June Vacation - Any one else worried

[stagmite]

We’ve pretty much resigned to the fact that we won’t be travelling to Oahu at all this year. Hawaii, like here in Australia, is doing the best they can to minimise the spread of infection on their island. At least Australia is a country and can actually stop people from entering - Hawaii being a state is still going to have mainlanders who think it’s their right to cross the border. I know that there was at least one mainlander (from Vegas) who alongside an Australian visitor who were subject to a manhunt when they continued to flaunt Oahu’s restrictions leading to an eventual deportation. Fingers crossed Hawaii‘s officials maintain a strict stance to minimise the impact the disease will have.

Sorry but it is their constitutional right as the freedom of movement through the US is governed by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution which states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." This isn't the Mexico and US border. The last time I checked the mainland and Hawaii were part of a union called the United States of America. This doesn't excuse people's behavior for breaking the law by ignoring the quarantining, but I don't like it when people seem to think the island of Hawaii belongs to only a select few people that reside there and anyone visiting must feel grateful to be allowed to even visit as if we are foreigners in another country. I'm sure you leave your state all the time and you don't even think twice about feeling grateful for being allowed to do so.

 

[kyton]

Actually no, here in Australia our state borders have just been closed (although restrictions will be reduced over the coming months). You want to travel you needed a permit for most states and even then you had to quarantine for 14 days.
So yes it may be your “right” but for the greater good, sometimes that right is not the correct choice.

 

[stagmite]

Actually no, here in Australia our state borders have just been closed (although restrictions will be reduced over the coming months). You want to travel you needed a permit for most states and even then you had to quarantine for 14 days.
So yes it may be your “right” but for the greater good, sometimes that right is not the correct choice.

That's fine for you to say if something is a good idea or not. I won't deny that it's not a good idea to be a tourist in Hawaii right now, but Australian restrictions for rights to cross state borders means nothing to Americans in the US. We have our own constitution so any US citizen has the right to visit Hawaii, move to Hawaii or live in Hawaii. What we don't have the right to do is break the law such as not self quarantining for fourteen days, but breaking the law in Hawaii isn't an exclusive thing done only by people from the mainland. Hawaiians break the law everyday, they don't have anymore or less rights compared to anyone else from the mainland.

 

[kyton]

Yes it is my opinion and one that comes from visiting Oahu close to 30 times since 1992 and striving to always do the right thing by the island and it’s people. Visitors will bring in infection - that is an undeniable fact. The other fact is that Hawaii is so far removed from the mainland which creates delays in receiving treatments and therefore burdening their supplies.

So yes you have the right to go but your trip may have a far reaching impact on more then you and your family. And that is all I am saying people should keep in mind when deciding if it’s the best choice.

 

[Sepo]

The narrative of how it is reported in Hawaii plays a part too. Somewhat us-them. I still read their local news a fair amount as we are trying to plan for the summer and it matches the sentiment CorgiMonster shared.

Before the shutdown, of 35,000 daily visitors, over 5000 were from Asia, the majority from Japan and Korea which were affected in the early weeks of the virus. And granted, 6X more from all over the mainland with potentially more asymptomatic carriers. The irony of it all was that on the mainland, we were more afraid of picking it up in Hawaii. Hawaii, like most places, was not testing (as most states weren’t) to know, except in very specific scenarios. Many sincerely believe that their confirmed numbers (617 as of 4/30/20) are their true numbers. This seems unusually small for where we are at the end of April. If we ever get to a place where we are doing more random population samples to detect antibody rates, my money would be proof of higher exposure per capita (which is actually a good thing long term) relative to states without high travel traffic. But whether it was 617 or 6170, it has now slowed there.

Regardless, their current narrative seems to be ‘we’ve stopped it just in time; Let’s not reopen too soon without watertight precautions’. Whereas for the mainland, our narrative is, ‘it’s slowed down, prepare for a new long term normal as we otherwise try to gradually get back to some semblance of life.’

The governor and Lt governor have advocated for frank testing of all passengers (which I do not believe is pragmatic). Regardless, this is all playing into the sentiment there. They do have the luxury of being protected by thousands of miles of ocean. I cannot blame them for exploring it as an advantage.

