Jump to content

Early USS Arizona tickets never made available


floatel_lvr
 Share

Recommended Posts

So for months I waited for the date which was two month prior to our visit. At exactly 12:55 Eastern I began trying to book tickets somewhere between 9:30 and 10:45. As soon as the link opened up the only thing available was from 11 AM on into the afternoon. I don't believe the early appointments ever opened up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems a bit unfair (I know, nobody said life was fair... ) that only those available to book the day before get the earlier time slots, if that is in fact what they do. I would have expected them to release some portion for prebook and some for day before for all time slots... but what do I know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That seems odd to have the earliest tickets available at 1100...wonder if earlier time slots are going to tour companies.

 

Several years ago a whistleblower reported abuses with some staff providing tickets to tour companies in exchange for gifts. Hopefully this isn't the reason for the current situation but I don't understand why the earliest available tickets are at 1100. :confused:

 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/27411012/reports-reveal-broader-ticket-problems-at-arizona-memorial

 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/35542648/whisteblower-in-uss-arizona-memorial-ticket-scandal-says-he-was-retaliated-against

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That seems odd to have the earliest tickets available at 1100...wonder if earlier time slots are going to tour companies.

 

Several years ago a whistleblower reported abuses with some staff providing tickets to tour companies in exchange for gifts. Hopefully this isn't the reason for the current situation but I don't understand why the earliest available tickets are at 1100. :confused:

 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/27411012/reports-reveal-broader-ticket-problems-at-arizona-memorial

 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/35542648/whisteblower-in-uss-arizona-memorial-ticket-scandal-says-he-was-retaliated-against

 

Seems like a good scam. Very hard for anyone outside of the organization to have any way to prove anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the ticket handling does need some oversight, but I thought the attitude of the reporter in these articles toward tour companies was a little humerous. Did he really expect a tour company to provide tickets, transportation round trip, and a city and Punchbowl tour after for FREE simply because the PH tickets, MAYBE, you are lucky, can be obtained for FREE from PH direct?

 

The $39 quoted is not much more than a one way taxi to PH and is on the very low end of the scale as far as tour prices in general. ( and yes, I know the Bus is free, but we are not going to waste time on that ). So it's not like they are charging an exhorbitant price. It was well worth it to me to eliminate the uncertainty, will we or won't we get lucky, and the need to jump through hoops, by instead booking with Roberts Hawaii. We had a 1 day window of opportunity, and were boarding a cruise ship in the afternoon. If we had gone the PH direct route, likely we would not have seen PH.

 

Booking a tour seems a reasonable alternative if free tickets do not work out. Was it 4,000+ daily according to the article? And is it any surprise that a big percentage of those people want 9:00 or 10:00 ish? I'm sure demand far exceeds capacity quite frequently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The $39 quoted is not much more than a one way taxi to PH and is on the very low end of the scale as far as tour prices in general. ( and yes, I know the Bus is free, but we are not going to waste time on that ). So it's not like they are charging an exhorbitant price. It was well worth it to me to eliminate the uncertainty, will we or won't we get lucky, and the need to jump through hoops, by instead booking with Roberts Hawaii. We had a 1 day window of opportunity, and were boarding a cruise ship in the afternoon. If we had gone the PH direct route, likely we would not have seen PH.

 

Booking a tour seems a reasonable alternative if free tickets do not work out. Was it 4,000+ daily according to the article? And is it any surprise that a big percentage of those people want 9:00 or 10:00 ish? I'm sure demand far exceeds capacity quite frequently.

 

Which tour did you book for $39, was that Roberts? If we can't get a morning tour in advance I'm going to have to look for other options too. We are in a similar situation where we have one day and I want to get PH done early so we can do other things in the afternoon. We'll have a car that day though, and 4 of us (2 kids) so a tour doesn't really seem worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which tour did you book for $39, was that Roberts? If we can't get a morning tour in advance I'm going to have to look for other options too. We are in a similar situation where we have one day and I want to get PH done early so we can do other things in the afternoon. We'll have a car that day though, and 4 of us (2 kids) so a tour doesn't really seem worth it.

 

$39 is quoted from one of the articles posted, "tours startIng at $39", or something to that effect. I don't recall what we paid for our tour, just remember that it did not seem a lot, and was well worth it to get an early tour. We had no car, so a 1 day rental cost, or a taxi, would have been needed if not for the tour. It was just the 2 of us, and not a family of 4, another factor to consider when booking a tour.

