Pearl Harbor Tour

[tripletsmama]

For those who have been, which tour did you book? Looking on the recreation.gov website, I'm seeing 2 options. One is the narrated tour of the USS Arizona ($7.50), and the other is the 8-9 hour tour of the Arizona, Bowfin Sub Museum, Missouri Memorial, and Pacific Aviation Museum ($55). This seems like a huge difference to me. We have already reserved a private sitter for DS1 for the day, so he will not be with us. However, we will have three 9 year olds with us. Which tour is recommended? The 8-9 hour tour sounds like such a long day! Thanks for any input from those who have been.

 

[SuperRob]

We did the Arizona tour. There's a movie, then they take you out to the Arizona by boat, and you get to explore the memorial before they bring you back. Absolutely worth the money, and I say that having been against doing it at first.

But go early. The Pearl Harbor memorial gets very busy later in the day.

 

[Dizzy4DL]

We did the Arizona tour. There's a movie, then they take you out to the Arizona by boat, and you get to explore the memorial before they bring you back. Absolutely worth the money, and I say that having been against doing it at first.

But go early. The Pearl Harbor memorial gets very busy later in the day.

I agree with SuperRob. I would do the shorter tour. I can't imagine taking kids on the longer one.

 

[tripletsmama]

We did the Arizona tour. There's a movie, then they take you out to the Arizona by boat, and you get to explore the memorial before they bring you back. Absolutely worth the money, and I say that having been against doing it at first. But go early. The Pearl Harbor memorial gets very busy later in the day.

So you did the single tour that just included the Arizona? Did you feel you missed anything in skipping the other sites? I guess I am a little unclear on what all is available to see and do.

 

[abdgeek]

For those who have been, which tour did you book? Looking on the recreation.gov website, I'm seeing 2 options. One is the narrated tour of the USS Arizona ($7.50), and the other is the 8-9 hour tour of the Arizona, Bowfin Sub Museum, Missouri Memorial, and Pacific Aviation Museum ($55). This seems like a huge difference to me. We have already reserved a private sitter for DS1 for the day, so he will not be with us. However, we will have three 9 year olds with us. Which tour is recommended? The 8-9 hour tour sounds like such a long day! Thanks for any input from those who have been.

When I did Pearl Harbor while staying at Aulani I did it on my own because I didn't want to be rushed. As an OP said, get there early. While tickets to the Arizona are free, they are timed. I got there at 8:30am and the earliest I could see the Arizona was noon. That worked out fine for me because I got tickets for the Bowfin and Missouri. The Bowfin has the sub you can go in and the museum. You have to take the shuttle to the Missouri and the Aviation Museum because they are on base. I felt kind of rushed on the Missouri because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss my time for the Arizona, but if you look around on your own it shouldn't take much time(lots of stairs and small areas). A tour comes with the ticket, but it appeared that the tour guide only did the top deck of the ship.

I really enjoyed the Bowfin and museum and I'm glad I did it. However, I only spent about 15-20 min at the Arizona and caught the next boat back. In total, I spent about 6-8 hours at Pearl Harbor. I'm glad I did it on my own!

Make sure and read the website before you go. You can't take any bags into the site, that includes camera bags and purses. They say lock them in your trunk, but they also have a few lockers. I just put what I absolutely needed in my pockets(money, phone) and carried my camera in my hand.

 

[JWG]

We did the all inclusive tour (Arizona, Bowfin, Missouri and Air Museum). We didn't spend 8-9 hours there, that's just the operating hours of the location.

We were the first boat out to the Arizona (8am), so we had to be there at 7am (we did this early in the trip, day 2, so getting up early was still easy due to time change).

We really liked this tour because it also included the self guided audio tour (which is done by Jamie Lee Curtis). We found the audio to be very informative. Our timeline was:
6:30 - arrived (traffic lighter than expected)
7:00 - gates open / get tickets and audio equipment, do audio tour
7:50 - line up for Arizona
8:00 - watch movie about Arizona
8:20 - board boat to Arizona
8:30 - Arrive at Arizona
8:45 - Head back from Arizona
9:00 - Finish audio tour of Arizona and other areas
9:30 - Have a hotdog and Pineapple Crush (hey, can't get that in MN)
10:00 - Board the Bowfin
10:30 - Shuttle to Missouri
11:00 - Board the Missouri
12:00 - Shuttle back to the Arizona site
12:30 - On our way back to Aulani

We chose to skip the air museum, but I found the Missouri to be fascinating (and the Bowfin to be interesting as well).

