usvi-on-line
SOMEONE tell me I'm not CRAZY?!?
SOMEONE tell me I'm not CRAZY?!?
Well, after a little nudging from Connie, I've got to vent- so, here goes...
I'm more than a little concerned about this past weeks' travel companions.
Let's star by saying that this was my 3rd trip down to STJ with whom I consider my best friend.
Amy & I were more than flabbergasted about how they ignored the "House Rules".
They were stated in the House Binder, as well as by each phone in the villa;
#1- No smoking in the house
#2- Don't leave the a.c. on when you leave
#3- Take out your trash daily
Is that hard to follow? Too much to ask? I don't think so...
As I mentioned, my friend & I have rented villas in the past together, so it's not like he/they didn't know what was expected of them.
He smoked everywhere freely, and left tha a.c. on constantly-think about the elec. bill for that, while we were spending the better part of the day at the beach...
Needless to say they were both more than verbal about having to take out the trash. I said it was in the contract. He handed it to Amy & said it wasn't. CLEARLY it's common courtesy, as well as hard to "not see" the rules by each phone.
Not only that, but he enjoyed using the entire island as his ashtray, and actually YELLED at a bartender from the Beach Bar about how he & his wife were unhappy with their meals. He yelled.(?)
I was pretty damned embarrassed.
Now, I did speak up about the trash/smoking thing during the week to no avail.
They made both Amy & I not only feel uncomfortable, but also like we were giving them a hard time during THEIR vacation.
Now, I fell ill for @ a day & a half this past week, and wasn't necessarily a peach to spend time with. That said, however, I simply chose to stay home & spend time alone in the gorgeous villa while offering up the Jeep for the day so's not to interrupt anyone's plans.
It was not mine, nor Amys' intension to cause waves during our week, yet we feel like we were the 'High-Maintenance' ones as far as this foursome was concerned, and that we complained too much.
Hell, one night on the way back from dinner, the wife of the couple actually insisted on driving home with the high-beams on the whole way back so SHE could see better. "The other headlights make it hard to see at night" was her excuse.
Unreal.
Anyway, the vaca is over, and I still somehow feel crappy about it. Amy accidentally left a pair of prescription glasses at the villa, and I'm almost afraid to call about them for fear of what the rental mgmnt might have to say...
I'll give some of the high points later, but I'm just very disappointed with how this all panned out. Especially from a best friend who has been there a number of times before.
Smiles-
MJ
I'm more than a little concerned about this past weeks' travel companions.
Let's star by saying that this was my 3rd trip down to STJ with whom I consider my best friend.
Amy & I were more than flabbergasted about how they ignored the "House Rules".
They were stated in the House Binder, as well as by each phone in the villa;
#1- No smoking in the house
#2- Don't leave the a.c. on when you leave
#3- Take out your trash daily
Is that hard to follow? Too much to ask? I don't think so...
As I mentioned, my friend & I have rented villas in the past together, so it's not like he/they didn't know what was expected of them.
He smoked everywhere freely, and left tha a.c. on constantly-think about the elec. bill for that, while we were spending the better part of the day at the beach...
Needless to say they were both more than verbal about having to take out the trash. I said it was in the contract. He handed it to Amy & said it wasn't. CLEARLY it's common courtesy, as well as hard to "not see" the rules by each phone.
Not only that, but he enjoyed using the entire island as his ashtray, and actually YELLED at a bartender from the Beach Bar about how he & his wife were unhappy with their meals. He yelled.(?)
I was pretty damned embarrassed.
Now, I did speak up about the trash/smoking thing during the week to no avail.
They made both Amy & I not only feel uncomfortable, but also like we were giving them a hard time during THEIR vacation.
Now, I fell ill for @ a day & a half this past week, and wasn't necessarily a peach to spend time with. That said, however, I simply chose to stay home & spend time alone in the gorgeous villa while offering up the Jeep for the day so's not to interrupt anyone's plans.
It was not mine, nor Amys' intension to cause waves during our week, yet we feel like we were the 'High-Maintenance' ones as far as this foursome was concerned, and that we complained too much.
Hell, one night on the way back from dinner, the wife of the couple actually insisted on driving home with the high-beams on the whole way back so SHE could see better. "The other headlights make it hard to see at night" was her excuse.
Unreal.
Anyway, the vaca is over, and I still somehow feel crappy about it. Amy accidentally left a pair of prescription glasses at the villa, and I'm almost afraid to call about them for fear of what the rental mgmnt might have to say...
