Aulani

Not sure of good online resources for Aulani. I did talk to one of the cast members when there about places to visit. He grew up on the island. He wrote all over the map listing places to avoid, tourist trap areas, and must-dos.
A few thoughts... walk across the street for some cheaper/good food.
We rented a car when we visited. There is so much to see on the island. DO NOT leave anything in your car when visiting.
There are a number of wonderful botanical gardens to visit, beaches where you can see turtles, outside activities galore.
Enjoy your time.

Shame the old forum isn’t accessible. I remember someone there, visited often and would do trip reports. He was quite familiar with the area. I can’t remember his screen name. I believe he lived on the west coast had a high post count, if anyone may remember who it was. You may be familiar with him.

Ouch!

We did PHL to the Big island for our honeymoon, many years ago.  PHL to SFO, layover, SFO to HNL, HNL to Kona.  22 hours door to door.  That's what I want to avoid. The flight home was Maui to SFO, red eye SFO to PHL.  I was exhausted.

I think I'd like to do DL coming home, but DW would opt for extra days in Hawaii.  The Hyatt resorts on Maui (if we were to do another island) are 30K points/night, vs. 15K/night for the Hyatt near DL.  And I think, if doing another island, we'd choose Maui over Kauai or Hawaii because of direct flights Maui to west coast.

We’re on the West Coast, so face similar questions when flying to Europe. Unless you love airports, I wouldn’t break up the trip too much. Add at least a day to the trip for every stopover or switch between islands. To break up the trip in PHZ, stay 2 nights in PHX, then at least 6 nights in Aulani, then 2 nights in Anaheim, which makes for a minimum of 10 nights. If you want to switch islands, I would suggest you add at least 3 more nights, for a 13 night trip.

I booked 4 nights at Aulani in October. We are a family of 6. I know the long flight will be hard for my kids, so we are staying in Anaheim for 2 nights on the way there and Santa Monica for 2 nights on the way back. I bought round trip tickets from Indianapolis to Los Angeles via Delta and round trip tickets from LA to Honolulu via Hawaiian Airlines. That was actually cheaper than round trip from Indy to Honolulu via Delta. So that worked out well. We are going to DL for 2 days staying at Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites. I have never stayed near DL. That hotel got good reviews on Expedia, and it says its a 5 minute walk to DL. On the way back we are taking the kids to see the Santa Monica pier and Pacific Ocean. Hoping to get a little more than that in, but the jet lag and time difference coming back from Hawaii will be rough (DW and I went there 15 years ago). We are hoping that a couple days in LA will help break up the jet lag/time difference hangover.

I had enough points to spare for either 4 nights at Aulani with a 2 bedroom ocean view room or 5 nights with a 2 bedroom standard room. They chose the nicer room, but I'll bet we will all be wishing for the extra night when its time to leave. None of us have ever been to Aulani, but all we have heard is how great it is. I can't wait to experience it. I rented a car, and we also plan to visit Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head.

I don't have any tips on Hawaii as I have only been there once. But I do think its worth renting a car because there are a lot of nice places to visit on Oahu. But as great as Aulani is supposed to be, I want to make sure to spend a lot of time there of course. Best of luck! We are very excited to go there as well.

EDIT - By the way, the total flight time to Honolulu from Indy is 11 hours. My wife and I flew through DFW last time. The flight from DFW to Honolulu was around 9 hours. I have never been on a flight much over half that since. I was in my 20's and by a very happy mistake we were able to fly first class. So we were spoiled. A flight that long in a regular coach seat would be brutal.

We plan on flying to Oahu from BWI via Southwest. Will layover either in PHX or LA. Only one layover, then on to Hawaii.

Are you going to do this in one day or break the flights into two days? We did PHL-HNL for our honeymoon and I really didn't like the 20+ hour day getting to Hawaii.