Booking Oahu/Aulani activities

[jabberwock1]

I am wondering how far in advance I need to book tickets for Pearl Harbor and excursions/dining/spa treatments at Aulani. My family will be there in early August, which seems like a busy time given how booked the resort is. Am I forgetting anything else that may require advance booking on Oahu or at the resort (we plan to go to a luau on Big Island.) Thanks!

 

[owensamo]

We booked Pearl Harbor within a week of the times opening up for our late June trip - and couldn't pre-reserve a mid-morning time. We ended up with 8am just because the next available was lunchtime! If you know what day and time you want to get your Arizona tickets, I'd book them ASAP. We actually got the Passport, which includes admission to the ships and museums as well.

That said - we haven't booked anything else, either on Oahu or the Big Island. We do want to do a luau or two, and I'd love to do a catamaran excursion (might not do that one on Oahu). Most of the rest of the things we want to do don't necessarily need to be pre-reserved, so I'm hoping we'll be fine!

 

[Cinderpamela]

Book Pearl Harbor as soon as your dates open up on the web site, it fills up fast!

The rest you can probably hold off on until May or even June.... though I found out the hard way to reserve a cabana as early as possible... on our last trip we were there at Christmas time so it was very busy, August may not be quite as busy.

 

[jabberwock1]

We booked Pearl Harbor within a week of the times opening up for our late June trip - and couldn't pre-reserve a mid-morning time. We ended up with 8am just because the next available was lunchtime! If you know what day and time you want to get your Arizona tickets, I'd book them ASAP. We actually got the Passport, which includes admission to the ships and museums as well.

Thanks! The Passport looks like the way to go.

Book Pearl Harbor as soon as your dates open up on the web site, it fills up fast!

The rest you can probably hold off on until May or even June.... though I found out the hard way to reserve a cabana as early as possible... on our last trip we were there at Christmas time so it was very busy, August may not be quite as busy.

Funny you mention the cabanas. I did make reservations for one already

How did you know when the dates for Pearl Harbor opened up? Or did you have to keep checking?

 

[Mickey Mantle]

I'm currently here on my second trip to Aulani. I can only comment on the first two weeks in February. Arizona memorial should be booked as soon as possible. I didn't book our tickets for last Tuesday until the middle of January and had to take the 2pm tour on that day because it was the only day available during our ten day trip. As for the spa, I have been four times over the last two years and have been able to pick any time I wanted. Usually it seems my wife and I have the place to ourselves. However that could be the norm for February but not for busier times of year. They told us at the spa that it is open to the public, so it does get busier around Valentines day.

 

[jabberwock1]

Well, just answered my own question. Looks like reservations for the week we are going are opening this week! They are not yet open for the day we want to go, so I guess it's lucky I thought about checking today. Does anyone know what time reservations open for each day?

 

[disneypoor]

We are arriving August 3rd and planned to go to Pearl Harbor on August 7th. I have been checking daily for our dates to open. The day they finally opened, they were gone fast! I had to take a 1:00 time because there were no morning times for our whole week. Book ASAP and watch the site closely for your dates.

Susan

 

[Katiebugg14]

Does anyone know if you can use Disney gift cards for food and merchandise in aulani?


We have never been...is there anything we must do?

 

[WDW_Diane]

Does anyone know if you can use Disney gift cards for food and merchandise in aulani? We have never been...is there anything we must do?

Yes, you can

 

[lovetotraveltx]

We are arriving August 3rd and planned to go to Pearl Harbor on August 7th. I have been checking daily for our dates to open. The day they finally opened, they were gone fast! I had to take a 1:00 time because there were no morning times for our whole week. Book ASAP and watch the site closely for your dates.

Susan

We arrive on the 4th

 

[Anal Annie]

Well, just answered my own question. Looks like reservations for the week we are going are opening this week! They are not yet open for the day we want to go, so I guess it's lucky I thought about checking today. Does anyone know what time reservations open for each day?

We are arriving August 3rd and planned to go to Pearl Harbor on August 7th. I have been checking daily for our dates to open. The day they finally opened, they were gone fast! I had to take a 1:00 time because there were no morning times for our whole week. Book ASAP and watch the site closely for your dates.

Susan

We arrive at Aulani on Fri. Aug 8th and want to go to PH over the weekend to avoid traffic....but I just want to relax on our first full day so I went online today to book for Sun the 10th...many of the slots were already completely gone...since we are including the USS Missouri I want to go early...there were a handful of slots open for 8:45 so I grabbed 3 of them...the availability changed while I was online too...when I first looked there were 25 openings for 9:00 and they disappeared while I was weighing the options (must be large tour groups grabbing chunks). Glad I was paying attention to the DIS so I knew I needed to look NOW. Whenever I booked last year I was able to wait for several months before it started filling up.

