Let’s start with the Island Hopper

Getting to the Island Hopper

When I first started telling people about this trip, a common question was “Why are you flying the wrong way?” Due to some of the rules that surround an Aeroplan mini RTW (round the world) booking. I needed to start my trip in Toronto and make Perth my destination in order to give me the maximum available distances to achieve the routing I wanted. I also needed to get to Hawaii to fly the United Island Hopper. This means my first flight started from Vancouver to Toronto on a WestJet red eye flight. I snagged an exit row seat and had a smooth and comfortable ride across the country. Upon arriving in Toronto, I stopped by both the Maple Leaf and the Plaza premium lounge to score some breakfast.

Toronto to Honolulu

It wasn’t long before I was aboard my second flight of the “day”  to Hawaii. I again was lucky enough to get an exit row preferred seat, so leg room wouldn’t be a problem on this flight. However, its still a 10 hour flight and so by the time I arrived in Honolulu I was pretty tired.

Marukame Udon

After a quick Lyft to my AirBnb, I changed and headed out into the late afternoon, early Honolulu evening.  My first stop would be at Marukame Udon, which I quite liked from a previous trip to Haiwaii. I ordered a cold udon along with one or two tempura items. After being in the air for around 14 hours, and only eating airport and airline food. This was as satisfying a meal as could be!

After scarfing down my udon (and I REALLY did inhale it). I strolled a little around Waikiki, before heading to the Masubi Cafe. There I picked up three masubis for my Island Hopper flight tomorrow. I read that there isn’t much in the way of food service over the flight, so having snacks would be prudent. After picking up my provisions for tomorrow, I headed back to the airbnb for a much needed shower and early sleep.

United Island Hopper

I set my alarm for 3:30 so that I had enough time to arrive for check in for the Island Hopper. I wanted to ensure I had ample time for this. Due to the nature of the flight (one flight number and 5 stops) I’d read that there can sometimes be issues with issuing boarding passes. I experienced this. Not only is the flight slightly complicated, it’s part of my larger complex itinerary and it took the check in agent a good 20 minutes to work it all out and print my boarding pass.

From there I stopped off at the United Club for a little breakfast before heading to the gate. At this point, I started to get excited for what the day had in store. This had been something on my list for quite a while and it was finally here!

Majuro

Soon after boarding, we were off to our first stop: Majuro. The first leg is the longest if you are travelling from East to West at about 4 hours. As we neared Majuro, I started seeing little Atolls in the water. These are beautiful coral reef surrounded Islands and they looked absolutely amazing!.

Right after we landed in Majuro, it started to rain like CRAZY for only a minute. Then after that it got sunny again. Sadly this is also where I learned I wouldn’t be able to deplane at any stop. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus, I learned that all the islands have refused passengers to deplane after landing. Only those that intend to get off the island were allowed off. This really put a damper on my plans, as I’d hoped to get off and try for a passport stamp at each stop . I also wanted to take some photos of the plane and also the little airports. But all of that was now impossible given the restrictions. Regardless I tried to take photos where I could!

With that news coming through, I tried to make the best out of this unfortunate situation.

Kwajalein

Interestingly, Kwajalein is a US military base that is uniquely served by the United Island Hopper. It ferries civilians and other passengers to and from the base. And because it is an active military installation, the flight attendants told us to not take any photos. Only those with written reasons to be there were allowed to deplane.

Nonetheless its actually a very cool glimpse into the differences between a civilian airport and a military installation. Things like different radars and different plans on the ground make for an interesting look.

Pohnpei

Interestingly, my seat mate’s destination was Pohnpei. Throughout the flight we’d struck up a conversation and I learned that this would be her first visit back to Pohnpei after 27 years away. So as the island started to show up in our windows, she started to get pretty excited. Its a lovely island and I really wish her family reunion was a momentous one.

Kosrae & Chukk

Kosrae is the next stop and to be perfectly honest, at this point we were already 6 hours into our flight. While the views from above are spectacular, not being to go out and explore the airport started to wear a little thin.

The last island on our Island hopper journey was Chukk. It’s probably one of the more developed islands on the route and so we picked up quite a few passengers onward to our final destination: Guam.

Guam

After a long 17 hours sitting on the plane (about 14 in the air and 3 sitting on the ground). We finally arrive in Guam. I clear immigration fairly quickly, pick up my rental car and beeline it for my airBnB. I was pooped and really needed a shower before crashing. The next day would be another long travel day before my first stop in Singapoare.

Thoughts on the Island hopper.

Despite the setback of not being able to deplane, I am still glad I got to experience this very unique flight routing. Would I do it again? Probably not. I think once is enough (unless there is a chance to stop and explore each island a little more). But I am still glad I got to do it.  There are some interesting nuances to the flight, some which you won’t see on other planes.

Security Sweeps!

At each stop, a security sweep needed to be performed. This entailed us taking our carry on baggage from the overhead compartments so that the officer could ensure no unclaimed bags were left behind. Once complete we needed to replace our bags back into the overhead bins. We did this at every stop along the way.

Seat Shuffle

There is a shuffle for some seats because new passengers means new issued tickets and some seat changes. Some existing passengers had seats re-assigned for each segment.

Safety Announcement

Five flight segments means five safety videos and announcements. There’s no way around it since each leg is treated as its own separate flight. So near the end I’m pretty sure I could have recited it word for word.

Entertainment (Over and Over again)

Because each flight is treated like individual flights, the in-flight entertainment would restart every time the plane takes off. Because the segments weren’t longer than an hour each time, you would never finish a movie (except for the first leg which was 3 hours). I got really used to the beginning of Charlie’s Angels and Gemini Man.

Food

Prior to this trip I read that food only gets served on the first and last legs of the trip.  So those who have to fly the entire flight should probably come prepared with snacks for the full duration of the flight. I picked up a few masubis which sustained me, but probably would have been starving had I not.

Overall, this flight truly is a test of endurance, and by the end I was exhausted. At the same time, I doubt anyone would purposely do this and not be prepared for it. There are shorter more direct routes to take. That being said, I still am glad for the experience (setbacks and all) and am happy I did it.

Tomorrow will be a full transit day as I make my way to my first “actual” stop: Singapore