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Spring Break 2011 on STJ - Part I
Spring Break 2011 on STJ - Part I
STJ Spring 2011 - Pt. I Travel Day(s)
I don't usually waste this many words on pre-trip details, but these were too special not to. Feel free to skip to the next installment if you'd rather not read my tale of woe...
Saturday, March 26 - Most of my pre-trip checklist items are now complete. Since our scheduled flight from Miami to St. Thomas is now less than 24 hours until departure, I can move on to the next item on the list - checking in and printing boarding passes. I wonder why I haven't received the customary "you may now check in" email? A call to AA customer service cleared things up - my flight has been canceled. Nice of them to let me know...
It seems as though the refueling station fire at MIA was wreaking havoc on AA schedules, and we were among the thousands of folks affected. After a moment of shock, followed by a moment of anger, it was time to see what could be salvaged. Any other flights from MIA to STT on Sunday that we could get on? Negative.
They were able to get us on a 12:30PM departure on Monday that had a connection is SJU and was scheduled for a 5:30PM STT arrival. That might make catching the last car barge dicey, but as that was currently the best option, I told them to hold those seats for us.
Now the hard part - telling Leslie...
When you look forward to something, and put as much planning and preparation into it as much as we do our trips to STJ, getting the rug pulled out from under you at the last minute, well...sucks!
The people on this forum, once they'd heard the news, were incredible. It was as if we had a fleet of travel agents working for us! We were apprised, in real time, about every conceivable way to get to STT in a timely manner - in posts on our thread in the forum, via PMs, in emails, text messages, smoke signals, you name it! It made us feel a lot less crummy knowing how many people not only empathized with us, but were willing to try to help us out!
I was on the phone with AA a number of times, and their agents, who were no doubt swamped with calls from upset/stranded passengers, were by and large very pleasant to deal with. I tried every AA option leaving the state of Florida on Sunday, but to no avail. Eventually, a call on Sunday morning got us on the same flight we were scheduled to go out on Sunday - the 11:10 AM non-stop to STT with a scheduled 1:35 PM arrival, just on Monday instead of as originally scheduled. A day lost, but we were at least (fingers crossed) going to get there. I let dependable on STT and the owner/manager of the Mill Ridge villa know that we would be in a day later than anticipated, and there wasn't much else to do but take a deep breath and wait.
By dinner time we were feeling a bit antsy. We anticipated having dinner somewhere in Coral Bay about now, and here we were stuck at home. We decided that starting our vacation at home was better than moping, so we headed to one of our favorite local restaurants that is located on the Intracoastal Waterway, where we planned to dine on the deck and pretend we were on St. John, for a little while at least. The hostess told us that the deck was currently not a good idea because there were too many bugs. When she saw our faces fall we explained how this was our tropical island back up, but took a seat at a booth anyway. After we had ordered they sent an employee out to the deck and reported that the bug situation had improved dramatically, so we were free to move to the deck if we still wanted to. Absolutely!
Back at the house we had plenty of time to ensure that all of the checklist items were complete. Monday morning arrived, and before 6:00 AM we were on the road headed towards Miami. One of the benefits we would have enjoyed by flying out on Sunday would have been avoiding commuter traffic into Miami as we made our way to the airport. Sadly, this was no longer the case, but it did seem to be moving faster/stopping less often than the last couple of times we'd made similar trips, and with only a hiccup or two, we arrived at the off site parking lot right on schedule.
We took the complimentary copy of the local paper they offered us, parked, and were picked up right away by the shuttle bus. In less than five minutes we were standing in the security check in line, and even that seemed to move along smoothly. In fact, we were seated at the gate with all of our stuff two hours before our departure. The boards in the terminal confirmed the text message notification I'd received a couple of hours before that our flight was still listed as "on time"!
As I perused the local news section of the paper, one story immediately caught my attention. The day before, shortly before 9:00 AM, a southbound car on I-95, some five miles north of the exit for the airport, caused a multi-vehicle crash that brought traffic to a standstill for hours! The location and timing were such that it was entirely possible that if our Sunday flight had not been canceled, that we would have missed it anyway, through no fault of the airline, with nothing to compel them to compensate us for it, by being stuck in that mess, or worse, by being a part of it!
We boarded on time. I had somehow scored exit row seats, and we were in boarding group two, so we not only had a little extra leg room, there was no scramble trying to find space for our carry ons in the overhead bins (see last fall's trip report for details on how bad that can be!). The plane pulled away from the gate, still on time, then...stopped. The announcement was made that there was a problem with one of the aircraft's "systems" (would you please be a little more vague?), and that we would be delayed while it was checked out. Here we go (or not!)...