 

[jabberwock1]

We arrive at Aulani on Fri. Aug 8th and want to go to PH over the weekend to avoid traffic....but I just want to relax on our first full day so I went online today to book for Sun the 10th...many of the slots were already completely gone...since we are including the USS Missouri I want to go early...there were a handful of slots open for 8:45 so I grabbed 3 of them...the availability changed while I was online too...when I first looked there were 25 openings for 9:00 and they disappeared while I was weighing the options (must be large tour groups grabbing chunks). Glad I was paying attention to the DIS so I knew I needed to look NOW. Whenever I booked last year I was able to wait for several months before it started filling up.

We are planning on PH on August 12 so I will be ready to grab tickets on Wednesday. I think the tickets become available at 10am EST. Can anyone confirm? We arrive on Aug. 9 and I had the same idea as you to relax our first day, which will be Sunday. So we will be heading to PH on a weekday and going really early so that traffic will hopefully not be too much of an issue.

 

[disneypoor]

We arrive on the 4th

I will see you there!

 

[witson]

All tickets we're booked for the days we're in Oahu. I called and the agent told me to get there at 6 am the day we want to go and they will issue tickets for those who didn't pickup their tickets. Wow, that seems early but if that's what I have to do ...
There will be 8 of us and I was told that only one person needs to be there and i would have time to go get the others.
Is that our only choice ?

 

[Anal Annie]

All tickets we're booked for the days we're in Oahu. I called and the agent told me to get there at 6 am the day we want to go and they will issue tickets for those who didn't pickup their tickets. Wow, that seems early but if that's what I have to do ...
There will be 8 of us and I was told that only one person needs to be there and i would have time to go get the others.
Is that our only choice ?

I have used this tour group before when going to PH at the last minute:

http://www.robertshawaii.com/oahu/arizona-pearl-harbor-city.php

It will cost you more to go thru a 3rd party but it is one way to do it without having to be there at o'dark thirty. I believe you can also book it thru Aulani (again, at a premium). There are other tour companies out there as well, I just know that I've used Robert's before.

Tour groups like this are also one reason I think that they run out of tickets so fast AT the rec.gov website - these groups snatch them up in advance as well. Good luck - it is worth paying for!!

 

[witson]

Thanks Annie
I contacted Aulani and they had enough spots for the dates we're there. Yes, it is a little costly but with the girls of 10, 11, 13, and 14 along with a set of parents that have never been to Hawaii, it is definitely worth it to get to witness this historic place.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks Annie
I contacted Aulani and they had enough spots for the dates we're there. Yes, it is a little costly but with the girls of 10, 11, 13, and 14 along with a set of parents that have never been to Hawaii, it is definitely worth it to get to witness this historic place.

Glad they could help you out. This summer will be my 5th trip to Hawaii and also my 5th trip to Pearl Harbor. I just hate to NOT go. The 1st time I went was in 1990 with my Mom - back then there were still survivors giving the tours - realllly memorable to have those guys around to talk to. I kind of thought the last time we went (2006) might be the last time we went but we decided that our DS was only 9 on that trip and probably could get more out of it now. We did the USS Missouri and everything but this time he will be 17 - he's now had both US History and World History and will remember it so much more than he ever could from an earlier age so we're going one more time. This will likely be the last time we bring him with us to Hawaii so we think it will be worth it.

 

[MrsPinup]

I will be there in July for the first time with my best friend who has been once before in 2010. She was saying that you do not need a ticket and it is free. Has this changed since then? We don't want a tour - just the ability to see the USS Arizona and the "main" parts of Pearl Harbor (aka tourist sites). We will have 18 month and 11 month old babies with us btw.

Since I have never been, I am lost on how to plan for this. Help! TIA!

 

[Cinderpamela]

I will be there in July for the first time with my best friend who has been once before in 2010. She was saying that you do not need a ticket and it is free. Has this changed since then? We don't want a tour - just the ability to see the USS Arizona and the "main" parts of Pearl Harbor (aka tourist sites). We will have 18 month and 11 month old babies with us btw.

Since I have never been, I am lost on how to plan for this. Help! TIA!

As of around 2012-ish (or so) you can now make your reservation online at http://www.recreation.gov/tourSearchResult.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369&tourId=0

Its still free but now you actually have a ticket reservation for the boatride out to the Arizona rather than having to just show up and get a ticket for later in the day. You can still choose to just show up and there will be limited tickets to get that way... but its much less stressfull to reserve your ticket ahead of time.

What Annie was talking about above was what to do if all the reservation times have been taken, but you still want a guaranteed ticket. Reservations... especially in the summer are in high demand and may well already be booked up for July. If thats the case you may want to look into one of the tours she listed above.

If I was travelling with young babies I would for sure want to have a reservation in hand. That way you can plan your day and naps and such around the reservation.

There are lots of details on the gov't website I linked above, but feel free to ask any questions.

 

[tinibee]

My friend from Oahu sent me this link about getting tickets for the Arizona via the online system.

http://khon2.com/2014/03/31/online-...-visitor-decline-at-pearl-harbor-attractions/

Of course she sent this to me after I booked a tour because I couldn't reserve tickets online for my dates.

Hope this helps someone so they can save some money by waiting for the afternoon for tickets!