A Newbie Meets STJ - Day 1
A Newbie Meets STJ - Day 1
Characters: Mr. Neeners and Neeners, aged 36 and none of your business (respectively).
I'd been looking at pictures of St. John for a few years. I'm not sure where I found the first one, but that's all it took. I started buying some books, reading information online, reading trip reports...in other words? I was a goner. Soon after we came back from a trip to Bonaire, I received an email about an incredible deal to get to STT. Usually it's almost $600 per person, but with the deal, Mr. Neeners and I could BOTH go for a little over $500. SWEET. There was no way I could say no to those numbers...not to mention those pictures!
Of course this meant we would have to fly from JFK at the butt crack of dawn (official term used by Mr. Neeners), but that was neither here nor there. As those who have been reading my posts knew, I waited until the very last minute to pack. It actually ended up being fine. There's not a lot you need when you are going to visit paradise. We got up at the BCoD on day one, and took a car service in to JFK. We flew on American Airlines, which offers a direct flight from JFK to STT at 7:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Mr. Neeners was sure there would be no lines and we would be there too early. I, on the other hand, am incredibly paranoid, and didn't trust an early departure time to mean jack squat. We got there, and were directed to the most unorganized self service stations we'd ever seen. Many of the machines weren't working, there were huge lines for the ones that were, and after you printed out your tickets it took forever for them to get your check-in luggage tagged.
OK, you people who advocate not checking anything in were dead right when it comes to JFK. If we hadn't had our snorkel stuff, we wouldn't have checked anything. Next time maybe we'll just rent. What a PITA the wait was. If it wasn't for the fact that I was so freakin' excited about going to STJ, it definitely would have put a damper on things. It did make certain other parties a little grumpy. I'm not mentioning names, but it rhymes with Got Wieners.
The fiasco to get through the security check wasn't much better, but soon enough we got to our gate. We didn't have that much of a wait, because the lines had taken so long. Good thing one of us is paranoid! I remember nothing about the flight. I know I didn't sleep, and I watched some bad chick flick. I have no idea what it was, however. I think the excitement of the trip was making it incredibly hard to concentrate on anything!
We landed in STT and it was a little drizzly. No problem - we have free rum punch. "How do you know that's free?" asked MN. "I read it on the forum!" I cheered. It was tasty. We didn't have to wait very long for our luggage, which surprised me. Once we got it, we called Dependable, as we were renting our car through STT. They were actually already there, so we had no wait at the airport. Sweet. The driver was a nice, quiet man. The trip to their agency was interesting - the place is a little off the main roads and we experienced our first twisty/turny of the streets. Later, we'd figure STT was nothing compared to STJ, but still.
We got to the agency, and they set us up with a soft cover jeep. Unfortunately it had a big cut in the cover, so we asked for another one. We found out that we weren't supposed to get the first one to begin with. The new one had a few dents, but seemed fine. MN sat in the driver's seat, and realized that you could not adjust the angle of the seat. It was stuck in deep reclining position that gave MN an aura of toughness (or he'd like to believe that, at least). He was a trooper and we didn't ask for another car. We were on our way!
We drove up and around and down and around and around and... You know what I mean. We managed to miss Marina Market altogether, which wasn't surprising as it's in a little complex on the left and the sign is easy enough to miss. We found it, and began shopping. We got some baked goods, per the recommendation of the woman at the rental agency, and we agreed with her...they were excellent! The prices weren't really all that bad (keep in mind we both work in Manhattan). I couldn't remember what exactly was in a painkiller, so I asked one of the employees, who asked the manager, who was happy to help us. I liked Marina Market a lot.
Then it was time to get to the car ferry, we guessed. We got there and couldn't figure out whom to buy the tickets from. Apparently I didn't remember that you buy the ticket once the car is ON the ferry. Duh. We had to wait a bit, so I called the villa greeter to let her know which ferry we were on. I had to use hubby's iPhone, and thought I had disconnected when I initially called the number and then realized I needed more information before talking to the greeter. Apparently not. She listened to my whole dorky conversation with the fellow in the car next to ours. Nice job, Neeners!
