Honolulu, Oahu – Third Port of Call

Today’s port of call is the city of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Once again, it was an early wake up time of 5:15 AM.  Today we are doing a ship’s sponsored tour to Pearl Harbor to visit both the Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri.

After showering and eating breakfast at the buffet, we gathered our cameras and other shore gear and headed to the Princess Theater, our meeting place for the 7:15 AM tour. The instructions for the tour specifically requested that you not bring any type of bag or purse, due to security restrictions imposed in going on the tour of the Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri, thank you again 9/11 terrorists. There was a large group waiting in the theater when we arrived and took our seat to wait to be directed to go ashore and board the tour bus. It was interesting to see where the ship actually docked in Honolulu, we were in an area next to what is called the Aloha Tower. The interesting aspect of the port is that the ship is docked almost right in the downtown Honolulu area. We were literally a stone’s throw away from one of the major streets. This is as close to being in a downtown area on a ship that we have ever seen. Normally, ports have been far away from any city buildings, located in industrial ports.  This part of the port appears to be specifically designed for cruise ships since it is so close in to town, and next to a small shopping area.

We boarded our tour bus at about 7:45 AM, thinking we were heading over to Pearl Harbor. However, we soon found out we were not going there directly. First, our bus driver/tour guide took us by the Royal Palace, and let us off of the bus for about 20 minutes to walk around and take pictures. After re-boarding the bus, we then went on a driving tour to see some of the other historic buildings in the downtown Honolulu area, including the building where the original Hawaii Five-O show was filmed, at least where the outside building shots were taken.

Then we went by some other nondescript buildings on the way for a drive by tour of what is called the Punch Bowl, which is a memorial cemetery where persons killed during the bombing of Pearl Harbor were buried, as well as other World War II casualties. We then began heading over to Pearl Harbor. All in all, we were on the bus almost 2 hours before arriving at Pearl Harbor for our allotted time to visit the Arizona Memorial. We found out that we had 9:45 AM tickets to see a short Pearl Harbor film, and then to board the launches to take the ride across the harbor for our short visit of 10 minutes at the actual Arizona Memorial. By the time we arrived at the parking lot for the buses, I think about everyone on the bus only wanted to know where the restrooms were. I do not think anyone ever thought we would need to be at the meeting place at 7:15 AM, only to to ride around before getting to the park at 9:00 AM. If so, I am sure we all would have not consumed much coffee beforehand. I think the cruise line organizers should have told everyone to make sure they knew it would be almost 2 hours before bathroom facilities were available after meeting at the theater, there were none on the bus itself.

The other mishap we experienced was made by the bus driver when he instructed everyone to be back at the bus by 12:15 PM. We later saw and heard him going around while we were all in line for the movie trying to try find and tell everyone he meant for us to return to the bus at 11:15 AM, not 12:15 PM. More on that later.

We looked around the grounds of the park, and read some about the Pearl Harbor incident, including seeing pictures from both the Japanese perspective of the attack, and from the pictures taken by the Navy personnel during the attack. We got in our line to see the movie at 9:45 AM, after which we would board the launch for the boat ride over to the memorial. The Park Service allots 10 minutes for each group to be at the memorial, they take one group of about 150 over and pick up the previous group every 10 minutes.

It was while we were in line for the movie that the bus driver came over and was looking for everyone wearing our green Princess Tour stickers to let us know that he had given us the incorrect time for returning to the bus. Since we were all in the same line for the same movie and tour time, he figured he had gotten word on the change in time to everyone in our group. Again, more on that later.

We watched the well made movie explaining about how the Pearl Harbor attack came to take place, at least based on the American perspective. Mostly, it seemed to come down to the USA cutting off oil supplies to Japan after they attacked China. The movie lasted about 20 minutes, and we boarded the launch for the short ride across the harbor. True to the schedule, we were only there about 10 minutes. It was a little difficult to see the outline of the sunken ship, the sun was a little low on the horizon, and it was quite windy, making the surface of the water very choppy, causing a lot of glare. It was still an emotional  experience, especially to see the bunker C fuel oil from the ship still bubbling to the surface in small black globs, and dispersing once it broke the surface. You could smell the oil, and it left a sizable sheen on the water for several hundred yards downwind.

The launch returned with the next group, and we boarded after they got off. We spent a little time in the gift shop, and bought a nice Arizona Memorial Christmas Ornament. By then, it was time to head to the bus to go on the next part of the tour, the visit to the Battleship Missouri, or at least we thought it was time to go. Everyone had made it back to the bus at the “revised” time except for one couple. Apparently, they were German, and did not speak good English, or at least they apparently did not hear or understand the bus driver explaining that the time had changed when we were in line waiting for the movie. One of the other couples on the bus had talked to them during the Arizona Memorial visitation, so they volunteered to try and go find them. Meanwhile, the bus driver moved the bus to another parking area, normally the area for the buses going to the Missouri, and we waited, and we waited. About 30 minutes passed, and there was no sign of either couple. Then, out of nowhere, the lost couple was seen looking at one of the exhibits near to where the bus was now parked. The bus driver was able to go and get them, and a short while later, we also saw the couple sent to hunt for the missing couple. With everyone now on the bus, we headed for the Battleship Missouri tour.

