Would be hard to overstate the friendliness and se...

Would be hard to overstate the friendliness and service of the staff here. They have really gone above and beyond to make the stay fantastic. In the spirit of trying to support this great hotel and it s employees, here s a quick rundown of what it is like staying here during the pandemic, along with a bit of advice for navigating the Covid test. First, the hotel has gone to great lengths to ensure that care is taken to minimize the risk of Covid exposure. This includes additional sterilization of both in- and out-of-room surfaces that you might come into contact with. On arrival in your room you are also given a kit including a mask, gloves, wipes, etc. In short, they have spared no extra step to insure your safety. Currently there is both sit-down and take out (to your room, around the pool etc) dining available, though slightly fewer options then when the hotel is running at capacity.

Here s a quick primer on getting to Hawaii in the Covid era:
1. Register an account on travel.hawaii.gov and fill out the preliminary information regarding your flight etc.
2. Review the accepted Covid testing partners. I used Vault health and was very satisfied. You can (and should) take the test at as close to 72 hours prior to the departure of your last flight prior to arriving in Hawaii. For instance, if your last flight is 12:00PM on Friday, you should plan on taking the Covid test a few minutes after noon on Tuesday. If using Vault I would suggest ordering your test roughly 10-14 days prior to this. You will need to use zoom during the administering of the test. For me, I was only in the zoom waiting room for about 5 minutes, though it said it might take 30-35 minutes. After finishing the test, I would immediately take it to UPS. Your local UPS distribution center is probably best/most efficient, but otherwise review when the last air service is for the day. You want to ensure that it will arrive in NJ at the testing site by T-48hours or so. For me, my results came back on Thursday morning (in the above scenario). I didn t put any special notations on the packaging, e.g. RUSH or HAWAII TRAVEL, I had read that some people are doing this but does not seem necessary.
3. Download your PDF of the test result and upload to the travel.hawaii.gov website. You should also upload a recent picture, though that may not be essential.
4. Print a copy of the PDF of your negative test and keep it with you when traveling. They want you to show them a hard copy at the airport.
5. Completion of the required forms on the travel website will result in them sending you an email with a QR code. You will need this both at the airport and the hotel. You should take a screenshot of the QR code on your phone for simplicity
6. Expect about an hour at the airport after you land to go through process of confirming your testing. They are retesting a variable amount of people at the airport
7. All of the above are subject to change, but hopefully this may help make you a bit more comfortable in planning your future stay.

Remember that everyone is under more stress than normal. Try not to take out your frustrations on the airport or hotel staff for minor inconveniences.