 

If you have a car, the free tickets are probably your best bet, if you can get them. But I dont know how quick the early tours sell out, so I wouldn't wait last minute to try to book one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$39 is quoted from one of the articles posted, "tours startIng at $39", or something to that effect. I don't recall what we paid for our tour, just remember that it did not seem a lot, and was well worth it to get an early tour. We had no car, so a 1 day rental cost, or a taxi, would have been needed if not for the tour. It was just the 2 of us, and not a family of 4, another factor to consider when booking a tour.

 

If you have a car, the free tickets are probably your best bet, if you can get them. But I dont know how quick the early tours sell out, so I wouldn't wait last minute to try to book one.

 

OK thanks, I don't know what he's referencing but it was a few years ago. I've checked all those companies and they start more like $50/kid and $70/adult, and have options we don't really want. I think realistically if we can only get tickets in the afternoon we'll end up doing other things first and may miss PH if we feel rushed. I really want to take the kids there, but its not a full day thing for us. The "leisure" things like Dole, North Shore, Snorkeling fit better in the afternoon and I like to get less "fun" scheduled things done early morning. Also don't want to show up at 7am then get 11am tickets.

 

I'll try at 60 days then again the day before and see how it goes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If 11 AM tickets are the earliest available via online I'm assuming that you can still arrive earlier and see the other areas at Pearl Harbor and then go to see the Arizona at 11. My husband will want to see everything there so we know we will be there most of the day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the ticket handling does need some oversight, but I thought the attitude of the reporter in these articles toward tour companies was a little humerous. Did he really expect a tour company to provide tickets, transportation round trip, and a city and Punchbowl tour after for FREE simply because the PH tickets, MAYBE, you are lucky, can be obtained for FREE from PH direct?

 

The $39 quoted is not much more than a one way taxi to PH and is on the very low end of the scale as far as tour prices in general. ( and yes, I know the Bus is free, but we are not going to waste time on that ). So it's not like they are charging an exhorbitant price. It was well worth it to me to eliminate the uncertainty, will we or won't we get lucky, and the need to jump through hoops, by instead booking with Roberts Hawaii. We had a 1 day window of opportunity, and were boarding a cruise ship in the afternoon. If we had gone the PH direct route, likely we would not have seen PH.

 

Booking a tour seems a reasonable alternative if free tickets do not work out. Was it 4,000+ daily according to the article? And is it any surprise that a big percentage of those people want 9:00 or 10:00 ish? I'm sure demand far exceeds capacity quite frequently.

 

Interesting twist... my tour company advised me to book my own tickets for our group and even suggested what time slot to obtain... although of course it was not available to book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If 11 AM tickets are the earliest available via online I'm assuming that you can still arrive earlier and see the other areas at Pearl Harbor and then go to see the Arizona at 11. My husband will want to see everything there so we know we will be there most of the day.

 

Thats our plan too. We bought the "passport to Pearl Harbor" which includes all the memorials and museums. So we will just see those other places and then go to the Arizona when our time comes. I think it will work out ok.

 

Teanne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thats our plan too. We bought the "passport to Pearl Harbor" which includes all the memorials and museums. So we will just see those other places and then go to the Arizona when our time comes. I think it will work out ok.

 

Teanne

 

Someone on another board mentioned there's a standby line, so if a tour isn't full and you have a later ticket they'll let you on that boat. If anyone can confirm the accuracy of that (it was from 2014) or you see a standby line, that may help you.

 

With the kids I don't see us spending that much time going through all the exhibits on this trip. If it were DH and I it may be different. I really want my kids to see PH and talk about it, but I'm not going to push it with 5+ hours of museum stuff on our first day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If 11 AM tickets are the earliest available via online I'm assuming that you can still arrive earlier and see the other areas at Pearl Harbor and then go to see the Arizona at 11. My husband will want to see everything there so we know we will be there most of the day.

 

Perhaps someone can clarify this, it has always been confusing to me. I have seen it mentioned that you must arrive at PH at least 1 hour prior to your ticket time. So if you purchase an 11:00 am "ticket", is this the time you will actually arrive at PH, and then you will start the Arizona tour at 12:00? Or does that mean your Arizona tour is at 11:00 and you have to arrive at 10:00?

