We departed from Dulles on the 23rd, spending Christmas Eve at Haneda Airport before arriving at Guam early on Christmas Day. We spent the day mostly at the beach in front of the Westin where we stayed but ventured out to see the new Don Don Donki as well as to have lunch.
Departure
We actually saw this new IAD display the last time we flew out from here. At the time, it wasn’t decorated! While there’s plenty to complain about with Dulles, it sure beats going to Newark like we did last time for our trip to Switzerland!
The Polaris Lounge has gained some winter decorations!
We left home early as we weren’t sure if there was going to be any rush hour traffic this morning. It is a Monday but its also the day before Christmas Eve. It wasn’t busy at all and we made good time. We were pretty hungry so headed right to the restaurant for breakfast. Generally, the breakfast options aren’t as good as the dishes available during the rest of the day. But we were happy that the omelette weren’t overly greasy as they have been here in the past!
We found some chocolate covered coffee beans off to the side in the seating area after we left the dining room. Have these always been here or are they new?
One thing that was new was that the buffet’s hot items were only available upon request. That probably makes sense as it is never busy here in the morning!
Soon, we were on our way! Lunch onboard was pretty typical for United’s Polaris meals.
They did have a special sundae option for the Christmas season! It consisted of chocolate ice cream and toppings as well as marshmellows.
Later on in the flight, we had instant noodles as well as the hot mid flight snack. We ended up being rather full and skipped the pre-arrival meal.
Haneda
After arriving at Haneda, we went right to the ANA Lounge. The highlight of ANA’s Tokyo lounges is the noodle bar. We had udon as well as ramen. A very nice taste of what is to come later on in this trip!
We also enjoyed some of the other food offerings. While ANA’s regular lounges don’t have restaurant style dining, their limited buffet options are definitely superior to the buffet items available at United’s Polaris Lounges and United Clubs.
We had plenty of time to use the shower facility at the lounge!
After spending about five hours in the lounge, it was time to head to the gate. This ended up literally being the furthest gate possible from the lounge! United’s flight from Haneda to Guam is new as previously the flights between Tokyo and Guam were all out of Narita. Unlike the pre-pandemic era where some flights were operated by 777-200s, these flights are all operated by 737-800 aircraft.
Guam
After take off, we declined meal service and tried to sleep as much as possible for the approximately three hour and thirty minute flight. After arriving and re-entering the US, we picked up our luggage and our rental car from Avis, which ended up being a Toyota Corolla Cross.
We then drove to the Westin where we will be staying for one night. We arrived around 5am. It was still dark out and there was pretty much no one around. We passed by this Christmas display before finding the front desk. The hotel was pretty busy so we were not able to check in, however, we left our bags at the hotel and were offered breakfast at the buffet when it opens at 6:30am.
We ended up driving over to Skinner Plaza to see if the Christmas display was illuminated. Unfortunately, it seems they do turn it off late at night! We ended up returning to the Westin.
We decided to go to the beach in front of the hotel. Although I’ve stayed here before, it was ten years ago so I didn’t quite recall the best way to get down to the beach! We talked to the front desk agent who we had talked to earlier and she suggested we try taking the scenic route down. So, we headed outside where there was a walkway that overlooks the beach and the ocean.
It was still completely dark out though so we didn’t see much other than the illuminated swimming pool below! Guam is also humid all the time so the camera lens fogged up when we went outside.
It turns out that there are many, many steps to get down to the beach from here! The humidity tends to make everything wet, or at least damp, so we walked down carefully.
We found a #Westin sign on the beach! We could also start to see a bit of light in the sky.
The Westin is near the east end of Tumon Bay where the beach and most of the resort hotels are located. Looking to the west, we could see some of the other hotels on the west side of the bay.
It slowly started to get brighter outside. We decided to stay for sunrise, at around 6:40am, before going in for breakfast buffet.
The Westin as seen from the beach. The hotel opened in 1997. The building is definitely showing its age at the moment.
This was about as good as sunrise got today. Just a hint of pink in the sky.
The breakfast was excellent with many options! We’re glad we were able to try it as we will be leaving very early tomorrow morning.
After breakfast, we went outside and sat on the beach. Although we did bring swimwear, it was in our luggage and we weren’t sure when our room would be ready so we didn’t really want to go into the ocean.
As we watched a couple learn how to paddleboard, we saw a beautiful rainbow appear in the background!
About an hour later, the rainbow turned into an extremely bright double rainbow! This was about as good as rainbows get!
The rainbow changed in brightness and visibility but as far as rainbows go it lasted for a very long time! There were also gradually more people on the beach and more people enjoying the ocean. We did end up wading into the ocean a bit, though didn’t go too far in. The beach here at Tumon Bay is extremely shallow with an extremely gradual slope down and is well protected from waves so its easy to just walk out into the water without getting too wet!
We decided to drive over to the new Don Don Donki which just opened in April. This large store is part of Don Quijote, a Japanese discount store chain. Wikipedia mentions that the Don Don Donki branding is for some of their stores internationally as there was already a Don Quijote when they first expanded to Singapore. This store here in Guam is part of the Village of Donki which also includes various restaurants within the building.
Although we’ve been to Japan many times now, we’ve never been to a Don Quijote before. The first time we heard of this chain was actually in Honolulu when an Uber driver mentioned liking the location in Honolulu!
The store is huge! There is a huge variety of items as well as a pretty large souvenir section.
As Don Quijote is a Japanese chain, there are of course many Japanese products. There are also other regional selections like these products from Taiwan.
We also spotted a pretty large Jinro frog!
We wanted to get something to eat but unfortunately most of the restaurants were closed in the Village of Donki as it is Christmas! We tried to drive to a few places but they were all closed as well! We decided to return to the Westin and walk around the tourist area as we saw that there were places open there.
We ended up eating at Uomaru, a Japanese restaurant near the Westin. Historically, Guam has been popular with both Japanese tourists so we figured this would be a good option. It was OK although the portion sizes were much larger than expected!
After lunch, went to Boong’s Cafe, a Korean dessert shop that is basically next door, which sells taiyaki with ice cream. Guam is also popular with Korean tourists so again, this seemed like a good choice! We got matcha ice cream with a red bean taiyaki. The matcha was pretty bitter but not overly sweetened. The red bean was red bean.
We returned to the Westin and discovered that the Christmas display in the lobby includes snow! It was a pretty neat and actually somewhat realistic effect!
Our room still wasn’t ready by check-in time but after talking to the front desk we were finally able to check in. Although the building is showing its age, some of the rooms like this were partially renovated in 2021.
The bathroom was old and dated and needs a complete overhaul.
A welcome note and a small container of cookies greeted us on the desk.
The view from the balcony was wonderful! We went back to the beach, this time with our beach gear on!
We returned to our room before sunset, taking some time to clean up.
We watched as the sun went behind some clouds right above the horizon.
Soon, it was pretty dark and we could see the illuminated Season’s Greetings sign at the airport terminal!
We went upstairs to the lounge to see what the evening offerings were. It is extremely busy due to high occupancy so we had to reserve a time slot when we checked-in earlier today. It turned out to be as terrible of a lounge experience as can be. It was completely packed and was basically a zoo and they ran out of silverware. The food wasn’t particularly great but at least there was a good selection of bite-sized dessert items.
We didn’t spend too much time in the lounge. We returned to our room to repack and to get ready for an early departure tomorrow morning.