The Great Adventures of Dole

Three years ago, our son discovered his best friend while we were on our vacation in Hawaii.  On that trip, we visited the Dole Plantation and found a special little monkey that we name "Dole."  Dole has been with us just about everywhere we've gone since that trip.  He accompanied my son to church for a few months, he went to the mall, Grandma's house, on vacation to San Antonio, and he even accompanied us back to Hawaii this year. My son literally can't sleep without Dole.  (Below are pictures of Dole at a museum, Dole at Christmas, Dole with the new baby, and Dole at nap time.)

 

 

On our trip to Hawaii, something bad happened to Dole.  On our 2nd morning there, my son informed me that Dole was missing.  We looked, and looked, and looked for the little monkey everywhere, but we couldn't find him.  We ultimately decided that Dole must have disappeared when the hotel maids changed the sheets on our little guy's bed. (Dole gets lost in the sheets at home all the time.)  We contacted housekeeping and the lost and found at the Royal Hawaiian to no avail.  It appeared that Dole was gone forever.

My husband had "the talk" with our son.  He explained that Dole had gone to be with Jesus.  At first, our little guy was thrilled.  He said that if Dole was with Jesus then maybe Dole would finally be able to walk!  Unfortunately, after a few hours, the realization set in that if Dole had gone to be with Jesus, we wouldn't see Dole on earth again.  Then my little guy was sad.

Two days later, we visited the Dole Plantation again.  Much to our relief, they had bins and bins of monkeys. (We can probably thank my father-in-law for that, but that's another story for another time.)  We convinced our son to adopt a new Dole, since so many Doles needed a new home. And for the record, we purchased 3 Doles this time--one for each child, and one to play back-up if necessary.  On the way home, our son seemed perplexed with the Dole situation and we explained that it's possible that his Dole had escaped the hotel and had gone to visit his family at the Dole Plantation.  While there, he got himself a makeover.  This story must have been convincing, because our little guy kept asking his monkey, "Dole, how did you get out of the hotel?"

  

At this point, our vacation went off without a hitch.  And we ended up flying home with our new Dole(s).  But about a week after we got home, the phone rang and the caller ID said The Royal Hawaiian.  When my husband answered, the man informed him that they had located the real Dole who had indeed escaped with the housekeeping and had been sent to the contract laundry service.  Somehow, he had been found and our hotel identified him as ours.

A few days later, there was a package on our front porch addressed to our son.  Inside, the real Dole was wrapped in fancy Royal Hawaiian tissue paper and a big pink bow.  When I saw it, I'm pretty sure I did the happy dance.  What hotel actually takes the trouble to locate a 3 year old's lost monkey?  Apparently Starwood's Royal Hawaiian Hotel really does take customer service seriously.  And quite possibly they've just won over loyal customers for life.  Why would we want to go anywhere else when this hotel goes so far as to take care of our children and their stuffed animals?

So now my son sleeps with the old Dole and the new Dole.  And they lived happily ever after.