Since the flight to Hawaii is so long, 10 hours from Orlando, we couldn't stay too late in Disney and still get to Hawaii at a reasonable time. We had a 10 am flight, so we didn't have to get up super early, and my Dad was driving us to the airport since we had to leave some of our luggage with my parents to bring home. So luckily we didn't have the 3 hour window that we would have with Magical Express.
We were sad to leave Disney and our awesome room at the GF. We had some food from the lounge, for old times sake. We really had such an amazing stay here and I hope we are lucky enough to stay in RPC again.
The drive to the airport was uneventful, and we got through security fine. Now when I booked the flights, I thought it would be nice to take a slightly later flight. The 10 am stopped in Dallas around noon and then from there to Oahu and we'd get in around 5 pm. There was an earlier flight that left at 7 or 8 and then stopped in LA. In my silly mind I thought, perfect, 12 pm will be just in time for us to get some lunch since they don't serve food on planes anymore and we don't have to get up super early...
But what I didn't consider, is that if you stop 2 hours into a 10 hour flight, that still leaves 8 more hours
. So I would recommend doing the flight that was 5 and 5 instead.
The first half was fine, landed in Dallas on time. It's a nice airport and we got something to eat. They had some tasty looking bbq but with an 8 hour flight ahead of us, and I'm always nervous about my stomach on planes, I opted for a boring turkey sandwich. DH had some McDonald's.
Before we knew it, it was time to board the plane. The nice thing about most flights to Hawaii is the plane is really large, and they have rows of 2 along the windows. We really don't like sitting with strangers, and DH likes aisles, and I like windows, so it's perfect
.
About an hour into our flight, the Captain comes on and says that the more astute passengers will notice that we've turned around
and are headed back to Dallas. Apparently one of the generators on the plane was out. There are three and they can fly with two, but they can't cross the pacific with just 2, so we had to turn around. Now I kind of wonder why we couldn't maybe stop somewhere a little closer, like CA or something, but I guess it's because their hub was in Dallas.
Now DH hates to fly. Another reason he really likes Disney, short flight
. And he starts getting agitated and says if they fix the plane, he doesn't care, he's not going on this plane
. Which I do understand to an extent, but I figure if they fix it, it's probably even more likely to be working correctly, since they couldn't just say it was okay if it's not, right?
As we're about the land, the pilot comes on again and mentions how we're a little fuel heavy, so as part of protocol, there have to be fire trucks around when we land and they will examine the plane. Not really so great for DH's nerves, but luckily everything was fine, although the landing was a lot bumpier than normal. It was kind of scary to see the fire trucks and to realize it was really in case the plane goes on fire...but I put that out of my mind.
I will say the pilot was very nice and once the plane landed walked down the aisles to make sure everyone was doing okay. I think they really did handle things as best they could and keep us pretty informed the whole time.
In the end, the couldn't fix the plane, and they would put us on a new plane, but that didn't get in for another hour and a half. They did give us some vouchers for food so we got some subway sandwiches and then just waited it out in the airport.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, but we didn't get to Hawaii until after 10 pm, so much for dinner plans, and it kind of stunk to have the day wasted, But we were really tired anyway.
We went to the rental car desk and picked up our car. We had bought a gps for the trip since renting one for two weeks would have cost the same anyway and then we drove to the hotel.
The GPS was really helpful, but sometimes it can be wrong. It was hard to find our hotel or figure out where we should park. It kept saying our hotel was on the right, when it was the left.
We eventually found it and checked in. The room was really nice, it was like having our own little apartment. And luckily there was a Washer / Dryer, because I was unpacking I discovered that the toothpaste exploded all over our stuff
. So DH learned to always put things like that in a ziplock bag
. It wasn't too bad really but just not something I wanted to deal with.
Up next - I won't do a day by day, since that will prob get pretty boring. There was a lot of relaxing and esp the first few days, when we were really jet lagged, a lot of falling asleep by 6 pm.
Dh was like, I just want to go out to dinner, but we couldn't make ourselves stay awake. I kind of wish we did the Big Island first, since there wasn't much to do there at night anyway and Oahu second. Oh well, we can always go back one day.