Oahu: Visiting the USS Arizona
 

Question, have you visited the USS Arizona and any advice for what time to arrive to get tickets, best time to see it? I was planning on visiting it on a Thursday (in April). I also was thinking that day of visiting the Puchbowl Cemetery, Battleship Missouri as well as visiting the Chinatown. Advice in Oahu is to visit Chinatown before 10 a.m..

Thanks! :-d

They open at 8 am, best to go there as early as possible, before buses with tourists are arriving....
After 3pm no tickets are issued.
Be prepared for lines.
Also you are not allowed to bring in any bags, cases (not even of cameras) etc.so leave it in the car and bring as little as possible.

As Ida said, the earlier you get there, the earlier ticket you will get. There's no "better" or worse time to see it since the tickets are given out first-come, first-served, and you take what you are given.

You will definitely have time to see the Missouri. There is a shuttle (the only way to get there) that leaves every 30 minutes from the same parking lot as the Visitor's Center. There's a small tour of interior spaces, and you are free to wander the deck afterwards.

If you have a lot of time between your arrival and your ticket time (say 2 hours), you can probably go over and see the Missouri before seeing the Arizona.

Even if you get to the Visitor's Center early, and you are first in line to get tickets, I don't se ehow you'd be able to see Chinatown before 10 AM...

Visitors Center at USS Arizona opens at 7:30am. Try to get there before 8am as tour buses start ariving after that. While you are waiting for your tour, go through the museum and go on the back lawn to see the Circle of Remembrance. Great photo ops from there of the Bowfin, Arizona and Missouri.

Lots of Oahu info.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34696831

We arrived at the Arizona at 7:30am and it seemed like there were 500 people in line ahead of us....that being said, it was a very efficient operation and we were able to get tickets for 9:45 am.

Seems like you'll have to wait a while no matter when you go...but do see it, what a moving experience.

I saw in a travel guide that you must wear closed shoes, no sandals. Is that true?

Whatever you do watch where you sit! We were there last May and they FORGOT to untie the rope from the cleat (on the dock) and as we pulled away the cleat along with about 2 lbs of cement from the dock broke away and flew into the people sitting in the front rightside of the boat nearly amputating a man's arm and hitting a woman in the shoulder. There was lots of blood but luckily they "only" broke their arm/shoulder but had it been a child it most likely would have been a fatality!

Thank you! I appreciate the info. For this day, I think we will then start out here and take the photo op suggested, and go see the Missouri if we have some time. Sounds like we will pick a safe seat too!

8-)

I wore sandals on my tour, and no one said anything...

"Appropriate attire is required (i.e. no bathing suits or bare feet)."

I can't imagine no sandals. Everyone in Hawaii wears sandals or flip-flops. ((b))

Cwojo99, what a great day you've planned!!! Great idea to see Punchbowl!!! Amazing carved map of the Pacific WW2 campaigns, on the big tomb in the center. VN vets memorial right below it. Walk up the hill along the path with memorial stones from different military regiments. Very moving--and an incredible view awaits you on top.
Agree with getting to Pearl Harbor EARLY so you can be one of the first groups to see the movie and then take the launch. Note too that bags must be checked (a separate line last time i visited) so pack lightly, if possible. Be sure to not leave valuables in the car.
If you like to mix historical fiction with traveling, I highly recommend James Webb's "The Emperor's General" for a fantastic novel about the Phillipines, Japan, and MacArthur, including the scene on the Missouri, which might be fun to read if you get to Mighty Mo on this visit.

Well, the &quot;closed shoes&quot; info was in Frommers. I <i>knew</i> I shouldn't be reading it in the first place.

It has been several years since I visited, so the only question I can answer is that, yes, it is worth visiting. I found it profoundly moving.

For cwojo99 and anyone else visitingthe AZ Memorial and /or interested in its history, this is a fascinating article with a different, more recent, viewpoint of December 7, 1941:

http://www.hsvvoice.com/news/2005/12..._page/002.html

Calinurse...that was a very thought provoking article. I had no idea about some of the conspiracies (probably not the best word) behind the war.

Thanks for the information!

8-)

That article is complete and total crap. The author has taken an hypothesis and supported it with a bunch of unsupportable hearsay and junk. The author insinuates that he knew what FDR was thinking.
This theoy is not new. It has been around for years. It is even possible that it is true but the author has provided absolutely no facts to support it.

I think this was an interview he gave to his local newspaper. Definitely, facts should be in his upcoming book, but as he says in this, some of the evidence has disappeared. I also had not realized that Kimmel was been officially vindicated, after living with an unjustified reputation for years.
At any rate, this gives an interestingly different point of view from what is more commonly believed: that the attack was a complete surprise.

Nowadays you are NOT allowed to bring in purses etc., even the little bag for your camera is not allowed.
Never heard anything about shoes.

The attack on Pearl Harbor WAS a complete surprise - to all the sailors on the Arizona and other ships !!