We slept in knowing this was our last day on the Big Island. We had a pretty good time on the island and felt we got to see much of what it had to offer, though I’m sure there was a lot we missed. After breakfast in the lounge, we went back to the room to pack everything up.

We managed to get everything into our suitcases without too much effort. The shoes were mostly dry from the rain the night before. It helped that our suitcases weren’t overstuffed, to begin with, so there was room for the natural “growth” of the contents as the vacation progressed. I was even able to deflate and find room for the tubes the boys had gotten for the pool’s slide. They were excited to use them in the ocean and beach at our next hotel.

Off to the Airport

After packing, there wasn’t really much to do. We had a few hours before our flight so we decided to head to the airport and take the long way to see if we had missed anything along the way. We took the coastal route through the downtown. After having been to the tsunami museum we were more aware of the evidence of the 2011 tsunami that his this side of the island.

I stopped to fill up on gas just before we got to the airport. I found that google maps has a feature which will show you gas stations on the way and even includes prices per gallon. I picked the cheapest one of course and it happened to be very close to the airport.

We quickly dropped off our rental car as there was nobody else dropping off at the same time. We waited in the shade for the shuttle bus to take us to the terminal and it arrived within 5 minutes. There was only one other person on the bus and he was going to the same terminal as we were so we skipped the first terminal.

The airport check-in area was all open-air, as was the entire airport. It’s very tropical compared to what we’re used to. We made our way to a check-in kiosk and got our boarding passes and paid the baggage fees for our two bags. While the United portion of our flight had free checked bags, this leg was on a partner airline Hawaiian so the free checked bags we had on the first leg didn’t apply here.

It wasn’t entirely clear where we should get our bags tagged or drop them off so we had to ask. The ticket area is a bit cramped so the “lines” are more a single mass of people. The friendly agent we asked got us sorted out in no time with typically helpful Aloha spirit. We got our bags checked and went about 20 yards to the area to drop bags for inter-island travel. Checking bags to get back to the mainland required going through and extra agricultural checkpoint. We’d have to go through that one at the end of the trip but for this portion, we just dropped our bags on the conveyor and headed to security.

There was quite a line at security, though maybe it looked bigger than it was because it was a small space. Thankfully the TSA Precheck information was on our account and made it into Hawaiian’s systems onto our tickets. There was virtually no line for TSA Precheck so we were through very quickly. Once inside the terminal, you could see from one end to the other. It’s not very big and only has a gift shop, a shave ice stand, lots of (thankfully covered) seating, and not much else. We found some seats and sat down to wait for our flight, which would begin boarding in about an hour.

During the wait, my wife got the kids some shave ice. They saw other kids with them and Just had to have their own. They liked them but I ended up eating about half of them. It was a nice cool tasty treat to help escape the heat but wasn’t as good as what we were looking forward to getting on Maui.

Our plane arrived just a few minutes late, but once the passengers had deplaned they immediately started boarding our flight. The turnaround was pretty quick turnaround. We made our way to our seats and the pilots pushed back just a couple minutes late but they expected an on-time arrival in Maui.

Welcome to Maui

The flight was an uneventful 20 minutes in the air about 15 minutes taxiing on the ground. There was a little turbulence on approach in Maui but nothing of concern. We got great views of the volcano and the ocean on the approach. We were at the gate on time and made our way to baggage claim. It wasn’t any cooler in Maui than it was on the Big Island,

We waited for our bags and thought we saw ours coming out first thing. It turns out someone else has nearly the same pattern bags as us. In fact, they had two of them and it’s the first time we’ve ever seen someone with that style, much less two of them on our exact flight. It was a first for the actual owners of the luggage as well. We both got a laugh out of it since the bags are purposefully not the generic black suitcases that everyone seems to have. We got them to they would be easy to spot. It usually works out that ways but that’s why we always check the tags.

It wasn’t long before our actual bags came out. After double-checking them we headed out of the terminal across the street to a trolley that would take us to the rental car center. The rental center is a new feature of the airport (along with the trolley) since the last time we had visited Maui. I had read about it online and there was clear signage directing people. The trolley ride, while packed, was mercifully short.

We were renting from National for this leg of the trip and I have status with them through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. This status gives us upgrades and a shorter check-in line. The reservation wasn’t linked to my status as I had booked it through an online site called autoslash.com. It’s a great site to use to find great deals on car rentals and I’ve used it several times.

Since the reservation wasn’t linked to my account I wasn’t sure if I could go directly to the check-in point for people with Executive status. Thankfully there was no line at the regular National desk right outside where the trolley dropped us off. The agent was able to link to my National account without an issue. She quickly checked us in, called down to make sure our car was ready and sent us on our way.

We headed down the escalator and the agents greeted us by name and showed us our car which was waiting right upfront. We put our bags int he back and got settled in ready to go in just a couple minutes. It was nice and efficient. I wish it was always that easy!

