SFO777

Great report worldtraveller73. And wonderful pics, from Whistler to Oahu. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider a few years ago and quite enjoyed it. Sorry to hear about the poor SPG Platinum upgrade and the local upgrade restrictions. Must be recent "enhancement" as we were upgraded to a huge Tower oceanfront suite as a Platinum when we stayed there few years ago.

It's nice to have BLI so close, so quiet and relaxed. How much do they charge for parking, if at all? And the Alaska service seems like a convenient and inexpensive alternative to YVR.

Madone59

Really great TR and photos worldtraveller73 ^

I love the Pearl Harbor photos - I need to get there myself some day - my grandmother was deployed there right after the attack. Thank you for the photos.

farbster

Great report as always.

I think you're Canadian, so I'll remind you of one thing...The President of the USA at the time of the Japanese surrender was Harry Truman. He was from Missouri. Do you think it was a coincidence that he ended the war on the ship that was named for his state? Probably not. See this interesting article

I'm so happy that you saw the little box for survivors' names to be inscribed. I think it is amazing that they chose to be memorialized with their fellow service personnel. The last one in your picture was from 2015.

The Mighty Mo is a fantastic experience. So interesting to see how they lived.

Annalisa12

The first class meals on the way to Honolulu looked like a big mess. Hope they tasted better!

Wish I visited Pearl Harbour in all my travels to Honolulu. Next time.

Thanks for posting.

worldtraveller73

Thanks for your support SFO777. We've continued to enough your trip reports and I enjoyed a re-visit of our stay at the Rambagh Palace through your recent stay.

The BLI economy lot (you know, the one that you can walk to in just 1/2 block) was priced at $5 a day for several years. It's now up to $7 US a day. There are now several entrepreneurial lots around the area, in abandoned old car lots near Interstate 5 that are offering parking for as low as $2 a day. I have to say that so far my time has been more valuable than the money as I haven't bothered to venture further afield.

Thanks Madone59. It was worth the visit. It didn't have the same landmark symbols that frame major landmarks but it was easily worth the time and the trip.

Fascinating insight farbster. You can attempt to learn as much as you can, but despite being "North of America", there are some things that you don't learn in school. The article that you provided was interesting and provided some good reflection of the status of the ship.

Thanks Annalisa12. The Alaska meals seem typical of the Alaska experience. They look a little strange, taste a little quirky but are completely different that what you'd usually get with a legacy carrier.

worldtraveller73

Fairmont Kea Lani
Wailea, Maui

I had booked us in here as we had previously obtained President’s Club Premier status with our runs through the Fairmont Norfolk and the Fairmont Mara Safari Club. With that mid level status, they offered a “stay two nights, get one free” certificate, a suite and a room upgrade, and $50 off dining, all of which were expiring for me in February 2016. We just hadn’t been staying in many areas where there were Fairmont properties for 3 consecutive nights and hadn’t found the ability to use any of the features of our Premier status without deliberately going out of our way.

I had my eyes on this property and when a Black Friday sale (of all things) came up, we booked at the reduced rate, and thankfully applied the certificate to the room. I had also heard great things through word of mouth of just about anyone that had stayed here.

After we arrived off our Hawaiian Airlines flight, we took the rental car shuttle over to the rental car lot at Hertz. We picked up our mid size Toyota Corolla in the Gold Canopy aisle, which was actually upgraded to an Infiniti QX80. I didn’t mind the upgrade today as we weren’t planning on doing too much driving around Maui. A quick stop at the Maui Costco for supplies (and a fully loaded Costco hot dog!) and we drove the 30 minutes down to Wailea.



We arrived to the beautiful Fairmont Lea Kani. We dropped the bags and self parked the car. Wow – what a super impressive property. It started with a gorgeous lobby. The hotel was everything that the Honolulu hotels were not- impressive spaces that were beautiful and reminiscent of SE Asia resort hotels, beautiful public areas and a view of the ocean from the arrival.













