Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section THIS SECTION COMPLETED 1/13 - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Have not flown American in ages, since most of our trips are two or from Florida we stick with Jet Blue, seats are comfortable, the individual TVs are the girls favorites and for us our one free bag works well (again if I was traveling for longer periods I would probably have to incur an extra bag charge). We have always found the service wonderful and next year for LA we are using them as well.
Delta has the new individual TVs, again unless it is somewhere Jet Blue does not go I tend to not even look at the other options but I would probably go with Delta vs. American (it is the one airline my engineers all never want to fly).
Good to know...
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As for the Hawaii flights, my friend uses United, says the flights are good but a few friends have now been sold on Hawaiian Airlines, they said the service is great, great crew staffs, I know the meals in 1st Class they said are really good (vegetarian available as long as requested 48 hours prior) but my friends said even in Couch they were given fruit, cheese, chips, chocolate, some very nice offerings. Might be an option for future trips.
It was the seat pitch that put me off them - 30" is ridiculously small, but if they improved that, I'd fly with them, as we were very impressed with them on the flights we took with them between Hawaiian islands.
Yay! You've landed! I also agree, that US planes have those signs on way too often. However, on our way back from Orlando to Chicago they had them on for no apparent reason, and people got reprimanded when they had to go to the bathroom. We weren't sure what was going on, but needing to go to the bathroom for 2 hours is not good when it comes to landing time!!!
Yay! You've landed! I also agree, that US planes have those signs on way too often. However, on our way back from Orlando to Chicago they had them on for no apparent reason, and people got reprimanded when they had to go to the bathroom. We weren't sure what was going on, but needing to go to the bathroom for 2 hours is not good when it comes to landing time!!!
It's been 10 years since we flew to Hawaii, but we had a good experience flying United direct to Honolulu from Newark. Boy was that a long flight though, I think 10 hours I'm sorry you didn't have such a great experience with American, it is appalling what little they had to offer you for such a long flight. Atleast you had Hawaii to look forward to after that!
Your pictures of Oahu as you landed are just beautiful!
DFW airport looked nice. Always one of my favorite airports, although you can't beat Orlando!
You talked about the airline amenities and you can't beat JetBlue for US flights! I always use them when I can. For my flight to WDW at the end of March I have row 1 and a window seat. How can you top that? Have the personal video screen too! A bit extra, but helps with the boarding procedure. First row has extra leg room too!
Noticed on the photos over Hawaii on the approach to the airport. If I'm right, Pearl Harbor is quite close to the airport, so you're probably correct about this Cheryl! Looking forward to more of this.
I'm not a DVC member but what you have said about Aulani seems like an amazing place to stay. Perhaps, I could stay here without being a DVC member? ......Is it possible on a reasonable budget? Just asking! Would love to stay here, even though, I've stayed in Honolulu previously back in 2001.
Fill me in!
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In these two pictures. Hilton Hawaiian Village is in the lower left corner in the first picture and almost exactly center (slightly left of center) in the second picture. You can see the oval lagoon just inside the shoreline. It's just below those rows of boat docks.
And I wasn't kidding about the congestion, was I?
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Have been enjoying your report, have not had a chance to comment. Looking forward to your thoughts & photos of Aulani, we fell in love & I cried the day we had to leave after 10 nights. We always fly Hawaiian Airlines when we travel to Hawaii (my parents have a 2nd home in Maui) Hawaiian does provide a meal (not necessarily the best food) and there is seat back video screens. My brother likes to fly Alaska Airlines out of San Diego. Waikiki is very busy, we usually just go there on a Friday & hang out around the Hilton Hawaiian Village, go see the penguins & watch the fireworks.
I always take it as indication as legroom, although Wikipedia claims that it isn't necessarily the same thing. They say:
"Seat pitch is an indication of legroom, referring to the space between a point on one seat and the same point on the seat in front of it. For many carriers, the pitch in Economy class is 30 to 32 inches (76 to 81 cm). More seat pitch can mean more legroom, but it is also affected by the thickness of the seat back. Airlines have claimed that a reduction of seat pitch can be compensated for by a thinner seat-back design.[4]"
DFW airport looked nice. Always one of my favorite airports, although you can't beat Orlando!
You talked about the airline amenities and you can't beat JetBlue for US flights! I always use them when I can. For my flight to WDW at the end of March I have row 1 and a window seat. How can you top that? Have the personal video screen too! A bit extra, but helps with the boarding procedure. First row has extra leg room too!
Hmmm... I'm definitely going to keep JetBlue in mind for any future internal flights we take after all these good reviews.
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Noticed on the photos over Hawaii on the approach to the airport. If I'm right, Pearl Harbor is quite close to the airport, so you're probably correct about this Cheryl! Looking forward to more of this.
I'm not a DVC member but what you have said about Aulani seems like an amazing place to stay. Perhaps, I could stay here without being a DVC member? ......Is it possible on a reasonable budget? Just asking! Would love to stay here, even though, I've stayed in Honolulu previously back in 2001.
Fill me in!
You can stay here as it's a hotel as well as a DVC resort. However, it's not cheap. I've just been pricing up stays for an article I'm working on and you can look up prices on the Aulani website.
In these two pictures. Hilton Hawaiian Village is in the lower left corner in the first picture and almost exactly center (slightly left of center) in the second picture. You can see the oval lagoon just inside the shoreline. It's just below those rows of boat docks.
I did wonder if that was it - good to know it was!
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And I wasn't kidding about the congestion, was I?
Oh my goodness, you weren't! It was just obscene. How people cope with that every day, I really do not know.
