How to Get Tickets to the USS Arizona for $1
Visiting the Pearl Harbor Historical Sites and the USS Arizona was at the top of my mom’s bucket list when she came to see us for the first time in Hawaii.
(It’s also on our Wheeler Army Airfield and Hawaii Bucket List!)
However, as first-time visitors, we were SO CONFUSED about what we needed tickets for and how to get them.
If you Google it, you’ll be met with ads for lots of tours that are COMPLETELY overpriced and unnecessary. You don’t need a tour to visit Pearl Harbor or the USS Arizona. And you technically don’t need tickets either.
Here’s what we learned when we finally quit searching online and went directly to the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites Visitors Center to ask.
**It’s FREE**
Access to the Pearl Harbor Visitors Center, the Road to War exhibit galleries, the documentary at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Theater, and the boat ride to and from the USS Arizona are FREE.
Totally and completely free!
What Do You Need Tickets For?
Even though visiting the USS Arizona is free, you can reserve tickets to board the boat at a specific time. The cost of the reservation is $1.00.
If you don’t reserve tickets, you can still get on the boat to go see the Arizona; you’ll just have to wait in the standby line. We’ve been to the memorial twice without a reservation. In June, we waited 40-ish minutes for boarding. In July, we waited over an hour. It just depends on how busy it is when you’re there.
I didn’t want to stand in line with the kids, so we reserved tickets. However, it took me 3 days to be able to reserve them!
Update: You no longer have to stand in line for standby! You can ‘get in line’ by scanning a QR code at the front desk, and they’ll text you when it’s time to board the boat.
How to Get Tickets
Ticket reservations to go to the USS Arizona are released the day prior at 3:00 pm Hawaii Standard Time. But they sell out FAST!
By fast, I mean they sell out in 3 to 4 minutes during peak tourist season (i.e., summer).
It took me 3 tries to successfully reserve tickets for our group of 5, and here’s how I did it:
- Before your trip, create an account on www.recreation.gov.
- The day before you want to reserve tickets, set a timer on your phone for 2:55 pm.
- Make sure you’re on good wi-fi and have your credit card ready.
- At 2:55 pm, log in to your account and click on the USS Arizona Memorial.
- At exactly 3:00 pm, refresh your feed and click on the time that you want.
- Hope and pray that you get it!
I know that sounds excessive, but it’s what I had to do to get tickets to the USS Arizona. And it took me 3 days of trying!
The first day, Heff tried to get tickets while we were driving down the road (headed to find the secret lava tube at the Halona blowhole). But cell service wasn’t great, and it took too long to refresh the page.
The second day, I logged on right at 3:00, but had to find my credit card, and by 3:04 all of the tickets were already gone!
The third day, I did exactly those steps that I listed above, and it worked!
I hope that helps, and you can get reservation tickets to the USS Arizona. However, I can say with complete confidence that even if you have to wait in the standby line that the experience is totally worth it!
It is incredibly emotional, and I cried during every visit. However, it truly makes me grateful for those service members, their love for our country, and the sacrifice they made to protect it.
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