usvi-on-line
Trip Report - Group of 9 - part 1
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martini girl
- Posts: 329
- Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:29 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania
Trip Report - Group of 9 - part 1
This was our second trip to STJ, same two families traveling together, 5 daughters total. We decided to add on 2 days in the beginning of our trip this time to visit St Thomas for shopping (girls) and golfing (guys.) We flew out of Philadelphia on a Thursday morning, flight was uneventful, landed on STT around 2:30 pm. We only waited a few minutes for our luggage to show up...
and it made it (all 9 pieces....thought we were packing lighter this time???)
Our taxi to the Crystal Palace was waiting for us, although we did wait around for a bit until some other folks showed up, but it was certainly enough time for a beer run back to the airport bar!
We made it to the Crystal Palace, unloaded, and ran into town for a few minutes, and I do mean a few minutes. It seems all the stores close at 5 p.m. (as soon as the cruise ship people pull out) and we only had around 15 minutes to look around before things shut down. We ate dinner at Cuzzins that evening, our meals were okay. The kids weren't thrilled, not much kid-stuff on the menu at all. My husband's ribeye was very "chewy", I guess we were all just tired and cranky from the travel day. Walking those hills from downtown to the CP was really a treat! My calves were not happy with me at all.
Here's the view from the balcony of the Crystal Palace:
Didn't sleep that well as there seemed to be a zillion dogs barking all hours of the night and some motion-sensor light outside our bedroom windows kept clicking on, off, on, off, followed by more dogs barking, more clicking on ,off etc.
Had a nice continental breakfast on the balcony while checking out the cruise ships in port. Our plan was to get the girls' hair braided and do some serious shopping. The guys had already left for their 8 a.m. tee time, so we took off down the hill and found a hair braiding person who set us up in a lovely, shaded open-air taxi parked in the lot near the tent market/shopping area. She did all 5 girls in just over two hours, very speedy, very nice woman (Minerva was her name.)
She recommended the Greenhouse for lunch as my 13-yr old was craving a cheeseburger. We asked for directions and instead of just telling us how to get there, she physically walked us there. She was special! We loved the Greenhouse, I had a wonderful Bushwacker there, and the burgers were perfect. We really enjoyed that place.
After lunch, we set off in search of the jewelry stores. Good Lord, I had no idea just how many jewelry stores there were! Not to mention all of the taxi drivers asking us over and over "do you need a taxi back to the ship?" I wished I had a sign to hold up that said "NO, I DO NOT NEED A RIDE BACK TO THE SHIP!!!" Everytime you made eye contact with them, they asked you about a ride. It was most annoying. After browsing many stores, we finally found Imperial Jewelers, which I know was recommended by some forumites, as well as Ronnie at CP. They were great in there. We were successful in purchasing some bling, met up with our husbands, and did some damage in the tablecloth shop, the perfume shop, the wristwatch shops, and so on. Those tablecloths weigh a lot (who knew??), and lugging them back up the hills of St Thomas was quite a challenge.
We called Christopher Taxi to take the guys to and from Mahogany Run golf course, and also called him to take us to Mafolie's for dinner that night. What a class act he was. Prompt, really nice vans, very pleasant to talk with, reasonable pricing.
Mafolie's was beautiful. What a view! Everything was great, the food, the service, the atmosphere. I would highly recommend this place for dinner. The bar was incredible, even though we didn't sit there (as we had 5 kids with us) we kept saying how we could just sit at the bar all night staring at the view.
posing after dinner
Back to CP for more dogs barking and motion-sensor clicking on and off. The next morning we are very anxious to get to STJ. Christopher Taxi picks us up and off to Red Hook for the 10 a.m. ferry. Yay!!
on the ferry
a welcome sight!
We weren't able to check into our villa early as we had previously thought, so we picked up our vehicles at St John Car Rental and headed to Mongoose for lunch at the Sun Dog. Another great place! sorry, no food porn, I was afraid everyone would think I was crazy if I kept taking pictures of their meals, not to mention constantly dealing with kids and their kid-issues during all the meals. Anyway, lunch was fabulous, more bushwackers and rum punch as well. We hit Starfish for groceries and headed off to meet Kathy from Island Getaways to go to our villa at 2 pm.
