Pearl Harbor Tickets

[sasha]

Hi! Today is our 2 month mark for our first trip to Aulani. Woo Hoo!!! I have a few questions regarding tickets to Pearl Harbor:

1) I had heard the tickets are free, but the website is showing $65 for the tour. Maybe I went on the wrong website? Anyone have the correct website to get free tickets?

2) Is there a "best day" to go? I had heard the day after we get there would be good since we'll be up super early (California time), but that will be on a Sunday. Is Sunday a good day to go? I heard traffic is horrific, so maybe Sunday would be best. Thoughts?

3) Will we get enough out of the "free tour" just going to the USS Arizona? I'm a homeschooling mom, so it's really important that everything we do is educational. I ordered a bunch of books from the library so my girls will know all of the facts before we get there. But just wondering if it's enough. Hope that makes sense.

4) Lastly, and most importantly, if we do go on a Sunday, tomorrow will be the 2 month mark. What time and where do I get the tickets?

TIA!!

 

[Cinderella94]

I haven't been yet and just started researching yesterday, but in that time I've read a ton of trip reviews and have seen multiple times that Sunday is a great day to go because there's no traffic!

 

[sasha]

Phew! That's good to know. Thanks!!!

 

[Cinderella94]

Phew! That's good to know. Thanks!!!

No problem! Well, maybe I shouldn't say "no traffic," but definitely much less than a weekday. Hopefully someone will chime in with the rest of your answers!

 

[lizard1]

2) I went on a Sunday and the traffic getting there wasn't bad. However, I went the day before the monument closed for construction and the line to get in was horrible as was the parking (we had 8 a.m. tickets).
1)I would definitely reserve the tickets ahead of time because by the time we got up there to pick ours up (everyone waits in the same line regardless of whether or not you have tickets reserved) they were giving out tickets for the middle of the afternoon. My kids wouldn't have wanted to wait around that long just to go out to the Arizona. You get the tickets on recreation.gov. There should be a $1.50 convenience fee per ticket for just the tour of the Arizona. There are other locations available such as the Missouri and Bowfin submarine if you are interested and the website also has tickets for those.
3)The way the tour works is that they first have you go in and watch a movie about what happened. So that part is educational. Then you take a boat over to the memorial and view it for about 15 minutes before you are ushered back aboard the boat and back to where you came in. The 15 minutes is long enough to look at everything since the memorial area isn't that large. I had enough time to take plenty of pictures. I think there were some free things you could look through, but my kids had no interest in it so I didn't have us do it.
4) I think the tickets are available at 6 or 7 Hawaii time. Make sure you have an account at recreation.gov before trying (you can set it up tonight). There is also a maximum number of tickets you can get at one time, maybe 5 or 6....I had to do 2 parties of 5 and we ended up with different times because they have only 20-30 tickets available per hour and not for all hours. It will give you an email that you can print with a bar code at the top. That is what you need to pick up your tickets when you get to Pearl Harbor.

 

[ehrawn]

Hi! Today is our 2 month mark for our first trip to Aulani. Woo Hoo!!! I have a few questions regarding tickets to Pearl Harbor:

1) I had heard the tickets are free, but the website is showing $65 for the tour. Maybe I went on the wrong website? Anyone have the correct website to get free tickets?

2) Is there a "best day" to go? I had heard the day after we get there would be good since we'll be up super early (California time), but that will be on a Sunday. Is Sunday a good day to go? I heard traffic is horrific, so maybe Sunday would be best. Thoughts?

3) Will we get enough out of the "free tour" just going to the USS Arizona? I'm a homeschooling mom, so it's really important that everything we do is educational. I ordered a bunch of books from the library so my girls will know all of the facts before we get there. But just wondering if it's enough. Hope that makes sense.

4) Lastly, and most importantly, if we do go on a Sunday, tomorrow will be the 2 month mark. What time and where do I get the tickets?

TIA!!

