mean that there is a lifeboat in front of your window! I wouldn't personally call seeing another building an obstructed view.

If you want a view of nothing but the ocean then you would need a grand villa, but the ocean view studios certainly don't have just a small sliver visible! It was definitely worth it for me and my husband as we also like to relax on the balcony and watch the sunset.

 

[DVC California]

We're very sensitive to noise, so quiet is a must.

Whatever you decide, you might also want to request a high floor. There will be some natural noise from folks around the pool with Ocean View as well as some live music from around the pool in the evening.

There may also be luau noise (whenever the luau restarts) in the evenings from Island view on the Ewa tower.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Whatever you decide, you might also want to request a high floor. There will be some natural noise from folks around the pool with Ocean View as well as some live music from around the pool in the evening.

There may also be luau noise (whenever the luau restarts) in the evenings from Island view on the Ewa tower.

I don't think there are many (any?) high floor Poolside Garden View rooms. Once you get above a certain floor, those rooms become Ocean View.

We had a high Island Garden View room but the noise was still a bit of a problem one night. There was a wedding in the convention center and the clanging of dishes carried quite a bit.