 

 

For our Roberts tour, we had an hour to see the museum and bathroom break before it was our time to line up for the Arizona. ( This is not the Pacific Aviation Museum. ) I did not think I'd like it, but ended up loving it. The Arizona tour starts with a short movie in the theatre and then you immediately board the boat. There are NO bathrooms in the theatre or at the memorial, so make sure you won't need one for an hour or so. Remind the kiddos that this is a memorial, so no loud talk or other disrespectful behavior. You're only out there 20 min or so. Don't forget, no purses, backpacks inside PH. There are lockers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you purchase a ticket for the Arizona Memorial for 11:00, you need to arrive by 10:00 to pick up you tickets, you can arrive earlier if you like. This gives you an hour before your ticket time to go through the museum, use restrooms, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for the advice...I'm going to be calling at 1 PM our time on Saturday for 11-2-17 tickets...hopefully an earlier time will open up that day as we plan to get there early, but do not want to risk that the one day we are there we miss tickets for that day...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had reserved 11:00 online and when we picked up our tickets around 10:00, they were giving walk up people 10:30 tickets. It wasn't too crowded so probably depends on time of year etc. this was last week.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What time does the online option open up for next day tickets? I tried to get them for the day after disembarkation from the POA. I logged on at 8:05 Hawaii time, and they were out. We weren't able to get there early for the "day of" tickets, so we are going to try again next year when we take another trip on the POA with the in-laws. I really need to figure out the best way to get these tickets without dropping lots of bucks to Roberts when we will already have a car.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What time does the online option open up for next day tickets? I tried to get them for the day after disembarkation from the POA. I logged on at 8:05 Hawaii time, and they were out. We weren't able to get there early for the "day of" tickets, so we are going to try again next year when we take another trip on the POA with the in-laws. I really need to figure out the best way to get these tickets without dropping lots of bucks to Roberts when we will already have a car.

Unfortunately you called 1:05 after they were available at 7:00 HST and remember that Hawaii doesn't participate in daylight savings time: 3 hours earlier during the Mainland's DST & 2 hours during ST.

 

Advance Tickets

  • Available online or through the call centre daily from 7AM HST
  • Advanced bookings available 2 months in advance, or for Next Day Tickets

https://www.recreation.gov/showPage.do?name=landing&landing=/htm/pearlharbor/home.jsp&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What time does the online option open up for next day tickets? I tried to get them for the day after disembarkation from the POA. I logged on at 8:05 Hawaii time, and they were out. We weren't able to get there early for the "day of" tickets, so we are going to try again next year when we take another trip on the POA with the in-laws. I really need to figure out the best way to get these tickets without dropping lots of bucks to Roberts when we will already have a car.

 

I logged into the website at exactly 7 am Hawaii time and the earliest available was 11 am. Thats what I heard from a bunch of people on our roll call too. I even logged in and set up my account several days prior to the 60 day time period and still couldn't get anything before 11 am. I "think" they must give those early time slots to the different tour companies-that a rumor I heard. So we're just going to see the other museums early in the day and then go to the Arizona at the end.

 

Teanne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I logged into the website at exactly 7 am Hawaii time and the earliest available was 11 am. Thats what I heard from a bunch of people on our roll call too. I even logged in and set up my account several days prior to the 60 day time period and still couldn't get anything before 11 am. I "think" they must give those early time slots to the different tour companies-that a rumor I heard. So we're just going to see the other museums early in the day and then go to the Arizona at the end.

 

Teanne

With so many reports of tender tickets after 11:00 only being available to book 60 days in advance that rumor seems plausible to me. Any remaining early tour company tickets may be available for earlier next day reservations which as I recall some people have experienced.

 

I haven't gone since the reservation system was implemented but the time listed was for the tender. Besides visiting other PH sites it's probably possible to enter the Arizona Visitors Center prior to the tender time to the Arizona Memorial. Watching the video was previously based on tender ticket time & we went to the gift shop where I purchased a flag with a certificate of when it flew over the Memorial which was on the 61st anniversary of the date that will live in infamy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With so many reports of tender tickets after 11:00 only being available to book 60 days in advance that rumor seems plausible to me. Any remaining early tour company tickets may be available for earlier next day reservations which as I recall some people have experienced.

 

I haven't gone since the reservation system was implemented but the time listed was for the tender. Besides visiting other PH sites it's probably possible to enter the Arizona Visitors Center prior to the tender time to the Arizona Memorial. Watching the video was previously based on tender ticket time & we went to the gift shop where I purchased a flag with a certificate of when it flew over the Memorial which was on the 61st anniversary of the date that will live in infamy.

 

I agree. I also saw that your suppose to pick up your tender tickets one hour before your assigned time which give plenty of time for bathroom visits and going to the gift shop. Is the video related to your ticket time or can you watch the video prior to taking the tender out to the Arizona? I'm a little confused about that.

Teanne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...