Trip report: 17 more days in paradise, part one

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:52 pm

Who we are: John and Becky, St. John lovers since 2003. This was our 22nd trip to the island.

Our guests: my sister Laura, her children Liam (14) and Caili (11), and John’s brother Sean. This was their third time visiting St. John as our guests.

Part One: Travel and Caneel Bay

We arrived on the island on July 4th. Given the craziness around Carnival and the fact that the car rental agencies were closed, we made the decision to spend a couple of days at Caneel Bay before transitioning to our villa.

I won’t bore you with travel details. You just have to go to your zen place and accept the long day. We had flight delays and one checked bag didn’t make it to STT. That was the bag filled with 2.5 weeks worth of sunscreen, bug spray, toiletries, and OTC meds for 6 people. I filled out a claim form at the airport and Caneel said they would take care of it from there, which they did. The bag was delivered to our room the following day. Jet Blue gave us a $30 credit for the inconvenience, which about covered the cost of the toothpaste and deodorant I bought at Caneel’s gift shop.

We had three rooms at Caneel, and got the ones that John had requested: three of the four rooms in the Turtle Bay Estate House. I forgot to take pictures, which is too bad, the rooms were very nice. I really liked this location and would stay there again. Two of the rooms were interconnecting, which was convenient for the kids, and Sean took the room on the opposite side of the Estate House. Our view:

The Turtle Bay area is lush with plantings. This red flamboyant tree was near our rooms:

Pretty flowers:

The kids went down and dipped their feet in the water at Turtle Bay, but everyone was too tired from traveling to actually go swimming.

After settling in, we had a late dinner on the upstairs terrace of the Beach Bar. I don’t have many photos because it was dark, but the kids had pizza and the adults had sushi. The pizzas actually ended up having to be cooked twice because the waitress got attacked by laughing gulls when she was bringing the pizzas over and she dropped the platter. Not her fault, those birds are relentless!

Red tuna poke:

Crunch dynamite:

Seveche:

The sunset wasn’t much:

We were too tired to see the fireworks, and went to bed early.

Day two July 5

Woke up to a lovely view:

Wildlife greeted us on the walk to breakfast:

Ladies on their way back from the spa?

We spent the day swimming and snorkeling at Turtle Bay.

Here is a mystery. What is this thing? I knocked into it with my foot and thought it was a rock. It’s not a rock, it is something alive. Any ideas? All we could come up with is slipper lobster.

The snorkeling on the left side facing the water is pretty good. Just watch for the current around the point. Parrotfish:

CHOMP:

Tarpon:

That evening we went out for a sunset sail with Spitfire. I really like this boat and the captain and mate. There wasn’t much of a sunset, but everyone was really relaxed and had a great time

After the sail we went to the Sugar Mill for dinner, not because we particularly like it but because it was convenient:

I can’t believe Zozos is going in to this space. Here is the view:

I don’t have any photos of what we ate, and I don’t really remember what we ordered either. Nobody was impressed. It’s good for Caneel that Zozos is going in, the food will be so much better. I hope the Zozos food stays the same.

Day three July 6

We headed over to Caneel Hawksnest for the day.

Caili loved floating on the rafts:

Actually both kids did. Those rafts provided a lot of entertainment:

There were lots of pelicans. More pelicans than people!

I did some snorkeling but the visibility wasn’t great so I didn’t stay out long. Grunts:

Baby turtle:

Parrotfish:

In the afternoon, Laura took the kids back to Turtle Bay while John, Sean and I went to snorkel the reef on the right side of Scott Beach:

We got out and it was beautiful but WOW the current was strong. When John and I snorkeled here in January, we had a strong current but were able to get out of it. Not this time. We tried but it was no use. We ended up letting the current pull us around the point and all the way to Turtle Bay Beach. It was running so fast that the underwater photos I took came out blurry! Here are the few I managed. Corals:

Elkhorn:

For dinner that night we went into town and ate at Zozos. I was a little apprehensive about doing this since they don’t allow for any menu switches and we had the kids, but they did fine. I got my usual favorite, the mahimahi with goat cheese polenta croutons:

John had the pork chop:

Sean and Laura both ordered the swordfish special:

I didn’t photo the kids food, but they both had an orange salad and then selected a pasta from the appetizer section. Caili had the paparadelle with mushrooms and Liam the rigatoni bambino. They were pretty full from the salad so didn’t eat much of the pasta. We took it home since we had a fridge at Caneel and were moving to our villa the next day. We also ordered them desserts to go.

