Originally Posted by
findark
What did you guys end up doing with the ground time in HNL? We're doing this in a few weeks and still on the fence about that (same HNL-LAX too, although may SDC to the HNL-SFO 737 if upgrade looks better).
Found a hotel room and slept. :/ It was really a waste of a day in my favorite state.
I was so confident that we'd be taking an earlier flight that I didn't reserve anything and it took us a very long time to find a hotel that had a room available and would let us check in right away.
We didn't sleep on the MAJ-HNL leg. I don't know what time zone your body will be adjusted to, but we got a pretty solid night's sleep the night before in Chuuk, which has a 4 hour difference from HI, so when we landed at ~3am, it was 11pm to our bodies and we were just getting tired then.
If I could do it over again, and planned to take UA534 home, I'd reserve something close to the airport (the UA agent recommended the Best Western Plaza - she said it's a five minute drive and they have a 24 hour shuttle; but they didn't have any rooms available). If your incoming flight is on time and you don't have checked bags, you could theoretically be asleep by 3:30-4am, get several hours of rest and a shower, and still have plenty of time to enjoy the beach or sightsee or whatever interests you.
We landed a bit late (maybe 30 min?), then by the time we waited for bags, walked to the UA counters and spoke with the agent about our options, it was already after 5am. Then I spent over an hour calling hotels, then waited 25 minutes for the closest Uber and it was after 7am when we finally got into a room. Don't do it our way!!
I thought I would take the kids to the USS Arizona in the afternoon (seemed fitting after checking out the War in the Pacific sites in Guam) but found you need to reserve in advance. It wasn't necessary last time I went there but it has been a while. So once we were awake, we showered and repacked, ate our first meal of the day and then it was time to head back to the airport. And then we were awake the whole way home - another reason to get some rest as early as possible and be up for the day while it's still morning!
Sorry for the very long reply, but I hope it's helpful.