The Hawaii PCS (Your virtual sponsor)
If you've ever had to move to a new place because of the military, then you know about sponsors. If not, then let me explain:
Sponsor: Someone who has been assigned to be your lifeline in the new scary place. They should be there to answer all of your questions, pick you up from the airport, and direct you to the best car rental place, advise on the best hotels (which ones are pet friendly, good location, etc..) and just all around be there for you when you first arrive.
Now sometimes you get lucky, and get an AWESOME sponsor. They go above and beyond - even taking you out to eat on your first night there. That's fantastic. Good for you. But sometimes you get a sponsor that you can never get a hold of. Sometimes you get a sponsor that can't do their duties because they are TDY when you arrive, and send someone to pick you up from the airport that had no idea they would need to fit 2 kids and a 50 lb dog in their teeny tiny car.
That kind of blows. Especially when you've been traveling for fifteen hours and have jet-lagged kids.
That was our experience.. The not so helpful sponsor.
Maybe you want to be thorough, or maybe your sponsor is a little laggy with answering questions - Either way - here is what we learned the hard way, for those of you PCSing to Hawaii.
RENT/LEASE A CAR
+ RENT - There are plenty of places to rent from on Oahu, especially around the airport, but if you don't reserve a car ahead of time, you will have trouble finding one that meets your needs. We rented from Alamo Rentals - and they were ok. They helped us out in a tight spot, but we got a little dodge that had transmission issues and wasn't quite big enough for our family.
We didn't find out until later that there were other places that offered better deals and worked with military members. If you want to rent, we recommend JN Automotive. Also, side note - you can use your GTC to pay for it.
+ LEASE - You might be thinking, "Lease a car? Isn't that kind of like buying one?" - It's not. It's better than renting. This might not be the best option for everyone, but for us - it definitely WAS. We didn't realize we should have done it until we had already spent $800 on a rental car. Yeah. One week's worth of rental, and it cost $800. Guess how much leasing is? $300 a month.
Our plan when we arrived was to buy a used car to use while we waited on our primary car to arrive to the island. We didn't think it would take so long, but let me tell you, 'Island Time' is a very real thing. We had a car lined up to buy, but the dealer kept dragging it out saying he needed to do more to it...it wasn't done in the shop...it needed a little more time...You get the picture. We looked at other cars while we waited for this particular car to be "ready" but nothing was working out. Finally, after a week of renting a car and waiting, we finally told the guy we wouldn't be buying it. That's when we looked at other options.
We went to Volkswagen Honolulu, and looked at leasing options. We were able to get a BRAND NEW CAR on a lease, without breaking the bank, and that we were able to take home THAT SAME DAY. Leasing was the way to go for our situation.
HOTELS
Hotels aren't quite as difficult. You should have received a list of TLA approved hotels in the area - and all you have to do is pick one, check availability and if you have a pet MAKE SURE THEY RESERVED YOU A PET ROOM.
Why is that in all caps? Because they didn't reserve us a pet room. Even after checking and double checking and telling them we had a 50 lb dog that would also be staying with us.
Pets make everything more difficult. Just try to remember how much you love them as you write all the pet fee checks, try to cram their crates into spaces they just wont fit, and have to switch rooms/hotels because they didn't reserve the right room for your furry friend.
Anyways, HOTELS - we stayed at Airport Honolulu Hotel. It was ok. Just ok. The bathroom smelled like cigarettes and the parking was quite stupid, but other than that, it worked just fine for us. It didn't have an adequate kitchen (it had a mini fridge and a microwave) which means we get more money back from TLA for all the 'fast food' we had to live on. This is what we did. It was fine.
But you could also go to one of the nice hotels right on Waikiki (with an adequate kitchen) that has a view of the ocean and fireworks. Wouldn't that have been nice? Maybe next time, now that we know better.
LOANERS
I'm not talking about the emo kid in the corner. (bad joke)
I'm talking about Airman's attic. I'm talking about having furniture for that 2 months you have to wait for your household goods. Most of it you can only have on loan for about 90 days. That should be plenty unless something has gone terribly wrong. And trust me. It can, and will. If you have to go past that 90 days and need some cheap, basic furniture or pots and pans - the Hickam Thrift Shop is a good place to look.
A lot of people don't realize how many resources are available to them when moving with the military until it's too late. That's what this post is for. Hopefully we can help the next first time family to Hickam who's been landed with a bum sponsor.
Moving is hard enough already - we don't want to make it worse by lack of information.
