Aulani
Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa is a beachfront resort hotel at the Ko Olina Resort in Kapolei, Hawai'i, on the leeward coast of the island of O'ahu. It opened on August 29, 2011, and is unusual among Disney resorts in standing entirely on its own, with no theme park attached or nearby: Hawai'i itself is the attraction, and Disney's storytelling is built around Hawaiian culture, history and landscape rather than around its films and characters. The resort occupies 21 acres of oceanfront land beside a sheltered lagoon and white-sand beach, and combines conventional hotel rooms with Disney Vacation Club villas.[1]
History
Disney announced the Hawai'i project in October 2007, its first resort in the state and one of its largest hotel investments outside Florida and California; the completed resort was reported to have cost around 800 million dollars. The name Aulani was revealed in January 2010. Disney explained it as a Hawaiian word conveying the idea of a messenger of a chief, one who delivers a message from a higher authority, and presented the resort itself as a messenger of Hawaiian culture to its guests.[2]
The resort opened on August 29, 2011, with formal grand-opening ceremonies following in September. It was completed in phases, with the final phase finished in 2013, bringing the property to its full complement of 351 hotel rooms and 481 Disney Vacation Club villas arranged in two towers, the 'Ewa Tower and the Wai'anae Tower.
Design and theme
The design was led by Joe Rohde of Walt Disney Imagineering, working with the firms Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo and Architects Hawaii Ltd and, centrally, with an advisory council of Hawaiian elders, artists and cultural experts convened to keep the resort's treatment of Hawaiian culture accurate and respectful. Hawaiian artists were commissioned to create work throughout the property, and Hawaiian language, stories and craft traditions are woven into the architecture and programming rather than applied as decoration.
Rohde laid the resort out following the pattern of an ahupua'a, the traditional Hawaiian land division running from the mountains to the sea, so that the grounds pass from upland planting down through a valley to the beach and lagoon. The name Aulani, Rohde said at the naming announcement, expresses a connection to tradition and deep storytelling. Disney characters appear at the resort, including at character meals and greetings, but they are dressed for a Hawaiian holiday and are deliberately kept secondary to the place itself.
At the centre of the grounds lies the Waikolohe Valley, the resort's water-play landscape, organised around Pu'u Kilo, a lava-rock outcropping. Waikolohe can be understood as "mischievous water", and small carved figures of the Menehune, the legendary little people of Hawaiian folklore, are hidden all over the resort; an interactive Menehune Adventure Trail sends guests to find them and triggers effects along the way.
Recreation
The Waikolohe Valley contains the 8,200-square-foot Waikolohe Pool, the Waikolohe Stream lazy river with two rapids sections, and two water slides descending from Pu'u Kilo, the enclosed Volcanic Vertical body slide and the Tubestone Curl tube slide. Elsewhere are the Ka Maka Grotto, an infinity-edge family pool, the quieter Wailana Pool for adults, children's water-play areas including the Menehune Bridge and Keiki Cove, and Rainbow Reef, a saltwater snorkelling lagoon stocked with thousands of tropical reef fish, described as the only private snorkelling lagoon on O'ahu.
Laniwai, the resort's full-service spa, offers massages, facials and body treatments and includes the Kula Wai outdoor hydrotherapy garden. Aunty's Beach House is a supervised children's club with Hawaiian-themed activities, games and crafts. In the evenings the resort presents its own luau, Ka Wa'a, and fireside storytelling draws on Hawaiian mo'olelo, or story, traditions.
Dining
Makahiki is the resort's buffet restaurant, named for the traditional Hawaiian harvest festival season and known for its character breakfast. 'AMA'AMA is the fine-dining restaurant, an open-air beach house serving contemporary Hawaiian cuisine at the ocean's edge. The 'Olelo Room, a lounge whose decor is built around Hawaiian words and wood carvings illustrating them, and the Ulu Cafe, a casual counter-service location, round out the main dining offer.