BVIs and USVIs Trip Report - Days 7, 8 and 9
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:35 am
Day 7
We woke up to another great day on St. John. This was our first full day on the island so we wanted to rent a vehicle. The Westin has a car rental on their property so we walked over to reserve a car. Unfortunately there weren’t any 4 door wranglers available so we settled on a Dodge Nitro. We met up with our friends and headed to Cruz Bay for breakfast. We went back to JJ’s for a great breakfast of huervos rancheros.
With our stomachs full, we walked back to our car and headed to our first beach - Hawksnest. During the summer, I went ahead and bought a snorkel mask at home so this was my first time trying it out. We parked the car and found a great spot to relax and enjoy the quiet beach. I put on my mask and it fit perfectly. The water was very clear and I saw a good variety of fish and several squid. I didn’t venture out too far since I didn’t have fins on but I could still see a lot. I really enjoy snorkeling at Hawksnest because the coral is more abundant and less worn down like Trunk.
After an hour or so we were ready to move on to the next beach. We drove past Trunk since it was really crowded and stopped at Cinnamon Bay. We walked down the beach a bit and found a nice empty spot on the beach. Finding an empty spot during this time of year isn’t too difficult. I tried snorkeling again but I really didn’t see too much. I saw people way out but I just didn’t want to go out that far again without fins. Note to self: buy fins for next year!
Our next stop was Skinny Legs. We drove up to Coral Bay and stopped in for a few beers. My friends were hungry and all had a burger.
We were only going to stop by for a little while, but then we got engrossed by the “balloon boy” footage on the TV. Little did we know it would wind up being a complete hoax. That’s 2 hours of my life I won’t get back - haha.
So after we watched the footage we headed back towards Cruz Bay. We made a stop at Woody’s for a happy hour drink but it was really crowded, so we headed back to the Rum Hut for a couple.
That night I was planning on meeting up with my one friend and her boyfriend who lives on St. Thomas. Realizing it was getting late, we headed back to the Westin to freshen up. Our friends were going to eat at the Waterfront Bistro and we told them we would meet up with them later. We wound up meeting up with my friend at Woody’s. Contemplating where to eat we decided on the Fish Trap.
We were going to go to Rhumblines but disappointingly, they were not open yet. Our second choice was the Banana Deck, but they were closed too. My husband and I had never eaten at the Fish Trap before, since it is usually closed while we’re there, so we were excited to try something new. We started off with appetizers of scallops and fried callamari. For entrees, we ordered maha mahi, shrimp and linguini and fish and chips. Everything was really good and reasonably priced too. I was quite impressed with this place. I would definitely go back there again. After dinner we walked over to the Waterfront Bistro for a couple of drinks and met up with our friends.
It was a great night seeing my friend and meeting her boyfriend. I think it was by far our latest night out the entire trip - 11:20! At this time, finding a taxi wasn’t easy but we managed to find one by the ferry dock and headed back to the Westin.
Day 8 - our last full day
Being it was our last full day, we kept the car rental for another day. We had a bit of a late start since we were up late the night before so finding a spot near the dock wasn’t easy. There wasn’t any parking spots available near the docks, but my husband squeezed the car towards the entrance to the parking lot. We didn’t think it would be a problem. We walked back to JJ’s for another great breakfast. Since we hadn’t gone shopping yet, we walked over to St. John Spice and grabbed several bottles of Jerome’s and some other souvenirs to bring home. At least this time I didn’t drop any bottles like last year (but that was because of the earthquake).
While our friends were paying for their items, I noticed my cell phone rang and it said “unknown”. I thought maybe it was work or something so I didn’t answer it. Then my husband said “wait you should have gotten that, it could be the car rental place, I gave them your cell # as a contact”. So we walked over back to the car and it was still in the same spot. No worries - headed back over to the Wharfside shops and looked around some more, but I really didn’t see anything. (My birthday was October 7th so like last year, I figured I would just get something while we were there on St. John) It was time to go back to our car and head to Mongoose Junction. Well we walked back to where we left the car and it was gone. I checked my phone and I had a voicemail message and it was from the car rental place. It said that they were notified that our car was parked in a bad spot and that we should move it. Well it looked like someone moved it for us. At this point we just kind of stopped and looked around not knowing what to do. Then I noticed right behind Joe’s BBQ, a silver Dodge Nitro. I pointed it to my husband and asked him if that was it? He used the key and thankfully it opened. It was our car! So somehow they moved it, but not very far. That was a HUGE relief. We got in our car and headed towards Mongoose. I then got another call and it was the car rental. I told the woman on the phone that we got our vehicle were headed out of Cruz Bay. She was really nice checking up on us.
