Maui

Our family traveled to Maui. It was a nice, relaxing break and I got to properly snorkel and see lots of fishes in the ocean, which is something we were unable to do during our Big Island visit in 2022.

Our family stayed there for a whole week, Thursday to Thursday. We originally planned for a shorter Friday to Monday stay to fit our work schedule. A week before the trip, we decided to change plans and fly out on Thursday instead of Friday, gaining us one more day of stay. I cancelled and rebooked the hotel on points, and found a cheaper car rental for $150 for the five days. (Original rental was $230 on AA Car Rental/Avis while also gaining 5,000 AA LP.)

Leaving LAX Airport

Our travel day began with some logistical challenges. The change to Thursday meant that we could take mom to the airport instead of one of the sisters arranging it. This simplified the process since we live with mom. But for this, we had to navigate getting my mom to the airport for her flight (American) while also getting to our own flight (Delta) on time, which was an hour before her flight. 

We droppped off mom to Terminal 5, immediately entered security there, and walked to the Tom Bradley International Terminal through the post-security tunnels. I felt that psychologically this would keep us more at ease, knowing that we had already cleared the security line and that all we had left to do was walk to the terminal. If, instead, we were walking to TBIT through the landside, we would be in a hurry with the uncertainty of not knowing how long the security line would take. We also discovered that Christine’s ticket did not have TSA Pre-Check, (maybe there was something that went wrong in the process of booking it with an Amex Travel agent using leftover Delta credits parked in the Amex Travel system?) which added an extra 20 to 30 minutes to our security screening time. Despite going through the slower security line and walking between terminals, we made it through in about 30 minutes, which was very fast.

We arrived at the Amex Centurion lounge around 7:00 am., just 20 minutes before our scheduled boarding time of 7:20 am., so we only had a narrow window of time to eat and get ready. Our flight was then delayed. Initially, we were told the plane needed to be cleaned, but it was delayed further, and eventually, the plane was swapped out entirely. We ended up arriving in Hawaii at 11:30 am, an hour later than planned.

Arriving at OGG Airport

Because the airline offered to check bags for free, we decided to check ours. Upon arrival, I was worried that the car rental line would be long, so we had Christine go pick up the car while I waited for our luggage. Turns out that there were no long lines at all – we were done in a few minutes. The car pickup process was unusual, as no agent walked with us to inspect the car; we were just told to pick a car from a specific row.

After reaching the luggage carrousel, I noticed that it seemed to be taking longer than usual. I remembered the “20 minute guarantee” tip from travel vloggers and filed a request on the Delta website while still waiting at the carrousel. It instantly provided a 2,500 mile compensation which showed up on my account.

After getting the car, we drove to a food truck court nearby for lunch. We ate Hawaiian scampi, which is shrimp cooked in garlic and butter with the shell on. The court also had a Thai restaurant amusingly named “Thai Me Up,” and we took a picture in front of it.

Getting to the hotel

On the way to the hotel, I realized I had forgotten to pack our long-sleeved, bright orange swimwear for snorkeling. (Christine wants to make sure that if the waves wash me away, they won’t lose me to the ocean and that I will be bright and visible in the water.) We headed to Lahaina’s Salvation Army store as shown on Google Map, but the location turned out to be a lot that burned down during the 2022 fires. A search for “thrift stores” on Google Maps humorously suggested a Louis Vuitton store. We eventually found a Ross store and got a long sleeve shirt there.

We also stopped at a souvenir store, Christine’s favorite, and bought chocolate-covered pineapple, macadamia nuts, and some gummies and snacks.

We finally checked in at Hyatt Regency Maui Hotel at 3:30pm. When I was rebooking, there were no more two-queen bedrooms available – all there was were one-king bedrooms and an accessible two-queen bedroom. So I booked the two-queen bedroom. They were running low on queen rooms and perhaps as an incentive they upgraded us to a king room in the Lahaina Tower. The room has a direct ocean view and is quiet, which is very nice. We also get a little glimpse of the evening Luau performance, which takes place in a secluded stage east of the building. But it’s located in the farthest tower, making it a 10-minute walk to the pool and a 15-minute walk to the hot tub. It was close to the Regency Club though.

Hotel’s pools and beach

Our hotel’s pools are heated and open 24/7, in contrast to other hotels which usually closed by 10pm. We were very excited about this. But in retrospect, we never got to use the pools after 9pm.

After getting mom to the Gonzo’s rooms, we spent the afternoon in the pools and went for a late-night swim again at around 9pm. We had to move around to avoid children water fighting and splashing us in the process, and later ran away from a group of teenagers who came over to Napili pool to suddenly start doing diving tricks. 

On Friday, we spent some time in the pools, and then snorkeled at the beach in front of the hotel to get some practice before our snorkeling on Saturday. We saw a sea turtle and many small fish, mostly near the rocky areas where algae grows. The waves made it challenging, and at one point, a large wave almost slammed Christine against a rock. We also saw large sea urchins hiding in the rock crevices.

