Our Hawaiian Holiday!--FINISHED About This Page:

[Wendyismyname]

We took this trip in November 2001, so this is a little old, but I thought somebody might find it interesting!

Who? Me 26 at the time
DH 37
DMIL OLD
Niece 21

What? Tour of Hawaii
When? November 11-26, 2001
Why? IT's HAWAII!!

Set up:

In February 2001, we heard about a tour that my grandma, great aunt, and cousins were going on. TO HAWAII!! Woohoo! We learned about the nuts and bolts and decided THIS is what we wanted to do for sure!

The tour was booked thru Your Man Tours and thru the Madison County R.S.V.P(retired seniors voluteer program).

Your Man Tours is an OLD outfit. Their company has been around since 1967, however I had never heard of them of course! www.ymtvacations.com

The tour included 15 days in Hawaii(Oahu, Big Island, Maui and Kauai), all hotels, tours, flights and interisland flights.
The cost: $1750 per person(it's now a little over $2000 a person).

We thought it was a very good deal and if you price these things separately, you'll see my point.

Okay, here we go!
October--we meet our representative and receive our packages including the air tickets.

November 11th, Sunday
We leave for Indianapolis to spend the night since we have an ungodly early flight. Thanks to what happened on September 11, we really didn't know what to expect at the airports.
We stay the night at the Holiday Inn Express at Indy airport. It's a very nice hotel! The lobby is a 5 story atrium and our room had an inside balcony over looking the lobby. My MIL paid for the room since we paid her way to Hawaii, a gift for everything she had done for us.
There was a really nice restraunt there called Chanteclair, very upscale and we watched a wedding party that night. It was hard to go to sleep that night! We were so excited!
Finally we did fall asleep, but only got 2 hours of sleep!

November 12th, Monday

We arrived at Indy airport at 4:10am and there were already people there! We were able to meet some of our fellow tour buddies! The ticket counter opened at 5am and we were checked in and heading to security. We flew United, and were a little bit nervous. But, security was fine, we shouldn't have worried after all but the line was incredibly long. Our flight to Chicago O'Hare was short and smooth. It's amazing how much Lake Michigan reminds you of the ocean. It's HUGE

We were NOT prepared for the size of O'Hare! Wow it's really big! We only had to walk 30 gates, but thankfully, it was in the same terminal. It seemed to take forever! We picked up Mcdonald's on the way. yum! Ben and I were really excited because we never took a honeymoon, so this was kind of it!
We boarded the plane and pushed back from the gate, got in a long line waiting for takeoff and ended up being grounded for about 45 minutes! Seems there was a 'security issue in New York'. Well, that really didn't set too well with people! I don't remember what it was now, and I didn't write it in my notes. But I think it was the plane that crashed in the residential area. Not terrorist related.

Finally we are off to our connection in LA! I had window seats to both Chicago and LA. Nice! I took pictures of the Rocky Mountains and they came out pretty clear!
The flight seemed to take a really long time, but it probably was because we were so excited! It did take about 4 hours and I actually fell asleep but not for long. I'm always afraid I'll miss something! LOL!

Next up-- arriving in LA!

Wendy

[ 09-11-2003, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Wendyismyname ]

[ProChristo]

Hey girlie, it's never too late for a great trip report! Sounds like a dream vacation.

[Wendyismyname]

November 12th, Monday, part two

We finally see LA from the air! My goodness it's so BIG! I can't imagine why some one would want to live in a city like that, but I come from a very small town, so it's daunting!
It was really neat to see LAX in person after only seeing it in the movies. We have a nice layover, 2 hours, but it seemed like it was 10! Heather, my niece, buys a quesadilla to share and it was really good! My grandma and aunt had found a worker who snuck them out to their smoking area! She was lucky! My MIL, Heather, and myself were wanting one really bad!
But we didn't want to go out to the smoking area and go thru security again. That's when I found out how sneaky grandma was! LOL! Or resourceful!
Okay, time to get serious, we finally board to Honolulu!! woohoo! That was a really long flight! 5 hours! They showed Princess Diaries and I laughed out loud when she said "me a princess? SHUT UP!" but i didn't realize it until people turned to look at me. I was embarrassed, but no one acted mad. I was sitting next to a nice old couple and we were talking. Found out that the wife and I were both celebrating our birthdays on Nov. 18th! That was really neat and I wish I could remember their names. They were so sweet!

We land in Honolulu at 5:30pm local time. It was 10:30pm at home. I made a really quick phone call to my folks to let them know we were there. Woke them up, but they were glad I called. Dad didn't want us to go especially after Sept. 11th. He's such a worrywart!