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Have been enjoying your report, have not had a chance to comment. Looking forward to your thoughts & photos of Aulani, we fell in love & I cried the day we had to leave after 10 nights.
I remember you saying that before and now I fully appreciate why.
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We always fly Hawaiian Airlines when we travel to Hawaii (my parents have a 2nd home in Maui) Hawaiian does provide a meal (not necessarily the best food) and there is seat back video screens.
I take it the legroom was Ok on those flights? I really wanted to fly with them, but that's what put me off, as it was less than you get in Economy on Virgin Atlantic or British Airways and those flights are less legroom than I like...
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My brother likes to fly Alaska Airlines out of San Diego. Waikiki is very busy, we usually just go there on a Friday & hang out around the Hilton Hawaiian Village, go see the penguins & watch the fireworks.
I think when we go back, we'll try and make it to Waikiki properly. I'm honestly thinking a night there before heading to Aulani....
Monday 4 November – part four: arriving at Aulani!
We were very quickly off the plane, and into the terminal, and everywhere you looked, there was Hawaiian art, which I loved. I did comment to Mark that I wondered if it was a legal requirement for everyone who was greeting passengers to be dressed in Hawaiian shirts, as that’s exactly what we saw!
You have to go outside to another building to get to baggage claim, which is a bit confusing, but when you do, you go past these amazing gardens. The best way I can describe them is they’re like the grounds of the Polynesian, but on steroids!
And literally just across the walkway from this is the airport, with planes taking off and landing, which is a bit surreal, and somehow doesn’t quite fit in with the relaxing feel of the garden.
We had quite a wait for our luggage, with both of us wondering at points if it had actually made it or not. Fortunately, it did, and as soon as we had it, we headed off to get our rental car. Again, because we’re Preferred Members with Avis, we went straight over to the garage on the shuttle bus, and we were asked if we wanted a convertible for the same price. Um… what do you think we said?
Now there’s a bit of a story to us and convertibles. Anyone who read my Sorrento trip report will know that I booked a convertible, but when we got to Avis, the one we’d booked wasn’t available, so we ended up with an ordinary car. We booked one to go from Disneyland to Las Vegas a couple of years ago as well, but when we got it, we realised that it didn’t have enough room in the trunk for all our luggage, and on a road trip, that wouldn’t work for us.
Well, now finally we would have one… and get this… we were the first people to rent the car, according to the Avis staff member. As he said, we’ll know if you have an accident in it. We headed over to see our new pride and joy….
… which had a very small boot (trunk to you guys), although we did fit two of our cases in. Thank goodness, as it was a squash with the two pieces of hand luggage and the one remaining case in the back seat. Just as well we’re heading straight to Aulani!
On that subject, we headed out, and joined the freeway…
… and before long, we found some of that notorious Honolulu traffic. Ok, so actually it is quite bad. I said I was reserving judgement on what it was like until we actually experienced it, and I can tell you it’s worse than DC, and getting on for as bad as LA, if that gives you an idea..
This would become a very familiar sight during our stay, with the cloud hanging over the mountains, but lovely weather at the coast…
On the subject of LA, the road network reminded me of California, with the car pool lanes, and the way that everyone seemed to undertake, as well as overtake. I don’t know if that was just me.
Finally, we were free of the traffic, and on our way…
… soon we started to see signs for Ko Olina, and I knew we were getting close.
I glimpsed Aulani in the distance from the main road, but couldn’t get a photo of it from this far away. When we came off the slip road, my goodness, what a sight awaited us – there aren’t many slip roads in the world where you get a view like this!
Soon we were pulling up by Aulani, and I was able to get my first photos of this magnificent building…
The arrival was perhaps a bit overwhelming. We were greeted by one guy, who told us another guy, would see us into the lobby, which he did, to hand us over to a Cast Member whose name escapes me but she came from Anaheim, and she walked us through some of the theming behind the lobby, which I photographed…
She explained that this had taken a Hawaiian artist three years to complete, and looking at it, I’m not surprised before taking us over to the front desk to be checked in. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Cast Members involved in the check-in process beforehand, and it was very nice, but it was a bit much perhaps. I’d have liked the same person to have walked me through the whole thing, if that makes sense?
I'm so excited to see your journey to Aulani! The road goes past my brother's town, so I know all those road signs so well!
Love your new convertible! I'm glad you finally got one! Yes, those trunks/boots don't have much room since they need space for the top to go down! I had a convertible years ago...I miss it, but I don't miss the small space in the back!
You didn't mention anything about being "hit" with the humidity when you got off the plane, so I'm guessing it wasn't too bad at this time of year. If you had arrived a little earlier in the year, I'm guessing it would've been another story!
What did you think about your first sight of Aulani from the highway? Didn't it seem really huge and almost out of place? I mean it's beautiful, but I was really surprised by how much it "stuck out" in the landscape, if that makes sense.
I really hope I can make it to visit my brother soon...and of course spend a night at Aulani!
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I'm sorry you didn't have such a great experience with American, it is appalling what little they had to offer you for such a long flight. Atleast you had Hawaii to look forward to after that! 
Have the personal video screen too! 
Fortunately, it did, and as soon as we had it, we headed off to get our rental car. Again, because we’re Preferred Members with Avis, we went straight over to the garage on the shuttle bus, and we were asked if we wanted a convertible for the same price. Um… what do you think we said? 
We booked one to go from Disneyland to Las Vegas a couple of years ago as well, but when we got it, we realised that it didn’t have enough room in the trunk for all our luggage, and on a road trip, that wouldn’t work for us. 
Just as well we’re heading straight to Aulani! 
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