Just after 1:00 p.m. we wheeled our rollaboards the leisurely couple of blocks over to our home for the next two nights, the Royal Hawaiian, where we were greeted with an orchid lei for Kathy and a shell necklace for Brian as we checked in.
Our room wasn't yet ready - it was a "spa suite" - so we gave the clerk our phone number to call us, checked our bags and basically wandered around the premises. We were also looking forward to hearing from fellow FlyerTalker Friendly Skies, Daniel, who had noticed we were flying to HNL the day before he was and invited us to join a FlyerTalker group at dinner.
We checked back at the desk at 3:00 p.m. (check-in time) but our suite wasn't ready so we decided to sit nearby.
About 45 minutes later an employee approached us and said, "Didn't anybody tell your room was ready?" We picked up our key cards and walked over to Suite 4. It's a two-floor layout with a a cute little lanai overlooking the hotel's tiny swimming pool.
Oh-oh. The air conditioning was off and we couldn't get it to work. The temperature was a sultry 79 degrees. A friendly maintenance man eventually arrived and got it going. There's only one small unit upstairs so it takes a long time to cool. The upstairs was okay for sleeping but it's still 71 degrees downstairs this morning.
Our next surprise: Who would have guessed a room described as a "spa suite" wouldn't have a bathtub? There's a shower large enough to hold an entire family and even one of those fancy Japanese toilets, but no tub for Kathy's currently aching back.
We did something we've rarely ever done before and called the front desk to find out if they had a room with a tub. Yes, they had two available so off we went for a look. Yes, they had tubs, but the tubs are no more than four and a half feet long. It's not hard to figure out that this property is owned by Japanese and that they cater to well-to-do Japanese tourists, even if we hadn't already seen two Japanese brides on the premises in their wedding gowns having photos taken.
Our suite with its large shower was looking better and we returned the keys to the other rooms at the front desk and returned. One final problem: Our keys no longer worked, so it was one more trip back to the front desk to get them fixed.
And here we are.