We were staying at Villa Rendezview on Hart Bay (I understand it was formerly named the Hart Bay House.) Our driveway was just past Dolphin Run. The villa was lovely. Very tastefully decorated, very comfortable. Hearing the surf from Hart Bay was really relaxing. It was always quite windy on the decks, but that was just fine for me, the bug magnet. Keep those little rascals away at all costs! Because of the winds, you really couldn't sit outside to enjoy any meals, but I managed to drink my morning coffee out on the deck each morning, watching the sunrise, dreaming about Villa Mistral (on sale for just $8 million), which I could see directly across the bay everyday. God, I love that place!
Villa Mistral
Rendezview pictures:
living room
kitchen
dining area
master bedroom
master bedroom
master bath
pool
Beautiful Hart Bay view from our villa
Dinner that night was Pastory Gardens, it poured on our way there, and got rather cool and breezy. We waited out the showers and enjoyed a delicious meal. The kids played golf and we headed back for our first night's sleep on St John. After two days on busy, crowded St Thomas, we felt like we were home. We slept very well on the comfortable beds, and I woke up to this the next morning:
I'd like to give Mixology Warehouse 5 stars for their service. I had pre-ordered our booze a few weeks before our trip for delivery to our villa. Unfortunately, the credit card I had given them had been lost a few days before our trip, so I knew the card wasn't going to work for them. This was a BIG concern, as we really wanted our delivery there upon arrival, know what I mean? Anyway, I kept trying to call them from STT to give the new cc number, but never got an answer. Was very worried now. Once we arrived on STJ, we stopped by the Lumberyard to physcially give them the new credit card, but they were closed. I vaguely recalled that they were relocating and was REALLY worried now. I called again later, finally got an answer, and I think it was Gary who said, "no problem, we made the delivery anyway. Just call me when you get to the villa to give me the new cc info." I couldn't believe it. They delivered our order with a declined credit card. Those people are gods!
That's all I can do for now. Sorry for the length of this report, I intended to make it a bit more concise, but I guess I just got on a roll. Next up, Maho, Trunk, Vie's,...
and it made it (all 9 pieces....thought we were packing lighter this time???)
Our taxi to the Crystal Palace was waiting for us, although we did wait around for a bit until some other folks showed up, but it was certainly enough time for a beer run back to the airport bar!
We made it to the Crystal Palace, unloaded, and ran into town for a few minutes, and I do mean a few minutes. It seems all the stores close at 5 p.m. (as soon as the cruise ship people pull out) and we only had around 15 minutes to look around before things shut down. We ate dinner at Cuzzins that evening, our meals were okay. The kids weren't thrilled, not much kid-stuff on the menu at all. My husband's ribeye was very "chewy", I guess we were all just tired and cranky from the travel day. Walking those hills from downtown to the CP was really a treat! My calves were not happy with me at all.
Here's the view from the balcony of the Crystal Palace:
Didn't sleep that well as there seemed to be a zillion dogs barking all hours of the night and some motion-sensor light outside our bedroom windows kept clicking on, off, on, off, followed by more dogs barking, more clicking on ,off etc.
Had a nice continental breakfast on the balcony while checking out the cruise ships in port. Our plan was to get the girls' hair braided and do some serious shopping. The guys had already left for their 8 a.m. tee time, so we took off down the hill and found a hair braiding person who set us up in a lovely, shaded open-air taxi parked in the lot near the tent market/shopping area. She did all 5 girls in just over two hours, very speedy, very nice woman (Minerva was her name.)
She recommended the Greenhouse for lunch as my 13-yr old was craving a cheeseburger. We asked for directions and instead of just telling us how to get there, she physically walked us there. She was special! We loved the Greenhouse, I had a wonderful Bushwacker there, and the burgers were perfect. We really enjoyed that place.
After lunch, we set off in search of the jewelry stores. Good Lord, I had no idea just how many jewelry stores there were! Not to mention all of the taxi drivers asking us over and over "do you need a taxi back to the ship?" I wished I had a sign to hold up that said "NO, I DO NOT NEED A RIDE BACK TO THE SHIP!!!" Everytime you made eye contact with them, they asked you about a ride. It was most annoying. After browsing many stores, we finally found Imperial Jewelers, which I know was recommended by some forumites, as well as Ronnie at CP. They were great in there. We were successful in purchasing some bling, met up with our husbands, and did some damage in the tablecloth shop, the perfume shop, the wristwatch shops, and so on. Those tablecloths weigh a lot (who knew??), and lugging them back up the hills of St Thomas was quite a challenge.
