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Cinnamon Bay Campground Trip Report 2nd time
Cinnamon Bay Campground Trip Report 2nd time
Cinnamon Bay Campground Trip Report 2nd time
Hi Forumites!
So we returned to CBCG for a 2nd time, Oct.28th thru Nov.7th.
I got tix from my American Express points, which I will never do again. They’re website is screwed up and it bought & cancelled my tickets with AA at the same time. I won’t go through all the aggravating details but it took me 6hrs
,( yes I said 6 HOURS) of phone time over a three day period to straighten out the mess. I told Am Ex they should give me the tix for free after all I went thru but they didn’t agree with me.
Had enough AA miles to upgrade us both for 1 way so I chose the return flight. It was a 1 stop flight, STT to MIA to LGA. Only the MIA to LGA was available but I took it anyway.
We left our home at 3am for a 6am flight out of LGA to MIA and arrived at STT at 1pm. Made the 2pm ferry, walked to Conrad Sutton’s to get the jeep. Had never used him before but he seemed to be the only car rental place that had a 2 door jeep available for our dates. Nice people and parking is convenient. We will be repeat customers there. I originally booked the jeep for the 28th – 2nd but ended up keeping it for the entire trip till the 7th. The Suttons were very accommodating.
Unlike last year when our arrival did not go according to plan at all (http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... ight=jofus), this time was perfect!
I think we made it to CBCG by 3:30, the front desk was open, Julia the manager reminded me that since the campground didn’t officially open til Nov.1st, we would be on our own (SWEET!)
not even security would be there. I assured her we had no problem with that. I got my pre-shipped boxes, dumped them and our carry-on in 10d and went back to Cruz bay for an early dinner and supplies from Starfish.
We had dinner at Spyglass. It was very good,,,we ended up back there on the 31st for my hubby’s b-day. Had the same entrees both times, hubby had surf & turf and I had NY strip (the waitress found it amusing that I ordered a NY strip being we’re from NY) but we added a peanut butter brownie with ice cream for dessert. Got groceries, beer and booze from Starfish then back to CBCG for a quiet evening alone.
Actually we had 5 quiet evenings alone
. The next campers to arrive came the evening of the 30th and during the day of the 31st. Team River Runners, a group of wounded warriors that kayak came for their weeklong stay but they were in buildings 7 and 8, so their presence really didn’t crush our groove down in cottage 10. We didn’t get neighbors in 10 till Nov.3rd!
We had good weather most of the time. One evening we spent a good deal of time watching the pelicans feed. After they were done they seemed to have some sort of group meeting on the east end of the bay. Maybe they were discussing what they had for dinner.
We spent most of our time just lounging and wandering up and down Cinn Bay.
Occasionally going into town to hit Woody’s for lunch and a few drinks. I have to say compared to this time last year, the island seemed pretty hoppin’ for “low season”. Maybe more people are taking advantage of the lower costs for this time of year. Every day the lot at Cinn was full, and I noticed that anytime we drove to town lots were full at Trunk and Hawksnest too. It wasn’t like that last year. Being in Cruz Bay had the same feel as being there in Feb. I was glad we rented from a place that had parking.
Tuesday evening brought some showers. Wednesday turned into a rainy day with thunderstorms. We spent that day going to the east side. Went to the Tourist Trap for lunch & drinks. We had driven out on the road to La Sirena and Kiddle Bay, it was so rough and washed out we opted not to go to Little Lameshur. After lunch, went to Sloop Jones (I needed another shirt) drove around the east end just to see what changes may have occurred over the past few years. Stopped for some greens and conversation with Josephine before heading back to the campground.
Went to Woody’s for the tail-end of Happy Hour, we didn’t stay for the “Save 2nd Base” party but went to DiLivio’s for dinner. Excellent food! We repeated on Thursday. Woody’s for a shrimp and drinks then Dilivio for dinner at 6.
We also returned to DiLivio’s for our final dinner on island on the 6th.
Friday was overcast as well but no rain, some sun peeked thru here and there during the afternoon. By dark the skies were beginning to clear. Saturday and Sunday turned out to be awesome, better than the first few days we were there. All efforts were made to soak up as much sun as possible.
