The Disney name is synonymous with storytelling and theme parks.

The Aulani at Ko Olina is unique among Disney resorts in that it is not attached to a theme park, but designers cut no corners when it came to the storytelling aspect of the luxury property.

"The purpose, fundamentally, here is to tell you stories about Hawaii so that when you go out from the resort to the island, your experience of where you are is richer, more full and more rewarding," said Joe Rohde, senior vice president and creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering and chief designer of Aulani.

In features both large and small, Hawaiian concepts are on display. They are intended to elicit questions and observations from guests about their significance. The two main wings of the 840-unit property represent the masculine and feminine aspects of Hawaiian culture. On the male side, materials and design elements are hard, rough and more sharply angled; on the female side they are soft, smooth and curvy.

The opposing buildings on either side of the hale-style lobby open out toward the ocean, flanking a faux volcano that serves as the centerpiece for the pool features. The layout represents mountains sloping down to the sea, as in a traditional ahupuaa.

"There are ideas about land itself that are Hawaiian — the sort of flow of water from highland to the ocean that is not simply a division of land, but actually a relationship of people who live along this water," Rohde said.

Though modern building methods and materials were necessary for the bulk of construction on the $800 million project, traditional methods are featured where possible, such as in the lashing on the ‘Ama ‘Ama restaurant and elsewhere done by an expert practitioner, Francis Sinenci of Maui.

Rohde was raised in a Makiki home that had a lava-rock canal running through the yard. Disney designers took photographs of the canal’s walls and replicated them along Aulani’s circular "lazy river" that allows guests to enjoy a leisurely float.

"When my sister came … she — without anyone telling her — looked at these walls and went, ‘That’s our house!’" Rohde said. "There’s a piece of my life in this resort."

The guest rooms also have "a kind of messaging in them," he said. Drapery fabrics were designed by kapa artist Dalani Tanahy of Makaha, and patterns in the rug were derived from the layout of taro patches.

"The most difficult task is understanding the depth of Hawaiian culture, the fact that there are so many levels and levels and levels of meaning in the culture, and to try to create a design without being esoteric," Rohde said. "You see that but there is more. To incorporate that spirit into the resort was probably the most challenging part of the design."

Jeanette Lomboy, a senior show producer for Disney Imagineering who also grew up in Hawaii, remembers childhood visits to the general store where she got shave ice and Spam musubi. "We wanted to honor that," she said, so Disney designers used photographs of old neighborhood stores to design Kalepa’s Store, the resort’s souvenir and sundry shop.

BEYOND THE architecture and design, Aulani will provide visitors with more typical presentations of Hawaiian culture. There are storytelling sessions, crafts demonstrations and the "Starlit Hui," a evening show featuring hula, music and storytelling.

Kahulu De Santos, a Hawaiian studies graduate from the University of Hawaii and student of kumu hula Mapuana de Silva, was heavily involved in recruiting Aulani’s 1,200 or so employees ("cast members" in Disney parlance). Hawaiian-language ability was seen as a major plus, she said, and was even required for some positions, such as bartenders in the aptly named ‘Olelo Room, whose decor features wooden figures of common objects and their Hawaiian names.

"We had sometimes great numbers of people being interviewed at one ballroom, and it was funny how everyone would hush when there was a Hawaiian-language candidate," she said. "You’d hear everyone get quiet, because they all wanted to listen."

Staff members are encouraged to speak Hawaiian not only to guests, but to each other to create an immersion effect for visitors, she said. "When you go to France, you want to hear French," she said.

Aulani is, of course, a Disney resort, but it incorporates Disney features in a respectful way, De Santos said. For example, the world-famous Mickey Mouse symbol is woven into the kapalike patterns on carpets and in Hawaiian quilts in guest rooms. Known as "missing Mickeys," they are a common feature at Disney hotels. Visitors will also likely see Mickey and Minnie Mouse at Aulani, but they will behave like guests on vacation — aloha wear and all, she said.

"In hula they’ll be right in line with the other guests learning the hula," he said. "That’s the fun part; the kids just love that."

Lomboy said Aulani and Disney proved to be compatible in a spiritual way.

"The Hawaiian culture is about moolelo, or story," she said. "They are a culture that has passed down their traditions through the art of storytelling. They’re about family, ohana. They’re about genealogy, knowing where they came from. And they’re about magic. There is subtle magic in everything they do.

"And you know what? Disney’s about family, it’s about storytelling and it’s about magic."