We were greeted by out guide, Cousin Luca(real name Ruthanne). We then went on a nice LONG walk to get leid! Heehee. Nice leis too, orchids! Purple even! We even got our pictures taken. We had befriended an older lady, bout same age as MIL, and she was traveling alone. We adopted her. Then we walked to get our luggage. Oh, by the way, the price also included tips for the porters. We never had to touch our luggage except to pack and put it outside the door.
MIL, Heather, and I enjoyed our first cigarette after 17 hours! Oh we needed that!
We loaded onto a chartered bus and went to our hotel!
We had a brief tour of Honolulu.
Honolulu is bigger than we imagined. It's home to 80% of O'Ahu's population, over 900,000 people!

Next up, our resort,the Ocean Resort, Waikiki.

Wendy

[Wendyismyname]

Thanks Amy!

Still November 12th, Monday!

The Ocean Resort Waikiki is very nice, for an older hotel. After we checked in, which all we had to do was sign since it was a big tour, I realized.....hey! there's no door or windows! How cool is that?!
We were in room 1001, a single room. Nice enough for Ben and I!
MIL and Heather were across the hall in room 1003, theirs had two twin beds! Ours had a queen. Private balcony, (very) partial ocean view.
There are 14 floors in this tower and 19 in the other. We were in the Diamond Tower and the other is the Pali Tower. My grandma and aunt were up on the 14th floor and had a really nice ocean view!

The restraunt is called the Ocean Seafood and Steak and was located in the lobby. They have excellent prime rib and really really cheap, $8.99 for all the trimmings!!
After eating, we were so tired, we went to bed after unpacking. We'll be in Waikiki for 5 days I think. Off to bed at 8pm!

Tuesday, November 13--Waikiki!!!
This is so funny! We were so tired that we went to bed at 8pm right? We woke up at 2:30am! It was 7:30am at home so we called and talked to the kids before they went to school. They were having fun staying with mom and dad and Dexter. I didn't need to worry!

We could NOT go back to sleep so we got cleaned up and dressed and went down to breakfast at 5am. We really needed our coffee. No pot in the room and we didn't think to bring one!
Same restraunt(we ate there the entire time in Waikiki)and had really good coffee and breakfast. I'm not a breakfast eater, except on vacation! I really wanted something Hawaiian--Spam and Eggs! But alas, they didn't have it on the menu(I did have it later thought). After getting our nourishment, MIL, Heather, Ben and I decide to explore the outside of the hotel. It was 6am and believe it or not, we weren't the only people out walking!
We finally saw the ocean! My MIL was starting to have trouble walking. More on her later [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] But we needed to get back for out meeting. We couldn't help but notice all the ABC stores! In Waikiki, they stand for All Blocks Covered, on the other islands it is Always Bring Cash! LOL! at least that's what our cousins(tour guides) told us.
Walking back to the hotel, it started raining, but it was a nice mist!

Next up...still tuesday and our meeting.

wendy

[Wendyismyname]

We met with Cousin Luca in the lounge and then moved to another floor. There were actually two tour groups there and we did do something with them later on.

We met all of our touring buddies, all 80 of them. Average age 65, youngest one there was Heather at 21 and then me at 26! LOL! Oh boy, i hope these old fogies can keep up with us! Boy were we naive! They practically ran circles around us! LOL!

We found out our itinerary. It had changed just a little bit from when we first got it. We also learned about the optional tours. Ben and I were dead set about spending more money on extra tours. We'd be happy with what they included. Well, over $300 later, we had some extras! LOL! Glad we did too!
After our meeting, Ben, Heather and I went walking and MIL stayed at the hotel.

The ocean drew us and made us stand in knee deep water. We couldn't wait to get in! We knew that today was a day of rest and we could do what we wanted to do. After our tour at Pearl Harbor, we plan on swimming in the ocean. We then stopped at an ABC store and picked up pepsis and snacks for the room. We did have a nice dorm size fridge. Okay, time to find one of the pools. Okay, not so hard as our room looked right down on them. Both were right next to each other too. Ready, set go! We jump in and SCREAM! Oh my God! That particular hotel DOES NOT HEAT their pools! We immediatly get out and try to warm up. I got chilled quickly even though it was 80 degrees and went up to get dressed.
We came down and got lunch and then back to rest in the our rooms until the maids came. Oh well, time for another walk.
We found the Honolulu Zoo which was right behind and across the street from our hotel. Nice too, only cost $5 to get in($15 for the Indy zoo).
We made plans to visit it soon. Back to our rooms until 4pm happy hour. Time to try a Mai Tai! Ben had two, I barely drank mine. I'll stick with something lighter. Then it was time to eat again at 5pm. I have to say, the wait staff at that restraunt were HORRIBLE!! Especially one. No personality and he forgets you. Then on the bill, he writes "suggest 15% tip is...." type of thing. He didn't get a single dollar that particular time!
Off to the room and the clothes started flying and jammies started coming on. It was almost 7pm and we had to meet in the lobby at 6:30am to get ready for Pearl Harbor!

It didn't take long for us to fall asleep. Jet lag had set in!

Nextup Wednesday Pearl Harbor/Honolulu city Tour.

Wendy

[MegglesMom]

Great report so far! I've always wanted to go to Hawaii! Can't wait to read more...