Planning 1 | Planning 2 | Planning 3 | Travel | Disneyland  (Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4) | Arrival | Surfing | Aulani | Excursion | Hyatt

We had planned to spend most of our time at Aulani at the resort, enjoying the amenities.  However, I’m a big history buff, so there was no way we would leave Oahu without a visit to Pearl Harbor.  We thought booking a tour of Pearl Harbor through Disney would be the easiest way to go without having to attempt to drive into Honolulu.  We booked the Pearl Harbor Remembered tour for our second day at the resort.  The tour bus picked us up from the resort early in the morning, about 8:30 AM.  The start of the tour was a little rough for a few reasons.  The tour group leader gave people in the group conflicting instructions, which started everyone off in a bad mood.  The second issue was the tour bus air conditioner was really loud and made it almost impossible to hear in the back, which is where we were sitting. 

After boarding the bus, we headed to downtown Honolulu.  We stopped at Aliiolani Hale to see the statue of Kamehameha the Great as well as the royal palace.  Pro tip, the Aliiolani Hale houses the State Supreme Court, but also has bathrooms!  You do have to go through security to get into the building though.

We then proceeded to drive through the grounds at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.  The cemetery is the Pacific version of Arlington National Cemetery.   There are several memorials here, including one to everyone who went missing during World War II in the Pacific Theater.  The drive up to the cemetery was beautiful.  I really wish we could have stopped and walked around here.  We did end up coming back here on our last day on the island to look around. 

After driving through the cemetery, the tour headed through Honolulu some more, including the Chinatown area, before arriving at Pearl Harbor.  Our first stop in Pearl Harbor was to see the USS Missouri.  The Missouri is a World War II battleship that was the site of the Japanese surrender to end World War II.  She saw additional service all the way into the first Gulf War before she was retired for good. 

Our visit to the Missouri started with a short guided tour on the top deck.  We got an overview of the ship as well as a detailed explanation of the surrender ceremony.  After the guided tour, we were allowed time to tour the other decks.  Nancy took one of the girls off the ship to make sure she would have time to eat.  The tour group hadn’t really given us enough time to eat lunch and tour the ship.  I wanted to see the ship and wasn’t as concerned with lunch.  I went with our other daughter below the main deck for a self guided tour of the crew quarters and other areas.  It was great, the ship looked like it was frozen in time from the late 80s.  You really got a feeling for what the ship was like when it was operational.  We finished up below the deck in time to grab a quick bite to eat (there are a couple of food trucks onsite, with a small variety of lunch options) and head back to the tour bus.

Our next stop was at the USS Arizona Memorial.  We watched a short movie about the attack, then boarded a boat for our trip to the Memorial.  We boarded the Memorial and got to spend about 15-20 minutes on the Memorial.  It was a very moving experience for our family as we stood over the ship and contemplated the young men that gave their lives onboard the ship over 70 years ago.

We then returned back to the next boat and returned to the boat launch area.  We got to then spend about an hour walking around.  There are several static displays about both the attack and weapon systems of that time.  Lots of weapons are on display as well as the USS Bowfin, a World War II submarine.  We also managed to grab something to drink before having to head back to the tour bus to return to Aulani.

The tour ended back at Aulani about six hours after it had started.  The tour took us to some great spots in Honolulu and we didn’t have to worry about traffic, parking or getting tickets.  We took tons of great pictures!  I would definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested in getting down to Pearl Harbor without having to drive or worry about getting tickets.  You will definitely want to sit in the front of the tour bus so you can hear the guide.  On the other hand, it was expensive and we really couldn’t hear the tour guide for most of the tour.  I think his commentary would have been really interesting and made the tour better.  I also didn’t feel like we got enough time at any of the stops.  I could have spent about twice as much time allotted at each of the stops.  I think if we went again, I might try to do Pearl Harbor on our own this time, but concentrate on either the USS Missouri or the USS Arizona Memorial per visit, but not both.  As I also mentioned, we ended up going back to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on our own.  That part was very easy to do with your own vehicle and definitely worth a visit. 

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