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Old 10 Oct 16, 09:10 PM  
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NatsyNoo
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Four States, One Big Adventure: Day 7 - The Day I Ticked Off Lots From My Bucket List

It was another early start with the alarm going off at 5am but we didn’t mind, as we were going to Hawaii! Our shuttle arrived at 5.35am (on time!) though it unfortunately took 2 hours because the driver frankly didn’t know where he was going and the time it took to get to the outskirts of the airport meant that we hit the bad traffic. We actually ended up being tighter for time this time than last time!

We rushed through check in, bag drop and security (which was thankfully kind to us) and made it to the gate about 10 minutes before they started boarding. I left Matt with our hand luggage and ran off to try and find some breakfast but the lines were all so long! It was about a 20-minute wait for a muffin which was about $8! We ended up settling for sweets and biscuits that we had with us instead. I did however grab a bottle of water ($2.60).

I actually had a funny moment when we were going through security where I went to an empty scanner line and thanked the TSA guy for some reason and he went ‘wait, say that again’ so I did and he went ‘well that is just beee-oo-tiful’ in a southern accent. It really made me laugh, especially after the stress of the delayed transfer again!

Anyway, back to the journey, we were due to take off at 8.30am, and were totally on track for that, but there was a large group of Chinese people who didn’t enable that to happen unfortunately. Firstly, no-one sat in their assigned seats and they refused to move so the cabin crew had to reallocate everyone around them; then they kept trying to stow oversized cabin luggage in the wrong overhead bins and again refused to move them; and then they kept getting up and moving around to go to the toilet, get a flask of hot water for their tea, etc, which meant we couldn’t taxi. Even on the active runway they kept getting up! Craziness! So we were about 45 minutes late leaving as a result.



The flight once again went by relatively quickly, with our feet very thankful for the rest. Matt watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ninja Warrior USA, and I watched Nashville on my tablet (after learning the devastating news that my iPod on my phone had completely wiped itself – I still don’t know why!) so this was the only way I was going to get my country music fix! I did manage to doze off a couple of times too.

This was a pretty exciting sight!



XXX Hot Cheetos for breakfast…he was on happy boy! But he was left with pink fingers for 4 days!



We landed on time at 11.30am (there’s a 3-hour time difference in Oahu) and were excited to disembark and finally go see Hawaii! I loved the signage throughout the airport!





Once we had reclaimed our luggage, we had to wait a little while for our car hire shuttle (as the car hire places are offsite) but it arrived eventually and having already done Alamo OLCI, collecting the car was a pain free process. They were out of economy cars, which is what we had booked, so we were offered a midsize instead, which was great, so we grabbed and Hyundai and went on our way.

We arrived at our hotel at 1.15pm and after a bit of shuffling around, we were given a room straight away, so we popped up, dropped off our bags and headed out for some lunch. We were hungry by now!

We arrived at Cheesecake Factory at 2pm and while busy, we were seated fairly quickly. Matt ordered the buffalo wings to start followed by the chicken romano, and I had the cajun jambalaya pasta. Everything was yummy once again. The bill came to $60.10. We did notice that everything on the menu was priced a couple of dollars higher than its counterpart on the mainland, and this was to be a common theme across all shops and restaurants, I assume because of the cost to import everything to the islands. It’s just something to bear in mind when visiting Hawaii.

Now you see them…



…now you don’t





After lunch, we were keen to wander around a little bit and see some of Waikiki as we didn’t have a huge amount of time planned in and around Waikiki, as we knew the island had bigger and better things to offer. I wanted to see the beach, the Duke Kahanamoku statue and have a quick nosey in some of the shops, so that’s exactly what we did. I wanted to find the Beach Walk as I knew there were a number of restaurants for us to check out for later in the week but the road named ‘Beach Walk’ wasn’t actually what the locals refer to the Beach Walk, that is actually on Lewers Street, so a helpful tip to anyone travelling.