At check in, I attempted to use a suite upgrade and a room upgrade from my Fairmont President’s Club Premier Club profile at the front counter (as they were expiring anyway) but was told not to worry about it as they had already offered us a double category upgrade from mountainside to a partial ocean view suite (skipping the pool suite category). I didn’t bother asking them if we could apply a certificate on top of that to upgrade to a villa as that was a pretty sweet (and unusual) upgrade as far as I was concerned. We had booked a Mountain View suite (which was one category up from the base room). All rooms at this property are considered suites.

We were led up to the room by the bell man with our bags. The features were pointed out for the room, he positioned the bags, pointed out the features of the room and pro-actively collected us some ice. It was very stellar service and consistent with a high end property.



The all suite property featured a large 700+ sq ft room with a separate bedroom, separte living room and a large bathroom. We were quite blown away by the size and overall comfort of the room. MrsWT73 especially liked the oversize bathroom.

















In addition, the room featured a nice large deck with a table and 4 chairs and a lounger. I spent few mornings out here reading while MrsWT73 slept in. We were on the north side of the building so it wasn’t a super sunny deck but the deck space had a nice peek-a-boo view of the Ocean. The only drawback was that we were quite set back from the ocean itself due to the size of the property.





The only shameless thing here was the fine print for the room service. Fairmont adds a $5.00 delivery charge AND 20% service charge to all room service bills. Fairmont flat out admits in the fine print in the room guide that part of the service charge serves as “tips or wages” and that “a portion of the service charge is retained by the hotel as an administrative fee”. Nothing like greasing your guests for more money. . . I found this to be a bit disappointing on the part of Fairmont.



The concierge also provided a text to request any service, which was highly convenient.



The grounds here are just impressive and well taken care of (immaculate!). It offered an impressive beach area that sloped down towards the water.













We situated ourselves and walked down to the beach. The beach was pretty nice; a solid 8 out of 10. The sand was of high quality as well and fairly fine. Unfortunately, red flags were up for the duration of our visit, but still nice loungers available all over the property without any need to charge their customers like in Waikiki!















The more time that we spent here, the more I came to realize the amount of inclusions that Fairmont offers as compared to Starwood. The closest hotels in the Starwood brand are probably the St. Regis. We definitely felt that we got a better value out of our stay at the Fairmont Kea Lani compared to our last beach resort stay at the St Regis Mauritius. Everything was provided here as an inclusion.

Despite the ridiculous $35 US a Day per room resort charges (a trend that I doubt will be going away anytime soon), there were many more inclusions with that fee. Free water (ice and cucumber / lemon infused), free sun screen and free aloe vera were abundant about the property. There were free courtesy rides around Wailea in their swank Cadillac Escalade house cars (arranged by phone). Fairmont even had staff running around with moistened towels for it’s beach customers in a feature that I hadn’t seen since our stay in 2010 at the JW Marriott in Phuket. Our room was replenished with abundant bottled water, Kuerig coffees (5 capsules per day per room) and Le Labo toiletries. There were even free Travel and Leisure Magazines in the room that were even replaced when I took my copy to the beach for a read one day. There were Conde Nast Traveler Magazines available in the gym for treadmill junkies. All in all, highly impressive and miles ahead of what I had been offered at high end Starwood properties.

MrsWT73 also shared her praise. It was second nicest hotel “ever” falling behind the Park Hyatt Maldives. I think that she was impressed by the space and the size of the bathroom. Needless to say, as a husband, it made my life very easy as every need she could have ever wanted was taken care of by the resort.

Peter_G777

Great TR worldtraveller73

The The Kea Lani has been our go to resort for years. The staff and facilities are always on point.

worldtraveller73

Thanks Peter_G777. We were certainly not disappointed with the Fairmont and would gladly return.

worldtraveller73

On our first evening, we took in the sunset form the beach chairs. Wailea is west facing, which makes for great sunsets.



I had arranged our first dinner at Nick’s Fishmarket via Open Table. Nick's Fish Market is on the Fairmont property as one of their flagship restaurants. We were seated on the patio out doors. It was a pleasant setting with a nice view over the resort pools and pathways gently sloping away from the restaurant building. It had an interesting and varied menu, with most meals around the $40 to $50 mark.

The service was attentive but it seemed to operate in a “team” environment meaning that, despite waiter introductions, we didn’t have any one main point of contact. This meant it was challenging getting wine refills and the like (water boy wouldn’t pour the wine etc). Great service but just not enough of it.











