After a good night’s rest at the Orlando Airport Hyatt, we got up around 6:30am and got ready for our 8:50am flight. We checked our luggage in with American Airlines around 7:15am. It’s a long travel day, and we fly from MCO to DFW, DFW to LAX, and finally LAX to OGG, arriving there around 8pm local time. DOS had ‘borrowed’ a cart from the lobby and stored our luggage on it overnight, conveniently, if not absent-mindedly ignoring the sign by the elevator that said no carts on floors 6 – 10.
We had a nice runway view from our 9th floor balcony for our brief stay here. Here is an early morning pic before we went and had breakfast at 7:30am.
We had breakfast at Hemisphere’s Restaurant, where we had dinner last night. We enjoyed the buffet and had a nice semi-circular booth to spread out in – so big we had to squeeze in to both get in this photo.
Our 8:50am flight to DFW was right on schedule, and we got in to Dallas around 10:30am CDT. Since I was full from breakfast, I skipped the meal on the plane, although DOS did not.
We had a couple hour layover in Dallas, and we used this as an opportunity to get a bit of exercise. We walked from terminal A to terminal D, stopping for a few minutes in the Admiral’s Club in the B concourse. Although the B concourse club is the smallest in DFW for American, I like this one as it’s usually not crowded as it’s a bit out of the way from any of the American gates, located at the end of the B concourse.
We then grabbed a bite to eat in the D concourse, as Cousin’s barbecue. I had a brisket sandwich (minus the bread) and it was just the right amount of food for me. DOS got by on water as he was still full from two breakfasts! We took the shuttle tram back to terminal A as by this time we were running short on time for our flight to LA.
Once In LAX, we had 2 1/2 hours to kill, so we spent most of the time in the Admiral’s Club, where we met these ladies going a trip to Barcelona. We chatted for quite a while as they told us about their upcoming trip to Spain, and then on to a cruise on Regency Seven Seas – quite fancy!
We gave them our card, and they promised to email us about their adventure – can’t wait to hear about it ladies! Hope you had a great trip over to BCN.
We then left the Admiral’s Club in search of a quick bite to eat before our flight from LAX to OGG. We went to a restaurant down near our gate, which was quick and also good too.
Out flight from LAX to Maui, was a little more than 5 hours, but it went by fairly quick. We flew on a brand new Airbus 321 thad had comfortable First Class seats, as well as individual entertainment screens with numerous sections to choose from. As it was dark for most of the flight, I didn’t take any photos, butit was an enjoyable flight. We landed a little bit early around 8pm PDT – quite a long day coming from the East Coast!
We got a rental car from National after collecting our luggage, and DOS was the designated driver, who successfully navigated us to the Waldorf Astoria Grand Walilea, which will be our home for the next six nights. We were greeted at check in with a lei (real flowers, not the dollar store variety plastic one!) and were quickly settled into our deluxe oceanfront room. We were surpirsed to get such a nice welcome basket, compliments of the hotel manager.
Although we were tired, we went down to the lounge for a quick nightcap, as well as to explore the resort facilities.
We were quite tired when we went to bed, but it was such a fun trip, all went well! ‘Twas a wonderful day of three
flights and luxury accommodations.
Welcome to Hawaii!