 

[Aussie RJ]

 

[thedogatemyhomework]

it isn't just about some kind of "us vs them" kinda thing...a lot of it comes down to some numbers that are quite simply put...bad...

oahu alone likely has over a million people on it...and yet when they first published official numbers...only a little over 550 ventilators in the state...that wouldn't have lasted new york a day...well maybe the first few days...

if a visitor were to get very sick in hawaii (even if they infected 0 other people)...there is no way to redirect patients to other states...and even if they sent a navy hospital ship over...it wouldn't get to hawaii for at least a week...so every sick tourist has a much much bigger impact on hawaii than other states...and of course the "quickness" in federal aid getting to puerto rico makes people feel very "confident" that help would be sent early enough. there are several military bases...so it hopefully wouldn't be that bad...

theres also the additional problem where the only 2 ways to get to hawaii involve what are basically the 2 most dangerous forms of travel for now...airplane...and ship...getting to any other state you can drive...(for alaska you'd have to drive through canada...so the border may be an issue...but you could still drive.). technically you could walk/bicycle/etc. as well...but in many cases thats just not really reasonable.

there really aren't that many that believe that the official number of cases are all there is...its still not too easy to get a test...and hawaii seems to have gotten quite a few faulty test kits.

 

[3kidz4dis]

We are supposed to go the end of June to July. I am waiting to pull the plug if Hawaiian Air cancels so we can receive a full refund as plans for next year will be iffy. We used 2018 bank points and since Disney is only allowing banking of 50% we would need to switch to a 1 bedroom or shorten our stay. I mean if Hawaii does open, the vacation will be full of canceled experiences, take out food, social distancing

 

[Alyleth]

We were scheduled to renew our vows for our 20th mid-June. We have 8 people and got a grand villa with banked and borrowed points to get it for 10 days. I am fully expecting to have it cancelled. We wouldn't meet the 14 day quarantine requirements anyway. Our flight won't be cancelled that I know of, because Hawaiian added flying out of Seattle to their current itineraries. So we'll end up getting a voucher instead. I'd much rather have the cash right now, but I know we'll be back to Aulani sometime in the future anyway. It's all the points and what to do with them that I'm worried about at this time. We have 2 cruises on the books next year, and I'd love to be able to throw some points at that if possible. I know it's a horrible use of points, but they'll need to be used, we can't do an additional vacation in 2021, and I'd rather not do RCI.

 

[3kidz4dis]

We were scheduled to renew our vows for our 20th mid-June. We have 8 people and got a grand villa with banked and borrowed points to get it for 10 days. I am fully expecting to have it cancelled. We wouldn't meet the 14 day quarantine requirements anyway. Our flight won't be cancelled that I know of, because Hawaiian added flying out of Seattle to their current itineraries. So we'll end up getting a voucher instead. I'd much rather have the cash right now, but I know we'll be back to Aulani sometime in the future anyway. It's all the points and what to do with them that I'm worried about at this time. We have 2 cruises on the books next year, and I'd love to be able to throw some points at that if possible. I know it's a horrible use of points, but they'll need to be used, we can't do an additional vacation in 2021, and I'd rather not do RCI.

Refunds
Full refund without fee or penalty is allowed if:

• New arrival at destination or new departure from origin is greater than six (6) hours earlier or later than the original time.
• New itinerary requires changes to any of the following:
  • Origin or destination airport, except for co-terminals in the Bay Area (SFO,OAK and SJC) and Los Angeles Basin (LAX and LGB)
  • From HA Mainline to ‘Ohana.

All refunds must be processed through the ticketing source.
For partially used tickets, call your local HA reservations number for assistance in calculating the remaining value.
Mark the PNR with this OSI and the affected flight and date:

• OSI HA SKED CHG FLT/DATE

I was looking at this and hoping it fits in this: So because Seattle was added these refund requirements wouldn't apply?

 

[Alyleth]

Refunds
Full refund without fee or penalty is allowed if:

• New arrival at destination or new departure from origin is greater than six (6) hours earlier or later than the original time.
• New itinerary requires changes to any of the following:
  • Origin or destination airport, except for co-terminals in the Bay Area (SFO,OAK and SJC) and Los Angeles Basin (LAX and LGB)
  • From HA Mainline to ‘Ohana.

All refunds must be processed through the ticketing source.
For partially used tickets, call your local HA reservations number for assistance in calculating the remaining value.
Mark the PNR with this OSI and the affected flight and date:

• OSI HA SKED CHG FLT/DATE

I was looking at this and hoping it fits in this: So because Seattle was added these refund requirements wouldn't apply?

Correct, refund would not apply because a) the regular schedule doesn't seem to have changed, and b) the origin and destination airports haven't changed (Still Seattle/Honolulu). I will say, however, that I do not know what their "normal" flight schedule out of Seattle was. Did they have a morning/afternoon/and evening flight scheduled? If the new schedule varies by greater than 6 hours the above says you can get a refund.

 

[corgi_monster]

Correct, refund would not apply because a) the regular schedule doesn't seem to have changed, and b) the origin and destination airports haven't changed (Still Seattle/Honolulu). I will say, however, that I do not know what their "normal" flight schedule out of Seattle was. Did they have a morning/afternoon/and evening flight scheduled? If the new schedule varies by greater than 6 hours the above says you can get a refund.

