STT trip report (5/17-5/24)
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 1:53 pm
Just got back from another trip to STT. Thought I would do a TR this time even though most of you spend your time on STJ. We have a timeshare unit with Marriott at Frenchman’s Cove. This was our 3rd trip staying at the timeshare and 6th trip overall. We fly from Orlando and connect thru Miami so it is usually pretty uneventful, and it was. Met up with my wife’s father and his wife in Miami. They live in Chicagoland and flew from O’Hare on a very early am flight. Got into STT about 1:30 and got our luggage quickly. We always pack a bag of stuff for the villa. Just various things for the week so checking a bag is a necessary evil for us. I called Dependable for the Jeep when we got our bags and they were there in about 10 minutes and picked us up in our Jeep. This was our 3rd time renting from them and 1st that they picked us up in our Jeep. They did screw up on the rental price for some reason, but it got resolved with some discussion. Also noticed that their Jeeps are showing more wear than the last couple times. Although they are 06 & 07's and they have not replaced any in 2 years so I guess that is to be expected. A few minutes later we were on our way to check in. Got to the Cove and they did not have our villa that we requested so we settled on another one. We were prepared for that though. Our request was on a Saturday to Saturday schedule and we were checking in on Sunday. We ended up with a first floor unit which worked out well for FIL since he has bad knees. Of course they have elevators, but we really never used them. Once we dropped our bags in the unit we were off to the Food Center for the weeks of groceries. We dine in most meals. All breakfasts, most lunches and most dinners. Nothing fancy, just easy stuff like burgers or pasta. So we got that unpleasant task out of the way and were in the pool by 5:00 or so. Had dinner at the poolside bar and ended up in bed early due to the travel day.
Monday we woke up to some clouds and decided since there was a couple ships in today it would be a good day to shop downtown. It was overcast and everything would be open with the 2 ships in port. Had lunch at the Greenhouse and came back to the pool in the afternoon. Monday night was dinner in, grilled mahi with an easy pineapple salsa. It was also FIL birthday that day so we made some turtle brownies we had brought with us.
Tuesday was our anniversary and we decided that would be a good day to take the car ferry over to STJ. So we got up early and were at the dock by about 8:30. Turned out there were 3 ferries running, but one went down and was just docking when we were there. So after an hour or so wait we were off on one of the other two. Got to STJ just as places were opening about 10am. Shopped for a while in Wharfside and then to Mongoose. Got our annual fix of Cruz Bay rub and met Ruth at the shop, always good to put a face with a name! My wife had bought some jewelry from Into the Blue in the past couple years and wanted to return so we could each get a hook bracelet. We did, plus some earrings and “MIL” bought two bracelets from them. So we dropped some coin there! They are super nice people though and very nice items….we will return again next trip. Then over at Mongoose we shopped then picked up some sandwiches from Deli Grotto (excellent sandwiches, by the way) to take to the beach. Trunk was on the agenda for the day. Last trip we did not spend much time there and it’s my wife’s favorite beach on STJ. So this time we spent all day. Once the cruise ship passengers left it was awesome. Snorkeled the trail and did not really see anything exciting or out of the ordinary except for this guy.
Looked like a fire worm of some sort to me. The reef does look really good the further you go out. Did catch some sea gulls “getting’ it on” which was entertaining to the few snorkelers who witnessed it. 
As we left there we got hammered with mosquitoes. Threw everything in the Jeep and there must have been 100 of them in the Jeep as we pulled away. Once we got moving though they were gone. My wife ended up with about 20 bites in about a 2 minute time span, they were pretty hungry. Then we went up to the Annaberg ruins to show the in-laws the view and sites. 
We did lather up with deet though and that kept them at bay mostly. Did notice the sign as we pulled up that they were closed due to the high mosquito population! From there we left and headed back to the car ferry. Got on in about 15 minutes and were on our way back to the Cove. That evening we all did stupid tricks on the water slide since all the kids were gone. It was adult play time I guess! Dinner in afterwards and to bed soon after due to the busy day. Must say we had the best weather of the week this day.
Wednesday was villa day. Did not leave the grounds and did some snorkeling right off the beach at the Cove. Again I am always pleasantly surprised there is even a reef there and the pretty good shape it is in.
Dinner that night was Havana Blue, which is always good and always a must do dinner for us. We love the location and the Mojito skirt steak is amazing….yes I did say skirt steak. It’s like filet! Dinner was interrupted though at one point when my FIL piped up and said something to the tune if anyone ever breaks his little girl’s heart then that person will have him to “deal with”. This was like the 100th time that comment has come up in the 15 or so years my wife and I have known each other and after 8 years of marriage. After a couple mojitos I was ready to respond when that comment was made, but held my tongue considering we were only halfway into the week. Going to have to really think of some good comeback to that comment so when the appropriate time presents itself in the future I can lay that out!
Thursday was a bit cloudy and we ended up over at Morningstar beach for the afternoon. Made a coral person which was a big hit with our facebook friends!
