How many times have I been to Hawaii? This question has been asked of me often. It has been nine times not including this trip … November/December 1998, June 2006, December 2009, June 2013, November/December 2014, November 2016, April 2018, December 2019 and December 2023. When Karen turned thirty, she and her friend from junior high school Paula started going to Hawaii every five years. I started tagging along in 2009. Since Karen was going to be turning sixty-five this year, that meant another trip to Hawaii. The planning started back in May and it was finally time to get this trip started.
Karen got to my house around 7:55am and got Maui situated with Nana. He always enjoys his staycation with her. Once we got my stuff loaded into Karen’s car, we drove over to her house to leave my car there and to pick up her stuff. Now it was off to Guelph to pick up Paula. The drive to Toronto Pearson Airport was great for a Saturday morning. At 9:45am, Paula and I were dropped off while Karen continued to Ross and Susie’s (Karen’s brother and sister-in-law) house.
Normally when we do the online check-in the day before, we just go up to the Air Canada kiosks and print off our boarding passes and baggage tags. For whatever reason, we could not do that, so we had to go to the check-in counter to get that all resolved. The security line was a breeze thanks to the American Express Priority Security Lane access and by 10:15am, Paula and I were settled in the Plaza Premium Lounge thanks to my BMO Mastercard. Our Air Canada flight (44,600 Aeroplan points plus $174.16 CAD in taxes and fees / person) was not until 1:00pm so we had a good amount of time to enjoy the lounge.
I got a message from Karen at 11:20am saying that she was outside the Plaza Premium Lounge. After we went downstairs and before we headed to the gate, Karen and I made a quick stop at the Air Canada Cafe. It is a much smaller version of their Maple Leaf Lounge and it is only accessible near the domestic gates. The best part of it is that it has Grab ‘n’ Go snacks which we made sure to stock up on.
We finally made our way to Gate D31 but we still had a little bit of time before boarding. I started noticing that many people were wearing Taylor Swift Eras clothing. A light bulb went off in my head. This plane is headed to Vancouver and this weekend is the conclusion of The Eras Tour. We are going to be on a plane with a bunch of Swifties. It was shortly after 12:30pm, when we got on the plane and each of us got settled into a middle seat … 30E, 31E and 32E. And to make matters even worse, the pilot announced that we had to de-ice and we would not be leaving on time. We ended up leaving at 1:45pm and this would cut into our layover in Vancouver which is just over two hours.
The flight seemed unbearably long … could that have to do with the seat I was in. I passed the time snacking, watching Jersey Shore Family Vacation and trying to nap. At one point, there was an announcement saying that they would be handing out Air Canada bracelets in honour of Taylor Swift. I made sure to grab one as did most of the other passengers around me.
At 4:00pm, we touched down in Vancouver and I immediately signed into the Air Canada app. It was telling me that our flight to Maui was delayed but that boarding was beginning in fifty minutes. Once we got off of the plane, we started running for Gate E75. Our first stop was security where even though we had TSA PreCheck, we had to take off our shoes and take out our iPads. From there it was onto US Customs where our Nexus cards paid off yet again and then finally we were at the gate. We had just enough time to grab something from Tim Horton’s and to get our water bottles filled. But then there was an announcement saying that our flight was further delayed and we would not be leaving until 6:00pm instead of 5:35pm. While we were waiting, I went up to the gate agent and asked if I could be moved to another aisle seat which would give Karen and Paula an empty seat between them. The agent was able to move me from 25C to 31D.
It was just after 5:30pm, when boarding began. I got myself settled into my seat and when the announcement was made that boarding was complete, I was ecstatic. I had the entire row to myself. I was able to stretch out for the six and a half hours to Maui which made the flight much more comfortable.
It was sometime after 10:00pm when we arrived in Maui. Karen and I immediately headed for the car rental centre while Paula headed to baggage claim. We were the first people in line at Enterprise and it did not take long and we were on our way in a Volkswagen Tiguan which we booked with Costco ($447.18 USD including taxes and fees). We headed back to the terminal and picked up Paula and all of the suitcases.
We left the airport at 11:20pm and just before midnight, we arrived at Kahana Village. We are staying in Unit 4 for the next eleven days ($6000.93 USD = $4510.00 rental + $1490.93 in taxes and fees). We somehow managed to get all of our stuff up the nineteen steps into the unit and by 12:20am, we were all in bed. Welcome to paradise.
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