Being we’re both early risers, getting the car returned by 9:30 Monday morning wasn’t an issue for us. I don’t understand this phenomenon, but somehow the things that fit in our bags on the way down didn’t seem to want to fit in for the trip home. We mailed our dirty laundry back home in 2 flat rate boxes. One arrived at my home on Wednesday the 9th, the other on Saturday the 12th.
After our visit to the p.o., we went to JJ’s for breakfast. Took almost an hour to get food, it was packed and only 1 waiter but it was delicious! Caught the noon ferry back to STT. We had a 3pm flight and I had to print out our boarding passes. One last cherry on this trip was that on our flight from STT to MIA business class seats became available
. I was very pleasantly surprised that when I printed our boarding passes we had seats 1E and 2A. We did a swap with someone and got to sit together.
All in all this was a fantastic trip! It may seem boring to some that we spent all our time at Cinnamon but we know the island and don’t need to explore. To us it just seems a waste of time to pack up and go elsewhere for the day when you’re staying on the beach. One day I had considered going to Francis just for some clamer waters but our neighbors had gone and reported that it was actually choppier there then at Cinnamon.
Cinnamon is a great beach to hang out at. Its topography changes constantly from the surge. Those changes can take place in hours. I enjoyed it, some things disappeared and others appeared in those ever changing sands. You don’t get direct sunrises or sets but you do get brilliant colors in the sky and the moon passes directly above the campgrounds.
It can be tough to find a place to lay your towel or neatsheet in the sun without getting wet from the surge. I solved this problem by buying 2 pool floaties for $10 each at the drug store. Those floaties were much more comfortable to lie on than just sand and it doesn’t matter when the surge hits them and obviously great for floating on.
On the down side;
EVIL SAND FLEAS! There were TONS because of the recent rains. On some days we looked like we had chickenpox! I did try a different product this year. Sound Earth Body Guard Bug Repellant is DEET free with natural, bio-degradable ingredients. Worked fairly well, better for my husband than me (bugs LOVE feeding off me) but you need to saturate yourself in it. Definitely keeps mosquitoes away. The other downer is the high humidity in the cottages. Our coats had mold growing on them by the time we left! Even though we dried our stuff in the sun during the day it would get damp again overnight. Another good reason for sending dirty laundry home in a box.
Will we return to Cinnamon Bay Campground? We discussed this at length our last 2 days. The verdict was,,, we’d rather save up for a few years and return to our favorite villa La Sirena. It’s very nice to have the comforts of a villa if you get stuck with rainy weather, and a dryer to avoid moldy clothing and certainly you can prepare much better meals at a villa than a campground stove. However, if we can’t afford the villa, we definitely would return to Cinnamon to get some time back on the island!
jofus
Hi Forumites!
So we returned to CBCG for a 2nd time, Oct.28th thru Nov.7th.
I got tix from my American Express points, which I will never do again. They’re website is screwed up and it bought & cancelled my tickets with AA at the same time. I won’t go through all the aggravating details but it took me 6hrs
,( yes I said 6 HOURS) of phone time over a three day period to straighten out the mess. I told Am Ex they should give me the tix for free after all I went thru but they didn’t agree with me.Had enough AA miles to upgrade us both for 1 way so I chose the return flight. It was a 1 stop flight, STT to MIA to LGA. Only the MIA to LGA was available but I took it anyway.
We left our home at 3am for a 6am flight out of LGA to MIA and arrived at STT at 1pm. Made the 2pm ferry, walked to Conrad Sutton’s to get the jeep. Had never used him before but he seemed to be the only car rental place that had a 2 door jeep available for our dates. Nice people and parking is convenient. We will be repeat customers there. I originally booked the jeep for the 28th – 2nd but ended up keeping it for the entire trip till the 7th. The Suttons were very accommodating.
Unlike last year when our arrival did not go according to plan at all (http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... ight=jofus), this time was perfect!