Anyway, we found the beach without too much trouble and walked along it to find the statue. The beach isn’t actually particularly easy to walk along as there isn’t a promenade or walkway that lines it, so it wasn’t an easy walk but it was nice to feel the sand between my toesies!





We found the Duke before long and decided to walk back towards the hotel through Kalakaua Avenue which is the main strip within Waikiki. We popped in and out of a few shops along the way, including an ABC store (which is a little convenience store of which there is one in what felt like every other unit throughout Hawaii, it’s the cheapest place to get the essentials) where we bought two bottles of water and a nut lei for $9.51.





We got back to the hotel at 4pm and we needed to get ready to go to the luau. It was only about 10 miles away so I thought leaving 4.30pm for the 5pm luau start time was plenty of time but it’s true what they say about Hawaiian traffic, it’s really bad, so it took about an hour in the end. We arrived at the luau at 5.45pm so had unfortunately missed some of the activities but still arrived with enough time to do the key things that I had wanted to do as well as to see the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life.







We were greeted with a welcome Mai Tai



The first thing I wanted to do was to get a turtle tattoo. This was ‘free’, just the ‘artists’ asked for tips so I left a couple of $s in the basket. I loved this, I couldn’t stop looking at it!







The pig ceremony was next, so we watched that whilst learning what would be served for dinner. This was where we saw the sunset.









I love this one



I think this has to be my favourite one…just stunning…a picture can only do so much, it is just breathtaking in person



After the pig ceremony, I wanted to get an orchid headband (all the other girls wanted one and I wanted one too!) so we headed over there while there was no line and again, for a $2 tip, I got my headband!



Here is a close-up that I took when we were back in the hotel



They announced at this point that dinner was being served and the show would start shortly but the line for food was huge so we headed to get some drinks instead. We each got a $12 ‘cove card’ included within the price of our luau ticket, so we bought two soft drinks ($8) but Matt drank his before he even sat down, so he got another for $4 as well as two waters for $3. We also got a wooden turtle magnet ($2.50) and orchid hairslide ($3). I was glad to have covered all of our ‘expenses’ with the ‘cove cards’, it made the overall cost of the luau easier to stomach.



We went and sat down after this and I sent Matt off to get some food whilst I sat at the table with our bits and pieces. We were still full from lunch (which was deliberate as we weren’t sure if the food would be any good) so he just got some fried chicken and kalua pig (that had come out of the ground earlier) followed by some fresh pineapple. We didn’t eat very much of it but we weren’t here for the food…we were here for the hula!



Don’t judge…it looks uninspiring but this was all we wanted, the other selection looked fairly good for mass catering, to be fair



The show was great. I loved watched the hula dancing and the fire dancing, and even the cheesy singing of Hawaiian songs was great. It was such a good evening, we both really enjoyed it!





The show finished at 8.30pm (which wasn’t quite as late as I expected) and we got back to the hotel at 9.10pm (the traffic wasn’t as bad this time!). I Facetimed my sister, tidied up our room as it was a bit chaotic after the rush earlier on, showered, and we were in bed by 10.30pm. It had been a long but great first day in Hawaii!

Steps: 12,450 (9.25km)
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Old 10 Oct 16, 09:42 PM  
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amymiller
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Yay Hawaii has started!

Cannot believe the behaviour of the people on the plane, how totally inconsiderate. I would of been livid!

Haha another Cheesecake Factory visit. Couldn't get in there when I went, wait was 2 hours one evening, for a table for 2!

Luau looks like it was great fun, love the turtle tattoo and headband.

Great start to your time in Hawaii.
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Old 10 Oct 16, 09:44 PM  
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HEMANCLOFTY
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Aloha Natalie and Matt - I'm loving your trippie do far 😀 It's fab to see something different amongst all the lovely WDW trippies - love your flower headband, you really look the part 🌸🌸🌸
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Old 10 Oct 16, 10:33 PM  
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Fabulous photos of the beach & sunset. Looking forward to the rest of Hawaii.
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Old 10 Oct 16, 10:58 PM  
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JudyC
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You two must have so much energy, you fit so much in despite the early mornings
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Old 10 Oct 16, 11:04 PM  
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Beth_Disney
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What a fantasic day, brought back some amazing memories. Did you like Coconut Waikiki? We stayed there last year and as we walked in it said 'Aloah Beth' on the chalkboard in reception, such a simple but lovely touch. Did you take the obligatory photo with the gorilla in the dining area?

