Day 31: LA and onwards

My hope that a hurricane might have swept us out towards Bora Bora had not come to pass. Alas, we had reached LA.

It was raining as we sailed in. It seemed fitting, as the sky gods wept for us as our cruise came to an end. It may have been a passing rain cloud, but I'll stick with the sky gods grieving.


Emma didn't want to get off the ship. I was more ready to wind up the holiday and get back to our normal lives. Not by much.

The customs process was seamless, and we waited in the Bistro and had coffee as we waited to disembark. Then we waited some more. And a bit more. And a bit more...

Three cruise ships had hit the Port of Los Angeles on the same morning, so disembarkation was delayed as they tried to handle the massive influx of arrivals. We couldn't see the point of standing in a queue in the lobby, so we went back to our stateroom. Just as well, as we didn't get off for a good hour later than planned, and better to lounge in comfort than stand impatiently.

So finally, around 11.30, we finally hit land. Goodbye Crystal Symphony: you were great.

Then onto the next round of chaos as we tried to find our bags and organise transport to LAX.

Even the people who work in the port looked stunned at the massive islands of luggage and thousands of people swarming over the terminal. I heard several comment they'd never seen so much activity.

Fortunately we were adopted by a couple taking a shuttle to LAX. At this stage just getting there was looking like a challenge, and a few people had already missed flights. We'd deliberagtley chosen a later flight just in case there were problems (how prescient). Getting a trip in for a bargain price was a bonus.

We had about a four-hour wait until our flight to Honolulu. The terminal was rather sparse in terms of places to hang-out, much less so than the one we arrived into four weeks ago, so we dug out our magazines and netbook to kill time until our flight.

The actual flight didn't put Hawaiian Airlines in the best light. Our seats were double-booked, the entertainment system was broken, the aircon had a weird chemical smell, plus the usual annoying things about travelling these days, like having to pay for snacks, and cramped seats.

Hawaiian Airlines.
Beats swimming. Almost.

At least the staff were friendly. Hawaiian has been consistently good on this measure in our experience.

I was keen to save money, and suggested this place a short walk outside (about 12km) from Waikiki:


Emma favoured staying right in Waikiki on the beach, at the Outrigger Waikiki:

Guess who won.