Our trip to Bora Bora, What a day!

Day 3-May 2

LAX to Bora Bora-Taking a bit of writer’s privilege as we technically got on the plane at 11:55 PM of Day 2, but it’s pure semantics. We walked and walked and walked to gate 204 of the LAX International terminal. They had warned us and they were not kidding. It’s a fer piece. We arrived at the gate just minutes before boarding. Perfect! While standing in line, I met my new friend Will, who says to me, “Hey Glen, how many folks does this plane hold?” It caught me by complete surprise because I could not recognize Will at all. He could see I had no clue and continued, “You’re from Wichita, right?” To which I replied, “Yes, and I think this plane holds about 375 passengers.” I’m thinking to myself, who is this guy and how does he know I build airplanes, including this one? That’s when Will just starts laughing and says, “I’m just messing with you, I saw you name tag on your backpack.” We all started laughing. I have to admit, I really liked that one and am sure I will do the same to some other poor shmuck someday. Business class on a 787-9 is nice, though this one was somewhat dated. The Pods allow you to lay completely flat, but the version on the Air Tahiti Nui fleet is somewhat dated, with a poor user interface and headsets that just suck frankly. Definitely a first world problem. Speaking of sucking, we still can’t figure out what they served us for dinner. It was some kind of bread with spinach, cheese and stuff, not really sure what the stuff was. It was accompanied by a pretty good balsamic vinegar salad and very good bread. There was no bourbon onboard, but they did offer Scotch whiskey, none of which I like. The diet coke was outstanding! The onboard movies included many titles, both English-speaking and French films. After watching a classic, whose name escapes me, I tried to get some sleep. Me and planes just never seem to be in sync, but at least I could pee on the plane. For whatever reason, I hate peeing on a plane, but on the spacious Dreamliner lavatory, easy. About an hour and a half before arrival, we were notified that breakfast would be served soon. The breakfast, a pretty good omelet by my standards, and the fifty-minute early arrival turned this plane ride into a good experience, with the skies yielding only a few choppy moments.

Having filled out our forms, two each, while onboard the aircraft, Customs in Papeete, Tahiti was a breeze. It didn’t hurt to be amongst the first 15-30 off the plane, but in truth I suspect the 300th person did not experience the same short line we did. Our bags were amongst the first off the aircraft and actually beat us to baggage claim. I’m always impressed by an airport that has it’s act together enough to get bags to their destination in a “Timely” manner. We threw our six bags on a cart, three checked and three carry-on and strolled over to Tahiti Air. In case you’re confused, Tahiti Air and Tahiti Air Nui are not the same. We haven’t figured out if they’re connected, but it doesn’t appear so. The one thing I can say about Tahiti Air is they are definitely consistent in being inconsistent. Dianne and I checked very rapidly, had to check one extra bag that was overweight for their plane (our 25-pound carry-on), but kept our two carry-on backpacks. Jimmy and Pam however, had to check all their bags, including their backpacks, something I would refuse to do given all the electronics in my backpack. Jimmy and Pam were originally scheduled to depart two hours later than Dianne and me, but Tahiti Air came through and found seats on our flight. Flight 487was delayed getting out of Papeete, but the forty-five-minute flight to Bora Bora was uneventful, my favorite kind.

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One thing is for sure, Jimmy and Pam have more influence than Dianne and me. The Four Seasons boat was waiting at the airport to pick us up for our ride to the hotel. We got to the resort and wouldn’t you know it, Jimmy and Pam’s room was ready upon our arrival at 8:30 AM, while Dianne and I had to wait until 3:00 PM to get into our room. Jimmy and Pam were kind enough to let us see their room and we just knew Jimmy and Pam had gotten quite an upgrade. Much to our surprise, when 2:30 PM came, our room was ready and we ended right next to Jimmy and Pam in bungalow 416 while they were in bungalow 418. And on top of that, our bungalow was just as nice as theirs, but we got a nice white wine, while Jimmy and Pam had none. Kim at Cruisedreams.com had taken care of us with wine and canopies. I’m guessing Jimmy and Pam didn’t have wine because Kim knows they don’t drink, or they likely got it later in the day. While waiting on our room, we had a great lunch at the beachside restaurant, once again being the first ones in line since we were there at 10:50 AM and the restaurant didn’t open until 11:00 AM. We relaxed around the pool most of the afternoon until our bungalow was ready at which point we all headed back and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. About 7:00 PM, we headed to the main part of the resort where all the restaurants were, but nothing really sounded good so we headed back to our bungalow and ate Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies, a tradition of our’s going back to one of our first trips to Hawaii. That was one of the best night’s sleep I have had in quite some time.

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