Back to the Cove for the afternoon for pool time. Dinner in again and the in-laws taught us to play euchre. That was exciting and which we will never do again. FIL and I just don’t see eye to eye on things and this game brought some of that out.
Friday the weather was much better and we decided it was a no ship day again and would be a perfect day for Magens. So we drove over there and stopped at Drakes seat.
Took some pics and went off to the point at the end of Magens Bay. Went there last year and it was a really cool place. Certainly does not feel like you are on a tropical island. 
It was pretty calm though so no huge crashing waves like last November. Then onto the beach and there was no one there. 2 couples were getting married and if there were 50 people on the entire beach there was a lot. Had never seen Magens so quiet….It was beautiful. The birds and pelicans were in a frenzy diving for fish. 
We watched them for probably an hour go up and down the beach following the school and dive bombing for a meal. About 2:00 some rain/storms rolled in and chased us off the beach. We stopped at Udder Delight for some shakes. Definitely worth the stop and $5 for a shake! Then back to the Cove for pool time. We had dinner reservations at Room with a View at Bluebeards. Came on a recommendation from an employee of Mitch Gibbs (local artist). Have to say we had an absolutely wonderful meal there. Everything from food to service to the view was spectacular. My wife and I went so far as to say it was a top 5 meal of our life…it was that good! Highly recommend to anyone on STT. If you go ask for Javier, he is the best and makes dinner very enjoyable. After dinner was a bit fuzzy since we had a couple martinis and a couple pre-dinner drinks. Thank goodness it was a short drive back to our place!
Saturday was our final full day and we stayed on site. Swam, lounged, drank and snorkeled. Actually the snorkeling was much better today than earlier in the week. Went over the same spot that I saw my first queen angel and looked down and there was a “school” of about 20 Caribbean lobsters.
Sizes from small to enormous. I was really regretting having burgers to grill out tonight since they were in about 12’ of water and very easy pickens. Was also not sure if it was legal to pull them out this time of year or not, so I snapped pics only and swam back to shore. Had our final dinner and packed up for our Sunday morning flight.
Flight home was okay. We had to divert about 300 miles due to a line of storms and then American lost our two liquor boxes we checked. Well, not lost, but they missed the Miami to Orlando leg and went on a later flight. After a couple phone calls and time they finally got delivered to our house in the middle of the night. Just glad they made it in one piece and did not have to bother with American any further. Next time we may just purchase in the Caribbean host store after airport security.
I was worried this trip since we were taking my wife’s father and his wife, but it turned out well. I had a few moments that I wanted to strangle my FIL, but for the most part everything was fine. Also helped that I could keep the “mosquitoes” (aka FIL) away by lighting up a cigar and having a few drinks. I am not a regular cigar smoker, but I brought 8-9 of them with me and came home with only one. And never once did I get labeled as an alcoholic (in-laws are not drinkers) as I had expected, or at least to my knowledge I was not labeled as an alcoholic!
One thing I noticed almost everyday and whichever island we were on was the clarity of the sky. In our two previous November trips the sky has been very clear. This time there was a haze to the sky all the time and lots more clouds this time. It did not hamper our trip at all though. I actually think we got more sun and burnt when it was overcast, probably since we were less aware.
And now back to reality……at least we have another trip planned this same time next year. Only way to lessen the back to reality blow….have another one planned!
Monday we woke up to some clouds and decided since there was a couple ships in today it would be a good day to shop downtown. It was overcast and everything would be open with the 2 ships in port. Had lunch at the Greenhouse and came back to the pool in the afternoon. Monday night was dinner in, grilled mahi with an easy pineapple salsa. It was also FIL birthday that day so we made some turtle brownies we had brought with us.
Tuesday was our anniversary and we decided that would be a good day to take the car ferry over to STJ. So we got up early and were at the dock by about 8:30. Turned out there were 3 ferries running, but one went down and was just docking when we were there. So after an hour or so wait we were off on one of the other two. Got to STJ just as places were opening about 10am. Shopped for a while in Wharfside and then to Mongoose. Got our annual fix of Cruz Bay rub and met Ruth at the shop, always good to put a face with a name! My wife had bought some jewelry from Into the Blue in the past couple years and wanted to return so we could each get a hook bracelet. We did, plus some earrings and “MIL” bought two bracelets from them. So we dropped some coin there! They are super nice people though and very nice items….we will return again next trip. Then over at Mongoose we shopped then picked up some sandwiches from Deli Grotto (excellent sandwiches, by the way) to take to the beach. Trunk was on the agenda for the day. Last trip we did not spend much time there and it’s my wife’s favorite beach on STJ. So this time we spent all day. Once the cruise ship passengers left it was awesome. Snorkeled the trail and did not really see anything exciting or out of the ordinary except for this guy.
