Need Pearl Harbor ticket clarification

Have been watching the National Park Service website to see when tickets will become available for our planned Sept. 30 visit. Perhaps those of you familiar with the site can just clarify something for me.

We would like to do the narrated tour, which costs $7.50. So obviously I'll be purchasing two tickets for that.

But in addition, I also have to make a reservation for two for the Arizona Memorial. Am I correct in assuming that admission to the Arizona is free?

I'm guessing that you select your time for the Arizona and then can do the narrated tour at your leisure? Does it matter which we do first?

Thanks in advance!

Arizona is free, but a nominal charge for advance reservations, about a buck as I recall. You reserve on line 2 months before the date (7 AM Hawaii time, I think), but be online as soon as you can. I tried about an hour after reservations opened and all but two time slots were full already. They offer a VERY limited number of these advance tickets, max 6 per account. This is because they hold back tickets for same-day on line reservations and stand-in-line reservations.

Have been watching the National Park Service website to see when tickets will become available for our planned Sept. 30 visit. Perhaps those of you familiar with the site can just clarify something for me.

 

We would like to do the narrated tour, which costs $7.50. So obviously I'll be purchasing two tickets for that.

 

But in addition, I also have to make a reservation for two for the Arizona Memorial. Am I correct in assuming that admission to the Arizona is free?

 

I'm guessing that you select your time for the Arizona and then can do the narrated tour at your leisure? Does it matter which we do first?

 

Thanks in advance!

Aloha :D

On the NPS website, two months in advance is the earliest you can reserve the FREE tickets with a $1.50 processing fee. These tickets must be picked up 1 hour before the scheduled time of the ticket or they will be given to the daily walk-in visitors. The ticket is actually for the tender ride to the actual Arizona Memorial.

There are only about 3,000 online tickets/day to ride the tender and an additional 1,300 are kept for daily walk-in visitors that start lining up well before the 7am opening of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.

The $7.50 pre-recorded audio tour is rented in the visitor center and is not by the NPS. You would listen to the audio tour as you are visiting the Arizona Memorial, not one and then the other.

This is the most requested ticket for visitors and there is a 6 ticket limit per reservation call. There is no preference given to Hawaii residents. I don't know how the various tour companies can offer the Arizona Memorial tour on their websites because commercial companies supposedly are no longer given special consideration.

Since 2013, there have been reports of problems at the WWII Valor in the Pacific Memorial in the local news. Among the reports was information about tour companies receiving preferential treatment for the tickets, poor employee and volunteer morale, and substandard maintenance. http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2014/11/17/uss-arizona-memorial-mired-in-dispirited-mess/ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/07/mismanagement-allegations-at-pearl-harbor-memorial/ I do not know whether these reports are related to a new temporary Superintendent at the WWII Valor In the Pacific Memorial. The NPS releases make no mention of the problems at the memorial under Paul DePrey's tenure. DePrey the former superintendent of the, WWII Valor in the Pacific Memorial (which includes the Arizona Memorial) was transferred in April to Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/21/us/ap-us-pearl-harbor-superintendent.html

More information about the problems can be found by Googling "Paul DePrey scandal".

It was previously reported that the online tickets seem to go very quickly, so if the commercial companies are speed dialing from their offices to get tickets to sell, I would be waiting by the telephone for 7am Hawaii time two months before I wanted to see the Arizona Memorial, unless I was willing to pay the tour company upcharges.

I posted on another thread about how I would do it if I was visiting Waikiki to relax, see and play on the beach, and wanted to see the WWII Valor in the Pacific Memorial. Of course, we are retired and have lots of time and hate to be rushed when doing anything. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2214787&page=3

I hope this helps.

Aloha :D

I was able to get advance tickets by calling at 7 AM the day before our tour. I missed getting them in advance on the web. The price was $1.50 each plus I paid for the audio tour, which was well worth the 7.50. I would suggest getting them in advance any way you can except for paying for the tours. If you are too late to do so online, you can call the day before like I did but start promptly at 7:00 AM Hawaii time.

We are part of a tour by POA. will we have to find tickets? wait in lines?

We are part of a tour by POA. will we have to find tickets? wait in lines?

Aloha :D

You need to call NCL/POA and verify that the ticket for the 150 person tender ride to the actual Arizona Memorial is included in the POA tour. But, I can't imagine that with the amount they charge for the tour that the "free" ticket isn't included. There are national park rangers that provide a narration as you go to the memorial and I believe the POA tours include a hand held audio self play device ($7.50 included with the tour). I haven't been on the any tour for a while (I probably should go again since it's been a while) and see what it's like now that the old superintendent has been transferred to Mass.

After the scandal with the walk up tickets being diverted I'm pretty sure they've tightened up the distribution. How the tour companies (including POA) are getting their block of tickets hasn't been published in the newspapers. I do know that there is an educational program where the schools can get bulk tickets for school excursions to the Arizona Memorial. I think the tour company tickets are from the 3000+ that are reservable, and that's probably why when individuals try to call in to reserve tickets as private parties there are so few available. Tour companies are probably robo-calling.

Aloha :D