Welcome to Lahaina

I quickly punched in the address of our next hotel, the Sheraton Maui resort. It was about a 45-minute drive, though on our way there we decided we wanted to stop for some lunch at one of our favorite places, the Paia Fish Market. They have excellent seafood and it’s a place we frequented on our previous trip.

It was just a short detour to get there and we were all super hungry since our flight left at 12:30 and we didn’t have any food options in the Kona airport outside of the shave ice. We got to the restaurant just before a number of large groups got in line so we timed it perfectly. We filled up on some great food before heading off to the hotel to check-in.

It was a 15-minute drive from downtown Lahaina to Kaanapali where our hotel was located. We pulled in and it was somewhat unclear where we should go. We unloaded our bags ourselves before any valet greeted us. We wanted to self-park, but at most hotels, there’s usually a valet to greet us on check-in and tell us where we got to self-park. When the valet finally greeted us he parked our car outside the lobby in case we had to drive to a different area of the resort closer to our room.

At the check-in counter, there was no special line for members with elite status. My wife waited in line for about 20 minutes before we could check-in. On check-in, they thanked us for our elite status and said we had been upgraded from a garden view to a partial ocean view accessible room which was larger than normal. It wasn’t a huge upgrade but it was definitely an upgrade we were thankful for. It was also conveniently located near the parking structure, the lobby and most everything we cared about on site.

Due to my wife’s status we also got free valet parking for the length of our stay. Normal guests only got free valet for the first night. We still decided to go with self parking since I don’t mind parking and retrieving the car myself. Plus given where our room was it would be a pain to have to go to the lobby and wait for the valet every time we wanted to go somewhere. For breakfast we got the breakfast buffet for all four of us since the kids were less than 12. We only have a few more years when that will be true…

Exploring the Resort

After dropping off our luggage in the room and parking the car, we walked around the resort seeing what it had to offer. We found the pools which wound under and around some restaurants and had a small slide and a sort of lazy river. We found the koi pond as well. There are lots of open grassy areas and there were even two small soccer goals and lawn games on one side of the resort.

We followed the signs to the fitness center in case we felt inspired. It was quite a winding path to get there. Up the elevator to the 8th floor, down a hall, down a flight of stairs and around a corner. It was a trek but we found it. It had a fair number of machines and even mid day they were about 1/3 in use by guest. It wasn’t a huge room and didn’t have a great view but people don’t Necessarily go to Maui to work out.

On our way back to the room we went through the lobby to talk to one of the concierges who had called us to offer us a free box of chocolates based on our status. We figured there was a catch but we weren’t in any hurry.

The chocolates were free but they were the lure to try to get us to go to a timeshare presentation. I have no intention of ever buying a timeshare, but I had read about some experiences from some of the travel bloggers I read so I had an idea what to expect.

The concierge told us the kids could go to the kids club at the resort we would be going to and that we’d get 30,000 Marriott points and at least 30,000 more and up to 200,000 more points when we attended. Since we didn’t have much planned for this part of the trip and the weather for the following day was supposed to be rainy, we decided to give it a shot. I figured it would be interesting to see how they twisted the math to make it look like a good value. I’m always down for free points, and a minimum of 60,000 free points was worth an afternoon of my time.

We got slotted into a 12:30 showing and got the kids into the kids club from 12:00-4:00. They offered to pick us up in a van, but we decided to drive ourselves. They offered us free valet instead.

There was of course lots of paperwork to fill out, especially for the kids to go into the kids club, so my wife took them to the pool while crossed the i’s and dotted the t’s. It took almost half an hour to get everything settled, but I ended up with a second free box of chocolates as well.

When done, I met everyone down by the pool. The boys were enjoying themselves quite a bit. After about half an hour I noticed the time and decided to bring everyone inside and get ready for dinner.

Cliff Diving and Dinner in Town

The Sheraton Maui resort is located partially on and mostly next to a black cliff over the ocean. The rock, known as black rock, is a sacred Hawaiian place and every night around sunset a cliff diver brings a torch out to the cliff, does a quick ceremony and then dives into the water. The boys were super impressed and even got to greet the diver when he swam ashore. It was definitely a picturesque backdrop!

After that we decided to head into Lahaina for some dinner. It was around 7:00 or 7:30 and it seemed like everyone had the same idea. Every place we went had a long wait. We eventually found a place called Cool Cats which had a live singer and only a 15 minute wait. We got in after about 10 minutes because some of the groups ahead of us never responded to their page. Lucky us!

The singer was pretty good, he took requests and could play some pretty varied material on his guitar. The food was decent but not as good as from the Paia Fish Market we had for lunch. We knew it was time to go when he singer starting doing “Old Town Road” though.

We headed back towards the car but managed to stop for some Gelato on the way. It was really good and on par with some of the gelato we had in Rome. It was also super expensive, but at least it was good. The back of the gelato shop had a deck over the ocean which something you definitely don’t get in Rome!

Back at the hotel it was time for bed. My wife had to get up early to work east coast hours so she’d be up before 3am while the rest of us could thankfully sleep in!