Day four July 7

Transition day. John and I left the kids, Laura and Sean at Caneel and went into town to get the jeeps. We had reserved two jeeps with St. John Car Rental. They had my two-door Wrangler, but not John’s four-door. They said that a bunch of their cars had broken down and they made a reservation for us for a four-door at Denzil Clyne. So John went over to get the four door there and we met up in the gravel lot. It turned out that Denzil Clyne wouldn’t honor the rate we had with St. John Car Rental, so we ended up paying about $10/day more for the four-door than we had planned. I think Denzil Clyne’s rate was $94/day. Nothing that we could do about it, so oh well.

Back to Caneel to meet the troops and have lunch at the Caneel Beach Terrace, more of their incredible sushi. This is the caviar rainbow roll:

We moved over to our villa, Villa Kalorama in Virgin Grand Estates. Really nice house. We had provisioning from both Sam and Jacks and Blue Sky delivered. Everything was at the house when we arrived (well, almost everything...the housekeeper accidentally took our frozen provisions but she brought them back once we called Sam and Jacks so no problems). Here are a couple photos of the villa.

View:

Upstairs lounging space (we dubbed it the happy hour tower)

Pool:

I loved this sign in the villa kitchen:

Great views of STT at night from this villa:

sherban · Post by **sherban** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:21 pm

I always love your trip reports... always great photos and thoughtful words, thanks. I love Kalorama too...on my short list for a special occasion!
Cheers!

TraumaQueen · Post by **TraumaQueen** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:35 pm

Glad to hear you were able to make it to STJ on July 4th. We were nervous about trying it on July 2nd next year. I also love your trip reports!

The "spa ladies" cracked me up!

EagleRayLover · Post by **EagleRayLover** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:44 pm

Loving your report as usual Becky!

vav · Post by **vav** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:29 am

Great Report Becky

jayseadee · Post by **jayseadee** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:30 am

Thanks Becky! I'm surprised St. John Car Rental didn't handle the $$ transaction with Denzil Clyne and you just pick up the car.

Off to a good start!

gobucs · Post by **gobucs** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:47 am

Very Nice! How far down the road once you go through the gates was the house? We just stayed at Cocotier
This house was across the street

hugo · Post by **hugo** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:58 am

Was that mystery creature maybe just a large chiton that was detached from its rock and curled up?

mbw1024 · Post by **mbw1024** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:21 am

Have been looking forward to this report. Great photos. Love that night time shot.

jmq · Post by **jmq** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:54 am

Nice!
Good nighttime and low light photography skills.

"Only" 22 trips? Wow. "happy hour tower" LOL - let us know details on the drink specials that were served there...

PA Girl · Post by **PA Girl** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:26 am

More info on the house please!

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:14 am

hugo wrote:Was that mystery creature maybe just a large chiton that was detached from its rock and curled up?

That's a good thought! You are probably right. We were not near any rocks which is why that did not occur to me. We were in the middle of the beach which is very sandy. John brought it over to the rocks on the side once we looked at it.

gobucs wrote:Very Nice! How far down the road once you go through the gates was the house? We just stayed at Cocotier[/attachment]

Not too far down. From the road, you take the first left onto Sunset Drive, turn left at the end and then Kalorama is the first house on the right. The only houses on the road after Kalorama are Casa del Sol and that other one that is also a fractional ownership house (blanking on the name)

jmq wrote: "happy hour tower" LOL - let us know details on the drink specials that were served there...

haha don't worry that part is coming later

I didn't start making cocktails until about halfway through the trip.

PA Girl wrote:More info on the house please!

I am going to do a very detailed review for the villa section once I finish the trip report.

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 3:32 am

You give the perfect trip report and the most beautiful photos. Can't wait for more.

We may have a wedding soon on STJ and I'm encouraging Caneel as I think it will be user friendly. At least I hope.

Myheart'sinSTJ · Post by **Myheart'sinSTJ** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:40 am

Excellent trip report Becky and the pictures (especially underwater) are just awesome, can't wait to hear and see more

ColumbiaSCTraveler · Post by **ColumbiaSCTraveler** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:18 pm

I absolutely ADORE your trip reports!

The pictures, and commentary, are beyond amazing!

Can't wait for more installments, and as always - MANY THANKS for sharing!

usvi-on-line