MrsWT73 had the mahi mahi which she said was excellent and well cooked.



I ordered an Ahi Tuna Oscar which was supposed to be a seared Ahi Tuna with Crab Leg with Béarnaise Sauce. I even went so far as to inquire about whether the ahi was seared or fully cooked through. I was assured that “ahi should never been cooked through”. Well of course, you can see where this was headed… When it arrived it was presented beautifully but almost fully cooked through. I took a few bites into it to see if it was just the edges that had the full cook. I actually did “the rare for me” (no pun intended ) send back of the dish since I had asked about it before hand and it was $47 a dish. I don’t think I’ve ever sent anything back before but at these prices (chuckling)… just a shame because it was a nice cut of fish and that they were probably too busy in the kitchen in order to attend to it carefully.



This resulted in both our dishes being removed and as a result, we got two fresh ones. The staff were very apologetic and there seemed to be good communication between the wait staff and the front of the house. The second one was seared appropriately. All in all one and a half thumbs up and an easy dinner for our first night at the property.



Day two: another awesome day on the beach buried in Tom Clancy's Commander in Chief book. It was a much needed break after fall work projects. We stayed down on the beach in front of the Fairmont for sunset.









Day three was another day lounging around the resort. For dinner this time, we took the Wailea Beach Walk from the Fairmont Kea Lani over to the Four Seasons. The Wailea Beach walk is one of the nicest ocean walks that are out there and the scenery is perfect for a walk or a run. I was lucky that I was able to get in a run here on our first morning while MrsWT73 caught up on some sleep. Google doesn't recognize the use of back ways off the property, making this walk much shorter than 27 minutes. LOL.





















I had intended to have us go Ferraro’s for a sunset drink. Unfortunately, the Four Seasons has a terrible set up with the bar offering only standing room for sunset drinks. There were lots of tables but nowhere to sit as they were all blocked for dinner reservations.







We ended up giving up on Ferraro’s since the standing around got old pretty quickly and taking our drinks out to a nearby pool lounger to watch the sun set which is somewhat off set from the NW angle of the Four Seasons property orientation.





After the sundowner, we had a bit of time before our 7:30 PM reservation. We went up to the lobby bar and took into another drink there while we waited for our table for 7:30 PM. Nice pupus, olives, cheese plate and a local Kona Brewing Company beer.







We continued onto Spago in the Four Seasons. It was a bit of a mainstream choice, but these selections satisfied MrsWT73’s sometimes straightforward palette. We had a nice table with a pleasant view over the grounds.





An amuse bouche compliments of the chef. It was a hot tomato soup of some kind. We settled on a bottle of Cristom Pinot Gris from Williamette Valley in Oregon. As can be expected, there were lots of terrific West Coast USA wines available. The crowd seemed to be mostly older mid career couples attending a nearby aviation conference with dinner tastes that seemed to run towards expense accounts.





I went for a repeat and had another Hawaiian Big Eye Seared AhI tuna with micro-greens. It was well prepared and presented beautifully – much nicer than Nick’s Fishmarket the night before.



MrsWT73 had the Indian spiced mahi mahi with Kuala Parsnip Puree. It wasn’t too her liking, due to the spice of the sauces not pairing with the fish to her tastes. A thumbs down from her on this one.



The service at Spago was again like Nick’s; it was surprisingly absent. We poured our own wine for most of the evening as the glasses ran dry at every opportunity. The staff were pleasant however when they were around, they just weren’t around that often. We took the courtesy Fairmont Caddilac Escalade back to the Fairmont after our dinner and they were around to collect us within 7 minutes of making the call.



On the date of our departure, we had the Fairmont Canoe outrigger experience. This is an inclusion in the resort charge where Fairmont will take 5 guests out with two guides (front and rear) on an outrigger canoe. The outrigger canoe is a traditionally styled long canoe with an outrigger to balance it.

We had signed up on Sunday and two and a half days later, the only times that we were able to get were on the day of departure. We weren’t able to get times together, so we went separately with MrsWT73 at 7 AM, and I went at 10 AM.