Loving your trippie, thanks for writing x
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Old 11 Oct 16, 06:44 PM  
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NatsyNoo
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Originally Posted by amymiller View Post
Yay Hawaii has started!

Cannot believe the behaviour of the people on the plane, how totally inconsiderate. I would of been livid!

Haha another Cheesecake Factory visit. Couldn't get in there when I went, wait was 2 hours one evening, for a table for 2!

Luau looks like it was great fun, love the turtle tattoo and headband.

Great start to your time in Hawaii.
I can't believe I'm halfway through already!
The plane people didn't annoy us too much, I think we were shocked at it more than anything! I just don't understand what is not to understand, whether you speak English or not, you know how it goes!
Oh yes we love Cheesecake Factory! More of that to come
The luau was so great, I've wanted to go to a luau since forever and it was brilliant! I loved it!

Originally Posted by HEMANCLOFTY View Post
Aloha Natalie and Matt - I'm loving your trippie do far 😀 It's fab to see something different amongst all the lovely WDW trippies - love your flower headband, you really look the part 🌸🌸🌸
Mahalo! Thank you and thank you for reading along!

Originally Posted by Disney Wishing View Post
Fabulous photos of the beach & sunset. Looking forward to the rest of Hawaii.
Thank you! I'll get the next post up this evening!

Originally Posted by JudyC View Post
You two must have so much energy, you fit so much in despite the early mornings
Haha well yes, our philosophy is 'we can sleep when we get home' and we sure were tired. I have only just this weekend got over it, I think. We didn't have jetlag, just general tiredness from everything we did! We do get up early, but equally we found that we weren't going to bed too late this trip so it evened out. We're not big going out and drinking people so we find our time is better spent during the day with early starts - it works for us anyway!

Originally Posted by Beth_Disney View Post
What a fantasic day, brought back some amazing memories. Did you like Coconut Waikiki? We stayed there last year and as we walked in it said 'Aloah Beth' on the chalkboard in reception, such a simple but lovely touch. Did you take the obligatory photo with the gorilla in the dining area?

Loving your trippie, thanks for writing x
We did thank you! I thought for the price we paid compared to the likes of the Outrigger and the W, it was great. The location was good as it was only a few minutes walk to get to Kalakaua Ave, the staff were really nice and the rooms were fresh and clean. Matt wasn't blown away but I think he's a bit spoiled really! I'd totally stay there again! We didn't get a photo with the gorilla, no I have to admit that I did wonder what that was all about?!
Thanks for reading along!
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Old 11 Oct 16, 08:12 PM  
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TracyW
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Yay, Hawaii, soooooo looking forward to this part, we will be there next May! Did you enjoy the Paradise Cove Luau, we have read mixed reviews? Also, did you book direct with them?
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Old 11 Oct 16, 08:57 PM  
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NatsyNoo
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Originally Posted by TracyW View Post
Yay, Hawaii, soooooo looking forward to this part, we will be there next May! Did you enjoy the Paradise Cove Luau, we have read mixed reviews? Also, did you book direct with them?
We did. I think with luaus, they are very commercialised, and you have to go into it knowing that it's going to be a bit tacky and money-grabbing. We did and we found it great. The activities before the show were good, the show was good, the food was alright (but we didn't go for the food), the cove card was good, the people were all really nice. I think it was about £60 per ticket, I wouldn't want to pay any more than that but we thought, for an activity that they are always going to charge a tourist premium for, it was good.
I hope that helps But if you have any more specific questions, just shout
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Old 12 Oct 16, 12:17 PM  
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Oh gosh, Hawaii looks incredible!

Love your tattoo & headband!
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