We made it to Mongoose and walked in to R & I Patton. I found a nice sterling silver bracelet with the petroglyph in the center. It was perfect and it matched my necklace that I wore. It was getting hot and we were getting thirsty, so we stopped at the Gecko gazebo/Sun Dog Cafe for a couple of beers.
We were debating about what beach to go to. My husband mentioned Caneel, but then I wasn’t sure if we could drive in if the resort was closed. Well we figured we would give it a try and if we could get in, we would just go to Trunk. When we got to the gate (the new entrance is quite impressive), a security guard did stop us and told us that the resort was closed (ah yeah we know that). Anyway, he said that if we parked our car on the road, we could walk in and use Caneel’s main beach only (and also could swim over to Honeymoon Beach). So with that, we parked our car and walked to the beach. I thought the walk would be really far, but it wasn’t too bad.
It was so odd to see the resort deserted like it was. There were several people there working at the resort. The entire beach bar terrace and breakfast area was stripped of all furniture and pictures. I assume they were taking the opportunity to do some upgrades to the resort while they were closed. We found a nice spot on the beach and immediately went in the water.
Funny thing, we stayed at Caneel several times and have never gone in the water at Caneel’s main beach. It was beautiful. We saw a few other people walking in on the beach doing the same thing as us but it was almost empty the entire time. I did a few snorkeling and saw a few fish. No turtles this time - all well. We spent a good amount of time at Caneel and then headed back to our car since we had to return the rental by 4:30 (otherwise we would be charged for another day and we were leaving the next day).
We drove back to Cruz Bay and stopped at this little place for a few tacos just outside the entrance to the Balcony. The name escapes me right now but my friend’s boyfriend recommended this place and he was right. Very good based on my friends and husband’s review (I wasn’t too hungry). It was getting later and we had to get back to the car rental so we figured we would have a few drinks at our room. There’s a new market that recently opened just outside of the Westin. We stopped by there to grab some beers. It was a nice alternative to the now closed down Simple Feast (loved that place!)
We dropped off the rental and headed back to our room. When we got to the room, no housekeeping. We were gone from 9am and got back to the room around 4:30 pm and no one had come by. I called the front desk and they said someone would be over to clean our room. While we were waiting and having a few drinks, we were going over our dining options.
I heard that La Tapa would be reopening that night and I really wanted to go. It’s one of my favorite restaurants on St. John. I called the restaurant and they were indeed open and made a reservation for 6:45pm to sit outside. Another hour passed and still no housekeeping. I called the front desk again and they told me the same thing, someone would be down shortly. Long story short, I had to call 4 or 5 times before someone finally came to our door. Of course while my husband was in the shower I heard a knock on the door “housekeeping”. By this time, it was too late so I just asked her for some clean towels.
We met up with our friends and took a cab to La Tapa. We started out with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc and a bunch of appetizers: mussels, langostinos and escargot.
Then we ordered their sangria to go with dinner. It was really good. For our entrees my friend and I shared the paella and the guys both ordered the mahi mahi.
The food was amazing - probably the best meal during the entire trip. It was really good and it was their first night open. Everyone else had the same idea because it was pretty crowded.
After dinner we walked over to Joe’s Rum Hut for our last after dinner drink. Then it was time to get back to the Westin and get a good night sleep for our flight back home the next day.
Day 9 - Back home
We woke up and had our check out information under our door. I reviewed it (everything was correct) and called the front desk. I asked the receptionist about the ferry schedule and what to do with our luggage. She asked us our flight information and told her it was at 2:30pm. She then said that we should take the 11:00 ferry and to leave our luggage outside our door by 9:30 am and someone will come by to pick them up.
We headed to the restaurant at the Westin for breakfast. We had to wait a little bit since everyone else was leaving that day and were doing the same thing. We had a pretty good (but pricey) breakfast and had some time to kill. It was around 10am and we walked back to our room to check on the luggage. The luggage was still outside. I just thought that they would get around to it. They never did.
I called the front desk around 10:30 and they said someone would be down to take it. Around 5 to 11 we grabbed all our things and left the room. With our luggage still there, we had to roll it down to the ferry dock. We got to the dock and told the staff that no one ever grabbed our luggage and how we left it out since 9:30am. They never wrote down what time we were taking the ferry so they never knew when to grab it. So much for calling the front desk and letting them know. The same thing happened to our friends. Luckily they went back to their room and checked to see about their luggage. They had an oceanview room so they had to get a golf cart to take them to the dock.
