We chose Oahu over the other Hawaiian islands because it had two things that were important to us that the other ones did not have: the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor.
Polynesian Cultural Center
Not going to lie, I balked when I saw the ticket price for the PCC. It was more expensive than Disneyland! What I didn't realize though is that the PCC basically is Disneyland, minus the rides. I'm convinced it's actually the best deal on the island if you truly take advantage of all it has to offer.
We went for the third tier option, the Ali'i Lū'au package, which included a guided tour through the six islands, the luau, and the night show. I am sure we would have chosen to skip the guide if there had been a cheaper option that included the luau and the night show but didn't give you the guide. However, if we wanted the luau, then we had to also have the guide, and this ended up being the best thing.
The amount of things to see and do and experience at the PCC is truly staggering. There are so many options and possibilities. There are six islands: Fiji, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Each island has a multitude of ways to explore it: activities, games, entertainment, demonstrations. You could probably spend all day at just a couple of islands if you fully did everything that's offered. Pacing yourself is key if you want to see as much as possible, and that is why a guide is worth the money.
We were paired with one other family who had two girls. Our guide was a cute BYU-Hawaii student named Rin. He asked us what our top priorities were (Ian said his was fishing), and then he planned out the day. He knew what the most popular shows and activities were (and when they were taking place), so he included most of those and then added in our own requests. And with that, we were off.
We caught the last half of the opening show on the water, which features dances from all six islands (we were a little late because of a problem with our tickets). I think it was that opening show where I first realized what kind of day we were in for. The talent and quality of the performance were exceptional.
Next we went on a canoe tour which took us past most of the islands. This was followed by the Iosepa (a large, double-hulled canoe that the one in Moana was patterned after; and apparently, BYU-Hawaii students still take it out each spring for a month-long voyage).
We learned a couple of Hawaiian games at our next stop. This was followed by participating in a traditional dance, getting tattoos as a family, and fishing. I wish I had kept better track of exactly which island we were in as we did each of these activities, but it was a little overwhelming, to be honest. We very much relied on Rin to take us to the next place at the appropriate time. (Although most of the activities were happening continuously, the shows were on a specific schedule, and Rin planned it all perfectly so we hit each one at just the right time.)
My kids' favorite show by far was the one in Tonga. It is a comedy drum show where they take three volunteers from the audience and make them play the drums in various ways. It had all of us laughing our heads off.
Next we played a couple of stick games (one with big sticks, one with little sticks). These were probably the boys' favorite games that they learned (and Clark actually won the one with the big sticks).
We had our first (and only) taste of cold coconut water from a coconut (it looked more impressive than it actually tasted). We did a little craft making a a fish from a palm leaf. And we watched a palm tree climbed in seconds followed by a fire dance.
By that point, we were already at the end of our day (and even with Rin's excellent planning, we could see that there was so much we had missed). Rin dropped us off at the luau and said goodbye.
As we walked into the luau, they put beautiful leis made with fresh flowers around our necks. (I have always wanted to wear a lei, so this was an unexpected treat.) We were seated at our table and they brought us the most delicious drink served in a pineapple.
With great ceremony, they uncovered the roasted pig that had been slowly cooking all day in a ground oven. Once that was brought up, the feast began. It was served buffet style with dozens of choices of traditional foods from the islands. We were all adventurous eaters and tried most of what was offered.
At the end of the meal, the performance began which shared the story of the last reigning queen on Hawaii through music and dance. Ian and Clark even went up and participated in one part of it.
And finally, the last experience of the day was HĀ: Breath of Life, a spectacular night show with singing, dancing, and, everyone's favorite, fire. It was pretty epic.
When you put all of that together, it seems well worth the ticket price (the luau and night show alone would have been that much if we had done something similar anywhere else), but you can actually go back over the next three days and explore the islands even more. Mike took the four older boys zip lining the next day (more on that in another post), and I was trying to figure out what Silas, Ian, and I could do while they were gone. After going to the PCC and having an amazing time, it was a no brainer to go back the next afternoon for more fun.
We did some of our favorite things again: Ian desperately wanted to go back to the fishing station. We went to two different fishing spots, and amazingly, Silas and Ian both caught their own fish. Based on how unprepared the employees were acting, I got the sense that this was quite unusual, and Ian was particularly thrilled.
This time we were without a guide, and I realized just how vital Rin had been to us having such a seamlessly smooth time the day before. We wandered around a bit aimlessly but managed to catch a bunch of other shows that we had missed the day before and participate in other activities and games. One of our favorite things from the second day was the fun rhythm experience in Fiji.
All in all, such an amazing time at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and I can see why it is one of the top things to do on Oahu.
Pearl Harbor
This is where we went on our final day in Hawaii. Our flight home was in the evening, so we had most of the day to spend at Pearl Harbor.
I think most people start with the USS Arizona and end with the Battleship Missouri, which makes more sense chronologically. However, we had not reserved tickets for either ahead of time and didn't know what we would actually end up having time for, so we started at the Battleship Missouri (the Mighty Mo). Although it wasn't docked in Pearl Harbor at the time (1945), it was on this deck that the surrender documents were signed with Japan, bringing an official end to World War II. It meant more to me than I was expecting to stand there on the exact same wooden planks and think about what had happened there.
We had a tour guide who took us through the historical timeline of the ship. Then we were left to explore on our own. It was a very hot day with no breeze whatsoever, so it was actually a blessing to go below deck to see the living quarters. It probably would have been stuffy and miserable eighty years ago, but now it is fully air conditioned, so we took our time walking through it, looking at the bunk rooms, kitchen, mess hall, offices, etc.
It is a massive ship with decks that seem to go on forever, and we came back outside and explored all the ones that were accessible to us. Truly it was kind of awe-inspiring how much this ship could hold in terms of a crew, large weapons, and supplies (even the thought of how much food would have had to be stored to feed a crew for any one mission was staggering).
By the time we were done, we were all so hot. We got Dole Whips, and even though I'm sharing about all of the food from this trip in another post, I just have to tell you that this was one of the best things we ate the entire time. We had even already had Dole Whips at the Dole Plantation, but this was just the exact right thing at the exact right time and boosted everyone's morale for more history.
We went back to the visitor's center and after deliberating a bit on how much time we had left, we decided it couldn't hurt to get in the virtual queue for the USS Arizona. We didn't know if we would actually get called up in the time we had left, but decided to wait it out anyway. As I said before, it was a hot day so some of the kids just curled up in a heap on a bench, so tired and so hot.
We eventually went to the theater to watch the documentary, and I'm not sure why we didn't do this sooner. It was super informative, but then our number in the queue came up, and we had to exit early and didn't get to see the whole thing. We took the Navy shuttle boat to the memorial (no photos or videos allowed).
Walking onto the memorial was quite sobering. We looked down into the water at the USS Arizona and looked out over the harbor at the other markers. A quiet reverence pervades the space. With so much going on in the world right now, going to Pearl Harbor was a good reminder of all that has already been sacrificed to keep America free. I was so grateful the timing worked out so we could spend a few quiet moments there thinking and reflecting.
Even though Pearl Harbor was basically the last thing we did on our vacation, I still have a lot that I haven't shared. Next up: food.
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