In my opinion, your friend is a quarter correct. Oahu is great once you get outside of Honolulu itself. Oahu has alot to offer but the traffic can be terrible at times. Remember, Honolulu is a very large city. If our travel plans call for us to stay on Oahu, we usually stay 3 nights on Oahu (Waikiki Beach) and then 6 or 7 nights on a different island. When we travel in March, we are doing 3 nights Oahu, 6 nights Maui. This year we did 5 nights Hawaii and 5 nights Kauai.

Your plans on Oahu sound great. A couple of things. When you go to Pearl Harbor get there, in my opinion, no later than 7:30 a.m. That means leaving your hotel around 6:30 a.m. or so. You will be able to get into the museum at Pearl Harbor anytime of day but if you plan on doing the Arizona Memorial they issue group boarding passes (1 thru whatever) on a first come first serve basis. Most of the time, they have issued all group boarding passes by 12:00 p.m. I can't recall what time group 1 starts the tour but it might be at 8:30 a.m. We have done group 1 and group 2 only. After that I can't help you. In addition to this, you will go through security. They do not want you bring bags in.

Follow my advice carefully. Put any bags in your trunk prior to arriving at ANY POPULAR TOURIST DESTINATION!!!!!!!! That means Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, Waikiki BEach, etc. Even though this is Hawaii, theft does happen. It happened to my wife and I back in 1998. We don't know if stuff was stolen at Pearl Harbor or at Diamond Head. Either way, without us knowing about it, we put stuff into our trunk in the parking lot. These people who steal stuff know how to do it. Slim jims, master keys, dent pullers, etc. There is nothing like ruining your vacation that a theft. Lucky for us it was a camcorder battery, towels and a couple of minor things.