All and all the Westin grounds and resort are indeed beautiful, but this was our 5th time staying there and by far the worse service I have ever experienced. You would think that being they are really the only “resort” there that was currently open that they would be on their game, but everything was just off. We heard that the manager was recently fired so perhaps they are still getting things in order. I really hope they get it together because right now I am definitely hesitant to go back and stay there.
Our ferry was completely filled with people on the return trip so we had to sit up top. The ferry ride was very bumpy and hot. There was no wind on the way back. It was very hot and uncomfortable. We got to the Crown Bay Marina where we were put on a couple of taxis. They took us to the airport where they dropped us off. Then we waited for a separate vehicle containing our luggage to arrive. We got our luggage, checked in and headed to the little eating area near baggage claim. We were right outside of the liquor store, but were told by the ticket agent at the Continental counter that there was a new duty free shop inside (which I already knew about) and they had cigarettes, liquor, etc.
So my husband and friend wanted to get a few cartons to bring back home but figured they would wait until we got inside. That was a mistake. When we got through customs and into the terminal, we went into the duty free shop. Well no cigarettes - just liquor and perfume. At $22 a carton vs. $76+ up here in NJ, my husband and friend were pretty upset. Unfortunately once your in, your in. With that we did buy a few bottles of Petron and Cruzan Rum. It was very convenient because you didn’t have to check it. We just took the box as a carry on.
Well our flight home was packed. My poor husband had the middle seat next to a very large man with a 6 month old on his lap. It wasn’t a very fun ride. About an hour before we landed back at Newark, the baby started screaming. I know it was because of the ear thing but OMG, this baby was screaming right in my husband’s ear. He was pretty good about it considering. Thank goodness I had my Bose headphones on.
Soon we heard announced on the plane that it was unseasonably cold in NJ and to prepare ourselves and children with jackets, etc. Welcome home! At least we all got home safely. It was a great trip and hopefully we can do it again next year.
Now I am just hoping Caneel will consider staying open through Sept and Oct next year. Maybe we’ll just try and go later on in Oct./Nov. since more things will be open.
Thank you for reading my ramblings....
Susan and Ted
We woke up to another great day on St. John. This was our first full day on the island so we wanted to rent a vehicle. The Westin has a car rental on their property so we walked over to reserve a car. Unfortunately there weren’t any 4 door wranglers available so we settled on a Dodge Nitro. We met up with our friends and headed to Cruz Bay for breakfast. We went back to JJ’s for a great breakfast of huervos rancheros.
With our stomachs full, we walked back to our car and headed to our first beach - Hawksnest. During the summer, I went ahead and bought a snorkel mask at home so this was my first time trying it out. We parked the car and found a great spot to relax and enjoy the quiet beach. I put on my mask and it fit perfectly. The water was very clear and I saw a good variety of fish and several squid. I didn’t venture out too far since I didn’t have fins on but I could still see a lot. I really enjoy snorkeling at Hawksnest because the coral is more abundant and less worn down like Trunk.
After an hour or so we were ready to move on to the next beach. We drove past Trunk since it was really crowded and stopped at Cinnamon Bay. We walked down the beach a bit and found a nice empty spot on the beach. Finding an empty spot during this time of year isn’t too difficult. I tried snorkeling again but I really didn’t see too much. I saw people way out but I just didn’t want to go out that far again without fins. Note to self: buy fins for next year!
Our next stop was Skinny Legs. We drove up to Coral Bay and stopped in for a few beers. My friends were hungry and all had a burger.
We were only going to stop by for a little while, but then we got engrossed by the “balloon boy” footage on the TV. Little did we know it would wind up being a complete hoax. That’s 2 hours of my life I won’t get back - haha.
So after we watched the footage we headed back towards Cruz Bay. We made a stop at Woody’s for a happy hour drink but it was really crowded, so we headed back to the Rum Hut for a couple.
That night I was planning on meeting up with my one friend and her boyfriend who lives on St. Thomas. Realizing it was getting late, we headed back to the Westin to freshen up. Our friends were going to eat at the Waterfront Bistro and we told them we would meet up with them later. We wound up meeting up with my friend at Woody’s. Contemplating where to eat we decided on the Fish Trap.