I watched from the shore while MrsWT73 went out. She was able to get in some massive whales breeching three times almost next to her canoe. Even her guides were impressed as they were talking about it 3 tours later.

Unfortunately, I got almost no sightings at 10 AM, but it was nice to be out on the water with some nice views of Halehakala volcano which was as clear as it ever was for the trip. It was a nice experience and great that it was included as part of the resort charge. The key for this is to book as soon as you arrive at the concierge desk as they do not run the canoe experience 7 days a week. On our visit, it was being run only 5 days a week. All in all, it was a memorable addition to our Fairmont stay.

worldtraveller73

Alaska Airlines
First Class
OGG-BLI (Kahuilui International Airport – Bellingham International Airport)
AS 808 – First Class (G)
January 12, 2016
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-800
Departure: 2:25 PM
Arrival: 10:13 PM

We left the Fairmont Kea Lani. We were sad to go after such a great stay. One last parting view from the 7th floor of our wing.



We returned our rental at Hertz. The roving return met us and we had the quick bus over to the terminal. We put our checked bag through the agriculture inspection and proceeded over to check in. All the computer kiosks were off work sick today so we queued in the line. There was a very short line at the Alaska First Class check in, but with two counter agents working, we were checked in quickly. Okay – it’s also fair to say we had a few bags as well.








We went through with TSA Pre-Check and into the departure area of the Kahului airport. Like the Honolulu airport, it has some nice open breezeways in a very dated and 1980’s functional décor. There haven’t been many changes here over the years!



We took in lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. There are no accessible lounges here for Alaska customers and we had deliberately arrived late so that we weren’t at the airport for too much longer prior to our flight. After lunch, we went over to the Alaska gates at the end at gate number 1.









Alaska continued its’ trend to start boarding of it’s flights early, and this one was no exception. Despite posting a 25 minute flight delay, we were being boarded at T-45, with a plane that had already been at the gate for some time. There was certainly some "honesty" in the flight schedule.





We settled in on board, this time in row 3A / 3C. There was a bottle of Dasani water available on our seats in the center console. Our captain announced a flight time of 4 hours and 58 minute during the pre-flight announcements.





A pre-departure beverage was offered today which was a mimosa made from sparkling wine mixed with passion fruit guava.



We had a slight hold prior to taxi and a departure on runway 7. Some neat plane spotting on the way out.





There were some great views over the North Shore coastline as we climbed to altitude.







Once we were at altitude, printed menus were passed out. As I had I mentioned earlier, Alaska doesn’t have hard wired in flight entertainment, rather they hand out Toshiba Tablets loaded with movies. The tablets are free in first class, they were announced as being $10 to rent in economy.



Due to some turbulence, dinner and beverage service took a little time and started about T+60 into the light with the mains being served at about T+90 (4:15 PM Hawaiian Standard Time).

A snack service was offered. A drink with the Alaska Sunrise blend “oat bran, sesame sticks, dried banana chips, and dried cranberries".



Today’s appetizer was Wasabi Pea Crusti Ahi with Guacamole, hijiki seaweed salad, warm Hawaiian sweet roll, paired with Chateau Ste Michelle Chardonnay from Washington. There were some great sunset views while I enjoyed the start of the meal.





I asked for the macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi with buerre blanc sauce but by the time they got to the ninth dinner order, so I ended up with the buffalo seasoned chicken breast, with roasted fingerling potatoes, roasted celery root and carrots, again paired with Chateau St Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay. It was definitely a "pub style" effort different than many other meals that you'd have on a plane.



Dessert was a tasty purple Okinawa sweet potato cheesecake. I enjoyed this with a coffee and the Steve Jobs movie on the tablets.



In the last ninety minutes of flight, a snack basket round was offered. The choices included Almonds, Kettle Chips, Pop Lite and gourmet popcorn, which was consumed as I worked on the trip report. I got a bit bored with the Steve Jobs Movie.



The flight passed by really quickly and before we knew it, we were down at the deserted Bellingham airport. There were only three flights left to land at the end of the day and most of the place was pretty buttoned up.



Our bags were out in 10 minutes and another 5 minutes later, we were on the Interstate 5 back up to Canada.

