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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Guam
Just found out we will be moving to GUAM. Apparently he just received his duty station NOT his orders. Has anyone here ever been to Guam? Any tips? Moving advice? How will I know if I need a passport? okay so maybe I'm a little excited lol
Re: Guam
I am currently in Guam. Do you have animals? Have you ever lived in base housing anywhere? Are you interested in water sports/activities? Andersen or Big Navy? Do you have children?
You WILL need a passport if you are not Active Duty Military (spouse, children, etc.)
We have a cat. This will be our very first PCS. He is currently in Tech school a zillion miles away lol. We are both very very excited to explore the island! We will be at Anderson. No kids! Thank you for letting me know about the passport. I think I am just going to go ahead and get a normal passport instead of a no fee passport.
My advice would be:
1. Go ahead and start getting all of the immunizations/paperwork in order for you cat now. He/she WILL be quarantined in a facility on base for at least 5 days, with an in-home quarantine of 120 days (no contact with other animals or public places).
2. Base housing here is decent, but depending on how big you want your house, if you want a yard, etc. a good website would be guampcs.com to look at some off base houses. We don't live on base, but wish we would have just for conveinience sake. You do get a stipend, but electricity here in an off base house can run upwards of 500 dollars a month.
3. Look into which car you want to bring if you have 2 currently and don't want to pay the fee for shipping a second car.
4. The island is tiny. You will not take long to explore it, but there are some fun things to do--- snorkeling and hiking mostly, but I won't lie, it definately gets boring.
5. Normal passport is a must if you plan on visiting Australia, Japan, the Phillipines, etc while you're here (it's much less expensive than if coming from Mainland States)
6. If you don't want kids any time soon, make sure you're anal about using your birth control... I think pretty much everyone we know gets pregnant here (including us, but we were trying for a long time)
7. Go ahead and get used to idea of not having your 'typical' restaurants or food items readily available to you (i.e. balsamic vinegar-- they don't have any here that I have found in over a year)
Any questions so far?
My Husband is going to send me all that paper work and I'm going to get on it as soon as I get it.
When you got there was there a waiting list for housing? We really want to stay on base if we can.
We are planning on buying a new car before we go, there is NO way our clunker is going to pass inspection for anything! So we plan on buying a used car before we go.
For my cat.. Would it be easier to have someone ship him to me after we have a house and all that? We had been thinking that it would be better if we had a house and everything all set up.
Thank you both!
I think there was a two week waiting list, but just for house inspection/moving in paperwork-- we decided to live off-base because we needed a fenced in yard for our great dane to run around and after shipping two large dogs here, the option of paying to put up our own fence was just not available. It was a last minute PCS for us, so we didn't have time to research all of the options properly.
I would buy a car when you get here, not before. This way, you won't have to wait for your car to be shipped here. Also, there is a tax imposed on any car bought within a certain amount of time before coming here.
I would say call the airline you will be using and see if they will allow the cat to be carry on (I know with all of the new policies it is kind of up in the air/crazy right now). If it is an option, I would have someone ship your cat for you (maybe a week after you leave) who is very trustworthy and you know will abide by all guidelines provided by the airline for pre-shipping live animals.
We have been trying to decide on to buy before or after we got there and were told that used car prices are ridiculous there is that true?
We still have until April/May before we go so I feel like we have time to really think about things but the more I think, the more questions I have!
My mom said she would be more than happy to take care of shipping for me as long as she was well informed on how to go about it.
I am currently at my parents house while my Husband is at Tech school so when he gets his orders he will have to talk to them about movers and all that? I know that they will come here and pack everything up and ship it other than that, I know nothing lol. Should we pack anything or just let them handle it? We plan on trying to put everything in the living room so they know what to take because my mom wouldn't be very happy if they took half her house with them lol.
Depending on where you go, they can be a little outrageous with prices. They have a Ford/Jeep dealership on base (new cars only) and of course the base Lemon Lot, but not all of the cars there are 'lemons'. We bought a new Nissan when we got here--- same price it would have been in the States. Also, alot of military members sell cars at regular price when they are PCSing because you can only take one car without paying the additional shipping.
As far as the pack out--- that's completely up to you. I personally let them pack 'most' of our things because they do it for a living and seem to be better at wrapping/packaging things. Other people don't like other people handling their things on such a level and pre-pack. They will be putting YOUR boxes into their larger boxes regardless because they get put on a truck, brought to a shipping yard, and put in a large crate on a ship to come here. Remember it can take up to 90 days for your household goods to arrive- ours didn't take as long- maybe 45 days from Pack Out to arrival. Base has a furniture 'rental' program for temporary furniture for your home while you're waiting on your things--- not the most comfortable items, but definately conveinient (and free). You also HAVE to be there while they do it and direct them to take this/ don't take that, so packing your mom's things wouldn't be an issue.
Thank you for all the info! I will defiantly recommend to my Husband that we wait to get a car then. I was just really worried we would be paying an arm and leg for a clunker.
How long before you move do they typically come and pack your things up?
Thank you again for all the info!! Feeling a little more comfortable with this!