And, we were back at the resort just after 1:00pm. And, we did all of this on 12/23, the busiest week of the year. So, it doesn't have to be an 8-9 hour day.

 

[Ln42]

I thought the audio tour was a must. Its flexible. It works throughout all the areas of PH. You can even skip info to shorten it or to just focus on what you personally are interested in. All the areas have numbers on them, each section of a museum has a number. If you want to know more, you punch in the number to your audio tour equipment and it tells you about it.

We also just went on our own. We did everything. I think we took 6 hrs to do it and yes, we went early. Also, book your Arizona time online. It costs like a buck to make a reservation and its well worth it. You select the time.

I would skip the air museum if you have been to others and they are not critical to your experience. We thought it was interesting but small and could have been skipped.

Nine year olds with an interest in history will do fine. If they are less interested, I would put the Arizona tour/boat ride in the middle to break things up. Its very moving and a must.

Tip- its very hot there. Make sure you use your sunscreen and have some drinks available. Also, they don't allow bags to enter so plan to check them into a locker or leave them behind.

Enjoy! It was a great day for us and I hope you find it to be as moving as we did.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Tour is a little bit of a misnomer (from the price your quoting it's apparent you'll be driving) - certain parts have guides, others have audio and you also are able to go on your own. The only thing that will be time specific is the Arizona memorial part and the rest is at your own pace.

Another option is to pay ala carte - so get the Arizona memorial tickets and then decide once you're there if you want to tour any of the other attractions there.

I've been over to the Arizona memorial 4 times - the first time I was 9 - and done the Bowfin twice (submarines fascinate me) and we also toured the Missouri last year but ran out of time to do the aviation museum so that will be another trip. As a youngster I liked it everytime we did a museum type tour and would have happily done so at Pearl Harbor if they had all the museums then that they do now but I've always had an interest in history and particularly WWII.

Last Dec we spent the majority of the day at Pearl Harbor which included a special harbor tour that is only offered a couple of times a year. It was a long day but enjoyable - kind of reminded me of how I feel after a day at WDW.

 

[jekjones1558]

Tour is a little bit of a misnomer (from the price your quoting it's apparent you'll be driving) - certain parts have guides, others have audio and you also are able to go on your own. The only thing that will be time specific is the Arizona memorial part and the rest is at your own pace.

Another option is to pay ala carte - so get the Arizona memorial tickets and then decide once you're there if you want to tour any of the other attractions there.

I've been over to the Arizona memorial 4 times - the first time I was 9 - and done the Bowfin twice (submarines fascinate me) and we also toured the Missouri last year but ran out of time to do the aviation museum so that will be another trip. As a youngster I liked it everytime we did a museum type tour and would have happily done so at Pearl Harbor if they had all the museums then that they do now but I've always had an interest in history and particularly WWII.

Last Dec we spent the majority of the day at Pearl Harbor which included a special harbor tour that is only offered a couple of times a year. It was a long day but enjoyable - kind of reminded me of how I feel after a day at WDW.

Kathy, I have not been to Pearl Harbor for a long time but am going with my sister soon. We already have Arizona tickets. I keep reading about tour options and am getting more and more confused. Do the audio headsets work for Arizona, Bowfin and Missouri, all at one price? Do we rent them where we check in for Arizona? I am thinking that we will do ala carte, probably try to do Bowfin and Missouri but skip air museum.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Kathy, I have not been to Pearl Harbor for a long time but am going with my sister soon. We already have Arizona tickets. I keep reading about tour options and am getting more and more confused. Do the audio headsets work for Arizona, Bowfin and Missouri, all at one price? Do we rent them where we check in for Arizona? I am thinking that we will do ala carte, probably try to do Bowfin and Missouri but skip air museum.

