usvi-on-line
Shelli's 1st time to STJ - Part 1
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shelli0001
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:03 pm
- Location: Indiana
Shelli's 1st time to STJ - Part 1
Our trip was last July, but when I got back and tried to write my report I kept getting sad. Now that I’m starting to make plans for our next trip, writing this report is a happy thing. So here goes:
Friday 7/24/09
My husband Jason, myself, and our 6 year old son, Julien, left Raleigh on AA, connected thru Miami, and arrived on STT around 10pm on friday night. We were supposed to arrive around 8pm, but after boarding in MIA they decided to wait for a plane from Texas that got delayed by thunderstorms. 1hr 45mins sitting in the plane before we even took off, nice. But the Texas people were very grateful.
rdu airport
This would be our 1st trip to the VI’s. We stayed one night at the Best Western Emerald Beach on STT. EB was a nice enough place to spend the night after a long day of travel. Of course it was dark when we arrived, but the beach area seemed nice and clean and the pool was pretty. We let the boy work off some energy swimming, then turned in. Tomorrow STJ! We would be staying in a Westin Hill Villa for 7 nights, then moving to Gallows Point for the last 2 nights.
Saturday
breakfast at emerald beach
We had some breakfast and got a cab to Redhook to catch the 11:00 ferry. What a great ride across STT, just like roller coaster. Enjoyed our ferry ride, and the mango Cruzan on the Cruz Bay dock. With the help of the trusty cartoon map from the ferry dock, we made our way to Conrad Suttons to get our Jeep. Those Wranglers are a lot smaller than I thought, even though we tried our best to pack light, the little guy was pretty squished back there with the bags. Next time I’m getting a Liberty. Carmen got us all set up and we were driving on the left! It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, we got used to it pretty quickly.
Since it was only noon and we couldn’t check in to our Westin Hill Villa till 4pm, we decided to take a drive around the island. We headed up the NS road, stopping at the NP visitor center for a park map. By now the boy just wanted to go to the beach, he had enough of traveling and was looking pretty miserable, so when we saw the parking lot for Hawksnest we pulled in and jumped out. Oh my goodness, beautiful!!! I was glad we thought to wear our swim suits under our clothes for the trip over, our first dip in the STJ waters felt wonderful. I didn’t want to press our luck with all the luggage still in the soft top jeep so we didn’t stay long, but it pacified Julien enough to get him back into the jeep and continue on towards Coral Bay. Love the north shore road, so exciting!
We found our way to Skinny Legs and got some yummy burgers, our first painkillers, and our first donkey sighting.
We headed back to Cruz Bay via Centerline Road to get checked in and get the luggage out of the Jeep.
Our Westin suite was very nice, it had everything we needed and lots we didn’t, 3 big TV’s, 3 full baths, lol! Anyhow I just wanted a functional place with AC & w/d to sleep when we weren’t at the beach. And no scary driveway! It even had a nice pool between the buildings, we only went to the pool for a little while before bed at night, but we always had it to ourselves.
westin villa
After unpacking a little we went to the new grocery store (St John Market?) right down the street to get milk, cereal, and cream for my coffee. It’s a nice little store and the people were friendly enough.
By then it was 6pm, so we decided to just check out the westin pool/beach. We drove our jeep down and parked by the tennis courts. The pool was big and pretty, the beach was, to quote the little guy, “eeewwww, whats that slimey stuff, get me outta here”, LOL! There was even a beer bottle in the water. We hung out at the pool about an hour and that was the last we bothered with that. That night we didn’t feel like venturing out so we called for a little shuttle cart and went down to the Beach Café at the Westin. They were having Italian buffet, it was pretty good, too expensive, very convenient, and kids always like pasta. Now off to bed.