It was still drizzling when we were on the car ferry, but it was beautiful. The greens and blues, the various islands. Everything was just gorgeous, whether it was raining or not.
One thing I was happy to discover about the car ferry is that you hardly feel any waves at all. I didn't have to worry about getting seasick on that big bugger. The ride was over before we knew it, we found the greeter, and immediately followed her to Bay House in Coral Bay. This was when we discovered what twists, turns, hills and drops really were. STT was nothin' in comparison. We saw wild cows, goats, and even pigs - all on the way to the villa. The greeter was driving quickly, and at first MN tried to keep up, but then the voice of reason reminded him that he doesn't drive back home and she could slow down and wait for us instead. OK, it wasn't the voice of reason, just my nagging. It worked. We slowed down, and eventually made it to the villa.
I'll cover the villa in more detail on Day 2. Let me just say - AMAZING views. Just like what you see in the online photos. Absolutely gorgeous. It's a smallish place, so soon enough we were on our own and unpacking. We were starving, so we ventured out to try to find some food when we were done. Somehow, we managed to find Skinny Legs right away. Hurrah! I knew it would be good food because of the raves, and it did not disappoint. The burgers were excellent, the staff was nice, and we got to try our first painkillers. First of many. YUM.
We enjoyed our meal and a few drinks each, and it was $45. Back at home it would have actually have been more. Hurrah! Thumb's up for Skinny Legs. We were both happily tired, so headed on "home". I turned on the A/C in the bedroom and read a bit, while hubby watched the World Series upstairs. I think I fell asleep by 8:00 p.m. I was tuckered out! It would be a habit that I would not go to bed after 10, and often by 9. My usual schedule is to stay up until midnight. Funny how things change on vacation!
SUMMARY: We made it to STJ, loved the views, freaked out a bit about the driving conditions, and loved Skinny Legs.
I'd been looking at pictures of St. John for a few years. I'm not sure where I found the first one, but that's all it took. I started buying some books, reading information online, reading trip reports...in other words? I was a goner. Soon after we came back from a trip to Bonaire, I received an email about an incredible deal to get to STT. Usually it's almost $600 per person, but with the deal, Mr. Neeners and I could BOTH go for a little over $500. SWEET. There was no way I could say no to those numbers...not to mention those pictures!
Of course this meant we would have to fly from JFK at the butt crack of dawn (official term used by Mr. Neeners), but that was neither here nor there. As those who have been reading my posts knew, I waited until the very last minute to pack. It actually ended up being fine. There's not a lot you need when you are going to visit paradise. We got up at the BCoD on day one, and took a car service in to JFK. We flew on American Airlines, which offers a direct flight from JFK to STT at 7:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Mr. Neeners was sure there would be no lines and we would be there too early. I, on the other hand, am incredibly paranoid, and didn't trust an early departure time to mean jack squat. We got there, and were directed to the most unorganized self service stations we'd ever seen. Many of the machines weren't working, there were huge lines for the ones that were, and after you printed out your tickets it took forever for them to get your check-in luggage tagged.
OK, you people who advocate not checking anything in were dead right when it comes to JFK. If we hadn't had our snorkel stuff, we wouldn't have checked anything. Next time maybe we'll just rent. What a PITA the wait was. If it wasn't for the fact that I was so freakin' excited about going to STJ, it definitely would have put a damper on things. It did make certain other parties a little grumpy. I'm not mentioning names, but it rhymes with Got Wieners.
The fiasco to get through the security check wasn't much better, but soon enough we got to our gate. We didn't have that much of a wait, because the lines had taken so long. Good thing one of us is paranoid! I remember nothing about the flight. I know I didn't sleep, and I watched some bad chick flick. I have no idea what it was, however. I think the excitement of the trip was making it incredibly hard to concentrate on anything!
