Lisa

I will be in Honolulu from 10:00 AM to 6:45PM. I would like to visit Pearl Harbor. I think that I have enough time, but I have no idea what to do with my luggage. The airport no longer has storage rentals, the USS Arizona site no longer has any storage, and American Airlines told me that I cannot check my luggage prior to 4 hours before my flight.

I know that many people on the Fodors forum have said that they have visited Pearl Harbor during a layover. If you are one of those people, please tell me how. At this point, the only thing I can think of is renting a car. The problem with that is picking up a car and dropping it off takes time. We are already on a tight schedule and I do not know if we can spare the time to rent a car.

Thanks to those who can advise me!

Bob

Do the boat cruise around Pearl Harbor and take your bag with you?

Check ahead to see if an airport hotel will hold your bags for you with a nice tip to the bellman and then cab to where you want to go?

Have you other airline that you are flying in to Honolulu with hold your bag in their secure area. Do the tour and then recover your bags from other airline?

Celeste

Just a reminder that a boat cruise will be just that - you will not stop at the monument. I think you might want to rent a car - I picked mine up and dropped it off in less than 30 minutes. The drive from the airport to the Arizona Memorial ticket building is about 15 minutes. Your ticket will have a time on it and that's the group you will enter the movie theater with, and then get on a boat to the memorial after that. Depending on crowds, this time could be two or three hours after you get there.

Tracey

On October 5th I had a layover from Maui on Aloha Air in HNL and then connected on to NYC on American. The layover was from 8AM to 5PM and Aloha checked my luggage through. I had no problems and everything arrived in NYC on time. I was able to rent a car and go out for a nice breakfast, then travel on to Pearl Harbor. I think the rental car was a waste of money, a cab would have been allot cheaper. You have plenty of time to get to Pearl Harbor and wait in line for tickets (I waited about 1 hour). Remember that it is very strict now, and you can not bring any bags with you. That includes purses and camera bags. Hope this helps.
Tracey

Scott K

Just returned from Hawaii.
Cannot help with bagggage question but do have bad news on other. If you dont land until 10:00, by the time you get to the Memorial ther will most likely be no tickets left for the tender out to the memorial. We went at 7:00am and by the time we got back on shore at about 10:00 there was a HUGE crowd and no more tickets for ANY tour...last on left at 3:30. so some of those people were waiting with ticket in hand for quite a while. The USS Arizona is a must see and the on shore exhibits a great as well but the USS Missouri (which is run by a privite company no the Parks Serice and Navy) is a RIP OFF! The try and sell you everything and the tour is a joke! The only redeeming thing was seeing the site where WWII ended and the plaque which marks the site if the table.

Lisa

Tracey,

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that Aloha Air would check baggage through to American. Did you have to request this, or did Aloha Air automatically do it? Also, what did you do with your purse?

lagirl

We were in Honolulu in November and forgot that we couldn't take purses into the exhibit (even though we actually were staying overnight and could have left our purses at the hotel!) We took out anthing "valuable", stuffed it into our pockets and then left it in the cab. When we were done, we called the cab and he came back and got us with the purses. I think he was happy to be insured the business back to the airport. Trusting and stupid of us I know, but we had taken everything valuable out of the purses, just in case.

Celeste

Don't be dismayed by the possible wait times for the Arizona Memorial. I have been there more than 20 times (I lived on Oahu and had to take all my guests there) and have only waited more than an hour one time. And I have arrived at all different times, never earlier than 10 AM. So go there first thing and maybe you'll luck out and have a relatively short wait.

TraceyK

Lisa,
I had rented a car-so I locked my purse in the trunk. I saw small lockers at the airport-you could probably leave your stuff in one of those-I would try to go closer to the gate you'll be leaving from.
As for the luggage being check through-I asked for it. When we left Maui I handed the agent the tickets for both flights and asked her to check the luggage through. I had to have the bags checked by agriculture first, and they did it no problem.
Hope this helps.

Lisa

Thanks Tracey. I called Aloha Airlines to make sure they are still checking luggage through since there have been so many changes in airport security. They said they will check the luggage through, which is great. The only problem are the carry-ons. I can't imagine going all the way home without ANYTHING! My teenagers would go stir crazy without books or something to keep them busy. I really do not want to rent a car since Pearl Harbor is such a short drive and I don't want to waste any time, but I can't figure out what to do with the carry-ons. I had heard that all of the lockers at the airport were out of service. I'll have to see if I can find out more information.