Pearl Harbor Tour Questions

[NancyDVC]

I am planning now for our October trip. Thanks to tips on this board I set up an account on recreation.gov so that I can sign up for tickets as soon as my 90 day window opens.
Now for my questions:
Has anyone done the audio tour?
Do you have to reserve the audio tour when you reserve tickets for the U.S.S. Arizona?
Or can you just reserve the tickets and decide to pick up the audio tour when you get there?

Thanks in advance for any tips you may have.

 

[mathgeek]

You can actually book them only two months before you go.

Sorry, I don't have any other info than that. I just booked my tickets yesterday so haven't gone yet. But there is a spot to book the audio tour, so I think you can reserve that ahead of time too.

 

[twinboyz98]

We are going to Pearl Harbor on May 19th. We have reserved the audio tour. I will report back after our trip.

 

[margot31]

My husband and I just went yesterday and it looks like you can get the audio tour once you get there from what it was looking like.

 

[DCPhotoGal]

It looked easy to get the audio tour when you get there. We booked a 9am tour, arrived a little before 8am, and there were no lines to purchase the audio tour. When we were leaving it was more crowded.

 

[cmph]

The Go Oahu card I bought specifically states "No reservation needed for the audio tour but reservations are highly recommended for the shuttle boat". I wouldn't think that would only apply to the Go Oahu card, b/c that would be awfully confusing for the staff.

I reserved our tix for the Arizona a few weeks ago, and there was no prompt or option to add the audio tour, so I'm not even sure if it's possible to pre-pay for it unless you're buying some larger package/tour. It was literally entering a date, finding a time that had enough space that you wanted, and then on to the credit card payment.

 

[NancyDVC]

According to www.recreaion.gov there is a place to reserve either just the tickets for the tour or the tickets with the audio tour. I believe that you prepay the audio tour at that time. I haven't gone through the entire process yet because I am too far away from my trip in October.

FYI I just posted some information on a new thread "Pearl harbor FYI June, 2016" about there being no access to the Arizona from June 13-26 because of the dock being dismantled, removed and replaced.

Thanks for the info. I am looking forward to the report about the audio tour.

 

[DixieDelights]

I just went a couple of weeks ago and I think what you are actually paying for online is the audio tour. The memorial itself is free. Either way, the audio tour is really great and interesting!

 

[NancyDVC]

Thanks for the feedback about the audio tour. Being a history nerd I think I may go for that.

 

[Silver Queen]

We were there last Sunday and purchased our audio tour tickets for the Arizona the day before online. We tried to book our tour online a couple of weeks before we left home, but almost all of the tours for the week were gone. Additional spaces in all tours are offered online the day before. We got online last Saturday and sure enough we got exactly what we wanted, 10:00 am. The traffic on Sunday morning was very light and we had a great experience. If you get the audio tour it also comments on many of the spots and artifacts onshore including the museum. So glad that we got the audio tour. It's well narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis.

 

[NancyDVC]

Thanks Silver Queen. I will try at the 60 day window and if not then try the day before. I think that the audio tour is the way to go for us.

 

[disneydork]

I read in one tour book that open toed shoes are not allowed on the Pearl Harbor tour or on the Arizona. Has anyone found this to still be the case? Not sure if it was old info or if it still applies. Anyone know?