End cliffhanger.
Cut to black screen with word: LOST
Cue sound: {clang}
Go to commercial.
If you watch the TV show “Lost”, you will understand this segment. If not, then you will probably be lost. The TV show is filmed on Oahu, so we decided to take a tour of the scenery and locations for the show. This was an independent tour that we heard about after we were already on the ship, so we didn't do any advance research. Libby called son Keller and he set it up from home. We didn't know what to expect, except that we chose the one with 2 miles of walking rather than 4 miles. We were to meet at the Hula Dancer statue outside the Aloha Tower at 8:30 am.
Our time with Immigration and Border Patrol was to be from 7:30 to 8:30, so we got in line at 6:30 because we were worried about being able to make it on time, expecting long lines and bureaucratic delay. I was shocked. The process was fast, pleasant and professional! A Frenchman in line told me that Immigration has been using Disney-type training for customer service. Bank of America did that too, some time back, so I believe it. The results are a great improvement from the way it was in the “old days”. So, we got to the dancer statue about an hour early.
The tour van arrived exactly on time and off we went. That was when we discovered that it was to be us, just us, and Tom, the tour guide. We had a great private tour.
Much of the filming is in Honolulu and in the near environs. We didn't go to the north coast for the beach and camp scenes – that was on the longer tour that included 4 miles of walking. It was fascinating to see how they used ordinary scenes to simulate scenes in Seoul, London, Iraq, Thailand, etc. Perhaps the oddest was taking a street in Hawaii and filling it with shaved ice to simulate a snowy night in London.
At the end we were pretty well worn out. There was a 700 foot climb up a mountain, a walk through the rain forest and a trek through downtown. We saw a lot of the local scenery and a considerable part of the island. Even without the “Lost” connection, it was a really good tour. Keller did a wonderful job picking a tour to make a memorable day.
We were back on board just in time for dinner at 5:30. We missed all the night time entertainment as we were in bed fast asleep by 8:00 pm.
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