Booked Our Flights

Today we booked our flights with Alaska Airlines. We had a companion fare so we were able to book out of FAT for a little less than flying out of San Jose without the companion fare. We prefer not to have to drive home after a vacation but it isn’t always possible. Since we have only ONE stop it is a bonus for us as well. We will arrive before the rest of the family and we found a nice Airbnb place to spend the first few days.    

AIRBNB Honolulu

We booked an Airbnb place in Honolulu to stay before the week-long stay with the family at the Royal Kuhio. It has good reviews and for three nights it is less than one night a the Royal Kuhio! It should be nice enough with a memory foam queen size bed, Wi-Fi, and free parking. Since parking is premium in Honolulu that is a real plus. I'm sure we will enjoy our stay. We will have just a bedroom in this 2-story downstairs duplex. They also rent out the upper floor that sleeps 4-6. Looking forward to the view of Diamond Head!

Sierra & Julianne

Their flights are booked! The two of them will fly together out of Fresno to San Diego and then to Honolulu! It’s an exciting time!!! We plan to pick them up and take them directly to the condo. It’s a decent flight and time, considering it is out of Fresno!

Reservation Resolved For Honolulu!

I am happy to say we finally secured a reservation for granddaughter Sierra’s 21st Birthday Celebration through VRBO! Most of the family is invited and it is up to them to secure their travel there, then the fun will begin! I am so relieved to have a place to stay reserved.  I was getting concerned after not hearing back with a confirmation. I called the number shown at VRBO and the person I talked to said they have been so busy they have not had time to respond. She assured me the next day they would respond and in fact they did!  We will be staying at the Royal Kuhio Penthouse #3507!  It’s just a 5 minute walk to the beach, lots of clubs and restaurants (they will all love that!), and convenient to public transportation (which is pretty nice on Oahu).  There is room for 12 to sleep with absolutely no privacy!  LOL!  As Sierra said, “Grandma, it’s Hawaii, who needs privacy?”  Such a sweetheart and we are looking forward to making some great family memories, even if it is a year from now.  Planning is part of the fun!

Frustration…

We have talked about taking our Granddaughter to Hawaii for her 21st Birthday.  It sounds like lots of fun and we invited the rest of the family if they can come. Now, a YEAR ahead I am told out timeshare is fully booked and I should have made the reservation before now. I definitely need to check on the EXACT date to book ahead, a date I am not aware of off hand. I’ve never been concerned since we have always been able to secure a time we wanted easily.  Feeling annoyed and frustrated. I guess we will change the Maui location to something on Oahu as things seem more readily available there.  Darn…

Thinking About Our Timeshares

We are pretty happy we made the leap and sold our Diamond Timeshare. We were not terribly satisfied with the customer service anyway. Now we have a “Mexico” timeshare with many options plus we can always exchange, buy extra weeks at a reasonable price, or bank the points ahead with Villa. This will lend to our over all plan of going to Hawaii on “even” years and Mexico on “odd” years. Banking our time enables us to bring friends or family along when possible.  So we are feeling good about it. Then with Maui there are always extra weeks available IF the calendar is free. We have always been able to work out enjoyable, long term visits of 3-4 weeks with Kamaole Beach Club - Our favorite place to vacation on Maui!

Ka’anapali Beach Club-Day 5 Leaving

We got all packed and ready to go and then at check out we were told we had to pay full price for our room, that we had no reservation! Again? When we checked in the woman told me that but said she was calling Diamond Resorts and it would all be worked out. I asked her to let me know if there was a problem to resolve, she told me it would be fine, and of course I heard nothing. Clearly it is not resolved. Since we paid the 2014 dues last Nov or Dec why would we have closed our account? They had us call Diamond on their phone, but it is still not resolved. We had to leave for the airport so we just had to pay the exorbitant room rate and hope we can figure it out later. Maybe I need to stay home because I don’t feel a lot of compassion for the incompetence we have experienced on a couple of fronts this trip. Our trip to the car return and airport shuttle ride there were uneventful. We ate our sandwich and drank our drink before passing through security. The passing of security went very well, even fast. The flight was almost full and uneventful. No turbulence from the 2 hurricanes heading to Hawaii, the pilot said they were south of us, they couldn’t even see them. We were checking into the Quality Inn in Oakland at 12:02am. Good night!