PCSING to Hawaii With a newborn and a 17 month old.,...

Maria - posted on 09/23/2011

Hi, Rebecca. My friend is in Hawaii and her husband is in Afghanistan. She had a baby in March in Hawaii shortly after getting there in January of this year. She also has a 6yo. Is there a meeting place or group activities where she can meet some friends?

Coralyn - posted on 12/09/2009

Locals are awesome by the way no offense to anyone who is a local to Hawaii (just incase that came out wrong earlier). Strangers are way nicer to me in Hawaii then they ever were when I grew up in California.

Tamara - posted on 12/05/2009

Not all locals are bad. we lived off post and never paid no more than $70on our electric and $50 on our gas bill. It really depend on where you live and how much you consume. I only ran our AC at night for a few hours too. We use a lot of natural light, celing fans and open windows during the day. I agree about staying away from waianae. It not that good of an area. I too was born and raise in Hawaii. Kind of miss it too.

Coralyn - posted on 12/05/2009

Quoting Malia:

there is actually a target over by the NEX and if you live off base you need to find a place that includes all utilities because my husband and i lived in Kunia before our child was born and the electric bill was 500 every month!! no one would come to see if the meter was broken or not so we had to move on base!! you also want to stay away from waianae, thats where a lot of locals live and they arent that friendly. im half hawaiian and i was told by family on the mainland to not go around there because im married to a "whiteboy" . but other than that hawaii is amazing! i love it here and so does my husband. i was born here and so glad that i was able to give birth to my daughter here as well.

i totally agree. i have many friends who have tried living off post and it was way too expensive primarily because of electricty. Ive seen people melt away in their 1800 dollar a month tiny condos to avoid running at AC and their bills were still way up there. a lot of military who live off post get their homes broken into by locals also. I know this because when I worked at the Schofield Inn, the families would have to come stay at the hotel for a couple days when their homes were broken into.

Tamara - posted on 12/04/2009

Yay.. I forgot to up date my post. thanks.

Coralyn - posted on 12/04/2009

Quoting Tamara:

Here’s some Hawaii info for you:


If you have pets. Just remember they need to updated on shots and what not.

You will need to get EFMP get command sponsorship. Do it asap since hawaii is considered an overseas duty station.

The military will ship 1 vehicle for you. If you have a 2nd one you can ship it at your own expense.

Some pople were able to get housing with in a week of getting there and other took a few months. They are also in the process of tearing down homes and building new ones.

If you decided to live off post areas to look at would be Mililani (very close to schofield), Kapolei, Waikele, Waipo, Kunia ( pretty close), Ewa & Ewa Beach. (Ewa & Ewa Beach will have pretty decent rent price but your bah should make up for it, also ewa beach/ewa traffic sucks and to some its worth it).

There is an group in Hawaii called Army spouses and they do a lot of meet up. you can find them at www.armyspousesonline.com. they were very helpful and helping you find information as well as dealing with a deployment and more.

The PX is brand new, it has been upgraded a bit. You can also shop at any military base around the island. the NEX comissary is pretty big and has a better selection then most. There is also a sams club as well as a costco. If you do decided to shop off post I would sign up for one of them store rewards card ( safeway has them and foodland maki program).

I would look at the schofield inn www.innatschofield.com for lodging when you get there and if it’s booked try the hale koa which is in downtown waikiki. www.halekoa.com. I would also do that asap since they fill pretty fast.

Tripler Army Medical Center is the main military hospital and each post/base also has a clinic.

shopping- you have waikele outlet stores, pearlridge shopping center, ala moana shoping center, pearlhighland shopping center. wal mart, kmart.

There are a few things hawaii doesn’t have that you will find on the mainland such as target, olive garnden and other.

I would go other with an open mind. Some people hate it some will love it. You will be the one to judge it. There are lots to do out doors. I would always check with MWR offices to see what type of deals they have. The north shore is pretty nice, Ko olina is also nice and all the other beaches. There are a lot of places to hike as well.

Off post housing

1. DoD housing referral
If you are looking to live off post here a place to look
http://doe.k12.hi.us/

we have target now! and a victoria secret! oh and baby's r us! :D

Coralyn - posted on 12/04/2009

i live in hawaii. i used to work for one of the military hotels aswell. I can answer any specific pcsing questions u have especially about housing and TLA. id recommend living on post mainly because of traffic and cost of housing..but theres a few nice areas that are great places to live also.

Lindsey - posted on 12/02/2009

i live on hickam afb right next to pearl harbor. what branch is your husband in? i love it here, nice and sunny still. living on base is really nice bc traffic can be a nightmare out here. so when are you coming out? i will have to take you for a tour and show you things.

