Visiting Pearl Harbor - Question?

[teamfour]

We disembark from the POA around 9 or 10 in the morning. Our flight leaves at 5:50PM. Do we have time to see Pearl Harbor? We don't want a tour, so what would be the best way to get there? Should we go to the airport and check our luggage and then take a taxi to PH? Or leave our luggage at the pier, take a taxi to PH, return for our luggage, and then take a taxi to the airport (whew!)?

[spleen93]

Yes you have time to see Pearl Harbor but expect that it'll take the entire time that you have. You'll most likely be able to get off the POA around 10-11 am, then figure in time to get to Pearl Harbor and then WAIT at Pearl Harbor.

 

You may also want to check with your airline if they'll let you check your baggage that soon in advance of the flight. Some recently have mentioned success in doing so but the general rule is that they won't take luggage earlier than 3 hours prior to the flight.

 

Which means, you may be forced to put your luggage into storage at the pier, then take a taxi to PH and then take one back, get your luggage, and then go to the airport. The easiest way to do this is going to be taking the ship offered tour but since you don't want to do that, your options do get somewhat uglier ...

 

Spleen

[beachchick]

I don't think you can check your luggage that far in advance anymore. I remember seeing a sign that said no more than 3 hours or so before departure. Also, before you check it, you have to go through the agricultural inspection and bag check. This can take quite some time. They didn't have curbside check last trip, but that was only a few months after 9/11. Since then we've only flown into Kahului on Maui, so I don't know what's changed at HNL.

 

When you say you don't want to take a tour, do you mean a ship's excursion or the tour out to the Arizona Memorial itself? If you want to go out to the Arizona Memorial, the earlier you get there the better. Tickets can go fast. They are free and first-come-first-served.

 

The safest bet for your luggage is likely to be the most time-consuming: check luggage at the pier, go to the Memorial, go collect luggage at the pier, go to airport. Of course, if you can check luggage at the airport that early, it would save quite a bit of time overall, IMO. You might want to contact the airport and/or TSA--someone is bound to know the luggage check-in rules.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

beachchick

[JudyOh]

We do not like taking tours either, but in this circumstance I think it is your best bet. Usually the ships over a tour the day of departure, then drop you off at the airport. Tickets at the memorial are first come, first serve, by time you get there they could be gone for the day. We just got back from Hawaii and traffic in Honolulu is something else. I would definetly recommend a tour.

[meadcher]

How about renting a car wouldn't that be less expensive then taxi's back and forth and paying to leave your luggage at the pier?

[jkrislc]

I think your best option is to take the ship's tour. However, I seen posts that indicate that the tours are not always offered as it is based upon interest (# of people who sign up).

[tricruisers]

Teamfour,

We are also on your cruise as you know from the roll call posts. We did try to book the ships tour of Pearl Harbour but it can only be bought on board or at least they would not allow us to prepurchase. The tours get off first it appears, which will make the visit to the Arizona easier time wise.

It seemed easier to us to take the ships tour to take care of the luggage, etc while we go to Pearl.

Are you on flight 8 American Airlines? We are leaving at that time too.

I am trying to pack light, impossible with the three of us.

Almost time to go!!!!!!!

[teamfour]

tricruisers, sounds like the NCL tour may be the best way to go. Yes, we are on AA flight 8. We are already packed and ready to go! Aloha!

 

Update: I just read the tour descriptions from NCL and they say that tour HNL-210, Pearl Harbor & the Arizona Memorial is no longer offered. :rolleyes:

 

They do offer tour HNL-202, Pearl Harbor & the USS Missouri tour (which includes the memorial). This tour is only for people whose flights leave after 6:00 PM. AA flight 8 leaves at 5:50PM. I guess we will have to wait till we get onboard to find out the real scoop.

[tricruisers]

Teamfour,

We checked our return flight seats yesterday and the plane only had one seat left. I guess we won't be spreading out to sleep.

The tour we tried to book was the 201, Historic and Cultural. The first stop is Pearl Harbor, the Arizonia only, before a driving tour around Honolulu. It is for flights after 4:00. We thought it best to take up most of the day. We will skip those areas at the beginning of our trip. We tried to buy this tour but NCL wrote that is "available" on board. It is scheduled to begin at 8:00

I just finisihed packed. I must have forgotten something because it all fit!!! Because we are in port everyday it will not be a problem if there are missing items.

Aloha

[beachchick]

How about renting a car wouldn't that be less expensive then taxi's back and forth and paying to leave your luggage at the pier?

 

The problem with this is that leaving your luggage in the car while touring the Memorial is not a good idea. There are frequent reports of break-ins (just like anywhere else--not saying this is unique to Oahu or Hawaii). Plus I wouldn't like to leave my meds or personal supplies (makeup, lotion, etc.) in a car that is going to get very hot inside. That's a good way to ruin them.

 

beachchick

[CaliforniaFamily]

In our recent experience, we were able to check in our luggage at the airport at 9:30am for our 2:50pm flight. The cost of the taxi to the airport varied..for 4 people about $12-16 and for 4 people and the majority of the large luggage was about $35. Then the taxi fare to Pearl Harbor and back to the airport was about $12 each way. At Pearl Harbor there is a place to check purses, etc at $2 per item. My mom had her carry on suitcase with her and they wouldn't let her check that. She had seen the Memorial before, so she waited outside for us.

We received tickets to go out to the memorial, group #15, and they were taking group 10...each tour was 75 min long...not sure if they overlapped at all. The museum was extremely crowded, and humid after the rain. People doing the audio tour were blocking a lot of the museum exhibits for long periods of time. We did not have time to do the tour, but my MIL enjoyed the museum, which was our main reason for going.

POA's excursion to Pearl Harbor/AZ Memorial that required your flight to leave after 2:30 pm has been cancelled. We tried to pre book it online and then at the shore excursion desk when we boarded. It was cancelled because the bus wasn't getting people back to the airport on time, so the only other NCL excursions available required your flight to leave later in the afternoon. The suggestion from the person helping us was to check our luggage at the pier and take a taxi, but the luggage hold costs $5/bag. ( In hindsight, we were going to pay about $30/person for the excursion anyway...we should've just done that and my mom could've gone in too).

Hope this info is helpful!

Aloha,

Lisa