first of all merry christmas to all!
our fight left from lax sat dec 17 at 8:30am, it was myself, my 11yr old daughter and 14 yr old son. about 30min after we left ground we started to feel strong turbulance, i%26#39;m not exagerating when i say that it was so bad that people were vomiting and crying.i was so scared for my kids and even though i really wanted to cry i couldn%26#39;t because of them this lasted for about three hours. out of the 5hr flight we were only able to remove our seat belts for about 1 hour.
we were all so glad when the plane landed that we all clapped and cheared, what a relief.
our shuttle driver greeted us at the gate and instructed us to locate our luggage at the baggage claim dept, there we waited for a few minutes while they located the rest of the group, and we all got our lei greeting and picture taken.there were only 4 groups in our shuttle, 2 of them were dropped off at the cruise ships and a single person at a near by hotel, so our drop off was quite fast.
we stood at the queen kapiolani right by the zoo on the diamond head side. we had room 512 facing diamond head and what a view that was, it was breath taking and so peaceful looking. the room was just right for us, very roomy with a small fridge, tv, table and 2 chairs. the lanai had it%26#39;s own two chairs and table and it also had a small sink and cabinet space (???).
we didn%26#39;t do much that day since we arrived at about 2pm to our room and by the time we unpacked and settled down in our room we were a bit tired. my mom was scheduled to arrive that same day at about 5:30.so we decided to get something to eat at cheeseburger in paradise, my daughter and i shared the guacamole burger my son had ??? some kind of burger and we all shared a basket of fries,oh i had a pina colada and boy did it hit the spot.
we went back to the room after we ate and decided to wait for my mom, sister, and nephew since they were arriving shortly,so we thought, their flight had to be re-routed due to the strong turbulance and did not arrive until 7:10pm. by then i was so stressed of not knowing were my mom was and still stressed about our flight that we called it a night at about 9pm after my mom arrived and got settled in her room.
sorry about the long first day but trust me it seemed longer to me!!
have to get some work done here so i%26#39;ll continue later.
we're back!!!!12/18-very windy day but a bit warm, we rented a car for the day to travel to the north shore. we saw some pretty good sites and stopped at a few beaches (cant remember names). i dont know how we did it but we never made it to the north shore we ended up at china town after a few turns and 4hours. i was a bit frustrated so we returned to the hotel and took a trolley to the a la moana mall. we had dinner at the food court and walked around a little. went back to the room and called it a day.
12/19- returned car in the morning and took a taxi to hanauma bay.beautiful day,very warm.we were the 2nd group to go in for the movie and then headed down to the bay. so glad we took lunch and lots to drink.rtn to hotel at about 3:30pm, we took the bus back and boy what an adventure!!
12/20-son was not feeling well and stood sick in the room for 2 1/2 days.went to keonis for breakfast (good and cheap prices)we then walked to the beach for our mai tai catamaran sail.kids went in the water while we waited for our boat to arrive. very nice view of waikiki and saw some surfing while sailing out.my older sister was sooooo sick on the boat that she did not enjoy it a bit.after 90min we rtn back to the beach and picked up our picture we had taken before sailing (3pics for $20)rtn to hotel since mom and sister were a bit ill.took nephew and daughter walking around for a bit of souvenire shopping.
12/21-mom and son in bed with a cold and horrible cough. took nephew and daughter to diamond head. very nice walk with a lot of beautiful views. DO NOT do hike with sandals, my daughter and i wore sandals since i forgot to pack shoes for the hike,big mistake but we managed to get to the top. took lots of pics and called my son on the cell so he could step out to the lanai so we could video tape him (we were at queen kapiolani, facing diamond head).another adventure trying to walk down with sandals. as we were walking to rtn to waikiki by bus a limo driver offered to take us back for $8.kids went in the swimming pool for a bit then walked to rainbow inn for lunch.later that day we had the paradise cove luau scheduled. i had to drag mom and son to the luau.they eventually had a good time but then i started feeling ill.the lau was nice, we saw the shower of the flowers,kids did a few of the crafts and enjoyed the dancers.i was feeling so ill that i did not eat a bit of my food, but the older kids enjoyed the dinner.rtn to our hotel and spent a day in bed.
