Honolulu Hawaii – Pearl Harbor Visit

So, a very early start today as we arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii. We had an organised tour to Pearl Harbor and needed to be in the Vista Lounge at 7:50am to board the coaches.

We hung around for a bit, and quite a few guests had to return to their rooms after we were told that absolutely no bags were allowed for security reasons — a rule that has apparently been in place since 9/11.

The weather was absolutely disgusting. The rain was coming down sideways and getting everywhere. We only had to walk from the terminal to the bus, but that was more than enough to soak us through. It took about 20 minutes to get to Pearl Harbor, and the coach driver dropped us off in the car park, which meant walking about 200 yards to the entrance. By the time we got there it looked like we had fallen into a swimming pool. We’ve never seen rain like it — and we lived in England for goodness’ sake!

Unfortunately, the boats out to the USS Arizona were not running because of the weather. Instead, we paid to enter the submarine museum, which was amazing. We were able to walk onboard the USS Bowfin, and it was truly incredible to see what life must have been like on a submarine like that.

Afterwards we wandered around the areas that were covered — although there weren’t many. With nearly two hours before our bus would take us back, and being completely fed up with the weather, we decided to get a taxi back to the ship.

This caused a bit of concern. We checked the price of an Uber which was about $18, but as there was already a taxi waiting we decided to jump in. Well… we had $40 in cash between us, and by the time we were about two-thirds of the way back the meter was already showing $38! We told the driver we only had $40 and that would have to do. I’m fairly sure we were turned over a bit, but honestly we were just glad to get back to the ship.

We boarded again in the pouring rain, and just as we were settling down we received a message from our friends Eric and Lexie saying their trips had been cancelled due to the weather and they were heading over to see us. We arranged to meet at the Spaghetti Factory, which is literally across the road from the ship.

It was lovely to see them again — and meet their kids — and we had a great catch-up over drinks and lunch.

After saying our goodbyes we boarded the ship again, this time planning to stay on. The rain was still causing major problems, so much so that we all received severe weather warnings on our phones. At that point we decided to call it a day and head back inside the ship to warm up and dry off.

More to follow……