One of the most popular tourist destinations on O`ahu has to be the USS Arizona Memorial. The memorial sees an average of 4500 visitors per day and 1.5 million per year.
Admission is free and tickets are issued on a first come first serve basis. The first tickets are issued at 7:45 am for the showing of a 23 minute movie on the attack of Pearl Harbor, and the last ones issued at 3:00 pm. Wait times can be long (up to 3 hrs) depending on the time/season that you visit.
Although entry to the museum and out to the memorial is free, I recommend that you purchase the audio tour. There is a lot of information available with the audio tour that you won't get by just reading the plaques in the museum. There are 20 stops with the audio tour that will keep you occupied while you wait your turn for the theater.
While out on the memorial you can only imagine what it must have been like with all the burning oil and chaos that was going on. Just by looking at the mooring makes you wonder what it must have been like.
When you exit the boat and step out onto the memorial, you can quickly smell the aroma of the fuel that is constantly being leaked out. There were 1.5 million gallons of fuel on the USS Arizona when she sank. Today,approximately 9 quarts surface from the sunken ship daily. They are usually referred to as the black tears of the entombed bodies.
Given the price and the experience, this has to be the best value on O`ahu
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