When I first learned of Hawaii, it was as exotic to me as it was to the people who could afford to fly on the Pan-Am clipper. It was the type of place that seemed so far away, and so different from the America in which I grew up. So, when my Dad died, I figured that it would be good for me to take the small amount of cash I inherited and put it to use in having a bucket list experience. This Hawaii cruise and tour is that experience.
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So, let me start at the beginning....
The night before the cruise, I took Google's directions to reach the hotel I'd stay at the night before the cruise. This was a mistake, as the route had me going through one of NYC's worst jams - taking the exit ramp from the Major Deagan expressway to go onto the George Washington bridge. This jam is caused by trucks slowly coming into the expressway from the far right, and having to cut over to the far left to take the bridge's upper level across the Hudson. (9/11 screwed up a lot of things, and this interchange is one of those things.) So it took me 30 minutes to travel less than a mile. Due to the rain and poor road markings, I almost got into several accidents as soon as I crossed the river. I was very glad that I made it to the hotel safely, as I was concerned about my ability to drive safely in this weather.
After a night of almost no sleep, I headed off to the airport to catch my plane. The first thing that was fouled up was that United wanted to charge me again for checked luggage, and I was not going to pay them a second time when I had the receipt that proved I paid for a checked bag. So, after waiting about 10 minutes, this issue got resolved (for the outbound trip) and I proceeded to make it to the PreCheck line, where I had no problems getting through security, (Given issues I discussed earlier, I had my concerns, and things worked in my favor for a change.) But then, things began to change....
This was my first time "Flying Pretty", and I had problems that were unrelated to being gender non-conforming. My outbound flights had me flying out of Newark, changing planes in San Francisco, and landing in Honolulu at 3:45 pm local time. Well, after an hour, they scuttled the flight, as they couldn't supply water to the lavatories. There was no way that the pilot would fly the plane without water for the loos. So I had to rebook my flights, and got a route that would go to Los Angeles instead of San Francisco for a connection to Honolulu. One problem: I had to kill 3 hours at the airport before making my connection. I accepted this change, and rushed over to a gate 10 minutes away before my rebooked connection was complete. (I had the agent at the second gate print the boarding pass for the second flight.)
Eventually, I got on the plane bound for the coast, and we had a problem - a passenger had what could have been called a heart attack, and they were asking the passengers if there was a coronary specialist on board. Luckily, that passenger was in stable condition, and the plane didn't have to make an emergency landing which would have kept me from making it to Honolulu. What I haven't mentioned so far is that my bags were not on the same plane that I was on. Instead, they were traveling to San Francisco, and then onto Hawaii. Someone said that the bags would be at the airport before I was, and I was rightfully skeptical of that.
Once in Los Angeles, I checked my bag's status with customer service and they again said that my bag would be in Honolulu before me. I was glad that I had a complete change of clothes in my carry on bag, just to be safe. Then, I called RQS to catch up on things. After a nice chat, I killed more time at LAX, and then got on the plane for Honolulu. And again, the pilot asked passengers if there was a doctor on the plane. AARGH!
Eventually, I made it to Honolulu to find that my luggage did make it to the airport before me. And then I finally heard the dreaded "Mr." word attached to my name when I was obviously presenting as a female. Luckily, I got my ride to the hotel, and I was finally in for the night
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