You get different sets at each location. At the Arizona Memorial depending on which ticket you bought you might have already paid for the audio tour and you pick up the head sets right by the location you get the tickets. Or you can add it on once you're there. The Bowfin is adjacent to the Memorial complex and has a little ticket booth where you can pay to either enter just the museum or to do both the submarine and the museum and you get a different audio set. Tickets for the Missouri are sold at the AZ Memorial complex but a different desk than where you pick up your Memorial tickets. You take a bus over to the Missouri which is moored off of Ford Island and I believe that was where we picked up the audio or could have just walked around with the map. I'm a little fuzzy on that because I feel like there was narration on the bus over to the Missouri but I may be confusing with the additional Historical tour we did. The complex is much more extensive than it used to be and very nice and it all becomes clearer once you arrive. If you already know you don't want to visit all then you should just buy the additional tours once you're there or they might even let you "upgrade" if you realize you'd like to see them all but I am speculating on that. With us we thought we'd visit all so bought the pass to all 4 and they would have let us upgrade it to allow a second visit within 7 days had we decided we wanted to come back but we ended up being to happy lounging around Aulani so we didn't.

 

[jekjones1558]

You get different sets at each location. At the Arizona Memorial depending on which ticket you bought you might have already paid for the audio tour and you pick up the head sets right by the location you get the tickets. Or you can add it on once you're there. The Bowfin is adjacent to the Memorial complex and has a little ticket booth where you can pay to either enter just the museum or to do both the submarine and the museum and you get a different audio set. Tickets for the Missouri are sold at the AZ Memorial complex but a different desk than where you pick up your Memorial tickets. You take a bus over to the Missouri which is moored off of Ford Island and I believe that was where we picked up the audio or could have just walked around with the map. I'm a little fuzzy on that because I feel like there was narration on the bus over to the Missouri but I may be confusing with the additional Historical tour we did. The complex is much more extensive than it used to be and very nice and it all becomes clearer once you arrive. If you already know you don't want to visit all then you should just buy the additional tours once you're there or they might even let you "upgrade" if you realize you'd like to see them all but I am speculating on that. With us we thought we'd visit all so bought the pass to all 4 and they would have let us upgrade it to allow a second visit within 7 days had we decided we wanted to come back but we ended up being to happy lounging around Aulani so we didn't.

Thank you. Because DSIs has never been to Hawaii and we will only be on Oahu for 5 days, it is hard to prioritize. One day will be sucked up by Polynesian Culture Center. I actually got Arizona tickets for 2 days and we will decide which day works better once we get there. DH and I haven't been to Oahu for years so it will actually be fun to do things that I haven't done for a long, long time.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thank you. Because DSIs has never been to Hawaii and we will only be on Oahu for 5 days, it is hard to prioritize. One day will be sucked up by Polynesian Culture Center. I actually got Arizona tickets for 2 days and we will decide which day works better once we get there. DH and I haven't been to Oahu for years so it will actually be fun to do things that I haven't done for a long, long time.

It was similar for me - since the mid-70's I really hadn't spent more a day or two on Oahu so our trip last Dec was very nice to revisit lots of sights I hadn't seen in a very long time. We even left a few things for subsequent trips since as I mentioned we found we really liked just relaxing at the resort and also spent some time visiting with friends. Now we have to go back!

 

[tripletsmama]

Thanks for all the recommendations and clarification! We have never been to Oahu, or Hawaii for that matter, so everything is new to us! I think I'll book the audio tour of the Arizona and then we'll add on when we get there if we see the kids are doing well.

The earliest time available for the tour on the day we want to go is 10:00. Everyone keeps saying arrive early. Should we plan to arrive at 9? 8:30?

Thanks again!

 

[Anal Annie]

We have done (and will do again) the longer tour for $55-ish that includes the USS Missouri tour. On some of my earlier trips to Pearl Harbor the Missouri wasn't there. Since it was there in 2006 (the last time we went to Hawaii) we included it and it was fascinating. But DS was only 10 and I am not sure what he remembers so when we go back this summer he will be 17 and we will do it again. The free Arizona tour is a MUST do. I cannot go to Hawaii and not go. It is very moving and beautiful. When we did the USS Missouri last time I think we were there for a total of about 5 hours. We will plan to go early (tour at 9:00ish) and then probably go into Waikiki for lunch afterward. The website says to arrive 1 hour prior to your scheduled tour time so if your scheduled time is 10:00 you should plan to arrive for your tour by 9:00. If you do not arrive an hour ahead then they can (and will) give your tix away to walk-ups that show up that day. That is where those walk-up tix come from. Note that even tho you have a time there will be a LONG line to get in. Another reason to arrive early.