We called Christopher Taxi to take the guys to and from Mahogany Run golf course, and also called him to take us to Mafolie's for dinner that night. What a class act he was. Prompt, really nice vans, very pleasant to talk with, reasonable pricing.
Mafolie's was beautiful. What a view! Everything was great, the food, the service, the atmosphere. I would highly recommend this place for dinner. The bar was incredible, even though we didn't sit there (as we had 5 kids with us) we kept saying how we could just sit at the bar all night staring at the view.
posing after dinner
Back to CP for more dogs barking and motion-sensor clicking on and off. The next morning we are very anxious to get to STJ. Christopher Taxi picks us up and off to Red Hook for the 10 a.m. ferry. Yay!!
on the ferry
a welcome sight!We weren't able to check into our villa early as we had previously thought, so we picked up our vehicles at St John Car Rental and headed to Mongoose for lunch at the Sun Dog. Another great place! sorry, no food porn, I was afraid everyone would think I was crazy if I kept taking pictures of their meals, not to mention constantly dealing with kids and their kid-issues during all the meals. Anyway, lunch was fabulous, more bushwackers and rum punch as well. We hit Starfish for groceries and headed off to meet Kathy from Island Getaways to go to our villa at 2 pm.
We were staying at Villa Rendezview on Hart Bay (I understand it was formerly named the Hart Bay House.) Our driveway was just past Dolphin Run. The villa was lovely. Very tastefully decorated, very comfortable. Hearing the surf from Hart Bay was really relaxing. It was always quite windy on the decks, but that was just fine for me, the bug magnet. Keep those little rascals away at all costs! Because of the winds, you really couldn't sit outside to enjoy any meals, but I managed to drink my morning coffee out on the deck each morning, watching the sunrise, dreaming about Villa Mistral (on sale for just $8 million), which I could see directly across the bay everyday. God, I love that place!
Villa MistralRendezview pictures:
living room kitchen dining area master bedroom master bedroom master bath poolBeautiful Hart Bay view from our villa
Dinner that night was Pastory Gardens, it poured on our way there, and got rather cool and breezy. We waited out the showers and enjoyed a delicious meal. The kids played golf and we headed back for our first night's sleep on St John. After two days on busy, crowded St Thomas, we felt like we were home. We slept very well on the comfortable beds, and I woke up to this the next morning:
I'd like to give Mixology Warehouse 5 stars for their service. I had pre-ordered our booze a few weeks before our trip for delivery to our villa. Unfortunately, the credit card I had given them had been lost a few days before our trip, so I knew the card wasn't going to work for them. This was a BIG concern, as we really wanted our delivery there upon arrival, know what I mean? Anyway, I kept trying to call them from STT to give the new cc number, but never got an answer. Was very worried now. Once we arrived on STJ, we stopped by the Lumberyard to physcially give them the new credit card, but they were closed. I vaguely recalled that they were relocating and was REALLY worried now. I called again later, finally got an answer, and I think it was Gary who said, "no problem, we made the delivery anyway. Just call me when you get to the villa to give me the new cc info." I couldn't believe it. They delivered our order with a declined credit card. Those people are gods!
That's all I can do for now. Sorry for the length of this report, I intended to make it a bit more concise, but I guess I just got on a roll. Next up, Maho, Trunk, Vie's,...
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Xislandgirl
- Posts: 4163
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:03 pm
- Location: Slightly left of center
X, I think Ilios is across the bay. We stayed at Ilios our first time on St. John. There was a new house being built right next door while we were there so we had asked if we could move to another villa. At the time, Hart Bay House (as it was formerly called) was the only one available. We took a tour of it, and ended up deciding to stay at Ilios. Even with the construction, we become somewhat attached to the house...
X, have you stayed at Ilios?
X, have you stayed at Ilios?
A mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open.
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cypressgirl
- Posts: 2178
- Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:42 pm
- Location: houston
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martini girl
- Posts: 329
- Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:29 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania
X - I am not familiar with Ilios. I would, however, like to know the name of the villa that was situated directly above ours. Rendezview shared the first part of the driveway with an absolutely beautiful villa that was higher up on the hill and totally spectacular, at least from the oustide. Anyone?
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vacationpants
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:50 pm
- Location: Ohio
Your girls look like they are having a great time from the very beginning. It makes me wish that we had started going when our kids were younger - this year will be our kids second trip they will be 20 and 16 - I always think 'this may be our last family vacation' but as long as we say we are going to STJ I think they will find a way to go!!
