Since “extra” comfort is a NON-refundable upcharge (charged 2x, once for each direction), I’ve calculated that it would be a wash to just buy an extra seat in the main cabin; then we would truly have extra comfort. I care less about my knees and more about my shoulder space 
agree. But it was only like $129 or something more than a normal economy seat (on United and we used points for the actual flight so only paid for the extra legroom) maybe $180 on the longer flights and it was in its own little room with just two rows on the Hawaiin flight. I am sitting b/w hubby and daughter on one leg and never on any other flight do I sit next to a stranger. It literally causes extreme anxiety for me in particular to be shoulder to shoulder or leg to leg with a man. Last flight it was even a gay man whose husband was in the row behind and his leg was in my leg area and his arm on the arm rest between us even though he had the aisle one and I almost lost it. It’s not logical or something I can easily control. It takes extreme mental work on my part to not scream out loud but I do suffer from PTSD. My sanity is worth whatever cost to try and avoid these situations when I can. I know I’m weird but I’m glad I’m not alone at least LOL
I’m gonna look into this extra empty seat. Now even more importantly how does one accomplish that on SWA!?!?!
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I would think if you buy two seats on SWA and keep your ticket out you can put your bag next to you, explain to a FLT attendant and be able to keep a seat open next to you.
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I might have to inquire because it’s always SWA where I can’t control my seat up front that this happens to me.
But then what happens when they overbook; I assume your “empty” seat is the first to go.
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Wouldn’t they have to reimburse you if they took your paid seat away from you? If they can make pooh-sized ppl buy another seat they can’t really make you pay for it and not be allowed to use it too… right?
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I’ll prolly get thrown off the plane if I question them! LOL
Maybe that is the reason I’m so uncomfortable in those seats because I’m a woman’s “large”
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Oh I see… I almost always fly just HNL-SEA or HNL-LAX. Even if we go other places we tend to first stop in the west coast cities. We also usually get one of the legs a red-eye. It’s annoying how much flights are changed these days. Our flight from HNL-SEA-MCO has been changed so many times, I cannot even remember what I booked originally!
It’s an adjustment getting used to no food (and sometimes no decent food to buy options either!). We always grab some jersey mike’s or something like that to bring to the airport now.
HNL airport is interesting! Very very hit or miss as far as TSA, and the food options are extremely limited. For an island with such good food, why the airport doesn’t offer more is so odd to me.
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The best I’ve found has been my GoPro. I use one with a dive casing for scuba, and use one just as is (or with the dive casing and filters if I feel like it) for snorkeling. GoPro is so easy! They have good sales, the screen grabs you can take from the video are really nice too. It’s fun to use a filter so you can see the colors vs the kind of green-hue to all things when the reds get filtered out.
I was also very pleased with MORNING snorkeling at the lagoon. I saw a great variety of fish there. I usually snorkel lagoon 4 or 3, so it was fun to see the variety in lagoon 1. (Aulani).
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Oh my goodness- most ridiculous placement for a USO. It is VERY cool once you get there, but come on!
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we had the red-eye to LAX and they never fully turned off lights; SO ANNOYING!
So true!!! We grabbed some Mission BBG near MCO before heading to the coast b/c dinning out in FL sucks
My DH kept saying this too and I kept seeing them w/ other ppl.
My favorite USO is in Denver. The placement is great and it’s usually busy and full of interesting ppl, lots of diplomates… fun to ppl watch there.
What pool and water slide stuff did your grandkids enjoy? I watched videos online of the Aulani kids area with DD7 and she said it looked boring. After she said that, I’m second guessing booking at Aulani.
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They liked both slides, but the lines can get a bit long w/ a long wait time. We tended to go first thing in the morning and tried to be in shade from 10-2 b/c we are fair skinned. SiL went to explore 4 seasons next door and said they’ve got NOTHING on Aulani; everything was closed by 5 there. I think the pools closing at 8pm is annoying. Although, the pools stay open to 10pm on holiday weeks.
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We mainly snorkeled and lazy rivered every day. The other pools were TOO warm for our liking. We snorkeled outside the resort too at Huanama Bay and Sharks Cove (the later requires water shoes to protect your feet). The lazy river was colder than the lagoon. I think the lazy river was our favorite ‘pool’ and it closes at 6pm
I used to tell my kids, “boring is an attitude”
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Oh I forgot DGS wanted to go down the slides more but not alone and the slide that didn’t use inner tubes bothered SiL’s back. So DGS didn’t go as much as he wanted to; he’s 13.
They have a big kids play area too- I think it’s for 48" and shorter but it looks very fun. I never see bored kids at Aulani- and I heard amazing things about the kids’ club option- Aunty’s clubhouse I think. The slides are actually really fun- the big one uses a tube and you can go single, or doubled. And the other one is really dark- a body tube. My husband made a huge splash on that one lol. There are things to look for on the lazy river, there is some kind of a game that kids play (check out an iPad type of thing)- I think they are finding Menehune around the resort or something. My kids were ages 13+ when we were just at Aulani so we didn’t do any of these things geared more towards keiki.
I was just walking through the very fancy, very nice Turtle Bay Resort in North Shore. (Long story- I wasn’t staying there, but I definitely toured the entire place looking for my son!). Anyway, their pool is gorgeous, right on very dramatic coastline, but the most exciting feature are the built in loungers inside the pool water. They have a water slide, but it’s small.
Other resorts- Hale Koa has a decent water slide (military resort in town), but water slides are not really a big thing in Hawaii. We have a Wet-n-Wild but I would NOT waste HI time there lol. If you ever have been to a small regional water park built in mid-90s or so, you’ve been to our Wet-n-Wild. It’s great for locals bc they can get passes for about $60 for a year, so it’s heavily locals there (mostly locals with little kids).
Suffice it to say, I think your kid would be super happy and occupied at Aulani. Plenty to do.
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You’re nice. I still tell my kids “Only boring people get bored.” Now whenever my daughter says “I’m bored”, I start saying “Only…” and before I can finish she says “I KNOW I KNOW! So I’m a boring person.”
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Also the slides in the dedicated kids area (the one for 48" and shorter I think) are ridiculously tiny slides. They barely count. The big slides are in the volcano thing. They are decent slides- a lot more fun in practice than what they look like.
But making the trip to Hawaii- I’d take the time to get out on the ocean which is so cool. Kids that age really like the Atlantis sub. It’s pretty fun. I enjoy the sub and I scuba dive to the same location the sub goes to lol. I still like the sub though!
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I didn’t see any bored looking kids at Aulani in 10 days either… I saw some tired kids crying b/c they didn’t want to leave the pool Auntie’s Playhouse looks cool but we didn’t check it out b/c DGS-13 wasn’t interested.
There are Menehunes everywhere on property (7-8 on the lazy river). We spent a lot of time looking for them, b/c it’s fun! Menehunes are monkey looking figures that are the Hawaiian version of a trickster.
we meant to do this and never got around to it 
Next time.
If you don’t want to rent a car for your whole time then maybe for a day or two to visit local beaches and sites. Parking is free for DVC mbrs using points (2 cars are FREE per DVC res). We went somewhere everyday… oh I think we had one or two resort days???
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Side note: my family lived there for a couple of weeks when we first moved to Hawaii before our on-base housing was ready. We celebrated my older sister’s 11th birthday with a candle in a twinkie in the hotel room. I have lots of fond memories of that hotel from the three years we lived in Hawaii and would frequent the pool there.
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