This is a review for the Arizona Pearl Harbor tour. Our guide, "cousin" Brian, was hands down the best part of this tour! A wealth of local knowledge, great sense of humor, personable, and very clear about what our itinerary was with a healthy amount of emphasis on the key times that we needed to adhere to for the trip. We were given the tickets that allowed us to completely bypass the extremely long line that we would've had to stand in otherwise.
Brian picked us up in front of our hotel, the Moana Surfrider, at the specified time that we were texted the day before. During the drive to Pearl Harbor, Brian did a great job of pointing out the highlights of the local area, including natural points of interest and stories behind local Hawaiian history. Once we arrived, Brian gave us clear instructions on what time we should be in line to hop on the boat and also our return time. After the boat ride around the harbor (more about this below), we departed and picked up the van ride back to the hotel but not until we received an excellent tour around the local area. Totally worth the trip for this part alone!
The only downside of this trip was not the fault of the tour company but rather an issue with the Navy. The Navy admiral in town decided to take the VIP boat to the memorial and the engine wouldn't restart so it was stuck in the docking area and prevented us from docking! Totally bogus. That VIP boat could easily have been towed in a few minutes so that we could have docked. So we never actually had a chance to visit the memorial itself. The Navy shipmen who operated our boat gave us a little bit of a harbor tour and discussed the history of the attack but it wasn't really a substitute for the memorial. Honestly, their apology was insincere and on top of that they were giving us wrong facts (e.g., kept saying December 7, 1942; referring to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln as a "prison"). The Navy admiral presence was really ridiculous and put a damper on that portion of the trip. I was told that the same VIP boat was having mechanical trouble the prior week. Its not like we're in Hawaii all of the time so we missed the main point of the tour.
But Karma and Brian were awesome and I would recommend them without hesitation in the future. Well worth the cost!