7 of us were booked on the Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri and City Tour and day before the Tour we were provided a free upgrade to the Premium Tour. The tour started with the City Tour which took a stop at the King's statue and went way too long, with the driver singing some songs with his ukele at the statue. The primary goal of the Tour was to see Pearl Harbor & the USS Missouri. Time was wasted in the city and at lunch (appears morning was simply a filler time until the lunch booking) and when we arrived at Pearl Harbor less than 90 minutes was available to do the trip to the Arizona and complete the tour and interpretation of the Visitor Center. There were 2 other things available at the Center being the USS Bowfin and other museum, at a cost, however there was not sufficient time to be able to do this - approx 30 minutes out of the 90 minutes (Arizona Memorial not able to be docked at, but that is outside the company's control).
We were then taken to the USS Missouri with only 60 minutes to go through the ship before closing....overall only 2.5 hours from a full day tour at the key attractions. Overall this ruined a costly perfect trip and the "free upgrade" was really a total downgrade! More time at the key sites, less ukele playing!!! Very disappointed.
Aloha,
Thank you for your feedback on the brand new Pearl Harbor Premium Tour; your comment about spending more time at the Battleship Missouri and Arizona Memorial was very helpful and as a result we are making immediate changes to the overall itinerary. The city portion of the tour includes a stop at the famous King Kamehameha Statue and a drive through Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific which is an integral part of the entire experience. Mahalo!
First stop was the Pacific Aviation Museum. The volunteer staff were very knowledgeable and friendly. It was interesting to hear about the aircrafts, pilots and tragic events that happened on 7th December 1941. The windows in Hangar 79 still have bullet holes left by the Japanese attack. Our tour continued at the Visitor Center where a short film was shown on the Pearl Harbour attack. We then boarded a US Navy boat to ride over to the USS Arizona Memorial. Unfortunately due to structural damage it was closed. The information and displays at the Visitor Center are outstanding. Our tour guide was very informative when driving us through Punchbowl Cemetery and Downtown Honolulu. Overall the tour was good however we would have appreciated an extra hour or two at Pearl Harbor as we missed so much due to lack of time.
We thoroughly enjoyed this outstanding tour! Trevor did a great job as driver (very important) and guide!! It was a long, but incredible day. A multitude of waterfalls, crashing waves, black sand beeches, rain forests, deserts, powerful winds, sheer cliffs and a lot more! We felt safe with him as a driver and thoroughly enjoyed his commentary on the various sites. Thanks!!
We got upgraded to the “VIP” tour which was well received on face value. We were told that our hotel pickup would arrived at 08:45, but after calling at 09:10 we were told it was a mistake and should have been 09:20 (it arrived at 09:30).
The bus was comfortable and was about 1/4 full, complementary water and banana bread was offered by the driver.
The Pearl Harbour tour started with the USS Missouri battle ship. This was our favourite part of the tour, but we had to rush as we weren’t given enough time.
The next part was a sit down meal at a “military yacht club”, it was fine. Thankfully they sold alcohol.
We then returned to the Peal Harbour tour for the USS Arizona video (this was enough basic background) and a boat trip around the memorial. Unfortunately we couldn’t land on the memorial due to some structural damage. There are other exhibits to see afterwards, but they are somewhat underwhelming. We had far too much time on this part of the tour and we’re ready to leave with 45 mins to share. This could have been more interesting if entry to the Blow Fish submarine was included in the tour.
A surprise was a trip to the national cemetery and historical sites in downtime Honolulu, but we were done before this was announced. The “luxury” bus also played some videos that were pretty arbitrary, they need something extra to bring them to live.
This was a new tour and was too long in our opinion (09:30 - 17:30). The driver (that I will not name) was trying too hard to be funny, but became clearly irritating to many of the passengers over the tour. We managed to jump out early as we’d had enough! Refinement is needed to make this good value for time and money.
Aloha Andy,
Thank you for your feedback - we're glad that you enjoyed the luxury mini coach and complementary banana bread and bottled water. We regret the inconvenience experienced during your pickup.
Mahalo for taking the time to post a review and please know that we appreciate your suggestions that allow us to continually improve.
This is an excellent tour to a genuinely breathtaking piece of history. It was like reliving the past. The guide was excellent, a little hard to understand at times but so knowledgeable and passionate. Great family day out. The Polynesian Adventure Tour People made a right mess of the pick up point. Having reconfirmed the pick up point by phone 24 hours before as requested the bus never showed up. My family and two others were waiting at the confirmed pick up point. I rang the office to be told a different pick up point! Asked for a manager to be told none on duty. Explained there were 10 people waiting for the bus and eventually after a second phone call was told that they had got it wrong and sent another bus for us. Very poor attitude by the agent. Promised that someone would ring us back but of course nobody did. Many companies offering this tour so maybe consider an alternative.
