USVI-On-Line

and this question may show might height of laziness.. but ... we get off the ferry and are heading to STJ Car rental. Any chance a porter could load up our luggage and buzz it down the street or is that not permitted?

STJ is BYOS

(Bring Your Own Sherpa)

Mary Beth--You must not be following Rick G's advice about packing light! We can't seem to manage that either. I usually head over to STJ Car Rental while Janie waits with the bags, then I come back and pick her, and the bags, up.

we are a party of 5 and we have 2 cars so basically everyone has to go to the rental place.
I knew this was a stretch so we will just schlep down the street ourselves.
I told everyone to be prepared for that but when I saw a porter on the web cam I got an idea

With any luck your greeter will have a vehicle that they can put the big bags into and you can just lug the carry ons with you.

If not, I would leave the bags with one person at the dock and come back for them if you can.

Draw straws. Whoever gets the short straw has to stay with the luggage. Everyone else gets to to walk up to the B.B., relax with a Painkiller (while the short straw waits with the luggage), then go get the car and pick up the unlucky bastard that got stuck waiting with the luggage. I know it sucks but it's the only fair way to do it.
And pray you don't get the short straw!

For our traveling group (usually 6 to 12 THIRSTY friends) our tradition is to get off the ferry, get your bags and walk to Woody's for refreshments. We don't usually get our rental car until the next morning, depending on where we are staying. We've had some great "first day" photos on Woodys' Website with suitcases and beers/frosty beverages in hand!

Well, if the carryon rolling suitcase is a concern, you can always move things to a small knapsack. I find this is easy if I leave the towel and under-garments at home.

One of my friends has back problems and she basically won't lift anything for fear of starting an attack. I recommended they grab a table at the Mojo Cafe and wait for someone to fetch the car. Of course, you have to order a beverage while you wait. This worked out fine for them. I usually dump the gang at the Beach Bar while I get a vehicle, just to cut down on the pickup confusion.

I know packing light is hard for some folks. We have friends who travel with CPAP gear, waterpics, etc. and routinely have 5 checked bags for 2 people. We don't travel with them, but we know them.

Cheers, RickG

RickG wrote:I know packing light is hard for some folks. We have friends who travel with CPAP gear, waterpics, etc. and routinely have 5 checked bags for 2 people. We don't travel with them, but we know them.

Cheers, RickG

Ok, I can understand the CPAP (isn't that for sleep apenea?) but the WATERPICS?!?!

I thought it was bad enough when my husband took his Oral B electric tooth brush.

packing light is not my virture. nor is patience. I yam who I yam!
but I do limit it to one bag.
Our deal is we have 4 adults who have to be present to register for the cars and 1 16 year old. Don't think we are leaving her on the dock with the luggage.
So it's not really a big deal - we will get there. Just don't run us down as we are walking 5 abreast down the street to the car rental place - towing our luggage behind

thanks for the replies

I know STJ is no where near Tibet, but maybe you'll get lucky and there will be a sherpa on the ferry over with you ?

Here's what we did last week, since our traveling companions arrived on island a few hours before us. Our villa greeter took them over to get the car (I think we used Varlack) and then took them to the villa. When we arrived and our friends collected us from the ferry, we went over to the rental agency to get us added as drivers on the contract. You could probably work out something like this to reduce dragging the bags around - maybe three stay at the bar or Mojo's with the bags while two people collect the cars, go get the other three & the bags, and then head back to the car rental with everyone to finalize the addition of the other drivers. The good thing is that once you get on island, it's all good.

On a related note, when we turned in the car they were very surprised at how clean it was. It seemed that they expected to have to charge us the clean up fee.

C&S Island Time - my husband's nickname is 'divesherpa' because he often carries and loads up our dive gear. He is my super-sweetie-divesherpa! Most people don't get the reference to Tibetan sherpas though.

Draw straws. Whoever gets the short straw has to stay with the luggage. also gets my vote only takes 2 min to drive back.

Tell the 16 year she can have a couple of free rum drinks during her waits