SFO777

Great finale to your report, excellent narrative and pics. We stayed at the FS a few years ago but may try the Fairmont next time. Agree with you on those ridiculous resort fees and creative extra fees.

Nice pic of Mrs. WT73 at dinner. I'm assuming that, like Mrs. SFO777, she gets to approve the unblurred pics before you are allowed to post?

How can you you have so many bags for a 6 day trip to the islands??

Flyingfox

Excellent report.

We were at the USS Arizona memorial in January this year.

I have to say that we were shocked to see the number of American men who did not remove their "ballcaps" in the site. This is a memorial, right?

One man saw me take my hat off as we entered, and he did as well.

I'm sure this comment will be followed by various excuses for this laxness, "You're too formal", blah blah, but sorry, people, you need to show some respect and decorum every once in a while.

worldtraveller73

Thanks for your continued support SFO777. We enjoyed reading about your last trip to India.

MrsWT73 is usually engrossed in her work commitments and travels and doesn't usually follow along with the trip reports on here unless it's brought to her attention. Therefore, I usually get carte blanche to post, along as it does not involve massive amounts of jet lag.

The easy answer to your luggage question would be: "does any wife travel light?"

In late 2013, we were booked YVR-ORD-GRU-JNB-CPT. Of course, United ended up cancelling our ORD-GRU segment and we were re-booked on UA/SAA ORD-IAD-DKR-JNB-CPT. In that event, I lost my checked bag for a good 4 days as my bag travelled to Brazil in South America while I went via West Africa. From that point on, I travel with enough in the rolling on board suitcase to keep me going for several days and put the snorkel and fins in the checked bag. We are just not as disciplined enough to do a carry on only for leisure trips and take full advantage of the two free checked bag policy for first class tickets. I usually get the "Honey - can i put this in your bag?" question on a regular basis as well.

Thanks Flyingfox. Sorry we missed each other this January at the Memorial.

Although you had to look for it at the memorial, there were signs in the museum that indicated that all navy seamen had to stand ready as a sign of respect as they passed by the Pearl Harbour spot. It certainly would have been something to see in real life, although we did not get the opportunity on our visit.

I was fortunate enough to be there for the playing of the US national anthem in the morning at about 7 AM, if I recall correctly. The place came to a complete stop, although it seemed from where I was standing that there wasn't any one particular direction or point of attention (flag pole) etc... I agree that it's obviously a spot of major historical significance to the United States and worthy of the utmost respect.

worldtraveller73

Conclusion:

Alaska Airlines is easily one of my new favorite carriers for zipping around North America. It offers a great partner credit card with some straight no nonsense service with terrific value First Class fares. I’d easily go to them over the competition without any question.

The Moana Surfrider by Westin in Honolulu was a bit hit and miss. We loved the Beach Lounge as one of the nicer club lounges with outdoor seating and with a fulsome breakfast and happy hour snacks and sundowner drinks. The room upgrade that we had wasn’t all too special and the wear and tear on the property that likely sees a lot of guests in and out was wholly apparent. We would probably return, although we would surely book the higher room category. Or perhaps we’d try another Starwood hotel instead.

The Fairmont Kea Lani was outstanding. The size of the room was huge and perfect for MrsWT73 who appreciated the time and the space to get ready. The setting of privacy and resort inclusions made up for the higher prices. The ability to walk and run on the Wailea Beach Walk was another great feature of the property. We’d easily return.

Hope you all enjoyed following along on this trip report.


Coming up:

In late April 2016, we're headed off on a tour of the Southern African Belt, finally doing our first Emirates First Class and Qatar Business Class award, calling on:

Cape Town / Franschoek, South Africa
Windhoek / Walvis Bay, Namibia
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Le Morne, Mauritius
and our old favourite, Jumeriah Beach Dubai, United Arab Emirates.



The St Regis Mauritius from our past visit. . .

I hope you'll join us then too...

krazykanuck

Looking forward to it! I had a great time in Cape Town last September, only regrets were 1) not having long enough, and 2) not buying an extra suitcase to cart wine back with me.

If you're curious and didn't see when I posted it, I wrote up my time in SA here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-via-ey-y.html