Mahalo Honolulu

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It was just a six-hour flight to Honolulu; but, this as they say, is the rest of the story. We’d just finished with our showers when our neighbor Cathy called to confirm that she was up and ready to take us to the airport at 6AM. She dropped us off at the Terminal 3 Departures for Hawaiian Airlines. We’d expected to clear security in a breeze; but, what was this. There was a considerable line for the TSA-preCheck and virtually no line for the normal security check-in. We soon found out why. Everyone was getting in “our” line, only to be told they needed to go through the normal screening line. One lady was livid that her travelling companion had been randomly selected for the preCheck; but, that she had not! The TSA agent told her, “You too can pay the $85 fee for five years, and you will get the preCheck too.” That’s what Sharon and I decided to do earlier last year. It’s been great so far. We grabbed a bite at a bakery boutique where I had the breakfast bagel and Sharon got the Chocolate Chip Muffin. From when we set foot on the plane to when we deplaned the elapsed time was over nine hours. I wish I could explain the extra time away as something as interesting as an alien abduction; but, it was initially explained to us as some “missing paperwork”. I wondered to Sharon if Hawaiian Airlines was delinquent in paying its airport fees and that we were being held hostage. The first we knew of a problem the flight attended announced a slight fifteen minute delay as we were waiting for some paperwork. The guy behind us called his dad on the phone and told him not to pick him up at the scheduled time; but, to wait an extra quarter hour. But that quarter hour came and went, when we heard the stewardess say, “There would be another 15 minute delay. Mahalo. Thank-you for understanding. No sooner had she ended that the guy behind us called his dad and said that he’d be coming in a half hour later than planned. That was when the copilot came on and chimed in, beginning with, “First, I have some good news for you folks. We’ve requested and been granted a faster route to Honolulu, and we should be able to save about 25 minutes off of our scheduled flight time.” This was good news I suspect for the many folks on board with connecting flights to the neighboring islands. At least it would have been good news except he continued, “Unfortunately, we will have another 45 minute delay before we report, and this time we won’t be able to make up.” The man called his dad a third time and said, “I don’t know when we’ll be leaving. I’ll give you a call when I arrive and you can pick me up then.” We later learned that the first delay was for some paperwork from Atlanta which provided the instructions for changing a fan. They did offer us a complimentary snack once the long delay began. And as snacks go, it was pretty pitiful. There was a crispy multi-grain cracker wafers along with hummus in a squeeze tube. There was a fruit cup. And there was a snickerdoodle; but, it was nothing like Sharon’s snickerdoodles. And there was a smoked turkey roll that looked more like a red licorice stick than anything else. We did eventually take off and they served us a breakfast snack as soon as we reached our cruising altitude of 39,000 feet. That was a breakfast pita with scrambled egg, cheese and bell pepper. Sharon managed to take off the half with the cheese and pepper so was able to nibbled at about half of it. I enjoyed a juice combination of guava juice, orange juice and papaya juice and Sharon had Apple juice. That’s all they were offering for beverages was juice and water. It was probably another four hours before they came by again with the beverage cart, and this time I tried the rum punch, a commercial product whose name eludes me; but, I believe to be guava juice and rum (and that was also quite good). Sharon was miffed that they let us get on the plane when they weren’t ready to go, when we could have gotten something decent to eat… and now she’s getting hungry.

I wondered if they’d be giving people leis when we got off the plane; but, Sharon said that they don’t do that anymore. First we had to board a bus-tram to shuttle us to the baggage claim. Sharon wasn’t happy that once we got on the tram, it was already full and it was standing room only. She was not a happy camper… she was in fact, a hungry unhappy camper since she couldn’t reach the bar above to hold on and the side bar was at an ackward angle. She apologized to the woman sitting when she almost ended up on her lap. We had to wait a bit for our luggage. I do like these new suitcases though, complete with spinners, they are working out great. We made our way to the center island outside of baggage claim to catch the rental car shuttle. I asked someone about the Economy Rental Car Shuttle and was told they come in either a green bus or a white shuttle van. After the rental car van for most major car rental companies circled by for a second time, Sharon urged me to call. I finally connected to someone in Atlanta who kept hanging up on me because there was too much surrounding airport noise for me to be heard, when Sharon noticed, “There’s our green bus.” It was a very long ride to the rental car lot, and I can tell that finding them again is not going to be as easy as following the signs to car rental return in most airports. This is nowhere near the airport! Perhaps that’s why they were so cheap or at least hopefully they were! Despite two agents, it took them over one hour to process the three groups on our van from the airport; and, wouldn’t you know, even though I was the first on the van at the airport, I was the last to get my car. The kept emphasizing how Hawaii is a “No-Fault” state and how I should get their additional insurance coverage (which could be an additional $60 per day which was more than the car was costing to rent). They charged for everything… $20 per day surcharge for every additional driver. Driver under 25 years of age… $20 per day surcharge. Want to pay in cash… $20 per day surcharge (plus $1,000 cash deposit). I guess it is good that they took pictures of the car that we rented; but, there was already a ton of damage to both sides and the back.

Sharon’s phone GPS app got us to the Wyndham timeshare near Waikiki on the Canal without incident. We left the car with the valet (at $35 per night). We checked in with Aaron at the front desk. He was extremely helpful in getting our first night reservation for a studio followed by a four-night stay in a single bedroom unit changed to a five-night stay in the same single bedroom unit so we needn’t worry about changing rooms after the first night. He directed us to the Guest Services and Concierge. She said when she heard that our room was on the 22^nd floor “Ooh, you must be important Wyndham owners to rate that floor.” I assume she is referring to the high panoramic views available from that height. I simply said, “Actually, It was Aaron that helped us out and did that for us.” When she heard that we were from Las Vegas, she said to Sharon on the side, almost in a whisper, “So you come to Honolulu to get lei’d?” That was when she produced a sweet smelling flower lei and put it around her neck, and a shell Kahuna lei for me, and so we both got leis… Exactly as it should be. She told us where the ABC convenience stores could be found (practically on every corner). She recommended Tony Roma’s for dinner (within walking distance). Did I mention that Sharon was really hungry? She perked up at the thought of Tony Roma’s. She asked if there was a special occasion that brought us to Hawaii, and I noted that Sharon’s birthday was tomorrow. All of this chatter of course is leading up to the obligatory offer of a free breakfast and review of our Wyndham ownership. There is a $75 Visa gift card incentive; but, the real purpose is to sell people more ownership in their resorts. Sometimes it’s easier to say yes than try and offer excuses why you don’t have time. If we’d tried the latter I don’t think Sharon would have gotten to Tony Roma’s that night… but we did and after some ribs and about 3 pitchers of ice tea for me we felt more human but ready for a good nights sleep.

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