We landed in STT and it was a little drizzly. No problem - we have free rum punch. "How do you know that's free?" asked MN. "I read it on the forum!" I cheered. It was tasty. We didn't have to wait very long for our luggage, which surprised me. Once we got it, we called Dependable, as we were renting our car through STT. They were actually already there, so we had no wait at the airport. Sweet. The driver was a nice, quiet man. The trip to their agency was interesting - the place is a little off the main roads and we experienced our first twisty/turny of the streets. Later, we'd figure STT was nothing compared to STJ, but still.
We got to the agency, and they set us up with a soft cover jeep. Unfortunately it had a big cut in the cover, so we asked for another one. We found out that we weren't supposed to get the first one to begin with. The new one had a few dents, but seemed fine. MN sat in the driver's seat, and realized that you could not adjust the angle of the seat. It was stuck in deep reclining position that gave MN an aura of toughness (or he'd like to believe that, at least). He was a trooper and we didn't ask for another car. We were on our way!
We drove up and around and down and around and around and... You know what I mean. We managed to miss Marina Market altogether, which wasn't surprising as it's in a little complex on the left and the sign is easy enough to miss. We found it, and began shopping. We got some baked goods, per the recommendation of the woman at the rental agency, and we agreed with her...they were excellent! The prices weren't really all that bad (keep in mind we both work in Manhattan). I couldn't remember what exactly was in a painkiller, so I asked one of the employees, who asked the manager, who was happy to help us. I liked Marina Market a lot.
Then it was time to get to the car ferry, we guessed. We got there and couldn't figure out whom to buy the tickets from. Apparently I didn't remember that you buy the ticket once the car is ON the ferry. Duh. We had to wait a bit, so I called the villa greeter to let her know which ferry we were on. I had to use hubby's iPhone, and thought I had disconnected when I initially called the number and then realized I needed more information before talking to the greeter. Apparently not. She listened to my whole dorky conversation with the fellow in the car next to ours. Nice job, Neeners!
It was still drizzling when we were on the car ferry, but it was beautiful. The greens and blues, the various islands. Everything was just gorgeous, whether it was raining or not.
One thing I was happy to discover about the car ferry is that you hardly feel any waves at all. I didn't have to worry about getting seasick on that big bugger. The ride was over before we knew it, we found the greeter, and immediately followed her to Bay House in Coral Bay. This was when we discovered what twists, turns, hills and drops really were. STT was nothin' in comparison. We saw wild cows, goats, and even pigs - all on the way to the villa. The greeter was driving quickly, and at first MN tried to keep up, but then the voice of reason reminded him that he doesn't drive back home and she could slow down and wait for us instead. OK, it wasn't the voice of reason, just my nagging. It worked. We slowed down, and eventually made it to the villa.
I'll cover the villa in more detail on Day 2. Let me just say - AMAZING views. Just like what you see in the online photos. Absolutely gorgeous. It's a smallish place, so soon enough we were on our own and unpacking. We were starving, so we ventured out to try to find some food when we were done. Somehow, we managed to find Skinny Legs right away. Hurrah! I knew it would be good food because of the raves, and it did not disappoint. The burgers were excellent, the staff was nice, and we got to try our first painkillers. First of many. YUM.
We enjoyed our meal and a few drinks each, and it was $45. Back at home it would have actually have been more. Hurrah! Thumb's up for Skinny Legs. We were both happily tired, so headed on "home". I turned on the A/C in the bedroom and read a bit, while hubby watched the World Series upstairs. I think I fell asleep by 8:00 p.m. I was tuckered out! It would be a habit that I would not go to bed after 10, and often by 9. My usual schedule is to stay up until midnight. Funny how things change on vacation!
SUMMARY: We made it to STJ, loved the views, freaked out a bit about the driving conditions, and loved Skinny Legs.
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- Posts: 480
- Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:44 am
Hi naturegirl - our flight was on time and I think we got into STT a little after 11. Not bad, at all. Yep, it was a direct flight.naturegirl wrote:Welcome home and thanks for getting right on this trip report thing! It helps the rest of us who are waiting patiently (or not) to depart. Was your flight direct, on time? When time did you land? Our flight leaves JFK at 7:30 too.
Can't wait until TR Day 2!
- Tracy in WI
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- Location: Wisconsin
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