Get Real Chronicles

I am trying to locate some picture for some visual assistance and to help tell the story better and will add this in later.

I don’t know if you all are seeing a pattern in these posts about Hawaii, but as I type up these stories I sure am.

Carole, Katie and I decided to go to Pearl Harbor and being money/green conscientious we took the bus. Unfortunately, for us we took the wrong bus in RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC and it took 1.2 hours to get there. To put this in perspective if you drove from our hotel to the harbor it would take around 20 minutes or so in normal traffic.

I think we left latter than we expected because we had a meeting with the chorus, not sure I remember the true reason was.

I didn’t think we would ever get there the bus kept stopping here and there. When we finally arrived the driver informed us the last shuttle would be back in an hour so whatever were going to it had to be fast. This really didn’t sit too well with us.

* I am going to pause here for a service announcement and say while you are on vacation it would be a GOOD idea to research all activities before you spend 1.5 hours on the bus to get to a location. The other thing you would learn in your research before you go is the RULES. This is a key point to the story*

When we got off the bus everyone walked to the main entrance. At the time we didn’t know there was two sections the park and the museum and the submarine.

As our line approached the guard he told us we were not allowed to have bags in the Museum or on the submarine. He pointed us to the purse/bag checking station across the park. To say we were confused, tired and somewhat irritated would be an understatement.

We walked across to the other section of the park and found a detached trailer of sorts. It wasn’t a big trailer and looked more like an open coat check station. I don’t have a picture of the actual trailer but have seen closets bigger. I walked up to find out what the process was to check our things in and saw their security or lack of.

The windows were hinged and propped open at the top. I did glance at this and had a slight thought of it would come crashing down on my head, but thank goodness it didn’t. When asking what the rules were I noticed several things at once: 1) the “door” to their facility was standing wide open. 2) The employees were too busy to keep a watchful eye on what was going on and anyone could come in a lift a purse/bag or camera fairly easy.

This was in a split second and the employee rudely pointed to a sign of what was allowed and what wasn’t. I turned to read the “sign” and realized that everything we brought would have to be checked plus there was a charge of $3.00 charge to store our things and pray that we would get them back.

I turned around to my companions and said I didn’t feel comfortable about this set up. I guess the lady heard me. I didn’t think I actually said this that loud, but apparently she did and wasn’t very happy about this.

While talking to my friends I said that I didn’t mind sitting under a tree. I had brought a book and could read while they went in as long as they took pictures. The employee was still listening to me I guess. The group said they would do this so I stepped down and we started on our way. I turned around and saw a rocket and airplane that was about ten feet from where we were standing and thought I would snap a couple of pictures before I found a tree. Remember I thought this was separate so I didn’t think this was part of the museum. The submarine was further down so I didn’t think it was a big deal.

All of a sudden the woman starts yelling - - she really screeching “YOU HAVE TO CKECK YOUR BAGS”. She scared the be jesus out of me. I turned around to her to see who she was screaming at and found she was screaming at me. Needless to say I didn’t get the pictures of the rocket or airplane. We quickly left the area.

We walked back to the museum so Carole and Katie could go in only to be told they had to have a ticket. This was by the same guard that told us we had to check our bags.

One of the reasons we went to Pearl Habor not only because there is so much history but we were told that it was free if you did the tour on your own or you could have the option to purchase head phone and listen to a virtual tour for $5.00.

When we asked where to get the tickets he said it was located where we were suppose to check our bags and looked back at me who was carrying all the bags at this point. So we walked back over to where the trailer was and the bag Nazi. I waited by the front FAR away from her while they went to get a ticket. A few minutes later they came out to say that the tickets were sold out “first come first served” and they didn’t have any more.

I was very upset because no one had told us about the ticket quantity, we didn’t know about the bag situation and there was a charge, miscommunication between departments and the treatment we received.

Please note I did show some level of restraint I could have fired back at the bag Nazi woman about her behavior or the treatment from the guard having us go back and forth wasting our time only to find out that they limit the number of visitors per day and their number had already been meet. Of course, he may have not known this. I didn’t want to display embarrassing behavior to my companions or to the group we were with.

I should have asked for a manager to inform him that his organization needs some improvements and his staff need a 101 class in customer service, but 1) our time was up and 2) we were told that the personnel doesn’t take to kindly of bad behavior from civilians and you could find yourself in the brig.

So you can see why I added the service announcement to research your vacation activities thoroughly.

Here is what the website states about their security:











Strict security measures prohibit purses, handbags, fanny packs, backpacks, camera bags, diaper bags, luggage and/or other items that offer concealment. Visitors may bring a camera and cam-recorder. A storage facility, operated by a private vendor, is available for visitors coming to the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, the Battleship Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum. The facility can be found at the entrance to the USS Bowfin Sumarine Park. There is a nominal storage fee. The storage facility is in operation daily 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Visitors may use the same bag storage and parking stall for all three tours