Check the specifics on a $65 tour of the Arizona Memorial. You are paying for something other than the tour (bus transportation, USS Missouri, USS Bowfin, Pacific Aviation Museum), because the Arizona is free. In fact, there are no tickets to visit the shore side site. Tickets for the boat tour to the memorial, itself, are first come/first serve. You don't "need" to pre-schedule tickets. I prefer to arrive 15-30 min before opening at 0700 and get the standby tickets. As long as it isn't a special event day, such as Dec 7th, you will be fine. I wouldn't try to drive from Aulani on a regular work day in the morning, but Weekends and school holidays will have minimal traffic. There are plenty of resources on the site for it to be a full educational experience. More than, likely a survivor will be on the site in the morning.

 

[ktlm]

Sounds like you are on a tour guide's page, not the official government page. This is where you reserve tickets 60 days in advance:

http://www.recreation.gov/showPage....&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369&page=memorial

I would absolutely reserve them in advance. You can get your specific time doing that. There are only 1300 held back to hand out on the same day. Depending on the time of year and events in the area, we have heard those can be hard to get. It is a drive from Aulani too. The tickets start being handed out at 7:00 a.m. Then, depending on where you are in line, that determines your time. I have heard of people getting in line at 6:30 and then getting a noon or one o'clock time. That is fine if you are staying in the area, but Aulani is quite a distance and you may not have planned to spend the majority of your day there. It really is a matter of luck. When we researched it, I read reports of people who got in line before 7:00 a.m. and the tickets were gone before they got up to the front and reports of people who got there at 10:00 a.m. and had no trouble getting tickets, sometimes even not having to wait that long for their tour. If at all possible, I would reserve ahead to avoid the risk. If they are already gone for your day, I would be there early if at all possible. If you can't be there before 7 (I know with my family that would be about an impossibility during vacation), then just go knowing there is a possibility you will not be able to get tickets, but that there are plenty of other things to see.

 

[Pooh2]

We got tickets for two different mornings since they are only $1.50. That way, in case of weather we would have a back up day.
When we got our tickets online, the earliest Arizona tickets were for 8am. We arrived for opening and got the tickets changed to the first boat out. Glad we did as it was so hot that day.

 

[crystal1313]

I recommend creating an account ahead of time to purchase the tickets as well. Saves time and the tickets go fast!! We reserved 2 months in advance and got 9am. I think tickets go on sale at 7am Hawaiian time.

 

[sasha]

4) I think the tickets are available at 6 or 7 Hawaii time. Make sure you have an account at recreation.gov before trying (you can set it up tonight). There is also a maximum number of tickets you can get at one time, maybe 5 or 6....I had to do 2 parties of 5 and we ended up with different times because they have only 20-30 tickets available per hour and not for all hours. It will give you an email that you can print with a bar code at the top. That is what you need to pick up your tickets when you get to Pearl Harbor.

Thanks so much for all of the great info, but especially this! I set up an account last night and it made it so much easier when getting the tickets this morning.

 

[twodogs]

The $65 tickets you were seeing may have been the Passport to Pearl Harbor, which we did in June, and includes USS Arizona, Bowfin, Missouri, and Aviation Museum, plus the audio tour for USS Arizona museums. For us, it was well worth it to be able to do it all as much as we wanted that day. My parents actually used their Passports to come back another day later in the week and see it all again (it is $10/person to add an extra day to the Passport). It is also booked through recreation.gov, not a tour company.

 

[sasha]

Thank you ALL for answering my questions!!

I was on the wrong website initially. I went to recreation.gov this morning at 7am Hawaii time and was able to get the free tickets for the 8 of us. It was easy peasy thanks to all of the great advice I got here!

 

[sasha]

The $65 tickets you were seeing may have been the Passport to Pearl Harbor, which we did in June, and includes USS Arizona, Bowfin, Missouri, and Aviation Museum, plus the audio tour for USS Arizona museums. For us, it was well worth it to be able to do it all as much as we wanted that day. My parents actually used their Passports to come back another day later in the week and see it all again (it is $10/person to add an extra day to the Passport). It is also booked through recreation.gov, not a tour company.

I would love to do this tour eventually. I think I'll wait until my children are a little older, but it sounds incredible!

 

[twodogs]

Agreed. Mine are 8 and 10, and it would have been too much. They stayed back at Aulani with the sitter.

 

[kaseyC]

How far in advance can you book the tickets?

 

[sasha]

How far in advance can you book the tickets?

2 months

 

[ljcrochet]

How far in advance can you book the tickets?

2 month, but you can also get them online at 7 am local time the day before you want to go.