It must not have been too dire of a problem, we were in the air only 45 minutes or so later than expected - but we were - finally - on our way!
Before we knew it we were looking at Puerto Rico out of the window, and I was breathing a sigh of relief at being "almost there". Then - another announcement from the flight deck.
"We have been advised by the tower at STT that they are currently not able to accept aircraft as large as this one for landing, and we've been asked to initiate a holding pattern. Since they cannot tell us how long we will be in said holding pattern and we didn't take on a full allotment of fuel in MIA (remember the fueling station fire at MIA?) we will re-route to San Juan to take on more fuel".
Great. So close! By the time we landed, they were back on to tell us that we were now cleared to land on STT, but since we were on the ground, we'd refuel before proceeding on to STT. Eventually, we took off again, and this time, we actually landed at the Cyril King Airport! A phone call to Dependable ("we wondered where you were") and a welcome shot of rum, and we were standing out in the warm air and sunshine of STT!
They came and picked us up in the four door Wrangler we'd be using for the week, er, six days, then, after a quick stop by the office to fill out the paperwork we were headed to Red Hook! I decided that we'd had enough delays - we wanted to be on STJ so we opted out of the Cost-U-Less stop. We had a cooler full of frozen food, a box of other stuff that had been shipped ahead, and anything else that we'd need, we'd just buy on the rock.
We backed onto the Capt. Vic, and as it was only about a third full, if that, we settled in to wait to cross. Before long one of the other car barges appeared rounding the point into the harbor, so we set off sooner than we had figured on - works for us!
Leslie on the car barge
Steve and Jason on the car barge
Leaving Red Hook
We can see St. John!
Yay!!!
After making the crossing we eased out of the Enighed Pond lot, went through the roundabout and headed to town. A quick lap didn't yield any vacant parking spaces so we pulled into Slimman's lot. Told him we'd be right back, he reminded me that there was a five dollar minimum ("no worries - we're just happy to be here!") and we walked over to St. John Spice to grab some coffee. As we walked back into the parking lot I waved the five dollar bill at Slimman and said "thank you sir" while we clambered towards the jeep that he had parked out front for us. He waved it off, and we thanked him and told him we'd be back some time within the next few days. Then it was up to Centerline Rd. and across the island to the Skinny Legs parking lot, where we were to meet Hilarie, the owner/manager of Mill Ridge.
We followed Hilarie up the unpaved road to Mill Ridge, which is located about two tenths of a mile up Centerline from the Coral Bay triangle (it's the driveway above Sailview for those of you that are familiar with that property). We were told that the road, which is a bit bumpy, is still suffering from the effects of last fall's storms, but was scheduled to be worked on (paved?) soon (right before we left there were a couple of days that grading work was in fact being done on the road).
Hilarie gave us a quick orientation/tour, and told us that she was available 24/7 if we had any questions or problems, then she left us to enjoy ourselves! Ah, at last - we were finally on vacation in every sense of the word! We took a quick look around, did some minor unpacking, then thoughts turned to dinner!
We headed back down Centerline, took a right at the triangle, and the jeep kind of just turned itself into the driveway at Island Blues. The breeze, the proximity to the water of Coral Bay, and the welcoming island drinks all worked their magic at melting all of the frustration, all of the worry, all of the travel drudgery away, leaving in their place that contented and relaxed feeling we all know and love so much.
Leslie enjoying that first drink on island!
Leslie and Jason at Island Blues
A tasty meal (Leslie and Jason had burgers - I can't even remember what I had) and another drink or two, and the spell was complete! It was now dark, so my first test would be to find the driveway in the dark. No guide - no problem. Before we knew it we were walking up the steps to the entrance to the villa. I don't think the day lasted all that much longer for any of us. Sweet dreams St. John - see you in the morning!
I don't usually waste this many words on pre-trip details, but these were too special not to. Feel free to skip to the next installment if you'd rather not read my tale of woe...
Saturday, March 26 - Most of my pre-trip checklist items are now complete. Since our scheduled flight from Miami to St. Thomas is now less than 24 hours until departure, I can move on to the next item on the list - checking in and printing boarding passes. I wonder why I haven't received the customary "you may now check in" email? A call to AA customer service cleared things up - my flight has been canceled. Nice of them to let me know...
