After months of researching which of the Hawaiian Islands would best suit our family, we chose Oahu. I travelled with my DH, two sons,(16&10)my sister, 6 year old neice and my husbands sister and husband. I had booked a private housee in Hawaii Kai for our accomadations but for the first night we had to stay in a hotel and this is where our trip started on a bad note!

I had my travel agent book a moderate priced hotel, as we came in late and would only spend a few hours before leaving for our rental house. She booked us into the Ohana Waikiki West! What a mistake. (check my tripadviser report) We were greeted by drunks sitting on the hotel steps, yelling at us. Not the greeting we wanted at 2;30 in the morning, with kids! I wish that was where it ended. It got worse! We got our key, headed to our rooms and opened the door to the ugliest, dirtiest room I've ever stayed at. We stayed positive and knew we'd only be here until the morning. Tried to go to sleep, but yelling and screaming kept us awake. Cranked up the AC(don't you love that to block out noise) As we drifted off around 5:00, we heard blood curdling screams, then about 5 sirens coming down the street. We were on the 7 floor and couldn't determine where they stopped. We found out in the morning! Cops everywhere and a sheet covering an elevator. Went for a quick breakfast. We wanted to get out a.s.a.p!! As we walked up to the elevators, the sheet was lifted on the "crime scene." We got a full view of the blood soaked delevator(as well as the kids) we told the cop standing there we can see in can you coiver it? He rudely replied "it's getting cleaned up!' We got on the elevator to get our suitcases and get the hell out of there. The elevator opens on the 4 floor, where the crime obviously occured. Blood was everywhere. I couldn't believe the hotel wasn't doing anything to stop there gusets from seeing this. I understand an investigation has to take place but atleast do something.

We finally got out of there and told ourselves to forget that happened and to start our vacation as of now! Little did I know that was the beginning of the wierdest vacation we've ever had! I'll report more later.

No, please, NO! Nightmares like this are best kept to yourselves!

joesorce, it's not that bad! We're still smiling amd I still recommend friends to visit Oahu. It's just the most interesting vacation we've ever had and I'm going to share it.

Okay, on with the trip. We headed to our house that we rented. It was raining. At this point we still had hope we'd get sun. It was still 26 degrees, so we didn't complain. Stopped at the grocery store for our week supply of food and drink. Arrived at our paradise rental house and couldn't have been happier! www.avacationrentalhawaii.com for anyone interested. I posted a review of the property on fodors. We were very happy with our accomadations for the remainder of the trip. The kids put on their swimsuits and headed out to the beautiful pool.

The next day we had a Luau to attend at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. We really enjoyed the entertainment, and I got dragged on stage to dance with the male dancers. (I didn't mind) The food was ok, not the best. The only meat we eat is chicken or fish, so we didn't have much choice. My brother in law tried the pork but hated it.

Every Hawaiian we came across was extremely friendly. I'll always remember their hospitality and friendly manor.

The next "disaster" that happened on our trip was the booking of two excursions. They had our shark encounter and dolphin swim mixed up. So, we showed up for the wrong one on the wrong day. No big deal, they were very helpful to arrange us to do our excursions anyway. I learned a lesson there. Always triple check everything. There was 5 adults on this trip and not one noticed this mix up.

The Sea Life Park is small and not much to do there. It was pouring, I mean buckets of rain came down on us as we waited to swim with the dolphins. We were so cold, I nearly backed out of my dream to swim with the dolphins. I have never been so cold in my life and I live in Canada. We all stood in our bathing suits for 25 minutes freezing our butts off. That water felt like 30 degrees when we finally got in. I completely forgot about the cold once we were with the dolphins.

Every beach was contaminated that we went to, because of the flooding. Sewer lines burst, and they had to dump sewer to stop any more lines from bursting. It was depressing. Our kids love to snorkel and were very diappointed. Atleast we had the pool at the house.

Roads were flooding and rivers ran over roads. Flash flood warnings on the radio. Pretty scary since we were on the other side of the island. We made it safely back to the house. Apparantly the road was completely closed just hours after we went through. WheW!!!

Us girls got in alot of shopping, since that's all we could safely do. The kids and husbands hated it.

Last day in Oahu, we decided to visit Pearl Harbour. Another let down. They shut all the tours out to the Memorial down due to rain. So, we went back to the house. The sun started to peek ot from the clouds, so we headed back to the house to work on our non existant tans. We arrive at the house and guess what...it's flooded! So, instead of working on our tan, we call the house owner and start the clean up. Not exactly the end to our vacation we hoped for! Let's just say we were happy to get back to Calgary, where it may be cold but the sun is usually shining!

We took all the unfortunate disasters in stride. We still enjoyed the Hawaiian hospitality and beautiful scenery we saw on our rainy drives. I felt so bad for the residents, whose houses were flooding. I'm glad the sun has returned once again and Oahu can start to dry up.

Well that's all! We're now booking our next vacation for December...Australia!! We can't wait!!

What a crazy holiday (but a fascinating story)! Friends of ours are in Hawaii right now and I hope they're having a better time.

Thanks for posting! It's good to remember that things "can and do" go wrong, even on vacation! Keeps it all in perspective!!!