Worst case scenario still got us to Maui

I did not have a good sleep. I checked the time every half hour or so and finally got up at 3:30am. We headed down to the lobby for our 4:30am shuttle, which took about ten minutes to get us to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

We got checked in, bags were dropped, boarding passes printed and we got through security and all of this was done just after 5:00am.  While we were sitting at Gate D10, we picked up some Starbucks drinks to enjoy along the breakfast items we picked up last night.

At 6:30am it was time to start boarding our Alaska Airlines flight ($1032.80 USD / person including taxes and fees minus $625 USD / person Hawaiian Airlines travel voucher).  We got settled in our seats for the five hour and twenty-four minute flight to Seattle. We ended up leaving ten minutes late, which started eroding our one hour and eleven minute layover. We spent most of the flight trying to get some sleep. Karen and I also kept checking to see which gates we were arriving and departing from.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has a central terminal and two satellite concourses connected by an underground train system.  Based on the data from last week’s flights, best case scenario would be that we arrive and depart from the N Concourse. Worst case scenario, we would arrive at the N Concourse and depart from the S Concourse, which would mean three separate train rides.  Take a guess as to which scenario we got.

We landed at 9:00am and spent the next twenty minutes taxiing to Gate N4. By the time we finally got off the plane, it was 9:35am. Let us just say it was The Amazing Race time again. We walked two minutes to an escalator, took it down to the train platform, rode the Green Line to Concourse D, crossed the platform for the Yellow Line to Concourse A, crossed again for the Blue Line to Concourse S, and then took an escalator up a couple of levels to Gate S7. Sorry, we did not have time to take any photos.

Our flight to Maui was leaving at 10:05am and we knew that the gate would close fifteen minutes prior to departure. We got to the gate at 9:45am and, luckily, it was still open.  We boarded and headed for our seats which were practically at the back of the plane.   As we sat there catching our breath, we remarked on how lucky we were to make this flight.  Then guess what happened. We sat for almost an hour while the maintenance crew fixed the cargo door.

Because this flight was being serviced by Hawaiian Airlines, the vibe was much different than on our Alaskan Airlines flight.  First of all, Hawaiian music is played prior to take off.  And of course, fine Hawaiian snacks are served.  I spent the five hours and nineteen minutes napping and watching the final four episodes of Jersey Shore:  Family Vacation.

We finally landed to warm, blue skies just after 1:00pm. Because we were so far back on the plane, our luggage was already waiting for us by the time we got down to the baggage area.

The four of us took the tram over to the car rental centre and picked up our Grand Cherokee ($384.48 USD including taxes and fees) from Budget, which we had booked through Costco.  We do you think that we went first … Costco of course.  It was pretty busy for a Wednesday afternoon, but we picked up most of the items we needed for the week.

The drive to Noelani Condominium Resort took us about an hour. Once we got there, we started the unenviable task of hauling everything up two flights of stairs to Unit 410 ($2489.27 USD including taxes and fees). This is our fourth time staying in this unit.  After we got everything upstairs, it was time to go and check out the turtles. I think Nana is going to enjoy being able to watch them from the lanai.

Our first dinner was compliments of The Fish Market, which we enjoyed on the lanai with a beautiful Maui sunset as our backdrop. I could not last any longer and I headed to bed at 8:30pm.