It seems as though the refueling station fire at MIA was wreaking havoc on AA schedules, and we were among the thousands of folks affected. After a moment of shock, followed by a moment of anger, it was time to see what could be salvaged. Any other flights from MIA to STT on Sunday that we could get on? Negative.
They were able to get us on a 12:30PM departure on Monday that had a connection is SJU and was scheduled for a 5:30PM STT arrival. That might make catching the last car barge dicey, but as that was currently the best option, I told them to hold those seats for us.
Now the hard part - telling Leslie...
When you look forward to something, and put as much planning and preparation into it as much as we do our trips to STJ, getting the rug pulled out from under you at the last minute, well...sucks!
The people on this forum, once they'd heard the news, were incredible. It was as if we had a fleet of travel agents working for us! We were apprised, in real time, about every conceivable way to get to STT in a timely manner - in posts on our thread in the forum, via PMs, in emails, text messages, smoke signals, you name it! It made us feel a lot less crummy knowing how many people not only empathized with us, but were willing to try to help us out!
I was on the phone with AA a number of times, and their agents, who were no doubt swamped with calls from upset/stranded passengers, were by and large very pleasant to deal with. I tried every AA option leaving the state of Florida on Sunday, but to no avail. Eventually, a call on Sunday morning got us on the same flight we were scheduled to go out on Sunday - the 11:10 AM non-stop to STT with a scheduled 1:35 PM arrival, just on Monday instead of as originally scheduled. A day lost, but we were at least (fingers crossed) going to get there. I let dependable on STT and the owner/manager of the Mill Ridge villa know that we would be in a day later than anticipated, and there wasn't much else to do but take a deep breath and wait.
By dinner time we were feeling a bit antsy. We anticipated having dinner somewhere in Coral Bay about now, and here we were stuck at home. We decided that starting our vacation at home was better than moping, so we headed to one of our favorite local restaurants that is located on the Intracoastal Waterway, where we planned to dine on the deck and pretend we were on St. John, for a little while at least. The hostess told us that the deck was currently not a good idea because there were too many bugs. When she saw our faces fall we explained how this was our tropical island back up, but took a seat at a booth anyway. After we had ordered they sent an employee out to the deck and reported that the bug situation had improved dramatically, so we were free to move to the deck if we still wanted to. Absolutely!
Back at the house we had plenty of time to ensure that all of the checklist items were complete. Monday morning arrived, and before 6:00 AM we were on the road headed towards Miami. One of the benefits we would have enjoyed by flying out on Sunday would have been avoiding commuter traffic into Miami as we made our way to the airport. Sadly, this was no longer the case, but it did seem to be moving faster/stopping less often than the last couple of times we'd made similar trips, and with only a hiccup or two, we arrived at the off site parking lot right on schedule.
We took the complimentary copy of the local paper they offered us, parked, and were picked up right away by the shuttle bus. In less than five minutes we were standing in the security check in line, and even that seemed to move along smoothly. In fact, we were seated at the gate with all of our stuff two hours before our departure. The boards in the terminal confirmed the text message notification I'd received a couple of hours before that our flight was still listed as "on time"!
As I perused the local news section of the paper, one story immediately caught my attention. The day before, shortly before 9:00 AM, a southbound car on I-95, some five miles north of the exit for the airport, caused a multi-vehicle crash that brought traffic to a standstill for hours! The location and timing were such that it was entirely possible that if our Sunday flight had not been canceled, that we would have missed it anyway, through no fault of the airline, with nothing to compel them to compensate us for it, by being stuck in that mess, or worse, by being a part of it!
We boarded on time. I had somehow scored exit row seats, and we were in boarding group two, so we not only had a little extra leg room, there was no scramble trying to find space for our carry ons in the overhead bins (see last fall's trip report for details on how bad that can be!). The plane pulled away from the gate, still on time, then...stopped. The announcement was made that there was a problem with one of the aircraft's "systems" (would you please be a little more vague?), and that we would be delayed while it was checked out. Here we go (or not!)...
It must not have been too dire of a problem, we were in the air only 45 minutes or so later than expected - but we were - finally - on our way!
Before we knew it we were looking at Puerto Rico out of the window, and I was breathing a sigh of relief at being "almost there". Then - another announcement from the flight deck.
"We have been advised by the tower at STT that they are currently not able to accept aircraft as large as this one for landing, and we've been asked to initiate a holding pattern. Since they cannot tell us how long we will be in said holding pattern and we didn't take on a full allotment of fuel in MIA (remember the fueling station fire at MIA?) we will re-route to San Juan to take on more fuel".