I'll give some of the high points later, but I'm just very disappointed with how this all panned out. Especially from a best friend who has been there a number of times before.
Smiles-
MJ
Jimmy,
That sucks! I was thinking of you and Amy and your very well deserved vacation and was hoping to hear a more fabulous post. You and Amy were 100% right - all the 'rules' you listed are very well known. I hope you won't travel with them again. Their behavior would put them off my St. John invitee list for good. So sorry to hear - ugh!
That sucks! I was thinking of you and Amy and your very well deserved vacation and was hoping to hear a more fabulous post. You and Amy were 100% right - all the 'rules' you listed are very well known. I hope you won't travel with them again. Their behavior would put them off my St. John invitee list for good. So sorry to hear - ugh!
NancyB
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cool breeze
- Posts: 275
- Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:34 pm
- Location: N.H
Hello Jimmy, first thing I would do is reevaluate "best friend", its a shame you wait all year for your paradise and then to have to feel uncomfortable thats just lousy. You just don't do that to best friends! Sorry to hear you had some sick time. Well at least you had your "bestest" friend Amy with you I am sure she kept a smile on your face the majority of the time. Hope your brother is doing better.
Take care
CB
Take care
CB
Edited to add: Jimmy you are not crazy!
That is too bad. It is possible that they felt they rented the place and treated it like it was their own. I don't know? How do they treat their home??
It is so rude to drive with the brights. That really tells me a lot about the person. Wow.
DH and I really don't like to travel with friends. We have done it before and didn't really like it as much as we like going together (without other couples). We don't have any horror stories--forgive me for thinking--ahh that is why we don't like traveling with our friends. It really is a way to see each other in a bad light.
I hope you had some highlights. Feel better soon!
GG
That is too bad. It is possible that they felt they rented the place and treated it like it was their own. I don't know? How do they treat their home??
It is so rude to drive with the brights. That really tells me a lot about the person. Wow.
DH and I really don't like to travel with friends. We have done it before and didn't really like it as much as we like going together (without other couples). We don't have any horror stories--forgive me for thinking--ahh that is why we don't like traveling with our friends. It really is a way to see each other in a bad light.
I hope you had some highlights. Feel better soon!
GG
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piscesgirl0314
- Posts: 598
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:31 pm
- Location: Chesapeake, VA
That sucks...not sure why anyone would smoke IN any of the villas...I smoke when I drink...saying that, I smoke while I'm on vacation 
...BUT, NEVER in the villa...unfortunately it sounds like they messed up your trip...and THAT is horrible...you can't do anything about their bad behavior...BUT you can plan your next trip without them...keep smiling... 
...BUT, NEVER in the villa...unfortunately it sounds like they messed up your trip...and THAT is horrible...you can't do anything about their bad behavior...BUT you can plan your next trip without them...keep smiling... 
Oh, I am so sorry – that really sucks. We had one of these trips awhile back – people we had traveled with before and had a great time with, everyone excited about the trip, everything all lovely and kumbaya-like. Then, when we met them at the airport there seemed to be a definite chill in the air but, hey, it was 4 AM and early spring in Chicago. At the stopover in Charlotte things only got chillier. Then by the time we got to the villa, our traveling companions had turned into Cujo and Cujo-ette – crappy to each other and crappy to us. Worst trip ever – nothing was good enough, everything was wrong, plans were made to do things and then they would back out. She pouted and whined and was in martyr-mode from the moment we hit baggage claim and no amount of rum could perk her up. He catered to her, even headed over to STT to shop and bring back surprise swag to perk her up and then became more and more frustrated when nothing was working for him, either, so got surly and stayed that way. We just buckled up and kept hydrated and tried to hang on until the week was over – never walked on so many eggshells in our lives. Never thought we would be thrilled to see the final day of vacation roll around but we sure were that time.
Jim – hope you guys can work it out.
Jim – hope you guys can work it out.
Wow....sounds pretty bad. We had a bad deal like that once on a trip to The Keys. After letting the ordeal ferment for a while, we talked and it turned out that the others bad behavior was a direct result of ourbehavior. We did not know that we were causing strife, but we were, and it reflected back on us.
Not saying this is the deal for you, but it was for us.
Not saying this is the deal for you, but it was for us.
Jim, I thought of you and Amy so often during your trip. I was hoping you were finding some peace and relaxation. I am so sorry to hear of your struggles. You may want to rethink your traveling companions for the next trip. I hope you and Amy found some together time that helped ground you. Best wishes!
