Mickey Mouse is around, but he’s not the main attraction at Disney’s new Aulani Resort in Hawaii.
“We didn’t want to do anything kitschy,” resort vice-president Djuan Rivers tells me at the property’s recent grand opening.
“This is our first hotel that’s not at one of our theme parks, so while it’s still a Disney resort, first and foremost it’s a high-end Hawaiian resort that families will want to come to.”
Sure, Mickey and Minnie are at the character breakfast in the buffet restaurant and the Disney icons will show up around the pools a couple of times a day for high-fives and photos with the kids.
“Mickey and the characters don’t live here the way they do at Disneyland or Disney World,” says Disney imagineering chief creative executive Bruce Vaughn.
“They are on vacation here too, just like you.”
As such the only nod to Mickey in the well-appointed rooms and suites is a lamp with a retro bronze Mickey holding a surfboard.
Otherwise the rooms celebrate Hawaii with dark woods, Hawaiian prints on the carpet and furnishings and great lanais (balconies) that invite you out to the tropics.
Same with all the public spaces.
The huge thatched roofed lobby spotlights Polynesian architecture; the restaurants feature ocean views and Hawaiian fare; the spa takes its inspiration from the Pacific too; and the exteriors of the eight towers arced to face the ocean are trimmed with dark woods and lava rock and topped with thatched peaks in the shape of outrigger canoe bows.
Even the fully-supervised kids club, which you would expect to be over-the-top Disney, is instead Hawaiian.
Called Aunty’s Beach House the emphasis is on Hawaiian crafts and storytelling and hula lessons, even if it does play the odd Disney movie in the TV room.
As a family me, my wife and our nine-year-old daughter lounge on the beach and stand-up paddle boarded in the lagoon; ride Volcanco Vertical and Tombstone Curl waterslides in the huge pool complex; feed stingrays; and snorkel in Rainbow Reef.
Our daughter also dropped in at Aunty’s while we went off and enjoy dinner at upscale Ama Ama restaurant; relax at the adults-only pool; get a massage that mimics the waves of the Pacific Ocean in Laniwai Spa; and grab a drink back on the lanai.
Disney’s Aulani Resort is located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, 30 kilometres west of Honolulu.
Overnight rates start at $399. Aulani.com.