Sunday
Rooster alarm at 5:15. That’s OK, I have big plans for today anyway. After the men woke up, we packed up the jeep, stopped at Starfish for sandwich wraps, and headed off to find Trunk. There were pretty many people, but it’s a big beach and we found a nice little shady bush cave to camp out in. The water seemed a little rough, at least more so than in the pics I’d seen, but not too bad.
trunk
Got on our gear and headed out to the island, little guy in tow. Julien is pretty good little snorkeler. He doesn’t like to use fins, which is probably just as well, but he no longer rips his mask of every 3 minutes when he wants to tell us something, now he talks thru his snorkel, lol! I am also proud that he is very careful about keeping his feet up high and never kicking the coral.
snorkel boy
We had a nice time puttering aroud on the left side of the cay. This was the first time I ever experienced swimming in giant schools of tiny fry fish, so many you couldn’t see where you were going, very strange.
fry at trunk
Next we rested and picniced in our shady cave.
Then headed over to the left/west side of the beach to see the big rocks with the little cave, very cool.
rocks on west side of trunk
After trunk we found the steps going down to Jumbie, what a cute little beach. Saw a giantic puffer type fish hiding along the left side. Got rained on for about 5 minutes then the sun came out again like it never even happed.
Time to find some dinner. Got cleaned up and decided to go to La Plancha del Mar, but it was closed, so we ended up at nearby Happy Fish. I got happy noodles and they did indeed make me happy. Dinner was good and we were ready to rest after a great day. Did a load of laundry and was in bed by 9:30. Loving STJ so far!
Friday 7/24/09
My husband Jason, myself, and our 6 year old son, Julien, left Raleigh on AA, connected thru Miami, and arrived on STT around 10pm on friday night. We were supposed to arrive around 8pm, but after boarding in MIA they decided to wait for a plane from Texas that got delayed by thunderstorms. 1hr 45mins sitting in the plane before we even took off, nice. But the Texas people were very grateful.
rdu airport
This would be our 1st trip to the VI’s. We stayed one night at the Best Western Emerald Beach on STT. EB was a nice enough place to spend the night after a long day of travel. Of course it was dark when we arrived, but the beach area seemed nice and clean and the pool was pretty. We let the boy work off some energy swimming, then turned in. Tomorrow STJ! We would be staying in a Westin Hill Villa for 7 nights, then moving to Gallows Point for the last 2 nights.
Saturday
breakfast at emerald beach
We had some breakfast and got a cab to Redhook to catch the 11:00 ferry. What a great ride across STT, just like roller coaster. Enjoyed our ferry ride, and the mango Cruzan on the Cruz Bay dock. With the help of the trusty cartoon map from the ferry dock, we made our way to Conrad Suttons to get our Jeep. Those Wranglers are a lot smaller than I thought, even though we tried our best to pack light, the little guy was pretty squished back there with the bags. Next time I’m getting a Liberty. Carmen got us all set up and we were driving on the left! It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, we got used to it pretty quickly.
Since it was only noon and we couldn’t check in to our Westin Hill Villa till 4pm, we decided to take a drive around the island. We headed up the NS road, stopping at the NP visitor center for a park map. By now the boy just wanted to go to the beach, he had enough of traveling and was looking pretty miserable, so when we saw the parking lot for Hawksnest we pulled in and jumped out. Oh my goodness, beautiful!!! I was glad we thought to wear our swim suits under our clothes for the trip over, our first dip in the STJ waters felt wonderful. I didn’t want to press our luck with all the luggage still in the soft top jeep so we didn’t stay long, but it pacified Julien enough to get him back into the jeep and continue on towards Coral Bay. Love the north shore road, so exciting!
We found our way to Skinny Legs and got some yummy burgers, our first painkillers, and our first donkey sighting.
We headed back to Cruz Bay via Centerline Road to get checked in and get the luggage out of the Jeep.
Our Westin suite was very nice, it had everything we needed and lots we didn’t, 3 big TV’s, 3 full baths, lol! Anyhow I just wanted a functional place with AC & w/d to sleep when we weren’t at the beach. And no scary driveway! It even had a nice pool between the buildings, we only went to the pool for a little while before bed at night, but we always had it to ourselves.
westin villa
After unpacking a little we went to the new grocery store (St John Market?) right down the street to get milk, cereal, and cream for my coffee. It’s a nice little store and the people were friendly enough.