I don't remember the exact flight times, but there were at least 3-4 flights from Honolulu to Seattle on Hawaiian airlines everyday. My sisters live in Seattle and I took these flights frequently. I believe there were two morning flights, another mid-day flight that routed through OGG and a red-eye.

There were several daily flights from Seattle to Honolulu. I'm not sure if it makes a difference but at least one of the flights routed through Maui. The earliest departed sometime around 8:30am and the latest one was sometime between 4pm-6pm.

 

[frank808]

We are supposed to go the end of June to July. I am waiting to pull the plug if Hawaiian Air cancels so we can receive a full refund as plans for next year will be iffy. We used 2018 bank points and since Disney is only allowing banking of 50% we would need to switch to a 1 bedroom or shorten our stay. I mean if Hawaii does open, the vacation will be full of canceled experiences, take out food, social distancing

You mean DVC is only allowing members to borrow 50% of their points. Have not heard about any restrictions on banking of points.

 

[3kidz4dis]

You mean DVC is only allowing members to borrow 50% of their points. Have not heard about any restrictions on banking of points.

Yes...I mean borrowing...no I havent heard. And the only reason I would need to borrow is because I would loose my bank 2018. So it makes a vacation I paid for with points, I would now have to pay 50% cash

 

[Disney_Fan_01]

For those who are waiting for June opening, I just got an email from kaanapali beach hotel in Maui that they are planning to open on July 1. This is not 100% certain as it is subject to the governors response, but that’s their plan. We had rescheduled our trip from late May to Dec back in March as we didn’t think it would be open in May, which happens to be the case. Looks like entire month of June may be a no go

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

Should I assume my mid-July stay is a no-go?

 

[Disney_Fan_01]

Should I assume my mid-July stay is a no-go?

If things open up then July is a better option that late Fall if a second wave hits and shuts down everything again. No one knows what can happen. If all of Hawaii is open then it’s a personal decision if you feel safe traveling. Easier to maintain social distance in Hawaii than Disneyworld.

 

[CamColt]

Should I assume my mid-July stay is a no-go?

We are scheduled to arrive July 13th, Aulani the 14th-18th, then a cruise until the 25th. I am not expecting for this to happen at this point.

 

[thedogatemyhomework]

with some of hawaii being given the greenlight to re-open (but with restrictions) it seems likely that going into june/july time frame a somewhat decent amount of things may be at least partially functional.

I would anticipate things like hanauma bay, and diamond head to probably still be shut down (or possibly operating on a strictly limited capacity). pearl harbor would be much much more up in the air as that would depend a lot more on whatever decision the military decides to make...or is forced to make. many of the smaller restaurants have already decided to call it, and shut down for good...so even if they can re-open it seems unlikely that there will be anywhere near as many options.

the part thats going to really make things complicated is that with flights still being allowed, and a trickle of tourists still deciding to come despite the 14 day quarantine...if a flight hasn't already been cancelled...it may not be cancelled at all...so for those who are hoping for a cancelled flight to get a refund...not looking so good...

it also seems unlikely that the visitor quarantine will be lifted in the foreseeable future...georgia's gamble seems to not be paying off based on early results...and california had to walk back some of the beach openings they tried because of crowds. given that the conditions in mainland states may get worse...and asia appears to not be faring much better...it may also be possible that stricter measures are implemented.

 

[counselormom]

with some of hawaii being given the greenlight to re-open (but with restrictions) it seems likely that going into june/july time frame a somewhat decent amount of things may be at least partially functional.

I would anticipate things like hanauma bay, and diamond head to probably still be shut down (or possibly operating on a strictly limited capacity). pearl harbor would be much much more up in the air as that would depend a lot more on whatever decision the military decides to make...or is forced to make. many of the smaller restaurants have already decided to call it, and shut down for good...so even if they can re-open it seems unlikely that there will be anywhere near as many options.

the part thats going to really make things complicated is that with flights still being allowed, and a trickle of tourists still deciding to come despite the 14 day quarantine...if a flight hasn't already been cancelled...it may not be cancelled at all...so for those who are hoping for a cancelled flight to get a refund...not looking so good...

it also seems unlikely that the visitor quarantine will be lifted in the foreseeable future...georgia's gamble seems to not be paying off based on early results...and california had to walk back some of the beach openings they tried because of crowds. given that the conditions in mainland states may get worse...and asia appears to not be faring much better...it may also be possible that stricter measures are implemented.

Thank you for posting. I hope you won’t mind a few questions, we have Aulani booked mid -July. I want to make sure I understand, are you saying that tourist attractions may be partially open but there will still be a 14-day quarantine for tourists in June and July? I can’t imagine many would go, regardless if things are open, if you have to spend the entire time in your hotel room? When do you anticipate the quarantine being lifted. When I spoke with Aulani they were sure they would be open June 1st.