Pearl Harbor

This morning we got up early, checked out of our room, checked our luggage with the bell services, and drove to Pearl Harbor. I hadn’t read the fine print on the reservation so we were a little surprised when the rangers at the entrance told us bags were not allowed in the memorial unless they were clear and we could put them back in the car or pay to check them. We got there around 9 am, and our reservation to go to the Arizona was at 9:45 so we didn’t have time to watch the movie before it. Instead we looked through the exhibits about the lead up to the war and the attack. I also spent a few minutes looking for the visitor center I remembered and have a photo of from our visit in 1996, but apparently it’s not there anymore. 

When our reservation time was up, we entered a theater for a short ranger talk, then got on the boat over to the memorial. The memorial is built over the remains of the USS Arizona, a battleship which was sank during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. The boats go out to the memorial every 15 minutes; they drop off one group then pick up the previous one.

After our 15 minutes at the memorial, we waited to watch the next showing of the movie.  It’s almost 30 minutes long, so they only show it twice an hour. We then looked around the gift shop and headed out. We spent about 2 hours at the memorial; we could have easily spent a couple more by adding the tour of the USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin, a WW2 submarine. Instead we drove west to Costco to eat some lunch and buy food and supplies for the remainder of our stay on Oahu.

We headed back to Aulani, where we met our friends and checked into the ocean view Grand Villa we would be sharing with them for the next five nights. We made some dinner in the villa and then went to a Disney Vacation Club event.