Looked like a fire worm of some sort to me. The reef does look really good the further you go out. Did catch some sea gulls “getting’ it on” which was entertaining to the few snorkelers who witnessed it. As we left there we got hammered with mosquitoes. Threw everything in the Jeep and there must have been 100 of them in the Jeep as we pulled away. Once we got moving though they were gone. My wife ended up with about 20 bites in about a 2 minute time span, they were pretty hungry. Then we went up to the Annaberg ruins to show the in-laws the view and sites. We did lather up with deet though and that kept them at bay mostly. Did notice the sign as we pulled up that they were closed due to the high mosquito population! From there we left and headed back to the car ferry. Got on in about 15 minutes and were on our way back to the Cove. That evening we all did stupid tricks on the water slide since all the kids were gone. It was adult play time I guess! Dinner in afterwards and to bed soon after due to the busy day. Must say we had the best weather of the week this day. Wednesday was villa day. Did not leave the grounds and did some snorkeling right off the beach at the Cove. Again I am always pleasantly surprised there is even a reef there and the pretty good shape it is in.
Dinner that night was Havana Blue, which is always good and always a must do dinner for us. We love the location and the Mojito skirt steak is amazing….yes I did say skirt steak. It’s like filet! Dinner was interrupted though at one point when my FIL piped up and said something to the tune if anyone ever breaks his little girl’s heart then that person will have him to “deal with”. This was like the 100th time that comment has come up in the 15 or so years my wife and I have known each other and after 8 years of marriage. After a couple mojitos I was ready to respond when that comment was made, but held my tongue considering we were only halfway into the week. Going to have to really think of some good comeback to that comment so when the appropriate time presents itself in the future I can lay that out!Thursday was a bit cloudy and we ended up over at Morningstar beach for the afternoon. Made a coral person which was a big hit with our facebook friends!
Back to the Cove for the afternoon for pool time. Dinner in again and the in-laws taught us to play euchre. That was exciting and which we will never do again. FIL and I just don’t see eye to eye on things and this game brought some of that out.Friday the weather was much better and we decided it was a no ship day again and would be a perfect day for Magens. So we drove over there and stopped at Drakes seat.
Took some pics and went off to the point at the end of Magens Bay. Went there last year and it was a really cool place. Certainly does not feel like you are on a tropical island. It was pretty calm though so no huge crashing waves like last November. Then onto the beach and there was no one there. 2 couples were getting married and if there were 50 people on the entire beach there was a lot. Had never seen Magens so quiet….It was beautiful. The birds and pelicans were in a frenzy diving for fish. We watched them for probably an hour go up and down the beach following the school and dive bombing for a meal. About 2:00 some rain/storms rolled in and chased us off the beach. We stopped at Udder Delight for some shakes. Definitely worth the stop and $5 for a shake! Then back to the Cove for pool time. We had dinner reservations at Room with a View at Bluebeards. Came on a recommendation from an employee of Mitch Gibbs (local artist). Have to say we had an absolutely wonderful meal there. Everything from food to service to the view was spectacular. My wife and I went so far as to say it was a top 5 meal of our life…it was that good! Highly recommend to anyone on STT. If you go ask for Javier, he is the best and makes dinner very enjoyable. After dinner was a bit fuzzy since we had a couple martinis and a couple pre-dinner drinks. Thank goodness it was a short drive back to our place!Saturday was our final full day and we stayed on site. Swam, lounged, drank and snorkeled. Actually the snorkeling was much better today than earlier in the week. Went over the same spot that I saw my first queen angel and looked down and there was a “school” of about 20 Caribbean lobsters.
Sizes from small to enormous. I was really regretting having burgers to grill out tonight since they were in about 12’ of water and very easy pickens. Was also not sure if it was legal to pull them out this time of year or not, so I snapped pics only and swam back to shore. Had our final dinner and packed up for our Sunday morning flight.Flight home was okay. We had to divert about 300 miles due to a line of storms and then American lost our two liquor boxes we checked. Well, not lost, but they missed the Miami to Orlando leg and went on a later flight. After a couple phone calls and time they finally got delivered to our house in the middle of the night. Just glad they made it in one piece and did not have to bother with American any further. Next time we may just purchase in the Caribbean host store after airport security.
I was worried this trip since we were taking my wife’s father and his wife, but it turned out well. I had a few moments that I wanted to strangle my FIL, but for the most part everything was fine. Also helped that I could keep the “mosquitoes” (aka FIL) away by lighting up a cigar and having a few drinks. I am not a regular cigar smoker, but I brought 8-9 of them with me and came home with only one. And never once did I get labeled as an alcoholic (in-laws are not drinkers) as I had expected, or at least to my knowledge I was not labeled as an alcoholic!
One thing I noticed almost everyday and whichever island we were on was the clarity of the sky. In our two previous November trips the sky has been very clear. This time there was a haze to the sky all the time and lots more clouds this time. It did not hamper our trip at all though. I actually think we got more sun and burnt when it was overcast, probably since we were less aware.
And now back to reality……at least we have another trip planned this same time next year. Only way to lessen the back to reality blow….have another one planned!