By then it was 6pm, so we decided to just check out the westin pool/beach. We drove our jeep down and parked by the tennis courts. The pool was big and pretty, the beach was, to quote the little guy, “eeewwww, whats that slimey stuff, get me outta here”, LOL! There was even a beer bottle in the water. We hung out at the pool about an hour and that was the last we bothered with that. That night we didn’t feel like venturing out so we called for a little shuttle cart and went down to the Beach Café at the Westin. They were having Italian buffet, it was pretty good, too expensive, very convenient, and kids always like pasta. Now off to bed.
Sunday
Rooster alarm at 5:15. That’s OK, I have big plans for today anyway. After the men woke up, we packed up the jeep, stopped at Starfish for sandwich wraps, and headed off to find Trunk. There were pretty many people, but it’s a big beach and we found a nice little shady bush cave to camp out in. The water seemed a little rough, at least more so than in the pics I’d seen, but not too bad.
trunk
Got on our gear and headed out to the island, little guy in tow. Julien is pretty good little snorkeler. He doesn’t like to use fins, which is probably just as well, but he no longer rips his mask of every 3 minutes when he wants to tell us something, now he talks thru his snorkel, lol! I am also proud that he is very careful about keeping his feet up high and never kicking the coral.
snorkel boy
We had a nice time puttering aroud on the left side of the cay. This was the first time I ever experienced swimming in giant schools of tiny fry fish, so many you couldn’t see where you were going, very strange.
fry at trunk
Next we rested and picniced in our shady cave.
Then headed over to the left/west side of the beach to see the big rocks with the little cave, very cool.
rocks on west side of trunk
After trunk we found the steps going down to Jumbie, what a cute little beach. Saw a giantic puffer type fish hiding along the left side. Got rained on for about 5 minutes then the sun came out again like it never even happed.
Time to find some dinner. Got cleaned up and decided to go to La Plancha del Mar, but it was closed, so we ended up at nearby Happy Fish. I got happy noodles and they did indeed make me happy. Dinner was good and we were ready to rest after a great day. Did a load of laundry and was in bed by 9:30. Loving STJ so far!
I needed a trip report to keep me for my real work this morning!
The pic of your son with the neck roll-things made me laugh. My mom always uses two and forgets to take them off. She will walk around completely unaware she is wearing them until someone finally comments on them.
Was it your son's first time snorkelling? We have a 4 year old who has his own set but I don't want to get my expectations up for our Feb trip.
The pic of your son with the neck roll-things made me laugh. My mom always uses two and forgets to take them off. She will walk around completely unaware she is wearing them until someone finally comments on them.
Was it your son's first time snorkelling? We have a 4 year old who has his own set but I don't want to get my expectations up for our Feb trip.
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shelli0001
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:03 pm
- Location: Indiana
thanks guys!
flip - here's a link with much better photos. these guys rent out the westin villas and there site has excellent photos and floorplans of each type of villa + everything you could ever want to know.
http://www.stjohncondos.com/TwoBedPhotos.htm
i know westin villas aren't for everybody. most people really enjoy amazing views and villa gravity days and get lots of happiness from an awesome villa. maybe because i haven't seen everything yet, but i don't want to hang out at the villa, i want to be in the view, not looking down at it, i'll wave to you guys up in the hills! LOL!!
ty toni, i love my little boy.
pa girl - julien first tried at grace bay on provo t&c's when he was nearly 4. he did ok but kept pulling off the mask every few minutes. its difficult to get a mask back on the child when you are in water over your head. at that time he wore one of those soft flexible lifejackets, this allowed him to ride on my back w/o sinking me, he just put his face in over my shoulder and felt pretty secure. it worked well. for now, practice in the bathtub! oh yeah, we kept telling him not to touch the corals, they will give you a rash etc, but as a little kid he had no concept of what coral is and must have envisioned it to be some sort of monster and was afraid to go in the water with it. then we explained it looks like a plant, it can't move or chase or bite, etc. then he felt better and when he looked down he screamed "there's a brain down there!!!!!" LOL!
ty gromit, all the reports you guys posted made me feel like an old pro before i even arrived.
ty diana, yeah writing this is a lot more fun than the laundry mountain i should be working on!
flip - here's a link with much better photos. these guys rent out the westin villas and there site has excellent photos and floorplans of each type of villa + everything you could ever want to know.
