Finally I?m posting my trip report. I?m ashamed to say my trip was 7/15-7/31/04. I?d like to thank all the previous posters to this site because we found a ton of great info that made our trip much smoother, cheaper and way more interesting.

We flew Hawaiian Airlines out of Sacramento and we had a very pleasant flight. My husband is 6?2? and although he wasn?t swimming in space, he was comfortable. The food was OK and the service was good, but nothing spectacular. We didn?t rent the headphones but on the way over I wish we had because there was a lot more than just the movie to watch. There were travel-log type shows about Hawaii that looked interesting. One thing though: on the flight home the movie was different but the rest of the videos were exactly the same so unless you want to see both movies you can skip one $5 rental. We had a morning flight from Sacramento and had about a 2 ? -hour drive to get there so we called AAA and asked about park-and-fly hotels and they recommended one for $85 for the night. We would have paid approx $140 for parking alone at the airport and this way we didn?t have to leave at 4:00am, caught the free shuttle to the airport and parked the entire time for free. On the way home they asked that we call as soon as we land so they could get the shuttle there by the time we were at the curb. This worked out perfect.

We arrived in Honolulu at 10:30am local time, grabbed our bags and hopped the shuttle to the Hertz rental counter. We reserved a Ford Focus type car through Priceline for $15 per day but they were out of those so they gave us a Jeep convertible in its place. Woo Hoo! There were only 2 of us so all our luggage fit but we couldn?t have done it with 3 people. We headed out to Waikiki and getting out of the airport and on the right road was very easy. The signs clearly marked the path right into the heart of Waikiki. We stayed at the Radisson Prince Kukio and booked it on Priceline for $55 per night. This was an excellent deal because all my research on the internet and calling the hotel direct only got me a rate of $119. There is a Priceline glitch though; you will get a room on the 4th to 9th floor. If they are not fully booked you can upgrade to a higher floor for $15 to $20 per night but when we arrived they were booked so we got the 9th floor. We were oceanfront though and the hotel is one block off the beach. The only thing in front of us was a 2-story shopping center and the green A-Frame church so although we couldn?t see the sand we had a great view of the water. The room was clean and I found very accurate reviews and posted mine on tripadvisor.com.

We dropped our bags and headed out to spend some time on the beach. The water was warm and the waves calm thanks to a breakwater. We ate a fair dinner somewhere in the complex in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel that was nothing special. I cannot remember the name though but it was on the second level towards the back. We would have loved to eat at the new Cheesecake Factory because that would have been new to us but it was packed!

The next morning we headed out to Pearl Harbor. We arrived at 7:45am and were given tickets to the 9:00am boat. It was a remarkable day. We skipped the $5 CD and headphones narrated by Ernest Borgnine and decided to read the information instead. We just liked the idea of quiet. The film made me cry but I wasn?t the only one and then we headed on the boat to the Arizona Memorial. They give you about 20 minutes there and that was plenty of time to take some photos and reflect a bit. Everyone was quiet so it seemed very respectful. I had been on the USS Bowfin, the WWII era submarine next to the Arizona before so we skipped that but I would recommend it. They also had lockers there for $2 to stow your bags, as the Arizona will not allow any bags in the complex. While you are waiting for your Arizona boat trip there is a gift shop and snack bar. If you have a long delay before your boat and you decide to see the Bowfin you can go through the submariner museum while you are waiting. We also took the trip to the USS Missouri (all out of the same parking lot) and if you have the Entertainment Book the $17 ticket to the Missouri is free. That alone pays for the $15 purchase and shipping fee for the book.

We headed back into Waikiki where my husband decided he wasn?t a huge fan of Waikiki. Too busy, crowded and touristy. I guess that is what I love about it though. See my post here: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?screen_name=lahainaluna&fid=1
Anyway, he headed up to the 10th floor pool for some quiet and I headed to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and happened on the beginning of the historical tour. I loved this and attended the tour of the Moana Surfrider tour the next day. I loved the historical perspective and saw a side of Waikiki that existed long ago.

We shot up a ton of photos and filled up our digital camera cards. You can either visit a K-Mart self-serve kiosk and download your entire photo card to CD for $3.99 or in the heart of Waikiki you can go to Rita Camera and they will do the job for $7.99. Either way it frees up your photo card.

The next morning we headed out at 7:00am for the hike to the top of Diamond Head. This is something suggested by Fodor?s posters and they were sooo right. We left Waikiki and headed through Kapiolani Park toward the ocean side of Diamond Head. From there we followed the clearly marked signs to the parking area in the crater parking area. The hike up took less than an hour and if you take several stops along the way anyone could make this hike. The last part had a very short hands-and knees crawl out through an old WWII pillbox lookout to the most incredible view in the world.

We then headed out to the Pali Lookout. What a view! This is a popular spot and I had been there several times but had never followed the old road. Once you are at the lookout if you head out to the right you can walk down the road that was built just after the turn of the century and can find some beautiful plants and even better views. Just keep in mind that the longer you go down, the longer you have to hike back up. It is so compelling to continue on the path down.

We had an early take-out dinner from Cheeseburger-in Paradise. 2 burgers and 1 order of fries for $23 were just OK. The next day we headed out to the trip around the island.