Great. So close! By the time we landed, they were back on to tell us that we were now cleared to land on STT, but since we were on the ground, we'd refuel before proceeding on to STT. Eventually, we took off again, and this time, we actually landed at the Cyril King Airport! A phone call to Dependable ("we wondered where you were") and a welcome shot of rum, and we were standing out in the warm air and sunshine of STT!
They came and picked us up in the four door Wrangler we'd be using for the week, er, six days, then, after a quick stop by the office to fill out the paperwork we were headed to Red Hook! I decided that we'd had enough delays - we wanted to be on STJ so we opted out of the Cost-U-Less stop. We had a cooler full of frozen food, a box of other stuff that had been shipped ahead, and anything else that we'd need, we'd just buy on the rock.
We backed onto the Capt. Vic, and as it was only about a third full, if that, we settled in to wait to cross. Before long one of the other car barges appeared rounding the point into the harbor, so we set off sooner than we had figured on - works for us!
Leslie on the car barge
Steve and Jason on the car barge
Leaving Red Hook
We can see St. John!
Yay!!!
After making the crossing we eased out of the Enighed Pond lot, went through the roundabout and headed to town. A quick lap didn't yield any vacant parking spaces so we pulled into Slimman's lot. Told him we'd be right back, he reminded me that there was a five dollar minimum ("no worries - we're just happy to be here!") and we walked over to St. John Spice to grab some coffee. As we walked back into the parking lot I waved the five dollar bill at Slimman and said "thank you sir" while we clambered towards the jeep that he had parked out front for us. He waved it off, and we thanked him and told him we'd be back some time within the next few days. Then it was up to Centerline Rd. and across the island to the Skinny Legs parking lot, where we were to meet Hilarie, the owner/manager of Mill Ridge.
We followed Hilarie up the unpaved road to Mill Ridge, which is located about two tenths of a mile up Centerline from the Coral Bay triangle (it's the driveway above Sailview for those of you that are familiar with that property). We were told that the road, which is a bit bumpy, is still suffering from the effects of last fall's storms, but was scheduled to be worked on (paved?) soon (right before we left there were a couple of days that grading work was in fact being done on the road).
Hilarie gave us a quick orientation/tour, and told us that she was available 24/7 if we had any questions or problems, then she left us to enjoy ourselves! Ah, at last - we were finally on vacation in every sense of the word! We took a quick look around, did some minor unpacking, then thoughts turned to dinner!
We headed back down Centerline, took a right at the triangle, and the jeep kind of just turned itself into the driveway at Island Blues. The breeze, the proximity to the water of Coral Bay, and the welcoming island drinks all worked their magic at melting all of the frustration, all of the worry, all of the travel drudgery away, leaving in their place that contented and relaxed feeling we all know and love so much.
Leslie enjoying that first drink on island!
Leslie and Jason at Island Blues
A tasty meal (Leslie and Jason had burgers - I can't even remember what I had) and another drink or two, and the spell was complete! It was now dark, so my first test would be to find the driveway in the dark. No guide - no problem. Before we knew it we were walking up the steps to the entrance to the villa. I don't think the day lasted all that much longer for any of us. Sweet dreams St. John - see you in the morning!
Come see us!
Thanks Augie - that was just what the doc ordered!
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Steve I am loving your report so far (as usual). I am so glad things eventually worked out for you all. I love that after you heard of the accident on I-95 you were able to almost accept that sometimes things happen for a reason. Kinda like Garth Brooks "Unanswered prayers". I can't tell who your son looks more like you or Leslie. I am so happy you were able to set right into Island Time. I look forward to the next installment. Thanks for sharing!
OMG Augie that sounds like one of our starts, and I remember your encouraging words during our family's various arrival dramas. You may have had an angel on your shoulder. You could have easily been involved in that accident if you were in a rush to the airport.
So glad to read you arrived safely and can wait to read more.
So glad to read you arrived safely and can wait to read more.
Trip report 2009
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
I dunno Barb, that smile is all Dad!Barb Y wrote: I can't tell who your son looks more like you or Leslie.
Trip report 2009
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
I am reeling in the fact that you could have been stuck (or worse, injured) in that traffic jam on 95 and missed your flight on Sunday...sometimes, things just happen for a reason. Was so worried for you all and feeling your pain. Though a day late, so glad you made it....can't wait to read more!!!
all you have to do is smile, smile, smile
-
SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