The tour of the Missouri was very well done. For about 30 minutes, we had a tour guide for about half of our group. The other half had another guide. We walked around the main deck area and learned about the main aspects of the Battleship, and saw the emblem embedded in the deck commemorating where the Japanese surrender was signed to end WWII. We learned that one of the 16 inch gun barrels weighs almost as much as the space shuttle (excluding the boosters and tanks), something like 225,000 lbs. for each barrel.

After the guided tour was completed, we had some time to go below decks on our own and see the living areas for the ships personnel, and the kitchens and food serving areas. We were also able to go through the bridge area, including the command center and the area where the ship was steered.

There was one area that was protected with about 12 inches of steel armor, and had two doors that looked like doors on a safe. Apparently, this was a fortified area to steer the ship from while under attack, they would put personnel inside this stronghold, and seal the doors. There were small slots for seeing out, and I suppose for ventilation, but they could be covered with a protective glass if need be.

Overall, we enjoyed this “on our own” part of the tour the most. At 1:30 PM, we boarded the bus back to the ship, arriving about 2:10 PM. Our original plan had been to eat some lunch on the ship, then take a shuttle to the airport to rent a car for the afternoon. We were in port until 10:30 PM, so we had time to do other exploring on Oahu. This plan had been based on the morning tour excursion ending on time and our being back on the ship before 1:30 PM, per the original tour schedule. However, the mishap with the missing couple at the Arizona Memorial had delayed us, and by the time we got back on the ship and had our lunch, it was almost 3:00 PM. The sunset tonight in Honolulu was around 5:50 PM, so we decided it would take too long to shuttle to the airport, get the car, and head out to see much before it would be getting dark.

We changed our plan and decided to take a city bus to the beach at Waikiki, and just walk around there for pictures, and to visit some of the shops. We headed to the City Bus stop, and were waiting there when a taxi driver stopped and offered to take anyone to Waikiki for $3.00 per person. The bus fare was $2.50 per person, so we, along with another couple from the ship, jumped into the taxi. It was farther to the beach than we expected, well worth the additional $0.50 per person to get there quicker.

We went down to the beach, and found that it was very crowded. It was a nice and sunny day, and since it was Saturday, everyone was at the beach enjoying the beautiful day. We walked over to some of the shops, and happened to come across a Catholic Church right on the main street that passes along the Waikiki Beach area. The Church was named St. Augustine, which we both thought was unusual, especially since we lived so close to the town of St. Augustine. Saturday vigil Mass was at 5:00 PM, so we wandered around the shops until it was time for Mass.

After Mass, we headed back out to purchase a few things, and then to find a city bus to return us to the port. We decided to make another Walmart stop, it was on the city bus route back to the ship anyway, near the very large shopping mall in Honolulu.

We asked a person in one of the ABC Stores about which city bus to take, and to find out if we needed exact change for the bus fare, which we found out we did. ABC Stores are part of a chain on Oahu, maybe mostly in the Honolulu area. It is unbelievable how many of them there are. I am not exaggerating when I say there is one on every block there, and sometimes it seems like more than one per block. They are various sizes, some stores are really small, some are medium sized and some are large. They mostly sell souvenir items, but also food and beverages, both soft and hard beverages. It is truly amazing to see how many of these stores there are.

We actually missed one bus while getting directions, so we had to wait at the bus stop for about 30 minutes before the next one arrived, and unfortunately, everyone was apparently going to the mall, which was the end of the line for the bus that also went to the Walmart. It was standing room only for most of the way. We got off at our stop, and found the Walmart about 2 blocks away. We purchased some more provisions, and then took a short cut through the mall to the street to catch our connecting bus back to the ship. This was when we really leaned how well the earlier taxi cab deal had been. All in all, including waiting for the buses and going to Walmart, it took us about 1.5 hours to get back to the ship, but we saved $1.00!!!! Ha Ha. It was a fun bus ride, on the second segment we rode with several persons dressed in costumes heading to a big Halloween bash over at Chinatown. I suppose the bus is a good and safe way to get to, and especially from, a party.

when we arrived back at the port, we spent a few minutes going through the shopping area next to the ship. We were a little surprised that most of the stores were already closed and it was only 8:00 PM. It also appeared that several stores were empty, possibly indicating that there were not enough ships coming there to support them. We did see that there was a special Halloween party getting ready to start in the area around the Aloha Tower. A large area was barricaded off, and people were waiting in a long line to get into that area. This might have had something to do with the stores closing early, who knows.

We boarded the ship and headed to get some dinner at the buffet. We were pretty tired from being on the go all day, especially all of the walking around Waikiki. At 8:45 PM, we went to see a special Hula presentation in the large Princess Theater on the ship. We got there just as the show started. It was all done by Hawaiian children, up to the age of about 14. There were mostly girls, and there was one boy in particular who was very good. It was an interesting show, apparently these kids attend a special Hawaiian dance school, and do a lot of live shows. There were a couple of girls that appeared to be about 8, and they all did a great job with their show.

Afterward, we went back to the room to have a couple of refreshments on our balcony, and then decided to go to the big Beach Party that the ship was having before, during and after we were scheduled to depart at 10:30 PM. The party was on the aft decks, and was not that well attended. We think this was due to the age group of the passengers, the fact that we were in port so long, and that a lot of folks were now just arriving back from the evening Luau excursions, people were just not that interested in the ship’s party.

 

We stayed up on deck until the ship departed Honolulu, and then called it a night at around midnight.

Unfortunately, we have another 5:15 AM alarm time tomorrow morning for our stop in Kauai.