Jim has a message about his brother Paul on the "Off Topic" forum
Hey Margy...are they still married?
When Jim sent me the PM, I really had to read it twice and then I read it a third time.
I could really feel his pain, because we went through that with our best friends in STT. The husband is turning into a grouchy hold man and he knows EVERYTHING. I just couldn't take it anymore and we got into an argument, that left me crying and a bad feel in the air for the rest of the week. Hell, we didn't even say goodbye when we got back into Philly.
We are still friends, but I don't think we can ever take another vacation again with them.
By the way, Paul's brother isn't doing that well, but I'll leave that to him to explain.
Hey Margy...are they still married?
When Jim sent me the PM, I really had to read it twice and then I read it a third time.
I could really feel his pain, because we went through that with our best friends in STT. The husband is turning into a grouchy hold man and he knows EVERYTHING. I just couldn't take it anymore and we got into an argument, that left me crying and a bad feel in the air for the rest of the week. Hell, we didn't even say goodbye when we got back into Philly.
We are still friends, but I don't think we can ever take another vacation again with them.
By the way, Paul's brother isn't doing that well, but I'll leave that to him to explain.
"Paradise...it's a state of mine"
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Greenskeeper
- Posts: 390
- Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:07 pm
- Location: Cape Cod, MA
WOW, sorry for the lousy travel companions.
It's one thing to be a jerk to your friends but to not honor the rules of the house? Unbelievable. Did you pay a security deposit? Smoking in a home when a request has been made otherwise is the epitome of ignorance. That stench gets into the AC units too. If the house smells of cigarettes, that's a problem that's not easy to fix. I would be furious if I were the next guest and had rented a "non smoking" villa and showed up to it smelling like butts.
If you lose any deposit money, I hope you recoup it from your "friend".
It just makes me wonder what a villa management company is to do. It's not fair for them to have to do extra cleaning because of a guest's ignorance. Do they need to make midweek visits to be sure the "kids" are adhering to the rules?
It's one thing to be a jerk to your friends but to not honor the rules of the house? Unbelievable. Did you pay a security deposit? Smoking in a home when a request has been made otherwise is the epitome of ignorance. That stench gets into the AC units too. If the house smells of cigarettes, that's a problem that's not easy to fix. I would be furious if I were the next guest and had rented a "non smoking" villa and showed up to it smelling like butts.
If you lose any deposit money, I hope you recoup it from your "friend".
It just makes me wonder what a villa management company is to do. It's not fair for them to have to do extra cleaning because of a guest's ignorance. Do they need to make midweek visits to be sure the "kids" are adhering to the rules?
I wondered the same thing!Connie wrote:Hey Margy...are they still married?
We had a trip with some @sses a few years back.
They were friends of close friends (Mr. & Mrs. R.) but we had never met them before. The R's were
so excited for us to meet, thinking we would just love each other.
Their behavior was just awful, leaving wet towels on the floor, expecting Mrs. R to wash said towels for them every day, trying to weasel out of their share of checks, incredibly lazy and inconsiderate - hogging the bathrooms, running out the hot water...
We were actually staying in a house owned by the R's and many times throughout the week I would try to motivate them to at least no be complete pigs.
At some point I said something like "can you grab the trash, we are headed to town?" The wife said "I am on vacation and I don't take out the trash." (they were staying for free)
By day 3 we were actively avoiding them and things got v. uncomfortable, by the end of the week we were happy to leave the island.
The other couple actually said that same thing about taking out the trash on "their vacation..."
I was so mortified about him actually yelling at the bartender about their food. First of all, the BT didn't cook it, and secondly my 'friend' has been a bartender for years, and his wife is also in the service industry.Come On, Man!?!
Boo was calmly & coolly nice enough to sort out the situation for him, and as a result, I gave her the left over steaks & chicken from our freezer to try & make up for his rudeness.(Sorry Rosi...
)
But that's enough complaining from me about all this. Thanks for letting ,me vent!
Smiles, dammit!
MJ
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I was so mortified about him actually yelling at the bartender about their food. First of all, the BT didn't cook it, and secondly my 'friend' has been a bartender for years, and his wife is also in the service industry.Come On, Man!?!
Boo was calmly & coolly nice enough to sort out the situation for him, and as a result, I gave her the left over steaks & chicken from our freezer to try & make up for his rudeness.(Sorry Rosi...
)But that's enough complaining from me about all this. Thanks for letting ,me vent!
Smiles, dammit!
MJ
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