NCL Shore Excursion pearl harbor

[cleveik]

Does anyone know if NCL pre reserves your tickets to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor if you do their excursion? Or do you still have to wait hours in line to get tickets?

[CruiserBruce]

I would definitely expect they pre-reserve.

[carmzav]

We did the excursion with NCL last year, and they had our tickets for us.

[sjmbruce]

Does anyone know if NCL pre reserves your tickets to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor if you do their excursion? Or do you still have to wait hours in line to get tickets?

 

Yes, they are reserved and ready for you.

 

I felt like NCL didn't provide enough information about this excursion, so here was my experience:

 

Pearl Harbor with NCL was easier than I expected. Our excursion tickets were waiting in our room for us on day one with instructions on when and where to meet on the last day. Later in the week we received another envelope with special tags to put on our suitcases. Friday night we left our suitcases out in the hall, but kept our backpacks and carry on luggage.

 

Saturday morning we met in the Hollywood Theater and were lead out as a group. We picked up our suitcases, which were in the same room as everyone else's but were in a specific tour area. There was a NCL employee there to tell us where to wait and which bus to get on.

 

Our bus driver first took us on a city tour through Honolulu. A random tip is to use the bathroom before you pick up your suitcases. He stopped for a break at the request of some passengers, but it was at a sketchy park bathroom with no toilet paper or working sink.

 

We then went to Pearl Harbor. He handed out our tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial and made sure we knew when and where to get in line. There is a movie first and then the water shuttle to the memorial. Afterwards we had about an hour of free time before meeting the tour guide again. Some people used the time to see tour the submarine with tickets they had to purchase separately. Others went inside buildings that had a lot of information and pictures posted.

 

We decided to eat lunch. There's a snack shop near the movie theater that has water, soda, chips, nuts, candy and some prepackaged sandwiches. I ate an egg salad sandwich and didn't die. There's a snack bar by the submarine that has hot dogs, nachos and soup. There were enough old missiles and torpedoes on display to look at after we ate.

 

We met back with our group and guide to take the shuttle to the USS Missouri. We got on the boat as a group, then were split in half with two different tour guides for the Missouri. After 30 or so minutes on a guided tour, we had about 20 minutes to explore on our own before getting back on the shuttle with our original tour guide. We then walked with him to our bus and were dropped off at the airport.

 

We met at the Hollywood Theater at 8:15 and arrived at the airport around 4:15. It felt like a long day but it was a good option for those with a later flight. The only aspect that could potentially change the tour is the timing of the USS Arizona Memorial tickets. Ours were for 11:45 and I don't know if they try to secure the same time every Saturday. I suppose if the tickets were for earlier in the morning, the Honolulu city tour might be second.

 

I hope this wasn't too much and helped a little! There is more detailed information on my review. There's a link for that in my signature.

[astridwilson]

You could always do this on your own.

 

buy the tickets in advance from http://www.recreation.gov/showPage.do?name=landing&landing=/htm/pearlharbor/home.jsp&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369

 

Rent a car from the airport

 

The advance ticket price is $1.50. You can rent a car for maybe $30 and a taxi to pick up the car for $30. So the cost for 2 is approximately $63 versus the much higher excursion fee.

 

We kept our bags, were off the boat by 9am and had 11am tickets for Pearl Harbor, but they had early openings so we walked right in.

[cleveik]

Thanks everyone!