I think we made it to CBCG by 3:30, the front desk was open, Julia the manager reminded me that since the campground didn’t officially open til Nov.1st, we would be on our own (SWEET!)
not even security would be there. I assured her we had no problem with that. I got my pre-shipped boxes, dumped them and our carry-on in 10d and went back to Cruz bay for an early dinner and supplies from Starfish. We had dinner at Spyglass. It was very good,,,we ended up back there on the 31st for my hubby’s b-day. Had the same entrees both times, hubby had surf & turf and I had NY strip (the waitress found it amusing that I ordered a NY strip being we’re from NY) but we added a peanut butter brownie with ice cream for dessert. Got groceries, beer and booze from Starfish then back to CBCG for a quiet evening alone.
Actually we had 5 quiet evenings alone
. The next campers to arrive came the evening of the 30th and during the day of the 31st. Team River Runners, a group of wounded warriors that kayak came for their weeklong stay but they were in buildings 7 and 8, so their presence really didn’t crush our groove down in cottage 10. We didn’t get neighbors in 10 till Nov.3rd! We had good weather most of the time. One evening we spent a good deal of time watching the pelicans feed. After they were done they seemed to have some sort of group meeting on the east end of the bay. Maybe they were discussing what they had for dinner.
We spent most of our time just lounging and wandering up and down Cinn Bay.
Occasionally going into town to hit Woody’s for lunch and a few drinks. I have to say compared to this time last year, the island seemed pretty hoppin’ for “low season”. Maybe more people are taking advantage of the lower costs for this time of year. Every day the lot at Cinn was full, and I noticed that anytime we drove to town lots were full at Trunk and Hawksnest too. It wasn’t like that last year. Being in Cruz Bay had the same feel as being there in Feb. I was glad we rented from a place that had parking.
Tuesday evening brought some showers. Wednesday turned into a rainy day with thunderstorms. We spent that day going to the east side. Went to the Tourist Trap for lunch & drinks. We had driven out on the road to La Sirena and Kiddle Bay, it was so rough and washed out we opted not to go to Little Lameshur. After lunch, went to Sloop Jones (I needed another shirt) drove around the east end just to see what changes may have occurred over the past few years. Stopped for some greens and conversation with Josephine before heading back to the campground.
Went to Woody’s for the tail-end of Happy Hour, we didn’t stay for the “Save 2nd Base” party but went to DiLivio’s for dinner. Excellent food! We repeated on Thursday. Woody’s for a shrimp and drinks then Dilivio for dinner at 6.
We also returned to DiLivio’s for our final dinner on island on the 6th.
Friday was overcast as well but no rain, some sun peeked thru here and there during the afternoon. By dark the skies were beginning to clear. Saturday and Sunday turned out to be awesome, better than the first few days we were there. All efforts were made to soak up as much sun as possible.
Being we’re both early risers, getting the car returned by 9:30 Monday morning wasn’t an issue for us. I don’t understand this phenomenon, but somehow the things that fit in our bags on the way down didn’t seem to want to fit in for the trip home. We mailed our dirty laundry back home in 2 flat rate boxes. One arrived at my home on Wednesday the 9th, the other on Saturday the 12th.
After our visit to the p.o., we went to JJ’s for breakfast. Took almost an hour to get food, it was packed and only 1 waiter but it was delicious! Caught the noon ferry back to STT. We had a 3pm flight and I had to print out our boarding passes. One last cherry on this trip was that on our flight from STT to MIA business class seats became available
. I was very pleasantly surprised that when I printed our boarding passes we had seats 1E and 2A. We did a swap with someone and got to sit together.All in all this was a fantastic trip! It may seem boring to some that we spent all our time at Cinnamon but we know the island and don’t need to explore. To us it just seems a waste of time to pack up and go elsewhere for the day when you’re staying on the beach. One day I had considered going to Francis just for some clamer waters but our neighbors had gone and reported that it was actually choppier there then at Cinnamon.
Cinnamon is a great beach to hang out at. Its topography changes constantly from the surge. Those changes can take place in hours. I enjoyed it, some things disappeared and others appeared in those ever changing sands. You don’t get direct sunrises or sets but you do get brilliant colors in the sky and the moon passes directly above the campgrounds.
It can be tough to find a place to lay your towel or neatsheet in the sun without getting wet from the surge. I solved this problem by buying 2 pool floaties for $10 each at the drug store. Those floaties were much more comfortable to lie on than just sand and it doesn’t matter when the surge hits them and obviously great for floating on.