We were going to go to Rhumblines but disappointingly, they were not open yet. Our second choice was the Banana Deck, but they were closed too. My husband and I had never eaten at the Fish Trap before, since it is usually closed while we’re there, so we were excited to try something new. We started off with appetizers of scallops and fried callamari. For entrees, we ordered maha mahi, shrimp and linguini and fish and chips. Everything was really good and reasonably priced too. I was quite impressed with this place. I would definitely go back there again. After dinner we walked over to the Waterfront Bistro for a couple of drinks and met up with our friends.
It was a great night seeing my friend and meeting her boyfriend. I think it was by far our latest night out the entire trip - 11:20! At this time, finding a taxi wasn’t easy but we managed to find one by the ferry dock and headed back to the Westin.
Day 8 - our last full day
Being it was our last full day, we kept the car rental for another day. We had a bit of a late start since we were up late the night before so finding a spot near the dock wasn’t easy. There wasn’t any parking spots available near the docks, but my husband squeezed the car towards the entrance to the parking lot. We didn’t think it would be a problem. We walked back to JJ’s for another great breakfast. Since we hadn’t gone shopping yet, we walked over to St. John Spice and grabbed several bottles of Jerome’s and some other souvenirs to bring home. At least this time I didn’t drop any bottles like last year (but that was because of the earthquake).
While our friends were paying for their items, I noticed my cell phone rang and it said “unknown”. I thought maybe it was work or something so I didn’t answer it. Then my husband said “wait you should have gotten that, it could be the car rental place, I gave them your cell # as a contact”. So we walked over back to the car and it was still in the same spot. No worries - headed back over to the Wharfside shops and looked around some more, but I really didn’t see anything. (My birthday was October 7th so like last year, I figured I would just get something while we were there on St. John) It was time to go back to our car and head to Mongoose Junction. Well we walked back to where we left the car and it was gone. I checked my phone and I had a voicemail message and it was from the car rental place. It said that they were notified that our car was parked in a bad spot and that we should move it. Well it looked like someone moved it for us. At this point we just kind of stopped and looked around not knowing what to do. Then I noticed right behind Joe’s BBQ, a silver Dodge Nitro. I pointed it to my husband and asked him if that was it? He used the key and thankfully it opened. It was our car! So somehow they moved it, but not very far. That was a HUGE relief. We got in our car and headed towards Mongoose. I then got another call and it was the car rental. I told the woman on the phone that we got our vehicle were headed out of Cruz Bay. She was really nice checking up on us.
We made it to Mongoose and walked in to R & I Patton. I found a nice sterling silver bracelet with the petroglyph in the center. It was perfect and it matched my necklace that I wore. It was getting hot and we were getting thirsty, so we stopped at the Gecko gazebo/Sun Dog Cafe for a couple of beers.
We were debating about what beach to go to. My husband mentioned Caneel, but then I wasn’t sure if we could drive in if the resort was closed. Well we figured we would give it a try and if we could get in, we would just go to Trunk. When we got to the gate (the new entrance is quite impressive), a security guard did stop us and told us that the resort was closed (ah yeah we know that). Anyway, he said that if we parked our car on the road, we could walk in and use Caneel’s main beach only (and also could swim over to Honeymoon Beach). So with that, we parked our car and walked to the beach. I thought the walk would be really far, but it wasn’t too bad.
It was so odd to see the resort deserted like it was. There were several people there working at the resort. The entire beach bar terrace and breakfast area was stripped of all furniture and pictures. I assume they were taking the opportunity to do some upgrades to the resort while they were closed. We found a nice spot on the beach and immediately went in the water.
Funny thing, we stayed at Caneel several times and have never gone in the water at Caneel’s main beach. It was beautiful. We saw a few other people walking in on the beach doing the same thing as us but it was almost empty the entire time. I did a few snorkeling and saw a few fish. No turtles this time - all well. We spent a good amount of time at Caneel and then headed back to our car since we had to return the rental by 4:30 (otherwise we would be charged for another day and we were leaving the next day).
We drove back to Cruz Bay and stopped at this little place for a few tacos just outside the entrance to the Balcony. The name escapes me right now but my friend’s boyfriend recommended this place and he was right. Very good based on my friends and husband’s review (I wasn’t too hungry). It was getting later and we had to get back to the car rental so we figured we would have a few drinks at our room. There’s a new market that recently opened just outside of the Westin. We stopped by there to grab some beers. It was a nice alternative to the now closed down Simple Feast (loved that place!)
