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Our Hawaiian honeymoon began in the most romantic place in Chicago… the Blue Line to O’Hare.
Yep, you read that right. The morning of our honeymoon began with a sweaty, frazzled ride on the El. Us silly Sparklers thought we could wake up on a Monday morning and just hop on the highway with no trouble at all. Yeah. Right. If you’ve ever tried to get out of Chicago on a Monday morning, you’d know we were kidding ourselves.
Thankfully, Brother Sparkler was our airport chauffeur for the morning, and he quickly rerouted us to the nearest Blue Line. After a panicked climb to the train platform (and me practically getting caught in the train door), we were finally on our way.
Sparkler Hawaii Tip #1: Leave yourself plenty of time to get to the airport. Seriously.
Once we made it to the airport and got through security, Sparks and I had a chance to relax a little bit. We browsed around for a magazine or two, grabbed breakfast and… wait, what’s that? Why are all of those people getting in line? Oh yeah.
That would be our plane. Boarding without us.
Sparkler Hawaii Tip #2: Check (and double check) your boarding time.
The planes that go to Hawaii are BIG. And that means a lot of people are getting on them. While most flights start boarding 30 minutes before take-off, our flight to Hawaii started boarding nearly an hour before we were scheduled to leave. Sparks and I didn’t even think about an early boarding time since we weren’t traveling internationally… luckily, we made it to our seats with (just a little) time to spare.
Nice ring, Sparks!
About to reveal the secrets of the islands
We’re off!
In Review…
United Airlines and Alaskan Airlines are two of the only airlines to offer direct flights to Hawaii from Chicago. If you live in the Chicago area, I highly recommend booking a direct flight. It made our experience so much more relaxing, and we found the ticket prices were comparable to airlines with connecting flights. One thing to remember is that United won’t feed you on flights to Hawaii (as in, they won’t feed you anything for free). They have a lot of snack and sandwich-type items for sale though, all around $5-$10… and there’s lots to drink (as always). If you’re hungry before your flight, you may want to visit the new Rick Bayless torta stand in O’Hare! Yummm!
Also, if you’ve flown United to Hawaii before, you may be familiar with the “Halfway There” game they play. Basically, all of the passengers on the plane can submit their guess (down to the second) for when the flight will reach the halfway point to Hawaii. The passenger who guesses closest to the actual time will win a prize.
Guess who won on our flight?
Next up: Oahu! We’re here!
I used that same book when I went to Maui on my honeymoon! We really liked the section on the Road to Hana because it pointed out how to get to some of the waterfalls. 
I recommend it to anyone going to Maui!
I want to fly to Hawaii on United just to play (and win) that game. I hope your prize was awesome.
What!? I didn’t know about this game. Can’t wait to play that as I am in and out of consciousness on my “flying Xanax” since we are flying from New York w/connections. UGH. Suddenly wish we planned a weekend stop over in Chicago.
I’ve traveled there twice from PA…it was soooo long! And you are right, the planes are HUGE! I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Can’t wait to see your pictures!
When we lived in Chicago, we would try our hardest to fly out/in of Midway instead of O’Hare — even though we lived in Bucktown! The tortas might be enough of a draw, though; we stop at XOCO every time that we are back in town.
Glad that you made your flight!
I second tips 1 and 2! We stayed at a hotel right near the airport, and nearly missed our flight (seriously…as in, three minutes to spare nearly missed our flight!) because they changed our flight time and never told us. And of course, any other time I’d check beforehand, but I wasn’t really able to do that on our wedding night!
Leave enough time for security!
Ah.. I lived on Oahu until just a few months ago. I loved seeing all the newlyweds and always offered to take their pics for them. I’ve never made it to Maui but I hear it is the most romantic of all the islands. Congrats
We had a SUPER stressful trip to the airport for our honeymoon - we also chose to fly direct and in the 3 major NYC airports there is only 1 flight per day from NYC to Honolulu.
Our friends who were driving home from the wedding agreed to take us to the airport, and we thought we were golden on a Sunday morning. Thank god we left as early as we did, b/c once we got closer to the city, the GPS systems all showed red & black lines on the maps, and the highways were not moving. We were sweating bullets. After much debate, our amazing driver jumped off the completely stopped highway, maneuvered us around through NYC and found a super secret traffic-free route back onto the GW Bridge. They dropped us off at the airport with about 45 minutes to spare, fortunately the security lines were not too bad. Turns out there was a bicycle race or something that shut down half the roads in the area. It was harrowing, to say the least!
I can’t wait to hear about your honeymoon! We just booked our honeymoon to Oahu and Maui a few days ago!!
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Mrs. Sparkler, Chicago Age and Occupation: 27, Communications Aficionado Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Publisher Engagement Date: July 21, 2010 Wedding Date: September 2011 Venue: Chicago Illuminating Company About Me: I’m a Southern lady living in the big city of Chicago. Well, lady may be a stretch, but I’m working hard to keep some Virginia charm in our sleek, urban, wedding-palooza! I’m addicted to marathons, not-so-famous bands, Chicago restaurants, and Mark Twain. I cry during SPCA commercials, and I think LOST was the best show to ever hit television. Mr. S and I met at a classy college mixer and, 7 years later, he’s still by my side. He’s the only child, laid back, free spirit... I’m the oldest of five kids, type-A, organizer. It doesn’t work on paper, but we’ve never paid attention to that stuff anyway. Somehow it works. And like they say, sometimes when you know…you just know.
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