After this snorkeling session, I still wasn’t feel confident about snorkeling on my own, even with a floatie. I kept getting water into the snorkel and in the nose area. Also, our pool hammocks were not ideal for snorkeling as they made it difficult to use our hands.

They have a lot of animals at this hotel. There are parrots in cages and South African penguins in the main outdoor lobby area, and geese, ducks, sparrows and many birds roaming the “asian garden” and the hotel in general. With a mischievous smirk, Christine managed to feed one sparrow from her hand.

Food is so expensive

On Thursday night we ate at Umalu, one of the hotel’s restaurants. We had a wagyu burger for $25 and fish and chips for $20. They were a bit more expensive than other restaurants at the nearby Whalers Village shopping mall.

There are six children in our family, so food cost is a big point of stress for Christine’s sisters. The logistics is also hard when children’s moods swing wildly. Last year when we went to an all-inclusive in Cancun, the fact that you could just walk into a hotel restaurant without thinking about additional costs was a huge relief for the parents. They found the Hyatt Regency’s food prices excessive – $10 hot dogs, $25 meals. Our family’s workaround this time was to apply Guest of Honor certs to get free breakfast and a “mini dinner” at the Regency Club room to cut down on costs. There was free breakfast at 7am, apples and cookies at 12pm, and “snacks” with a simple dish at 5pm at the Regency Club Room. The evening snack menu rotated daily, with one hot dish and some salads – one day it was meatballs, another day dumplings. 

The Regency Club lounge is extremely cold with AC, maybe at around 60 degrees. It was so cold that we were never able to sit indoors. It has an outdoor patio area and most people were eating there. Except one day when it started pouring rain, everyone rushed inside.

Our schedule staying here turned to be unexpectedly busy, and we only got to go out to eat once, for Friday lunch. We went to the Whalers Village Mall and shared a $30 poke bowl lunch.

Chill Friday

We kept the windows open through the night to listen to the ocean waves while we slept. It was very nice – free ASMR! I still wake up at 3am with a dry nose and not feeling the CPAP is doing much, and normally I would doomscroll for an hour before trying to sleep, but during our stay I just sat at the balcony staring into the ocean until I felt tired enough to get back to sleep. 

Our first night was disrupted at 4 a.m. by a very noisy, Zamboni-like vehicle that was moving rocks for a construction project near the Japango restaurant. The noise continued throughout the day, forcing us to keep our balcony door closed. 

After a long morning of swimming and snorkeling, we were drained. We went with mom to Whalers Village for lunch and shaved ice. Christine came here with Jen in 2019, she could remember it! Then we walked around and noticed that the mall connected to a beach walk. Following the walk, we noticed Black Rock Beach at a distance and tried to go there to find the Gonzo’s, but the beach was too big so we just came back and took a nap.

The Gonzo’s went to Black Rock Beach for a day at the beach and they had a big scare. Keone got separated from them for about 20 minutes. He had been following a man he mistook for his dad. When he realized his mistake, he found himself lost. He cried, thinking he’d be stranded in Hawaii, and tried to make his way back. The family searched frantically, with little Eddie and Mateo checking the stores in Whalers Village and eventually found him. Keone humorously told them that he was misled by the “fake dad”.

Snorkeling at the Molokini Crater

On Saturday, we took a 5-hour snorkeling tour to the Molokini Crater and Turtle Town with the Dales. Our tour is sold by a non-profit called the Pacific Whale Foundation, which has a for-profit arm called PacWhale Eco-Adventures. The journey started at 7:30am at the Maalea Harbor and consisted of an hour of sailing to Molokini, an hour of snorkeling there, an hour moving to Turtle Town for another hour of snorkeling, and an hour sailing back.

We got on a 150-passenger catamaran. It was windy and somewhat choppy. The tour provided fins and snorkeling masks. The mask was a better fit for me than my own; mine had a “smart” moving part that was supposed to keep water out but kept letting it in, while the tour’s mask was a simple, straight tube that worked perfectly. However, I still had issues with water getting into my nose area, maybe because of my mustache. On the way out I noticed someone telling the crew that he had a moustache and was asking for a gel to seal the area, although I didn’t try that. Everyone was given a flotation belt, and they also offered wetsuits for $10.

The water at Molokini was very clear and maybe due to the lens prescription it felt like the reef was only a couple of feet below. We saw more fish there than we did at the beach in front of our hotel. The area was crowded, with about 10 boats lined up, so we frequently bumped into other snorkelers. It was bit of a bummer because that it was cloudy and dark because the fish colors did not shine as much, but we got less sunburn because of that. I don’t know why I went in expecting the swirl of colors as the fish around in Disney’s Little Mermaid. We saw many banks of fish and various fishes.

