My husband and I decided to head to Disney’s Aulani Resort & Spa for our honeymoon using our Disney Vacation Club points. It was definitely a bougier trip than we usually do, but we wanted to go all out for our honeymoon.
Aulani is a truly beautiful resort and is not just for families or Disney fanatics. The resort was designed to honor Hawaii’s rich polynesian history, and they definitely nailed it. If you want to feel like you’re on a Disney property, there are plenty of options like character breakfasts and photo ops, but they’re not super in your face about it and you won’t really see them if you don’t want to.
Free Things to Do at Aulani
People often associate Disney with money-grabbing. If you go to Walt Disney World and head to the parks, you’re looking at hundreds of dollars just for a park ticket, $8 bottles of water, and a $20 meal that is pretty sub-par.
In my opinion, Aulani is the total opposite. There are so many free things to do at Aulani, and they’re great for everyone! I’ve done a quick roundup of them below:
- Water and Beach Activities
- “Rent” a boogie board, sand toys, or snorkeling gear to use on the beach.
- Go down one of Aulani’s two epic waterslides.
- Float along the lazy river.
- Relax in one of the four whirlpools.
- Spend your days soaking up the sun on a chaise lounge that you don’t need to pay for or reserve in advance.
- Other Outdoor Activities
- Watch the sunset over the ocean.
- Cook yourself a fresh meal using Aulani’s gas grills. You can borrow grill utensils from the Activities Center and you don’t need to worry about propane or anything.
- Watch a Disney movie out on the lawn. They normally provide a bag of popcorn for free, as well!
- Attend storytelling by the firepit. (This is definitely more heavily geared towards kids, though.)
- Take a walk down the resort’s adventure trail.
- Go on a guided walking tour of either the art and culture of the resort or the nature and wildlife around the resort.
- Indoor Activities
- Go searching for the menehune.
- Take an ukulele lesson. You can borrow one for the lesson or they also have them available for sale.
- Enjoy live entertainment. Double check with concierge for times and locations.
Paid Things to Do at Aulani
If you haven’t gotten your fill yet with all the free things to do at Aulani, there are plenty of paid options, too! Everything with an asterisk (*) next to it is something that I fully believe is worth the money:
- Rent a paddleboard
- Go snorkeling in the Rainbow Reef, a man-made reef that is right on property and great for those new to snorkeling.
- *Disney character breakfast. Normally I would say “pass” on things like this, but the food served at the breakfast is surprisingly delicious!
- *Have a spa day at the epic Laniwai Spa. I truly mean a day, because even if you just have a quick facial or massage, you’re given access to the rest of the spa which includes a hydrotherapy garden, which has tubs of varying temperatures, two different saunas, snacks, fruit-infused water, etc. If you don’t want a treatment, you can also pay for day passes to the hydrotherapy garden.
- Rent one of the cabanas on the beach to lounge in for the day.
- *Grab a tropical beverage at the adults-only poolside bar.
- *Have a professional photoshoot done on Aulani’s beautiful beach. You can do this one of two ways: you can schedule a formal shoot with a photographer, which can be pretty pricey, or there are photographers on the beach every evening offering sunset pictures. It’s a quick shoot and you have the option to buy prints from the resort, buy a DVD with all your pictures on it, or pass on them altogether. We went with the DVD option which I believe in 2019 was about $99 for all the pictures we took at the resort.
- *Attend a luau. When staying at Aulani, you have two options for attending a luau: there is one right on property that has a Disney twist to it (think guest appearances by Moana, Mickey, and Minnie) or you can walk less than a half mile down the street to the Polynesian Center for a more authentic experience. We attended the one on property, which was great, but we’ll be giving the luau at the Polynesian Center a try in December. Both options include a full meal, so when looking at pricing just remember that you’ll be getting a full meal and at least one adult beverage for the price of your ticket.
If you want to know the best hidden gems on Oahu, check out this post!