Soooo. Booking with cash.

[KBinCO]

Didn't have availability to rent dvc points. Is the best way to book with cash directly through the website?

Also what are daily car rental rates like? Is it best to just rent for the week and pay the parking rate?

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

I booked directly through the website. You could call them directly also. Check out Costco travel for pretty good car rental rates(the parking fee is brutal though).

 

[codex57]

We have a friend who works for Disney. I was about to book through him using his Friends and Family rate, when we discovered that the website was offering a deal that we all (including the reservation agent) thought was even better than the F&F rate. This was a week or two ago.

The parking fee is brutal and if you rent and/or end drop off at Aulani, the car rental rate is way higher as well. If you do rent a car, do it in Honolulu and drop it off back there too. It's literally double at Aulani (there's an Alamo location right in Aulani).

 

[Elima2015]

We booked our reservation through Costco as it was cheaper to do the Costco package which included a rental car than booking the room through Aulani + separate rental car through Costco.

It might be cheaper to book the Costco package with shuttle service and then rent a car onsite for the day you need it. We opted for the more expensive option of renting a car and paying for parking for the convenience of being able to run to the grocery store, tour multiple days, leave for dinner, etc. Also, the contracted shuttle service is SpeediShuttle and the reviews were terrible.

 

[crystal1313]

I called to make our reservation paying cash. I am glad I called because the super helpful CM (thank you Michael!) told me that if I made a room only reservation, I would need to put a deposit down of one nights fee for the room. We were renting a 2 room villa, so it was around $1,000. He said if we booked a package, we would only have to put a deposit of $200ish (cannot remember the exact amount) down. I thought a package would need to include an excursion, which we did not want, but Michael explained that a rental car, or a shuttle from the airport would qualify as a package. We were planning on booking a shuttle to and from the airport anyway, so we booked the package. It was great. One thing to note, with a package you have to pay in full a month prior to your arrival. With a room only, you can pay the remaining balance on arrival. We just made payments anytime we had extra money. Hope that helps!

We also only rented a car for one day, to go to Pearl Harbor. I made the reservation in advance for the Alamo inside Aulani. We did not want to pay the $37 a night parking fee!

 

[Julie645]

I booked through costco also as couldn't rent points for the time we wanted.
We are actually staying in a DVC Delux studio the package included transporation to and from Aulani and was cheaper than booking directly with Disney and Disney shuttle was extra.
We are renting a car for one or two days while we are there.. the rental rate at Aulani is higher than the airport but parking is crazy high so overall we save money just using the car when we need it as we only plan 1 day or excursions right now.

 

[KBinCO]

I wound up calling and getting free airport transportation and a rental car for a day free. I'm very happy.

We are booked!!

 

[NanMar]

I booked directly with Aulani. I used expedia to reserve a rental car for 8 days. They don't ask for a credit card to hold it and offer free cancellation. Less than a week out for my trip I checked the rental car rates again through expedia and the price had dropped by $104. I cancelled the initial car reservation and rebooked, I did have to pay the reservation for the rental car in full this time since it was less than a week out.