http://www.stjohncondos.com/TwoBedPhotos.htm
i know westin villas aren't for everybody. most people really enjoy amazing views and villa gravity days and get lots of happiness from an awesome villa. maybe because i haven't seen everything yet, but i don't want to hang out at the villa, i want to be in the view, not looking down at it, i'll wave to you guys up in the hills! LOL!!
ty toni, i love my little boy.
pa girl - julien first tried at grace bay on provo t&c's when he was nearly 4. he did ok but kept pulling off the mask every few minutes. its difficult to get a mask back on the child when you are in water over your head. at that time he wore one of those soft flexible lifejackets, this allowed him to ride on my back w/o sinking me, he just put his face in over my shoulder and felt pretty secure. it worked well. for now, practice in the bathtub! oh yeah, we kept telling him not to touch the corals, they will give you a rash etc, but as a little kid he had no concept of what coral is and must have envisioned it to be some sort of monster and was afraid to go in the water with it. then we explained it looks like a plant, it can't move or chase or bite, etc. then he felt better and when he looked down he screamed "there's a brain down there!!!!!" LOL!
ty gromit, all the reports you guys posted made me feel like an old pro before i even arrived.
ty diana, yeah writing this is a lot more fun than the laundry mountain i should be working on!
I loved the whole report. 
Diagnosis: You are hoplessly adicted.
Treament: 7 to 10 days of beach time.
I too hate the idea of villa gravity. I can sit around here. I can also sit around with my feet in the water of Maho - but not at the villa.
Money will not buy you happiness. It will, however, buy you a plane ticket to STT where you can scream at the sunset.
16 1/2 weeks --- not that we're counting!
JIM
Diagnosis: You are hoplessly adicted.
Treament: 7 to 10 days of beach time.
I too hate the idea of villa gravity. I can sit around here. I can also sit around with my feet in the water of Maho - but not at the villa.
Money will not buy you happiness. It will, however, buy you a plane ticket to STT where you can scream at the sunset.
16 1/2 weeks --- not that we're counting!
JIM
Man it's like some dream we live down here....
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shelli0001
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:03 pm
- Location: Indiana
hey bnsilly, i didn't mean to dis the westin, i really liked staying in a villa there and would do i again if the price is right. the room, the grounds, the pool, and the employees were great. the beach was well kept, no trash or anything, but the water has lots of seaweed you gotta swim thru to get to the trampoline things, and yes, i did find a beer bottle with my foot. i guess what i'm saying is it seems the westin keeps everything under thier control nice and clean, not really their fault about seaweed in the ocean or idiots throwing crap in the water. if you never drove the north shore road and saw beaches that bring tears to your eyes you might think the westin beach was ok. but with perfection only a few miles away, get a jeep and go!
That is exactly what is going on in the bathtub right now. We get the mask on (with a few complaints about it "hurt his hairs") he puts his head in the water for a while, pops back up, takes the mask off, and asks to do it all over again. We need to work at leaving the mask on.shelli0001 wrote:pa girl - julien first tried at grace bay on provo t&c's when he was nearly 4. he did ok but kept pulling off the mask every few minutes.
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Berlingirl
- Posts: 499
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:09 pm
- Location: New England
Sounds like a great trip...Love the Westin and the villas as well as the rooms on property. Sorry Julien and yours first impression of the Westin beach was so bad...
Yes, there is seaweed, but there is seaweed on lots of beaches in Caribbean and the VI...usually there is a team of
guys who are busy cleaning it up...from daybreak to sunset. Out of the dozen or so visits to the property and probably 30 or 40 to the beach...possibly more, I've never seen a beer bottle in the water...
Another confirmation that the "Ugly American Traveler" truly does exist. 
You can bet none of the locals tossed it in there...
Yes, there is seaweed, but there is seaweed on lots of beaches in Caribbean and the VI...usually there is a team of
guys who are busy cleaning it up...from daybreak to sunset. Out of the dozen or so visits to the property and probably 30 or 40 to the beach...possibly more, I've never seen a beer bottle in the water...
Another confirmation that the "Ugly American Traveler" truly does exist. You can bet none of the locals tossed it in there...Hoping for a USVI ticker in 2013!
