Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Feb 2024: Day 4 – Morning in Honolulu

I woke a little earlier than hoped at just after 1am, but it gave me the opportunity of dealing with some admin. Waking early in the morning when everyone else is still asleep is fab – it’s like you have the world all to yourself.

The weather has been amazing on this trip. Not a spot of rain whilst I have been here. Based on previous trips, I’ve almost always had rain. On some occasions, it’s rained almost continually.

I followed my tradition of heading out for the first Starbucks opening of the day. I was slightly closer to the Starbucks near the zoo due to being at the Hilton Waikiki, so that’s where I headed.

It’s probably the Starbucks that I most often visit – and of course the Starbucks at Hilton Hawaiian Village (HHV).

It’s one of the things I love about being away. But it needs to be somewhere relatively warm.

Walking out early when it’s still dark, picking up a Starbucks, and wandering around taking photos.

Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it will do me fine.

When I got back to the hotel, my mind started thinking about breakfast. American style hot breakfast with pancakes sounds just right.

The restaurant in the hotel MAC 24/7 offered a dish called MAC*Attack which was just what I was thinking about.

I headed down at 6am and it took a while to be seated. There was one person ahead of me and she was walked a long way before taking up a booth.

I was initially taken into a room at the back with tables and a window. I asked whether I could get a booth in the main restaurant.

The waitress asked whether I would like a view out of the window? I said it was dark, so I wouldn’t be able to see anything.

She left me to my own devices and chose the table I wanted to sit at!

Anyway, the food was great.

After breakfast and a bit of work in my room, I did my normal and walked out for Starbucks number 2, courtesy of the Hilton Hawaiian Village (HHV).

There was a bit more shade this morning, so finding a cool spot was a lot easier. In fact it was really breezy this morning.

From HHV, I walked over to Ala Moana Shopping Center, more for the exercise than the expectation that I would do any shopping, but it was nice to re-familiarise myself with another regular haunt.

All of the regular large shops were still there.

I do vaguely remember thinking that just after covid, there was a big downturn in the number of shops that were open here.

It appears to be getting back to something close to full strength again. Good to see!

From there I headed back to the hotel via Ala Wai Boulevard.

It’s a long walk and by the time I had gotten back into my room, my feet were aching.

I asked for a late checkout and as a Diamond member I was able to secure … no late checkout at all.

They simply refused over the phone. So I had to be out of the room by midday.

After all of that excitement, it was time to chill before checking out and heading over to the Hilton Garden Inn.

The Vickster committed to coming back to Hawaii for a short trip to celebrate her retirement in 2025 and we are already booked in for my 60th in Nov 2026.

So looking forward to a return to paradise in the not-so-distant future.

Anyway, the time came to checkout and head down the road. I had worked out that the Hilton Garden Inn, Waikiki Beach had upgraded me into a suite – another accessible suite.

I checked in at around midday. I wasn’t surprised to find that my suite wasn’t ready – no big deal.

So I plonked my stuff down and sat in a seat where I could surf the web and play some games.

There seemed to be a large group of kids in the hotel foyer and after an hour so, the leader asked them to line up in a queue.

It all seemed a bit odd – perhaps it was some sort of organised tour or something, but it was a lot quieter once they had filed out…

I had to go and spur the team into account at around 2:30pm, having not heard of any update. I finally got my digital key and was handed some physical keys as well about 10 mins later.

As soon as I was in my room, I headed down to the restaurant and enjoyed a beer and two plates of tacos with prime beef – very nice indeed!

I was planning on heading to the airport at around 7pm, so I had about 3 hours to chill.

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