USVI-On-Line

We booked a trip for the end of April and are staying at Grande Bay. I don't know much about Grande Bay but from what I read the overall perception of this place is not good. Is there anything I should know about this place? Should I consider finding another place to stay. I'm just asking because I found alot of negative comments on Google searches. Thoughts?

Stayed there last month or two ago. Brand new, clean as a whistle, walking distance to everything in town, plenty of parking. Couldn't ask for more. Kimberly was a great host as well. Make sure you have a car to get to the beaches and you will have a perfect vacation.

The negatives have to do with the strong local opposition to the project, due to its very large scale and dubious architecture. From the neighbors whose views got totally blocked, to the people with relatives in the now over-shadowed town cemetery, there is plenty to bother many. Together with the Sirenusa development to the south of town, laws were stretched and bent beyond excusing. There was no opportunity for residents to have any voice in the permitting process, and government officials were obviously paid off one way or another.
I'm sure the accommodations will be very comfortable... I don't mean to be negative to YOU, just to bemoan how it happened!

On a trip in 2004 this was the last picture that I took as we were leaving on the ferry. I knew that the image I had in my mind as I came into Cruz Bay was to be changed forever. It signified the end of Cruz Bay as being a quaint,sleepy,colorful island village. The amazing thing about that development was that no one in Cruz Bay wanted it to be built, other then a few money grabbing transplants, yet it was built anyway.
For me, most of the open wound that you see wasn't there when we came in on the ferry a couple of weeks before. Feeling more then a little down after the "Walk of Woe", not to mention the effects of two weeks of hard partying in Coral Bay, this "development" made for a very somber mood for me on that May morning. A curse on the hemorrhoids of anybody that had anything to do with that place. Just another "JT Editorial."
<a href="http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/ ... 0424-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/ ... 0424-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I agree that it should not have been allowed to be built. That being said, it has been built and it is time to get over it. Sleepy Cruz Bay village has not changed because of it. We have stayed at Grande Bay twice and have loved staying there. It is within walking distance to almost everything, comes with a parking spot and the views are fabulous. It is a great value too. I would not hesitate to stay there again. Once the pool and landscaping are completed it will also blend in better and be less of an eyesore.

Is there a website for rental information at Grande Bay?
Thanks!

There isn't any info on their website yet.

But, if you check out the video on On-St-John, it gives Kim's email and phone info.

http://www.on-stjohn.com/2009/03/01/inside-grande-bay/

Thanks,jayseadee; I found it...looks good for a short hop.

If people didn't buy these kind of garish condos then developers wouldn't bother to try and build them - if people didn't rent these places - the people wouldn't have bought them - they rarely plan to live in them.
When they built Gallows Point many locals felt they had destroyed Cruz Bay forever with inappropriate structures - now I hear "why couldn't they have made them as lovely as Gallows Bay ?"

St. John Pete, with all due respect, I really do not agree that it's " time to get over it". I've gotten over a lot of stuff, but I actually believe we have a duty to not get over things that are WRONG. I have never gotten over Wharfside, or Lavender Hill, or Iran-Contra.
I don't intend to get over Grande Bay, Sirenusa or Dick Cheney.

What I meant, was, now that Grande Bay is a fact of life, it does offer an in-town location at a reasonable price. Do you boycott wharfside? I am sure the people that bought at Grande Bay love St. John as much as we all do. It was just their way of being able to own a piece of the rock that many of us which we could. Life is short, bitterness does not enhance one's existence on this earth.

We are currently on island and I was talking to a friend tonight whose girlfriend lives at Grande Bay and he said the walls are paper thin between condos. "you can hear your neighbor brush his teeth" "Also if you get some late night partyers good luck trying to sleep" Just thought I would pass along his comments.

hugo wrote:St. John Pete, with all due respect, I really do not agree that it's " time to get over it". I've gotten over a lot of stuff, but I actually believe we have a duty to not get over things that are WRONG. I have never gotten over Wharfside, or Lavender Hill, or Iran-Contra.
I don't intend to get over Grande Bay, Sirenusa or Dick Cheney.

Hugo,
May I ask what you do not like about wharfside?

As a ex-vermonter where many of the the sames questions had been asked.

the bottom line were jobs created for locals!

St Johnians really haven't gotten much of a share of the economic pie. Most businesses are owned and staffed by people from the mainland.

Mooie saw what was happening:
http://www.seestjohn.com/culture_food_for_thought.html

In fact, although it seems pretty arrogant to quote myself, I'm going to because it was so recent:

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... ht=#136395

We first went to STJ in the mid-80s. It's changed a lot and I don't think of many of the changes as improvements. I'm unable to "get over it", because I remember what was and know what's been lost. Most housing then was still simple, West Indian-style cottages not the ostentatious Mediterranean-style villas of today. Few pools. Trying to conserve water by flushing less and showering economically is silly as long as pools and hot tubs are being filled. The huge concrete monstrosities that have defaced the hills really sadden and sicken me. Grand Bay is grotesque. Sirenusa is hideous. Developers came, money came. The West Indian population and culture are becoming less and less apparent, replaced by a kind of island lifestyle developed by folks from the mainland. Some people who enjoy STJ now wouldn't have liked it 25-30 years ago, and some folks who loved it then enjoy it much less now. Some of what drew people there isn't there anymore.

Tourism: the goose that lays the golden egg, but soils its own nest.

My wife's gotten very sick of my whining and forum members probably have, too. Our last trip to the Caribbean was to Virgin Gorda and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We appreciated it for what it is, although people there spoke of the development and changes happening there. I notice myself whining a lot lately. I really can't "get over it", but I suppose I could "just move on" and stop being a drag.