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Old Nov 12, 2017, 6:01 pm
  #79  
RustyC
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Originally Posted by wkndflyr
Question for those who have flown the Hopper or considered it: how much am I missing by not getting to see Kosrae and Kwajalein?

With Kwajalein not allowing general pax like me without permission to disembark there or photograph there, it comes down to Kosrae which only gets visited two days per week if I understand correctly. UA133 and UA132 seem to be new routes as of January 2018, so I’ll have to return to this thread in January to find out whether the onboard experience is different on the three-stop versus UA154/UA155.

For this Hopper rookie, who may or may not get to redo this trip via the full five-stopper (depends on money, miles and vacation time plus job/family/life), I figure a partial Hopper experience is better than not getting to experience any Hopper at all. Plus, I booked it for Labor Day weekend, and the holiday allows me to take one fewer vacation day from work for the voyage.

I booked it for the joy of flying and a for a little aerial photography, and the three-stopper should provide much of that, I think
KWA is a bit like MAJ from the air, in that the Marshalls are an an atoll nation and uniquely suited to the purpose of being an ABM test site and giant catcher's mitt. The Marshalls are highly endangered from sea level rise and may not be there in 50 years (with people evacuated to Hawaii), so getting there could make for a story for the grandkids. With KWA the stop is no fun, but maybe if you're eagle-eyed and on the side of the plane to do it, you could also see Ebeye. When I went the bridges to try to relieve overcrowding there were still new.

Kosrae has the sleeping giant and an interesting ruins complex, but as I remember the airport is on a strip along the edge with a tiny terminal. I did go there once to stay 3 days...the people are friendly but also (at least then) not that aware of the outside world. Maybe 11 years of more Internet has changed that.

Others may have a different take, but when I first went in the late 90s with CO (and before going back to visit the places), I thought MAJ and PNI were the best stops.
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