Oahu Day 5
We woke up pretty early to take Kellyne to school… cause my baby sister is a teacher… it’s still weird. Anyways, we took her to school and had big plans for the day. The Polynesian Cultural Center or the PCC. The PCC is located on the north shore, so it was a semi-long drive, so we took off. It’s a pretty drive but we did hit some traffic which took quite a bit of time. We passed all of the shrimp trucks and got to the PCC before they opened to get our tickets.
Once we got our tickets, we went to a place that Kellyne suggested we try, Ken’s Fresh Fish. After we had eaten, we went into the PCC to make sure we got in our full day of adventures. If you’ve never been to the PCC, just know, you won’t be able to do it all in one day. There are shows at each island spread out throughout the day. You are able to download an app to navigate the PCC, or use their map that they provide you at the front. There are 6 islands and there are also activities that are found all around at the different islands at different times. Again, you need more than one day to get it all done. Or multiple trips to Hawaii!
The PCC has a unique history and foundation story. If you go, they perform on boats while on the water and tell all about it. It’s quite interesting and it’s incredibly neat that the performers are students at BYU-H and the PCC ticket sales go towards their scholarships for tuition, housing, and more. That’s pretty awesome about the scholarships, especially since it allows people to attend college who otherwise may never have had that opportunity any other way. Students come from all over, but a large amount come from the Polynesian islands. Kellyne actually went to BYU-H and worked at the PCC for a time. The cultural diversity is so special to Hawaii and provides an opportunity for people to tell about their home, traditions, and way of life in a fun and unique way. The following islands are featured at the PCC: Aotearoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tonga.
Each island presentation is around 20-25 minutes and you have enough time to run off to the next island presentation. It makes for a full day trying to catch all of the island presentations. But each island is unique and worth learning about.
There’s also a section in the back that’s dedicated to the sail boat that was crafted and is used by students who want to become navigators or sailors in the traditional way. They will sometimes take the boat out, with students, for trips. Since their trips are dependent on funding, it’s getting less frequent that those trips happen. It’s very interesting to hear about the tools used to navigate and sail the oceans and how the different islanders discovered new islands and methods of survival. I cannot imagine spending months at sea on a small hand crafted boat though. Apparently Disney needed to learn all about these methods of sailing for the movie Moana, so they came asking the experts.
During the middle of the day there’s a boat show on the water. It’s pretty exciting and lots of dancing and music. There’s a story of how the PCC was conceived and how it grew to what it is now. I suggest you find a place to sit in the shade as it’s quite hot and the show is rather long. There are some packages that you can purchase when you get your tickets that’ll get you a reserved seat, but there’s seating along the sides as well, but get there early and find a good seat.
After we finished watching all of the island shows, it was time for dinner. We weren’t able to get tickets to the luau but we did get tickets to the prime rib buffet. It wasn’t anything special and was fairly empty. The presentation was nice and the hall was massive, but nothing special with the food. The luau used to have a show during your meal which was pretty neat.
After dinner we had tickets to Ha: Breath of Life. No photography was allowed during the show, but it’s a good show. It incorporated a lot of what we learned at all of the different islands while telling a story of tradition and life’s journey. Also, lots of fire. By the time the show was done, it was almost 9:30 pm and we had a long drive ahead of us. The PCC is a must do if you’re going to Oahu. It’s so informative and really gives a better understanding of the different cultures throughout the world, or at least a small part of it. Look into spending more than 1 day as our tickets allowed us to come back for 3 days. If we had more time, we may have come back to look into some of the activities and extras offered throughout the day. There’s also a lot of shops and an IMAX show which is also a good view and short story about Hawaii. There’s so much to do and we sure did try to cram it all in. I guess we’ll have to come back to give the rest of the PCC a try!
