Booking Pearl Harbor tour dates

[ericstac]

when we went, we just showed up early and got in line.. it went fast and got tickets with only a small wait which gave us free time to walk around. It is actually better to do an early time because the wind kicks up frequently as the morning goes on and they stop taking boats out.

 

[Jmmdls1]

New to planning for Aulani..what website are we talking about for this tour?

 

[Pete W.]

New to planning for Aulani..what website are we talking about for this tour?

https://www.recreation.gov/showPage...arbor/home.jsp&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369

 

[ebenmax]

when we went, we just showed up early and got in line.. it went fast and got tickets with only a small wait which gave us free time to walk around. It is actually better to do an early time because the wind kicks up frequently as the morning goes on and they stop taking boats out.

We have reserved tickets for 11:00 but would really like earlier. What time do you need to arrive for an earlier time slot?

And if you are staying at Aulani what time do you leave to get to Pearl Harbor due to traffic?

Thanks!

 

[ericstac]

We have reserved tickets for 11:00 but would really like earlier. What time do you need to arrive for an earlier time slot?

And if you are staying at Aulani what time do you leave to get to Pearl Harbor due to traffic?

Thanks!

Wow it was 2 years ago lol... I know we rented a car from Alamo and we went down there about 15 minutes before they opened, so about 6:45, got the car asap and went straight there and made it before it opened and were about 100 in line.. went by fast.

 

[pjacobi]

Thanks for the tips. I successfully booked my tickets exactly 2 months in advance. I bought them at 1:00 PM EDT and the rest of the advance tickets were sold out in just a couple hours.

-Paul

 

[kyton]

We've just returned and I took our 11yo for the first time. We had my husband drop us off at 7.05am, we were approx. 180-200th in line and managed to get tickets to the 7.45am boat. In hindsight I really recommend going much earlier - whether you have later tickets booked or not. We got there at 7.05am and didn't leave until after 2pm - that was spending time at every site so we could look at as much as possible.

 

[Pete W.]

Agree with suggestion to go early. We arrived last Thursday at ~10am and our tickets were for 12pm. Parking availability was terrible and we ended up parking by the marina which is past the Pearl Harbor lots. We also didn't get a chance to dock at the USS Arizona Memorial due to high winds so we just circled and took pictures. I understand this happens periodically and is more likely to occur later in the day as winds increase.

 

[Toreby]

I'd like to add a little trick to booking tickets. There's one of those "I'm not a robot" verification's where you have to click on "All the area with cars/windows/signs' etc. Some of those can be annoying and I sometimes have to attempt a couple of times to get it right. If you do a dry run a few minutes before, it'll display a msg saying you can't book until 1 PM EDT, but you won't have to confirm you're not a robot again. These ticket go fast. A few min past 1 PM EDT and all but 2 tickets were gone for the entire day.

 

[NancyDVC]

You can book tickets 24 hours before and there are walk up tickets which usually go early in the day. The walk up tickets will probably be for a later time. Remember to check the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument (the name for the entire site including the U.S.S. Arizona, the U.S.S. Missouri, the U.S.S. Bowfin and the Aviation museum) page on Facebook as well as on the NPS site. They will list changes and special events that may impact your visit.
At your scheduled time you will be let in to the theatre for the orientation movie. Then when you exit the theatre you will go out and board the boat for the trip to The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The boats are run by the U.S. Navy and crewed by Navy personnel. Yes they are sailors even though they look like they are 12 years old! And yes this is part of their dutiy assigmnment. At the memorial itself you will have time to walk around and take pictures etc. There are National Park Service Rangers and volunteers there to answer questions. You may bring flowers/leis to leave in the memorial room where the names of those lost and those whose ashes have been placed there are listed but absolutely nothing may be tossed into the water! The boats maybe canceled in case of inclement weather which is most often wind. High winds make it unsafe for the boats to carry visitors. The Navy makes this decision not the NPS.
Give your selves plenty of time to visit the entire site. There is a lot to see and experience. We foudn having the audio tour to be very helpful. It is a digital player with headphones and you just enter the number of the stop you are at and it plays the information. You do not have to do the stops in any particular order.
We were fortunate to meet 2 Pearl Harbor survivors when we went. They were sitting outside the gift shop and were very welcoming. The survivors may be from different military backgrounds and were stationed all over Oahu.

 

[kyton]

Nancy, I think the walk up tickets may be for earlier times? I was there two weeks ago at 7.05am about 200th in line - my ticket was for 7.45am

 

[NancyDVC]

Kyton, The tickets at walk up depend upon availability. If all the early tickets are booked then only later tickets are available. So if all the early tickets have been booked online then only later tickets are available. It also depends on how busy it is. I have seen posts from the NPS when all the tickets for a particular day were taken and nothing was available for walk up. More often than not the tickets available at walk up are for later in the day.