Hey, Soxfan22, how did you like Ellison villa?

[mcdomzal]

Soxfan22,

I saw that you stayed at Ellison and it is on our short list. How did you like it?? One of my big worries are the mosquitoes, I get eaten alive every time we go. How were they at the villa? I think I read that it has an open shower, any problems with bugs there?

Thanks!

[soxfan22]

I would say that overall, Ellison Villa is a beautiful villa in a very nice, private location.

The villa is brand new, in fact it is really the only villa on that end of Virgin Grand Estates. There is some building going on above, but it never bothered us.

Ellison has a GREAT pool and pool area. We are definitely pool in the afternoon (after the beach before dinner) people, and found ourselves there most afternoons. The only thing to be careful of is a very small opening between the edge of the pool and the edge of the fence, where there is about a 15' drop if a child were to fall through. No worries for us though...I just slid a chaise lounge in front of it (I have a VERY curious 2 1/2 yr old who found it very quickly).

As for bugs...Not too bad. We all got eaten alive, but I don't think those bites took place at the villa - more likely no-see-ums at the beach. The house itself is very 'tight', so bugs were not a problem.

We found the house was very well appointed, having everything that we could need (nice gas grill, kitchen utensils, wine glasses, martini glasses, big pot to make popcorn in, towels, etc). The kitchen is great...granite countertops, stainless, etc.

The only negative is not exclusive to Ellison...The Layout. And I'll say that we were fully aware when we rented...We have come to the realization that the seperate bedroom suites are not for us (outside seperate entry bedrooms)...We found that this really hinders some of your social activities...We have a young son, and we'd like to have been able to put him to bed, walk into the living room and hang out. However, we usually ended up just going to bed with him. Also, the locking of four or five doors when you left for the day. Not sure exactly why they do this down there, other than for privacy between couples...But really, how much do you need? So next time, we will rent a house with inside access to all bedrooms.

Last thing...the air conditioner in the Living Room is inadequate for that space (I think it's only 8k BTU). Just seems to me that if you're going to do it, do it right...Instead, you run that AC and the room only cools slightly. Seems a waste of power to me (the running and running with little benefit). If the owners are reading this, I would upgrade that window unit. The house is situated on the hillside so that there really isn't much breeze, so for me I needed the AC.

All that aside...BEAUTIFUL HOME. The nicest by far that we have stayed in on STJ. I would definitely recommend the villa - so long as you don't mind outside access to all bedrooms.

Oh, almost forgot...The outdoor showers were great! The bathrooms in this home were amazing, and the showers did NOT disappoint. The master bath actually has two shower heads and is very roomy .

Sorry this is so long - any other questions, please ask!

[benchill]

Yo SoxFan!

Can't believe I missed you at the Beach Bar! Sounds like a plan is in the works so that won't happen again though!

I drove by the house and looked for you once while I was in VGE but no sign of you.

How bout some examples of your new polorizer? Lot of haze didnt help the photos on my end.

[soxfan22]

Hey Ben - It's funny, I walked right by Ruth about 5 times, not realizing it was her! I was keeping my eyes open for you guys, just didn't see you.

That was a good time, regardless. My son had a coconut leaf hat made for him at the BB that night, which is now hanging in his bedroom - very nice. I gotta say though, the dude who made it was about half way through...Suddenly he comes over to me and says "can you go get me a Long Island Iced Tea?". I'm like, sure...I'm paying you $20 bucks to make this hat for my boy here, but I'll go get you a $10 cocktail. What the heck, I'm on vacation! No complaints!

Sorry we missed you guys - catch up next time!

[Teresa_Rae]

Very interesting comment about the bugs…

Our visit this summer was a weird trip for us because of the lack of bugs. Don’t get me wrong, it was GREAT, but very strange.

I normally get eaten alive, but this year I think I got two bites total. I did use some bug spray at night, but usually I drench myself in it and still get eaten to death.

We stayed high up in the Skytop area so that could be part of it, but I would have thought most of my bug bites come from the beach…and we always stay at the beach late, including this year, so the lack of bug bites was really strange.

We were there June 19-29.

[mcdomzal]

Soxfan22,
Thanks for your detailed reply! I think Ellison has now moved to one of our top 2 villas! My kids will be 18 and 15 when we are there so we won't have the same worries about the outside bedroom entrances. That said, I still wish the entrances were inside...just makes things a little more convenient.

Who did you rent from? Did you get multiple keys?

[dehman]

Thanks for the great input Sox Fan- I will relay these to our property manager and have her get another AC unit- not sure why they didn't do one of the AC UNits like in the bedrooms over the windows in the first place but building a house down there is nigthmare (as many will agree) so of all the issues, we can dal with that one! Yes, I do think that is why they are designed with seperate entrances. Glad you had a good time and hope you got use of the bar by the pool!!!

[cosmolady]

Soxfan..I remember seeing your litle guy at the Beach Bar and thinking how cute he was and how nice you were for buying him the palm leaf hat. My friend bought the palm leaf bowl!
It is too bad that so many forumites were there in several groups! Wasn't it as perfect evenng?
Cosmolady/Mary

[soxfan22]

Thanks cosmolady! Yes, that was a great night...Wish I was still there. No worries though, in a month or so we'll start looking at villas for our next trip in July 09.

Were you with snorkelqueen by any chance? If so, I think we met briefly.

[sherban]

Soxfan- Duuuude...I'm lookin' for ya'lls trip report from July....where is it....it's gotta be good...

[soxfan22]

Yeah man, I gotta get on that. Things have just been real busy - you know the same things we all have...work, new baby coming, work, work. We're going to start looking for villas for the July 09 trip soon, so that should motivate me to put something together.