Yeah, yeah, hate us because we’re in Maui, AGAIN. This time our karma must not have been good, as we had a series of mishaps as soon as we landed at Kahului. The door to the plane was stuck or the jetway wouldn’t extend, so we were stuck for about half an hour in the aisle. Then the car rental went really smooth, except that Avis gave us a bigger SUV than we’d hoped for, although their Preferred Express service is AWEsome. I couldn’t reach anyone at the condo who could tell us what our unit number was – I did the booking through Expedia, and that’ll be the last time I do that; I never received anything about what unit number we had, or what the after hours checkin procedure was. Turns out the office here closes REALLY early, so I wasted a lot of time listening to Expedia’s annoying “dotCOMMMMMM” greeting while I tried to reach someone that knew something.  It took at least half an hour or more to get in touch with the local island-based rep, who worked from home.

Finally got the instructions for opening the keybox, and walked in to find a cold, air conditioned unit…. that had unmade beds, packages of uneaten snacks on the counter, and a refrigerator that still contained food. Also, bags of trash on the counter as an extra treat. Oddly, only the twin beds in the back bedroom were unmade, the master bed was made up.

Called the rep, who promised to get the housekeeper. Waiting. More waiting. Called the rep, who at first didn’t remember that I was her problem child in a dirty unit. She couldn’t locate the housekeeper, and after some more waiting, she told us to go to another unit, on the 6th floor and much more in the area of the building that I originally wanted – farther from the street, ocean front. We walked in, and realized – it wasn’t air conditioned, but was very clean and recently updated. More palaver. Meanwhile, we had a lot of food in the car and had already brought up the most perishable stuff to stick in the first fridge, and  now in the second fridge.  We called again and I laughed with the rep rather than decide to be an “irate” and say things like “this is unacceptable, we paid a lot of money yadda yadda.” She offered us yet another unit and admitted that there had been some sort of problem with our unit, and someone had decided to move us, but had failed to advise her. The “new” unit was another older unit in the noisy, streetside end of the condo building, and there’s a lot of traffic noise here. So we passed on it and are in the “second” unit.

We decided to stay in the new hotness instead of the cold and busted.

We enjoyed a fine repast of Hawaiian deli items like ahi poke, lomi salmon, poi, the works. Yes, we actually like this stuff, and Safeway’s deli has it all. It’s our favorite way to settle in the first night, since we’re usually tired and don’t want to go out, and don’t want to cook. The last few times we’ve been here (and what a luxury and even a blessing to be able to say that) we’ve stayed mostly in the Kihei area, so we stop off at the big Safeway up on Pi’ilani Highway.

We’ve got some more revelers arriving in a few days, so Monday morning first thing I’ll be talking to the “regular business hours” property rep to make sure the second condo is right the first time.

Whew, that beer and my meal is kicking in… must… sleep… now…..Zzzzzz

Via: Flickr Title: welcome to maui By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 15 Sep ’07, 9.59pm CDT PST