Pearl Harbor is Hawaii's largest tourist attraction! Some of it's free and some places do cost a small fee. The first thing I did was start planning my trip. I didn't want any surprises when we arrived. The first (and very important) thing I learned was that even though the USS Arizona Memorial is free, it is very important to reserve your tickets! The tickets are free, but they only give out a limited number each day. I went through a little bit of a panic when I tried to reserve my tickets online a few days before our planned trip and there were none available. After a little more reading though I found out that there are also next day tickets available starting at 7AM the day prior to your visit. I promptly set my alarm for 7AM and I was able to reserve tickets for the family...crisis averted!! Tickets book up quickly, so I suggest getting them early...up to 2 months in advance.
To reserve tickets go online at: www.recreation.gov or call 1-877-444-6777. (There is also 1,300 walk-in tickets available at the Pearl Harbor Visitor's center, but I'm sure those are gone pretty quickly...so I wouldn't recommend taking that gamble unless you have no other alternative. The visitor center opens at 7AM)
We took our rental car there and easily found parking, although it was a good walk to get to the entrance. Once there we headed to the ticket counter and picked up our USS Arizona Memorial tickets and I also purchased USS Bowfin & USS Missouri tickets as well. There is also the Pacific Aviation Museum, but we chose not to partake.
The USS Bowfin
Our first stop was the USS Bowfin. The USS Bowfin is a WWII submarine. We were given audio headphones to use while touring the submarine. Each of the areas had a different number we could punch in and we would hear an audio presentation that pertained to that particular area. The tour was pretty cool I think. You get to walk around the sub at your own pace and see how small and cramped everyone must have been while working on it. It's pretty crazy to imagine!
On the deck of the USS Bowfin
Looking back to the shore from the deck of the USS Bowfin
After the USS Bowfin, we slowly made our way to the USS Arizona Memorial theatre. Each ticket group has a designated time slot for the tour. The start of the tour is actually a 23 minute documentary film inside the theatre. The documentary shows everything that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and then the attack itself. It really set the tone for what we were about to see next.
After the documentary we all gathered onto a passenger shuttle boat to the USS Arizona Memorial.
The view of the USS Missouri from our shuttle boat
heading towards the USS Arizona Memorial
The documentary was great and the memorial is nice, but I wished you could see a little more of the actual ship. The USS Arizona Memorial is placed directly above where the USS Arizona sank. You can see bits and pieces of the ship, but not much. I've seen photos taken from the air and it's pretty amazing seeing the entire ship under water. Unfortunately there is not much to see from the memorial itself. There is a list of names of the crew members that died, that ended up being a little too much for my wife who couldn't stay in that portion too long. It just hit her a little too hard after watching the documentary and knowing that all those sailors died in the ship and are still down there.
The Shrine Room containing the list of names of the
USS Arizona crew that perished
Inside the USS Arizona Memorial
Looking up at the US Flag flying above the USS Arizona Memorial
After a set period of time (plenty of time to take it all in), the shuttle boat takes everyone back to the Pearl Harbor visitors center. We got off and had a little lunch next where the USS Bowfin is located. They sell hotdogs and there are vending machines selling all kinds of drinks. Not the healthiest lunch, but it did the job.
Finally we headed to the USS Missouri Memorial. To get there we had to board a shuttle bus that drove us over to Ford Island. This is the only way to get there as a civilian. The shuttle buses are constantly making a round trip with stops at the Pacific Aviation Museum as well. We got off and headed to the "Mighty Mo".
Walking toward the Battleship Missouri
The USS Missouri was actually located at the naval shipyard in Bremerton where I'm from. I remember as a kid going on the decks and playing around on it. There was a lot of controversy and uproar in the local community as it was "stolen" from us and moved to Pearl Harbor. Even though it sucks that we no longer have it in the Pacific Northwest, I think having it in Pearl Harbor makes it available to a much larger audience. There are a lot more people that see it now than there ever was at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.
Once on the USS Missouri you can choose to either walk around and explore on your own, use an audio device similar to the ones we used on the USS Bowfin earlier, or go on a guided tour. We chose to use the audio devices and just explore on our own. The kiddos took off and I didn't see them again until we where finished. We slowly made our way on deck of the battleship and then went through the inside where you can see where and how all the sailors lived and worked on the ship. It was all pretty cool, although not as many areas to access the audio tour as the USS Bowfin had. It was all interesting...I think if we didn't have the kiddos with us, we probably would have went on one of the guided tours just to hear some additional information.
The big guns on the deck of the USS Missouri
Bunk beds and lockers the sailors had to use...still cramped,
but not as bad as the USS Bowfin!
A room for the higher ranking obviously
Looking out over the big guns to the USS Arizona Memorial
A closer view of the USS Arizona Memorial from the deck of the USS Missouri
All in all the trip to Pearl Harbor was a great trip. I recommend this trip to anyone who is visiting Hawaii. Great to see the history up close and personal.
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