At Turtle Town, the waves were much higher and more tiring. I had trouble adjusting my mask as the waves would hit me while I was trying to empty it. A cool underwater feature of Turtle Town was a long, underwater volcanic rock finger. I swam along the edge of it but got nervous when the rock felt too close—about two feet away—and I worried about accidentally touching a sea urchin. We only saw one turtle from a distance. Due to the high waves, we got tired earlier and returned to the boat for lunch, but Christine was too seasick to eat. On the way back, the sun came out, and both Thomas and Christine got sunburned around their neck.

AJ had a panic fit at Molokini and cried, saying he wanted to go home. But somehow Grace and Thomas convinced him to try snorkeling at Turtle Town, and he ended up enjoying it and was excited to see some eels.

After the tour, we were exhausted and went to a food truck for a very plain rotisserie chicken leg with rice and lukewarm kimchi. Very mid. Despite being tired, Christine had a burst of energy and led us on a quest for dessert, making five stops that afternoon. We looked for malasadas at Sugar Beach Bakery but found out they had already sold out by 10 a.m.. We got pie from another place and also picked up some poké from Foodland to eat the next day. We returned to the hotel around 3 p.m., chilled at the pool, and had dinner at the Regency Club.

Sunset at Haleakalā

On Sunday, we were asked to watch the six children while the rest of the adults went out for a seafood lunch. The older boys said they were going to play basketball and would check in, but an hour later, they hadn’t. Christine got a bad sunburn walking around in the sun looking for them. We couldn’t reach them because they had left their phones, but finally remembered little Eddie had his phone and was able to contact them. They were playing ping pong.

While watching the kids, we took them to the Hyatt Club pool, which had more shade and was quieter. Then they wanted to go to the children’s pool to ride the big water slide. We both went on the slide, which was super fast and twisted into a nine-foot-deep pool. On my second ride, the impact from the water popped a lens out of my glasses and chipped both lenses slightly on the edge. Crazy! So scary lol

After the parents picked up the children, we went to have lunch at Umalu again. For some reason, service was super slow and there were 6 people waiting in a quee. Food was good. 

At 2:30 p.m., we headed out for a long, bendy drive up to Haleakalā Volcano to watch the sunset. The mountain is very tall. It was cloudy that day, so at some point mid-rise we drove over the clouds and we were able to see the clouds from above, which was very cool. I was telling people “this is the view that we only get a glimpse of through the airplane window when flying!”. The mountain was extremely busy, and a park ranger was turning cars away because the lots were full. One of our cars barely made the cut. Parking was a challenge; we found a disability spot for the car mom was in, another car snuck into a spot as someone was leaving, and Eddie kinda yoinked it. A tour bus driver got into a loud argument with another van driver who just parked on the curb.

Eddie brought a couple lounging chairs for us, and we had dinner while watching the amazing, bright red sunset. Christine’s mom sat at the lounging chair, covered in jackets, and unfortunately people were often taking photos right in front of her, so I’m not sure how much she got to see. Eddie led us into a worship song. We stayed until it was completely dark and then descended in the pitch-black, relying on our headlights. At one point, Christine fumbled the controls while switching between low and high beams and momentarily turned off the headlights completely, giving us a big scare. Fortunately there was no car behind us, we slowed down, turned the lights back on, and carried on.

Flying back home

On Monday, we woke up early and went back to the Sugar Beach Bakery at 7 a.m. to get the malasadas we had missed on Saturday, delivering them to family. Our car rental was due back at 11 am, and our flight was at 1 pm. I proposed that we eat one last lunch at the food truck place, but as we worked out the logistics, it felt too convoluted and decided to just go into the airport. We picked up a pork belly and a giant musubi at the gas station.

We arrived at the airport at 10:30 am and waited at the Hawaiian Airlines lounge. There’s nothing to eat there other than soda and coffee, but we found some taro chips which were great. Our flight was then delayed by an hour. 

The airplane had Starlink Internet, which is very impressive. Unlike other providers, you get uninterrupted connection while parked at the tarmac, during takeoff and landing. I could watch anime at Crunchyroll. Never having had reliable internet on an airplane, I felt an urge to maximize it and played a videogame on my laptop while listening to a podcast on YouTube through my iPad at the same time. 

We originally booked OGG-HNL-LAX on First Class using 40k miles each but shortly after being acquired by Alaska Airlines, they changed around their routes, resulting in a 10am departure. I called Hawaiian and asked to be reassigned to the 1pm nonstop (which was originally being sold at 80k miles each). It was a comfortable, painless 6 hours on their older A330 lie-flat seats. We arrived home at midnight.

Costs

We spent a total of $1,700 and 224k points for two people.

• $30 + 34k Amex Travel points for LAX-OGG Delta Economy (Cash price: $550)
• $10 + 80k Hawaiian miles for OGG-LAX Hawaiian First (Cash $3,000)
• $120 + 110k Chase/Hyatt points Hyatt Regency Maui 4 nights and Guest of Honor cert (Cash $3,000)
• $160 LAX Airport Taxi
• $210 Thrifty Car Rental + Gas 4 days
• $450 Molokini Snorkeling through Viator
• $320 Food
• $220 Other Expenses
• $190 Gifts