12/22-sick as dog, son much better and mom still sick.older sister took my daughter to the zoo for the day while the older kids went to the beach by the hotel.
12/23-refused to stay in bed on my last full day in hawaii. made myself get up and rented a car. we had such a nice day driving around the island. this time i took a map and oahu revealed book along for directions. we stopped at the valley of the temples and stopped at the byodo in temple,beautiful place and kids enjoyed feeding the fish and swans?bought a few souvenirs and continued our ride. we stopped at a few beaches to sit and look at the waves,stopped at the macadamian nut farm,ate at giovanni%26#39;s shrimp truck (yummy),stopped at more sites and rtn to the hotel. later that evening we ate at tiki%26#39;s bar and grill, you must have the pig quesadilla and a mai tai, they%26#39;re great.went back to the room to satart packing.rtn to the international market place for some last souvenirs and called it a day.
12/24- got picked up at 10:15am for a 1:15pm flight.ate at the airport and back to la we went.turbalance was not too bad and boy was i glad to be home, my boyfriend was waiting for us at the airport and enjoyed christmas dinner at my sisters.
after all the drama we had throughout our vacation, we still managed to have a great time. my boss felt sorry for all we had gone through so she said that she%26#39;ll have to make it up to us on our next trip.
hope you enjoyed my review and happy new year to all!!
we're back!!!!What a shame that y%26#39;all got sick. I%26#39;m glad you managed to have fun anyway. Trust me, you%26#39;ll be back. There%26#39;s something about HI that never lets you go.
Sorry to hear that a few of your party got sick. Glad you enjoyed yourselves in spite of it.
I fly between LAX and HNL a lot so the turbulence is fairly ordinary to me. I expect turbulence, this way I am not surprised or distressed. I don%26#39;t read a lot into a rough trip, just take it into stride. Those commercial airliners can take A LOT of turbulence. It%26#39;s the passengers that can%26#39;t. If turbulence bothers anyone, getting anti-anxiety medication from a doctor might help.
I have seen flight attendants upset over turbulence but I think it may have more to do with dealing with calming upset passengers and going about their business of serving them than anything else. I%26#39;ve flown all over the world and not had turbulence worse than between LAX and Hawaii except for one trip during the winter between Paris and Chicago. Not sure if that even merits mentioning, but if one has a fear of flying and the added aggravations that heavy turbulence can bring, then fear (even if unwarranted) is understandable I suppose.
I have caught my fair share of colds on flights. I just got over a nasty virus I%26#39;m pretty sure I picked up between SNA and HNL. The cabins of airplanes are not as well ventilated as say the cabin where the pilot and flight crew are located. It is well known that flying is somewhat hazardous to your health in this way. Sometimes planning for the worst is the best you can hope for. That means getting on board healthy and doing your best to protect yourself against nasty virus situations once on board. Keep a supply of Airborne tabs and like meds handy, wash your hands, and don%26#39;t touch your eyes, nose or mouth at all. This is really necessary just in case there is a really sick, grungy individual onboard with you that is like a Typhoid Mary!
you%26#39;re right. on our way back i set my mind in expecting the worse and it wasn%26#39;t that bad. trust me, we had every cold medicine in our hotel room and in our carry on bag to make the flight a little better but it didn%26#39;t help.
oh no! What a time to get ill! I am so sorry!
But you were such a great sport about it and still found some good times!
Did you enjoy the Queen Kap as much as I did? You can be honest ;)
marian
marian, i actually did.i guess i got lucky with a pretty clean room and the noise from the trash/delivery trucks and zoo did not bother us at all. i would consider staying at this hotel again, if i ever get a chance to go back again but i think i%26#39;ll be going to another island or even a cruise to the hawaiian islands (too soon to think about returning specially since i still have that nagging cough)
bummer.....I hope you feel better soon!!!
marian
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