Coordinating Move to Pensacola

[andrewmc]

Hey all. There's scattered information everywhere on this so I want to be sure I'm doing this right, especially after reading the stories of people getting screwed out of a few hundred or even a couple thousand dollars for having done something wrong on the paperwork.

My orders state that I'm to report for "temporary duty under instruction in a flying status" (which to me means I need to set up a TDY move, not a PCS move as I had been told by my ROTC unit; right?). I don't yet have an address in Pensacola, but I am talking to various places. I'll either be subletting a furnished room or just getting an unfurnished one bedroom apartment (not ideal). My own furniture (bed, desk, dresser) needs to be moved regardless, since it's all in my college apartment and my lease here ends coincidentally right when I'm set to move to P-cola.

Basically, I need to set up a partial-DITY move--taking uniforms, kitchenware, and other small items in my car, while the movers transport my furniture (which I may or may not need access to, depending on if I get a furnished place or not). Without an address, and without knowing if I'll be needing my furniture at my place in Pensacola, I haven't been able to figure how to set up the Navy moving my stuff down there. Without an address, there's no specific place of delivery, and my worry is that if I set up the move to NTS but then actually only find an unfurnished residence, I'll need my stuff out of that storage. Is that possible? Also, would having it in NTS in Pensacola create complications if I end up in Corpus for Primary?

The drive to Pensacola is about 1000 miles, so I'll be stopping along the way; I also need to be sure that I don't stupidly miss out on any travel per diem or hotel coverage/reimbursement.

I've tried to go through the move.mil website, which has been an utter pain. I'm going to try to get up to the Navy base relatively close to me and just do my counseling and move setup in person. Any advice from people here?

TL;DR: partial DITY move to Pensacola; without knowing my place of residence yet, I may or may not need my furniture while in Pensacola.

 

[zippy]

Hey all. There's scattered information everywhere on this so I want to be sure I'm doing this right, especially after reading the stories of people getting screwed out of a few hundred or even a couple thousand dollars for having done something wrong on the paperwork.

My orders state that I'm to report for "temporary duty under instruction in a flying status" (which to me means I need to set up a TDY move, not a PCS move as I had been told by my ROTC unit; right?). I don't yet have an address in Pensacola, but I am talking to various places. I'll either be subletting a furnished room or just getting an unfurnished one bedroom apartment (not ideal). My own furniture (bed, desk, dresser) needs to be moved regardless, since it's all in my college apartment and my lease here ends coincidentally right when I'm set to move to P-cola.

Basically, I need to set up a partial-DITY move--taking uniforms, kitchenware, and other small items in my car, while the movers transport my furniture (which I may or may not need access to, depending on if I get a furnished place or not). Without an address, and without knowing if I'll be needing my furniture at my place in Pensacola, I haven't been able to figure how to set up the Navy moving my stuff down there. Without an address, there's no specific place of delivery, and my worry is that if I set up the move to NTS but then actually only find an unfurnished residence, I'll need my stuff out of that storage. Is that possible? Also, would having it in NTS in Pensacola create complications if I end up in Corpus for Primary?

The drive to Pensacola is about 1000 miles, so I'll be stopping along the way; I also need to be sure that I don't stupidly miss out on any travel per diem or hotel coverage/reimbursement.

I've tried to go through the move.mil website, which has been an utter pain. I'm going to try to get up to the Navy base relatively close to me and just do my counseling and move setup in person. Any advice from people here?

TL;DR: partial DITY move to Pensacola; without knowing my place of residence yet, I may or may not need my furniture while in Pensacola.

If you just have a bedroom/living rooms worth of stuff consider renting a uhaul with a car carrier and driving that down.

There's not enough holy water in existence to make an NTS move not suck IMO. Not only do you deal with all the standard stuff (DPS, unfriendly/unhelpful move offices, barely competent/qualified movers who don't give a shit about your stuff, the "disappeared" boxes and furniture, the broken stuff, the claims etc. but you're adding on a storage company, another moving company to ship between sites, another DPS application (and navigating that system is really the worst part), unhelpful, uncaring call center workers because for NTS you can't always talk to the local JPPSO, and of course a month or two long wait from the time they actually process your application to remove your stuff from storage.

Go buy yourself a bottle of cheap scotch, a hammer and a nail and give yourself a Prince Albert on the table at your new place and you'll come out ahead on the level of pain, fustration and time dealing with an NTS move when you know you had a way to avoid it.