Malia - posted on 12/01/2009

craigslist is a really good website to look for housing off base if you guys are just looking to rent. if you have any questions at all i would love to help you!

Malia - posted on 12/01/2009

there is actually a target over by the NEX and if you live off base you need to find a place that includes all utilities because my husband and i lived in Kunia before our child was born and the electric bill was 500 every month!! no one would come to see if the meter was broken or not so we had to move on base!! you also want to stay away from waianae, thats where a lot of locals live and they arent that friendly. im half hawaiian and i was told by family on the mainland to not go around there because im married to a "whiteboy" . but other than that hawaii is amazing! i love it here and so does my husband. i was born here and so glad that i was able to give birth to my daughter here as well.

Julia - posted on 11/20/2009

One more bit of information. Both of my daughters were born at Tripler with the midwife program (if you are thinking of more kids this would be my suggestion!) But my children who were 3 and 2 months when we left loved the beach, but hated the waves...so get aquainted with Ko'Olina it is a resort that has public beaches, they are man made lagoons that are waveless and shallow. My oldest loved it and would run into the water (which was a pain when dealing with the newborn!) My 5 year old great niece came to visit me there and I took her there too and she LOVED it. Base housing is really nice, my only problems with it period is I hate being that close to my neighbors. I prefer a single family home which I had one Kunia.

Whitney - posted on 11/20/2009

i believe the navy now ships 2 vehicles because when we moved to SD from PH in 2007 they offered to ship 2 if we had another one but we only had one...and they do have a target now :)

Tiffany - posted on 11/20/2009

As far as housing goes, if you want to live off post, here is a site you can browse through if you know what base you'll be at, all you need to do is make a profile with your husband's rank and such. www.ahrn.com It's helped us out a lot!!! Good luck =)

Tamara - posted on 11/20/2009

Here’s some Hawaii info for you:





If you have pets. Just remember they need to updated on shots and what not.



You will need to get EFMP get command sponsorship. Do it asap since hawaii is considered an overseas duty station.



The military will ship 1 vehicle for you. If you have a 2nd one you can ship it at your own expense.



Some pople were able to get housing with in a week of getting there and other took a few months. They are also in the process of tearing down homes and building new ones.



If you decided to live off post areas to look at would be Mililani (very close to schofield), Kapolei, Waikele, Waipo, Kunia ( pretty close), Ewa & Ewa Beach. (Ewa & Ewa Beach will have pretty decent rent price but your bah should make up for it, also ewa beach/ewa traffic sucks and to some its worth it).



There is an group in Hawaii called Army spouses and they do a lot of meet up. you can find them at www.armyspousesonline.com. they were very helpful and helping you find information as well as dealing with a deployment and more.



The PX is brand new, it has been upgraded a bit. You can also shop at any military base around the island. the NEX comissary is pretty big and has a better selection then most. There is also a sams club as well as a costco. If you do decided to shop off post I would sign up for one of them store rewards card ( safeway has them and foodland maki program).



I would look at the schofield inn www.innatschofield.com for lodging when you get there and if it’s booked try the hale koa which is in downtown waikiki. www.halekoa.com. I would also do that asap since they fill pretty fast.



Tripler Army Medical Center is the main military hospital and each post/base also has a clinic.



shopping- you have waikele outlet stores, pearlridge shopping center, ala moana shoping center, pearlhighland shopping center. wal mart, kmart.



There are a few things hawaii doesn’t have that you will find on the mainland such as target, olive garnden and other.



I would go other with an open mind. Some people hate it some will love it. You will be the one to judge it. There are lots to do out doors. I would always check with MWR offices to see what type of deals they have. The north shore is pretty nice, Ko olina is also nice and all the other beaches. There are a lot of places to hike as well.



Off post housing



1. DoD housing referral

If you are looking to live off post here a place to look

http://www.dodreferral.com/index_mil.php



2. Honolulu Advertiser

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/sectio...



3. Hawaii MLS

http://www.escapehomes.com/main.aspx?tab...



4. Hawaii Board of Realtors

http://www.hicentral.com/



5. Rental Illustrated

http://www.rentalsillustrated.com/



6. Looking to buying a home?

http://www.militarybyowner.com/



7. www.ahrn.com



Public school

http://doe.k12.hi.us/

Whitney - posted on 11/19/2009

u should also be able to find out about the new housing areas on navy or army housing onestop

Whitney - posted on 11/19/2009

LOVED IT!! we were stationed at PH for 3 1/2 years....what base r u going to?? i would definitly recommend base housing....the new stuff is gorgeous :)