Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures

8/2/24

Our tour today began very early. The bus was pulling out at 7:00 a.m. We were there by 6:45 a.m. Gar had a handout on our seat. I really like that he highlighted certain things so we knew where to look. Because we were a large group, we did not have the USS Arizona Memorial included in our tickets. (Everything else was included.) They don’t allow group reservations, and that was our ticket type. Those had to gotten as stand by, which is part of the reason we were going so early! He did a great job giving us information during the drive. He told us the following suggested touring plan:

• Exit the bus and head directly to the self serve kiosks at the ticket center. Here you can get on a waitlist fort he USS Arizona Memorial boat ride so you can actually get onto the memorial. They will text you (I think) if you get it.
• Tour the Attack Museum and Road to War Museum while waiting to be called.
• USS Arizona Memorial
• Take the shuttle over to the USS Missouri to tour it.
• Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
• Come back on the shuttle
• Then tour whatever we could fit in…submarine museum, Bowfin, etc.

Getting tickets via standby for the USS Arizona Memorial—Gar told us that they held back 75ish tickets for standby at the gate. He instructed us to head to the Tickets and Information building, to the Ipad kiosks, to get on the waitlist. They then will text you for your spot. Headsets could be picked up in the Theatre building.

We arrived around 7:30 a.m. My family chose to not try to get standby tickets due to my mom’s mobility and endurance, etc. But we were able to visit many of the other buildings!

I also want to note…no bags are allowed here! Only see-through bags at their discretion. Other bags, purses, backpacks, etc. must be stored in their lockers for a fee. You can bring your cameras, wallets and cell phones. Just not in a bag!

We walked around just inside the entrance a little bit on our way to the USS Bowfin and Submarine Museum.

RIMPAC was going on while we were there, and the USS Carl Vinson is in the background here.

Our first stop was the USS Bowfin. Taken from the website:

We were able to get an audio guide which was very cool. In the museum itself, there were numbers on each display. You could just plug in that number and it would speak about it.

This was most interesting to me. Knowing what all of the patches meant on the “scorecards” for the different ships.

We then moved out to the actual USS Bowfin to take a tour.

To get into the submarine, you have to go down several steps. Also crawling through between the different areas requires some mobility. My mom had a hard time because it was so narrow and she couldn’t lift her legs very high.

Some scenes from inside:

We really enjoyed this tour. I couldn’t believe how tight the space was! I have never been on a submarine before. Just seeing visually more of the sacrifices our military makes for our country was really emotional.

Up next, we went to the shuttle stop to take the shuttle across the bridge to the USS Missouri.

Here’s a little bit about the ship: https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/the-ship/timeline

As we were walking up, there were several sailors also arriving to tour. They asked my daughter to take their photo.

They were from New Zealand’s navy. There were actually many sailors here touring from different countries, I think because of the RIMPAC training that was going on.

We had a really good view of the memorial from the ship:

Standing under the 16 inch guns!

The Officer’s Ward Room:

One of the Officer’s accommodations:

This was a very nice tribute set up in this room:

The Executive Officer room:

The regular mess hall:

Some scenes from around the ship:

From 1991! These were hanging all around the ship from different days.

Chief Petty Officer’s Mess:

They had some special kid activities to do in the regular mess area. One of mine did a word search and the prize was a lei.

The donut baking area!

This was also hanging around, from 1990!

We really enjoyed this tour. It was very interesting to see everything that goes on inside the ship…the kitchens, the accommodations, the mess halls, etc. We were starving though, so we decided to eat at the food truck just outside. I think the name was Sliders.

As you can see, pricing is not cheap! But the food was really good.

Hamburger Steak (came with rice and salad):

This was delicious!

Chili Cheese Dog Plate (with salad and rice):

This was also really good!

Chicken Fingers and Fries

Also really good! We were really happy and full after this lunch.

After lunch, we hopped on the shuttle to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. There were so many planes there! They had them both inside and outside.

It was very neat to see this particular aircraft. This is the plane that George Bush trained on.

These are actual original windows from the hangar that was attacked.

Imagine our surprise when we saw this special Disney exhibit!

Unfortunately, I was not able to take any photos or videos inside. It was very interesting! From the website:

Overall, it was a fantastic day, learning more some of the history of our country. It’s a definite must do when visiting Hawaii.