We dropped off the rental and headed back to our room. When we got to the room, no housekeeping. We were gone from 9am and got back to the room around 4:30 pm and no one had come by. I called the front desk and they said someone would be over to clean our room. While we were waiting and having a few drinks, we were going over our dining options.
I heard that La Tapa would be reopening that night and I really wanted to go. It’s one of my favorite restaurants on St. John. I called the restaurant and they were indeed open and made a reservation for 6:45pm to sit outside. Another hour passed and still no housekeeping. I called the front desk again and they told me the same thing, someone would be down shortly. Long story short, I had to call 4 or 5 times before someone finally came to our door. Of course while my husband was in the shower I heard a knock on the door “housekeeping”. By this time, it was too late so I just asked her for some clean towels.
We met up with our friends and took a cab to La Tapa. We started out with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc and a bunch of appetizers: mussels, langostinos and escargot.
Then we ordered their sangria to go with dinner. It was really good. For our entrees my friend and I shared the paella and the guys both ordered the mahi mahi.
The food was amazing - probably the best meal during the entire trip. It was really good and it was their first night open. Everyone else had the same idea because it was pretty crowded.
After dinner we walked over to Joe’s Rum Hut for our last after dinner drink. Then it was time to get back to the Westin and get a good night sleep for our flight back home the next day.
Day 9 - Back home
We woke up and had our check out information under our door. I reviewed it (everything was correct) and called the front desk. I asked the receptionist about the ferry schedule and what to do with our luggage. She asked us our flight information and told her it was at 2:30pm. She then said that we should take the 11:00 ferry and to leave our luggage outside our door by 9:30 am and someone will come by to pick them up.
We headed to the restaurant at the Westin for breakfast. We had to wait a little bit since everyone else was leaving that day and were doing the same thing. We had a pretty good (but pricey) breakfast and had some time to kill. It was around 10am and we walked back to our room to check on the luggage. The luggage was still outside. I just thought that they would get around to it. They never did.
I called the front desk around 10:30 and they said someone would be down to take it. Around 5 to 11 we grabbed all our things and left the room. With our luggage still there, we had to roll it down to the ferry dock. We got to the dock and told the staff that no one ever grabbed our luggage and how we left it out since 9:30am. They never wrote down what time we were taking the ferry so they never knew when to grab it. So much for calling the front desk and letting them know. The same thing happened to our friends. Luckily they went back to their room and checked to see about their luggage. They had an oceanview room so they had to get a golf cart to take them to the dock.
All and all the Westin grounds and resort are indeed beautiful, but this was our 5th time staying there and by far the worse service I have ever experienced. You would think that being they are really the only “resort” there that was currently open that they would be on their game, but everything was just off. We heard that the manager was recently fired so perhaps they are still getting things in order. I really hope they get it together because right now I am definitely hesitant to go back and stay there.
Our ferry was completely filled with people on the return trip so we had to sit up top. The ferry ride was very bumpy and hot. There was no wind on the way back. It was very hot and uncomfortable. We got to the Crown Bay Marina where we were put on a couple of taxis. They took us to the airport where they dropped us off. Then we waited for a separate vehicle containing our luggage to arrive. We got our luggage, checked in and headed to the little eating area near baggage claim. We were right outside of the liquor store, but were told by the ticket agent at the Continental counter that there was a new duty free shop inside (which I already knew about) and they had cigarettes, liquor, etc.
So my husband and friend wanted to get a few cartons to bring back home but figured they would wait until we got inside. That was a mistake. When we got through customs and into the terminal, we went into the duty free shop. Well no cigarettes - just liquor and perfume. At $22 a carton vs. $76+ up here in NJ, my husband and friend were pretty upset. Unfortunately once your in, your in. With that we did buy a few bottles of Petron and Cruzan Rum. It was very convenient because you didn’t have to check it. We just took the box as a carry on.
Well our flight home was packed. My poor husband had the middle seat next to a very large man with a 6 month old on his lap. It wasn’t a very fun ride. About an hour before we landed back at Newark, the baby started screaming. I know it was because of the ear thing but OMG, this baby was screaming right in my husband’s ear. He was pretty good about it considering. Thank goodness I had my Bose headphones on.
Soon we heard announced on the plane that it was unseasonably cold in NJ and to prepare ourselves and children with jackets, etc. Welcome home! At least we all got home safely. It was a great trip and hopefully we can do it again next year.
Now I am just hoping Caneel will consider staying open through Sept and Oct next year. Maybe we’ll just try and go later on in Oct./Nov. since more things will be open.
Thank you for reading my ramblings....
Susan and Ted
