Arrival
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2009
1
12
Trip End
Jun 21, 2009
Waikoloa Village,
Hawaii,
United States
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thankfully, our trip started at LAN. For some reason the security there is always over the top. No, I don't think that the elderly Asian guy is posing a threat with his 5 oz tube of toothpaste. I don't think you can make a WMD with an extra 2 oz of Crest. Sheesh. Anyway, a short time later we were killing 3 hours in MSP. Didn't get to enjoy any World (I guess it is "Crown") Drinks since they don't start serving until 10:00am on Sundays.
Our flight out of MSP on an NWA A330-300 was delayed for two reasons. The first they never really clarified. All they said was that they had to have some mechanics take a look at "something". BTW, we had already pushed back from the gate and so they had to pull us up to another gate so the mechanics could board. Fortunately, the mechanics were only on board for about 10 minutes. We were sitting by the boarding door, so I got to see the captain rather angrily tell the ground crew that he was good to go and only waiting on them. Unfortunately, NWA Operations decided to hold the plane so some delayed passengers could board. Now, I've missed flights before and it sucks. However, what sucks more: 7 delayed passengers missing their flight or 280 people missing their reservations in Honolulu? I doubt they would have kept us if anyone on board had to make connecting flights according to the itinerary that NWA could see. However, like Sarah and I, there were probably more than 7 people who had to be somewhere or do something shortly after the flight was supposed to arrive. In our case it was that we had to check into our flight from HNL to KOA. We barely made our interisland flight. I'm still upset at NWA for almost causing us to miss our flight. Maybe I should send them the bill to get our clothes cleaned after the 20 minute run across HNL.
On the Big Island there are precious few paved highways. Sure there is the one that circumnavigates the island and there are a few others that go to the larger towns, but to get to the really interesting stuff you have to take two-tracks or worse roads. This calls for 4WD capabilities. We had rented a compact car for our stay before we knew about all the unpaved and rugged roads. So, we were offered to upgrade our reservation to a Jeep Wranger for an extra $200 we took it. See, we had already reserved a 4WD vehicle for a day to drive to the summit of Mauna Kea. So, by taking the upgrade we were only paying about an extra $100. Not too shabby.
Upon check in to the Marriott, we were also offered an upgrade. We for $140 extra we could get an ocean front room (as opposed to the ocean view room we had reserved). Of course, that is a pretty good deal so we took that one as well. It turned out to be a good move. We can wake up looking at the ocean from our bed. What's more, the room is actually on a wing of the hotel that sticks out toward the shore. This means that all the humanity is behind us, so we feel much more secluded.
We are super excited to finally be in paradise here on the Big Island. We can't wait see all that this place has to offer!
