Operating westbound on Monday, Wednesday & Fridays-only from Honolulu to Guam, this week I got to finally experience a bucket list journey on United 154, the famed "Island Hopper"! |
My Boeing 737-800 in the foreground, specially configured for the route and carrying its own on-board mechanic along much of the journey along with extra sets of pilots and spare parts. |
On approach to MAJ, a coral atoll well to the southwest of Hawaii. Downtown Majuro. On the tarmac at MAJ. |
If you're traveling the entire route to Guam, you're allowed to disembark at most of the stops. |
At Majuro there is a transit lounge with a small snack kiosk and a table with a woman selling local souvenirs. I was able to walk into Marshall Island Customs and get my passport stamped. |
Nearly all the stops have you disembark via stairs, allowing you to get up and personal with the 737. The ground time at Majuro is 45 minutes but at the other stops it was just a half hour. |
Numerous atolls dot the Pacific Ocean in these parts. |
The fourth stop was Pohnpei, where we finally experienced some weather. That's the runway over there. |
Unlike the atolls earlier, Pohnpei is ruggedly and beautifully mountainous. |
We now headed northwest to the last enroute stop, Chuuk (formerly Truk) which is also still part of the Federated States of Micronesia. |
It has a famous lagoon for diving, filled with WWII shipwrecks. |
Chuuk has a larger modern terminal. |
These girls from United in Chicago, like me, were also doing the Island Hopper specifically to say they did it. For most passengers though, the flight is a transportation lifeline to the real world. |
4 comments:
Have you ever read the history of all the fighting in the Pacific during WWII?
Just a limited amount of history but I know a lot of these islands were involved.
What happens after Guam...do you repeat the route back to Orlando?
After Guam, connected to the "Manila Hopper" which is a flight that goes to Manila via Koror (ROR) on the island-nation of Palau.
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