August 28: If you've called @Mac in the last fortnight this has been his Beach Boys rendition used as his pickup and welcome ...
🎵🎶 Go to Hawaii
(Hawaii) Hawaii (Hawaii)
Straight to Hawaii (Hawaii, Hawaii)
Oh do (Honolulu, Waikiki) you wanna come along with me🎵🎶
.... and all I can say is that you are fortunate you can only hear him, because it has been accompanied by his stellar and renowned "Daddy Dance!" for those of us special enough to catch these performances LIVE.
It has definitely added to the fun and excitement of the countdown for our very first post covid overseas adventure. Hard to believe our last jaunt was January 2020 to South Africa - how fortunate we were to squeeze that one in before the world was no longer our oyster.
Flying high - masked up for domestic
But, we're back and it does feel like we are newbies with lots of uncertainties and unknowns with changing rules and requirements and new procedures. The old pocket pat down of "passport, tickets and money" is now more like "passport, credit card, Visa, US entry attestation, covid QR code declaration and a mobile phone with every APP download for every booking made and, yes, the MASKS and HAND SANITISER." Oh, and as an added extra, reflective of an ageing clientele, don't forget, you need to carry your "parts listing card" for your knee replacement to get through security.
So what are we in for? Just a short one really - a toe in the water for a resumption of travel - only a couple of weeks away. First week on Oahu joining in the celebrations of @Ian's destination birthday followed by a 7 day cruise around the islands on NCL's Pride of America.
And yes, we've read all the stories of long lines, lost luggage, cancelled flights, delays, missed connections and the threatened strikes. Been warned of staff shortages and floating petri dishes of cruise ships and trolled all the reviews of closed bars and specialty restaurants. But really "who cares" - need to break out and just do it. We're "vaxed to the max" and have got travel insurance so feeling optimistic.
Morning shenanigans
Had to do the final titillation for cleaning and household chores because we always want to be neat and tidy for the burglars AND want the police to be able to tell the difference between burgled and unburgled if that ever happens.
A cooked breakfast to use up the last of the consumables. Parting little drink for the garden and a drop-off of the orchids to the "babysitters" @Aunty Gail and @Paul. Our orchid last flowered in December 2020 ... what's the bet it breaks out in bloom while we are away!
Looking a little too settled @babysitters
I even had time to knock out a neighbourhood catchup party invite for our place in October and @Mac did the walk around letterbox drop.
All sooo sooooo relaxed - overseas travel is almost a new experience in retirement mode - had oodles of time to be ready. Mind you, true to form, @Mac only packed "the day before."
Domestic terminal bliss
Add this one to the list of "another new experience" - "Long term Parking." Not quite our door-to-door @Michael experience but not too shabby. @Mac dropped me at the terminal with the luggage and then went back to park and do the bus commute - he was the only passenger on the 56 seater! He did confess he had a few little hiccups scanning in to the carpark - after repeated swipes of his carefully printed and folded QR code he had not received any sort of audio or visual feedback that it had been accepted - so he just kept twirling and rotating- thank goodness he glanced up because the boom gate was actually up waiting for him to enter! Bet they were getting a good chuckle viewing the security monitor.
Still in awe of our Qantas checkin experience. We were first up in the International baggage drop queue and the gentleman who took care of all our paperwork and checks was AMAZING.
No chaos here
Nervously lined up for the first security scan with the "new knee" - what an anti climax. Nothing happened! The security guard joked with me "It must have rusted out, I didn't see anything." He quickly followed this up with a "Just joking, all good." I was expecting flashing lights and sirens. Hope it is this easy for the next few.
Don't mind admitting that for our first run post covid we were at the airport waaay too early. Content to have a lunch and an amble through the terminal and then laughed our way through 30 minutes of tracking our luggage. @Mindy and @Ian have a fancy-pancy-you-beaut technical tracker - we have @Mac. He spotted our luggage on the tarmac, gave a running commentary on its progress and enjoyed the mishap of the cart driver who forgot to hook up the trailers.
Old school tracking
Masked up and boarded, and right on the dot of 2.10, on schedule, our 737 backed up and we were winging our way to Sydney.
And, I haven't lost the knack, still managed to fall asleep on the one hour flight.
International take-off
Pretty easy transfer to Gate 15 and the Qantas transfer - only a 20 minute wait for the next bus and a guarantee from the staffer that "There's plenty of time, it's a quiet day."
And he was right. The terminal is extraordinarily quiet.
Hope the flight is this empty!
No wait in a security line up- straight in to scan our passport, absolute silence on the security screening and within a heartbeat we were out and in Duty Free.
Disappointed that we were already over the Bundy Rum limit for entry into USA in our checked luggage so no purchases for us.
A wander, a coffee, a desperate squeeze into compression stockings and that's it .... 10 hours in the air and we'll pop out stateside.
Settled!
So pleased you had no hassles at the airport. Maybe the extra 1500 staff are making a difference.
ReplyDeleteAnd very good to hear too because we are doing the Bris/Sydney to fly to Dubai (Qantas/Emirates) on a Saturday afo as well. How long did the transfer to international take you?
We did Qantas to Qantas - there was a bus at gate 15 - we waited 20 mins for the next departure and it was perhaps 10 mins drive across. We were Saturday afternoon arrival in Sydney and there were zero queues.
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