An Unexpected Surprise at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

As I mentioned in our booking adventure, we had an early flight out of Houston, so we drove over Monday night to stay with Stephanie (Thanks Stephanie!), so that we could just get up and go to the airport. The kids were super excited, so despite it being really early, they were ready to go.

We got to the airport with enough time, but not as much as we were planning for, since it was a bit farther than we originally heard. The routing for this flight was a bit odd, as we had to drive to Houston to catch a flight to Dallas, but it got the job done. When we arrived in DFW, we knew we needed some breakfast and also wanted to let the kids run around for a bit. The only problem is that nearly all of the kids play areas in the airport have been turned into new shops. So we went terminal to terminal only to be disappointed. This was also the first time that I’ve ever seen the Skylink stop working, so we had to take the long way around the airport.

We did eventually find a mini-play area in Terminal D and got the kids some breakfast from McDonalds. This was also the first time I had a chance to use one of the Priority Pass lounges. That was another side benefit for the Altitude Reserve card, and I usually don’t book long layovers where it makes sense to use. We went with the Minute Suites option which was a nice break. Korey got a chance to lay down for a bit and the kids watched some TV before the flight.

Before we knew it, it was time to board, so we walked over to the gate and there were already a bunch of people getting on board. We had a row of four in the middle of the plane which worked out well. The flight to Honolulu was about 8 hours, but the kids really did great. I half watched a few movies and read a little bit as well. Carlyn played on her tablet a bunch and Crosby played hours of Plants vs Zombies. I had never played it before and will admit I was pulled into help and was having some fun with it as well.

We got into Honolulu mid-afternoon and were able to get our things pretty quickly. We had decided against renting a car due to the $43 a day parking fee and opted to use Uber and Lyft instead. Looking back that really turned out to be a great option. I used some Samsung Pay credits and even got some free rides for us as well. We brought boosters for both kids which was so much easier than the car seats.

Despite having some issues booking the hotel initially, I did finally sort out everything so that we could stay the whole time at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  When we got to the hotel, we were greeted by a really long line to check in. Korey and the kids walked around a bit while I waited, but the wait turned out to play to our advantage. When I finally got up to the counter, they were very apologetic and super nice. I mentioned the two reservations I had and Rita was looking and looking at ways to string them all together. It took her a bit, but in the end she said that she was able to get us an upgraded room. It wasn’t until we got to the room that we realized how much of an upgrade it was!

We got a nice big (and updated) room in the Ali’i Tower with a full ocean view. That tower also had it’s own special pool (which we would frequent), had special desk staff, and it’s own private areas at some of the other pools. And most importantly, we were able to stay there the whole week!

It had been a long day already, but that didn’t hold us back from wanting to go out and enjoy the rest of the day. We walked over to the Paradise pool and tried out the water slides. We went down the big one first which goes surprisingly fast. Carlyn went under a bit and wasn’t too happy about that, so afterwards, she and I spent more time on the little slide. That one was short and slow, but she was still having a lot of fun. Crosby and Korey stuck together and did more of the fast ones.

After that, I went to check in on our timeshare pitch and get info about the luau for later in the week.

The hotel also built a large lagoon many years ago which is separated from the ocean and is therefore nearly still. The sand there is more coral based, so it’s a bit more coarse, but the kids still had fun playing in it for a bit.

It had been a long day, so we decided to call it quits a little bit early, but needed to eat first. We took the easy route and ordered some Thai takeout which was right up the road, pretty reasonable and very delicious!