On the down side;
EVIL SAND FLEAS! There were TONS because of the recent rains. On some days we looked like we had chickenpox! I did try a different product this year. Sound Earth Body Guard Bug Repellant is DEET free with natural, bio-degradable ingredients. Worked fairly well, better for my husband than me (bugs LOVE feeding off me) but you need to saturate yourself in it. Definitely keeps mosquitoes away. The other downer is the high humidity in the cottages. Our coats had mold growing on them by the time we left! Even though we dried our stuff in the sun during the day it would get damp again overnight. Another good reason for sending dirty laundry home in a box.Will we return to Cinnamon Bay Campground? We discussed this at length our last 2 days. The verdict was,,, we’d rather save up for a few years and return to our favorite villa La Sirena. It’s very nice to have the comforts of a villa if you get stuck with rainy weather, and a dryer to avoid moldy clothing and certainly you can prepare much better meals at a villa than a campground stove. However, if we can’t afford the villa, we definitely would return to Cinnamon to get some time back on the island!
jofus
Sounds like a great trip! I don't think hanging out at Cinnamon would be boring at all. We wanted to try Dalivio in September and our plan was to eat there on our last night because we were staying upstairs at The Boutique Hotel but unfortunately they were closed on Monday. Hoping to try it in January. Thanks for the awesome trip report and pics!
Julie
Live from St.John
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hoosierdaddy
- Posts: 920
- Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:53 am
- Location: Indiana
Thanks for the report. I don't think it is boring at all that you spent each day at Cinnamon Bay. What a refreshing trip to just stay and not have some place to go to each day. There were a few ideas that you had that I had not heard of before and had questions about.
1. Did yo take the flat rate boxes with you or did you get them on island? If on island were did you get them?
2. Did you get the floats on island and were they the blow up type?
Thanks
Hoosierdaddy
1. Did yo take the flat rate boxes with you or did you get them on island? If on island were did you get them?
2. Did you get the floats on island and were they the blow up type?
Thanks
Hoosierdaddy
hoosierdaddy,
1. You get the flat rate boxes from the Post Office. I was a little nervous when I got there because there were no Lg. boxes, just small and med. but they had larges behind the counter,,, just had to ask for them.
2. got floaties from Chelsea drug store, upstairs from Starfish. Yes they were blow-up type, got them on a rainy day to blow up because I figured it would take awhile to inflate without causing myself to pass out but it was actually quite easy. Pillow part had a seperate valve from body part
1. You get the flat rate boxes from the Post Office. I was a little nervous when I got there because there were no Lg. boxes, just small and med. but they had larges behind the counter,,, just had to ask for them.
2. got floaties from Chelsea drug store, upstairs from Starfish. Yes they were blow-up type, got them on a rainy day to blow up because I figured it would take awhile to inflate without causing myself to pass out but it was actually quite easy. Pillow part had a seperate valve from body part
P.S. to trip report
sorry,,,, forgot to include these links
more pics;
http://travel.webshots.com/album/581792328kiiRfN
video clips;
http://www.youtube.com/user/jofusss#p/u
jofus
more pics;
http://travel.webshots.com/album/581792328kiiRfN
video clips;
http://www.youtube.com/user/jofusss#p/u
jofus
pmk,
I made my reservation for this year when I was there last year. I wasn't aware they weren't open til Nov.
Apparently neither was the young girl who booked my reservation. I hope she didn't get in trouble for giving it to me.
I noticed a few months ago on CBCG website that they were closed Sept. and Oct. I figured someone would contact me if there was a problem with it. I didn't get a call til Oct.25th.
I think the first week they're open it tends to be nearly vacant. It's still hurricane season so it's a gamble.
I made my reservation for this year when I was there last year. I wasn't aware they weren't open til Nov.
Apparently neither was the young girl who booked my reservation. I hope she didn't get in trouble for giving it to me.
I noticed a few months ago on CBCG website that they were closed Sept. and Oct. I figured someone would contact me if there was a problem with it. I didn't get a call til Oct.25th.
I think the first week they're open it tends to be nearly vacant. It's still hurricane season so it's a gamble.
