norwegian wind - Pearl Harbor?

[referee]

we're sailing on march 11 from honolulu..ship leaves at 8pm...dont know when plane arrives yet...we would love to visit pearl harbor before cruise...does it pay to fly in a day earlier and stay at a hotel overnight?any information would be very helpful...thanks:)

[electricron]

I would, just to help defeat jet lack alone. When you add the fact that it's best to get to Pearl Harbor early to reserve a seat on a boat to the Arizona memorial, it's a requirement!

[KeystoneCruiser]

we're sailing on march 11 from honolulu..ship leaves at 8pm...dont know when plane arrives yet...we would love to visit pearl harbor before cruise...does it pay to fly in a day earlier and stay at a hotel overnight?any information would be very helpful...thanks:)

 

It is all but impossible to fly in, see Pearl Harbor and make it on board your ship in one day.

 

Pearl Harbor begins handing out the free tickets for the trip to the Memorial at 7:30 a.m. and they are usually all gone for the day by 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. My last trip to Pearl Harbor, we got there at 7:45 and had tickets for the Memorial at 9:45 a.m. By the time we were boarding they were handing out tickets for 3:00 p.m. trips and when we got back about 11, they were gone for the day.

 

So even if you get a ticket, it would be later in the day you may not get off the memorial tender until 5:30 p.m. which may not put you back to the pier until after 6:00 p.m. You would most likely miss the muster drill and therefore have to give up some of your free time later in the week to make up for the legally required drill.

 

 

Since most incoming flights to Honolulu don't arrive until after noon, I stongly suggest either a pre cruise stay of 2 days in order to see all of what Honolulu has to offer and then get to the ship earlier to avoid the crowds. Like Electricron said, it also helps with jet lag. My first cruise to Hawaii, we didn't do it and we could hardly stay awake for the sail away party. Took us a couple of days to get into Hawaiian time.

[NCmom]

We flew in the night before I cruise, and crashed as soon as we arrived. Woke up at 5:30 am, and got to Pearl Harbor at about 8; then we took the rental car back and caught a shuttle to the ship, boarding about 3. Worked great for us.

[spirit rev]

We have just arrived home from the Dec. 28th sailing of the Wind. We arrived on Monday late afternoon before a Wednesday sailing. We did see the Arizona Memorial and a drive by tour of some of the sites of Honolulu on our way to the pier through an NCL tour. We met others on our cruise that way and standing in line to get our tickets gave us a chance to get to know each other.

 

Another good reason to arrive a day or so ahead is so that you can pre-sign in for the cruise. That way when you arrive at the pier you have a much shorter line to stand in as you prepare to board. You will hve already had your picture taken and all your information entered into the computer. We found that to be a great time and energy saver. To pre-sign-in you can go to the NCL office in the Wakiki Marriott. (This is different than the booked passengers registration you need to do ahead of time.)

 

Yet another reason is to reduce your chances of missing the boat. There were some who had not arrived in time for the sailing. They had to join us in our first port of call--Hilo.

 

Have a great cruise. We did.

[p2lockhart]

We arrived 2 days before our 11/26/05 cruise. By the time we arrived at the Marriott Waikiki Beach Hotel, it was already 5 pm and we were exhausted. We managed to stay up 'til about 9 pm so we could walk along the beach.

 

We got up early so we could get to the Arizona and get our tickets. We still were not able to get seated until the 10 or 10:30 seating due to large busses of kids that had arrived before we did.

 

With 20 people, I would suggest renting vehicles to get to the Arizona instead of taking the shuttle.

 

We were back to the hotel by noon by not taking the shuttle and getting a ride with someone else.

 

We spent the rest of the day touring the island.

 

We were on the 11 night cruise that stops in ports every day for the first few days, so I cannot imagine how anyone (unless perhaps you live in CA) who does not arrive 2 days early can fully enjoy the first day or two of the cruise.

[referee]

decided to take your advice....will fly into honolulu 3/9.....any body have any hotel ideas that wont cost an arm and a leg.....marriott waikiki where ncl has their office has a lowest rate of $229 per night....yikes!!!!!:confused:

[cecilterwiliger]

We did this last year. We arrived 2 days early and booked the Home of the Brave Tour http://www.pearlharborhq.com/. It picks you up on Waikiki at a specific hotel. This is the grand tour and well worth it. A small van (thus small group) picks you up for this custom tour of most of the sites relating to that day. It is a full day tour, and stops for lunch at an o club (you pay a modest fee for that, well worth it). It takes you first to the Arizona and you have first in line tickets to the memorial. We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, not fancy but clean and adequate for our purposes. They give you softsided personal coolers (one for each adult) and for breakdfast they have stations with food that you can eat by the pool, on the beach or back in your room. It was a nice selection and you can take all that you can stuff into the generous bag. We had 3 (one teenager) with us and had more than enough. It is across the street from the beach and has a Wolfgang Puck's Express with very nice food (reasonable for Waikiki, we found 2 meals fed the 3 of us) right in the buiding. We were able to sit and watch the sunset every night on the beachwalk, so that was nice too. Our Travel Agent booked through Happy Vacations and that included vouchers to the ship as well. We called as we docked (from our cells) and the same driver was there to meet us on Christmas morning, which was nice. This is an older hotel, not fancy, but served the purpose and we really only used it to sleep, as the tour lasted all day.