My family spent $5,000 on a 5-night vacation in Hawaii — and that's after we were able to save $7,600 on accommodations
We booked a vacation at Aulani, Disney's resort in Oahu, and spent thousands of dollars. Here's what we spent, how we saved, and what we'd change.
Nov 8, 2024 - 03:30
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Disney Aulani was beautiful, and I'm glad we were able to save money on our stay.
Jill Robbins
My family went to Hawaii and spent about $5,000 on airfare, a rental car, food, and activities.
We used Disney Vacation Club points to get a villa for five nights that was valued at $7,630.
Aside from taking more photos and cooking more food, there's not much I'd change about our trip.
Aulani, Disney's resort in Oahu's quiet Ko Olina area, has been on my family's bucket list for quite some time.
The resort opened in 2011 and cost an estimated $850 million to build. Today, the 21-acre property has more than 800 rooms (including suites and villas).
My family of four finally visited the resort in June. Our trip was pricey, but it went smoothly, and we had a great experience.
Our expenses are roughly as follows:
Airfare: $2,284 for two round-trip flights from San Antonio to Honolulu after using points for our kids' tickets
Rental car: $464
Food and drinks: $1,193
Activities and excursions: $1,058
Hotel: $0 for five nights at Aulani after using points
Here's a closer look at how we spent our money and what we'd do differently next time.
Transportation was the priciest part of our trip even though we only paid for two flights.
Our hotel was right along the ocean.
Jill Robbins
Our family of four spent $2,285 to fly from San Antonio to Honolulu because we only had to buy two tickets. My husband and I paid $1,142 each, and I used points for my kids' flights.
In terms of transportation, we also chose to rent a car. We didn't necessarily need it, but it meant we didn't pay for rideshares during our vacation — including ones to get us to and from the airport about 25 minutes from our resort.
We also used our rental car to go grocery shopping, visit Diamond Head, and get to a beach in the Honolulu area.
We used Disney Vacation Club points to book our room, which saved us thousands.
We stayed in a one-bedroom villa at Aulani.
Jill Robbins
We've been in the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) — a timeshare program where members buy points to use on stays at Disney resorts — since 2018. We usually buy 175 points a year.
For our trip during Hawaii's high season, a one-bedroom villa at Aulani cost 50 points per night, making our five-night stay 250 points.
That's more than we earn in a year so we borrowed against a future year to have enough points for our stay. If we'd booked our room without DVC and paid cash, we would've spent $1,526 per night for a total of $7,630.
Our villa was quite nice.
We had plenty of space to cook and eat meals in our villa.
Jill Robbins
Our one-bedroom villa had a separate bedroom with a king-sized bed, a living room with a sofa sleeper, and a twin-sized bed built into a credenza.
We had a balcony overlooking the pool and lagoon, a full kitchen, and a washer-dryer.
The room also had a split bathroom with the shower and toilet separated from the tub. Each part of the split bathroom had a sink and vanity.
We purchased a few groceries for our room, but that didn't save us much money.
The food wasn't very cheap.
Jill Robbins
We tried to save by buying groceries instead of dining out every meal, but this didn't help much. Hawaii imports the majority of its groceries, which means they can get pricey.
Our grocery bill was $101, but we still spent over $1,000 on food and beverages at Aulani's various restaurants and bars.
We mostly ate at the property's more affordable restaurants.
Like many restaurants in Hawaii, Aulani's menu items were pretty pricey.
Jill Robbins
Aulani has four table-service restaurants and a luau that includes dinner and a show. Food is also served at quick-service spots and snack kiosks at the pools and near the beach.
We skipped Aulani's pricier sit-down restaurants with tasting menus AMA'AMA and Makahiki. Instead, we went to the quick-service Ulu Cafe and casual outdoor eatery Off the Hook.
Even so, the food at Aulani was expensive. At Ulu Cafe, bagel sandwiches start at $17, and most entrées at Off the Hook were over $20.
At one point, our order of two poke bowls, two small pizzas, and two water bottles cost us over $90.
We booked one excursion through Aulani but it was pretty steep.
We booked a tour through Aulani because we could not get reservations to visit the USS Arizona Memorial any other way and really wanted to see it before we left.
Jill Robbins
We had only so many days in Hawaii, and we really wanted to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.
Tickets to the USS Arizona only cost $1 to reserve, but they can be challenging to snag during high season.
We couldn't get any so we booked a tour through Aulani for about $1,000 that included breakfast, transportation, and entrance to the USS Arizona Memorial and Walt Disney Studios and World War II pop-up exhibit.
We don't regret the experience, but that price was way above what we'd typically pay for a museum day, let alone one that could've cost us a few dollars.
There were things to do at the resort and we did a low-cost hike on our own.
Aulani had some beautiful pools.
Jill Robbins
We visited Diamond Head Crater, about an hour's drive from the resort, on our own. This 1.6-mile hike is a low-cost activity — parking and entrance fees were $30 for our family of four.
In addition to the activities listed above, we also enjoyed Aulani's pools, lazy river, water slides, and adjacent lagoon at no extra cost.
Our trip was practically perfect, but I'd get more pictures with Disney characters if we visited Aulani again.
I wished my teens had snapped photos with the characters in their special outfits.
Jill Robbins
At Aulani, beloved Disney characters are in vacation-ready attire, and guests can pose for pictures with them like at the theme parks.
The Aulani app has a schedule for when and where they'll appear, though they also make unplanned appearances.
My teenagers aren't into the characters anymore, but I still had regrets when I looked at our pictures. I wished we'd taken more with the likes of Goofy and Max.
We'd probably do more independent exploration, too.
We had a great trip to Hawaii.
Jill Robbins
I wish we'd tried to book our tickets to see the memorial sooner or had taken our chances with the standby entrance at the USS Arizona. Even so, I consider that costly tour experience a one-and-done.
On future trips, we'd skip Aulani excursions and explore the island more independently, although we'd probably be just as happy to enjoy relaxing on the beach and at the pools.
I also plan to save money on future trips to Hawaii by preparing more meals in our room. Although buying groceries wasn't cheap, it was still more cost-effective than dining out.
