USVI-On-Line

Here's my take on a few things that get discussed here on a regular basis. These are my opinions basedon the week we spent on St John in late July.

Friendliness of people:
We had no problem. I greeted everyone with a "Good Morning/Afternoon/night" and never ran into anyone who wasn't cheerful right back at me. Between that and a little self-depreciating humor, we had no experiences where anyone seemed grumpy at us.
I made the very serious ladies at the front desk of the Caneel laugh when I presented them with my disintegrated parking pass and asked if they thought, maybe, I should have left it in my dry pack and not my pocket.
The lady in the Love City Fraco truck nearly was in tears laughing when I described how I thought it would go if we returned our Jeep to the Suttons with mango icee all over it.
As for the Suttons...they only scolded me once. I took that to be a step in the right direction.

Food prices/grocery shopping:
The St John Market (by the Westin) is quite nice, and for certain items, was affordable. They had a good selection of cheap wine and had some produce items that were less than Starfish. Pine Peace was a good store, but had nothing in the produce area on the Sunday I stopped there. Starfish was Starfish; on the pricey side, but they had the most selection.
I'll add that the Love City Mini Mart impressed the hell out of me. They pack a lot into that funny little store. I only stopped there for water and a sponge so I can't comment on any other prices.

Safety:
We felt safe. I was "on alert" as we walked from the NPS dock to the main dock at 11:40 PM, but I'd be on the same level of alert were I walking anywhere with my wife and daughter and all of our luggage at 11:40PM.
When our villa manager stopped by to say Hi, she mentioned some recent break ins and stressed that we should practice "common sense" safety. We kept valuables locked in the safe when we were out of the house and even locked the house when we went to our pool (not directly accessible from the house).
We're not the best people to comment on overall safety though: we were back at our villa by 8:00 each night. We're lame that way.

The roundabout:
I noticed on this trip that, for the first time, I didn't have one of those moments when you accidentally drive on the wrong side of the road (though, we saw plenty of people doing so). As a result, the roundabout, was OK. Sure, it was odd to go through it clockwise, but since you're on alert to be doing everything else the opposite of how you do it at home, it seemed OK. We only saw one instance where someone was using it as a drop-off/pick-up spot.

Just my unsolicited $.02

... and a value packed good deal for $.02!!
Good to know the good stuff!

I concur.

Friendliness of people: You get what you give. (There will always be exceptions.)

Food prices/grocery shopping: It's an island. How cheap do you think it is getting anything there? Think how cheap it is getting yourself there with whatever you drag along with you.

Safety: It is a real place where regular people work and reside. It is not Disneyland or Caribbeanland. Commonsense should prevail.

The roundabout: No matter how it is miss-used at times, I think it is an improvement except for the loss of O'Connor's gas station.

$.02 + .02 = $.04

BillVT wrote:Safety: It is a real place where regular people work and reside. It is not Disneyland or Caribbeanland. Commonsense should prevail.

And to think...I got in trouble recently for saying just that. But, it's well-put. It's a real place that we're visiting. Don't be a doofus and you will avoid a lot of trouble.

"good selection of cheap wine" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Life is too short to drink cheap wine!

The proper term according to a wine salesman friend is "Value Wines".

Great thoughts pipanale! I saw the greeting/friendliness thing in action before my eyes as we went through security at the STT airport. The couple in front of us did not greet the girl at the desk (that checks passports and boarding passes, before the screeners) and were kind of short with her. I could tell she was put out. When the wife handed her the passport, she dropped it and the security girl immediately shot fire at her, telling her that she threw it at her- that it was really disrespectful and she might have to call over her supervisor. Yikes. I was ready for anything once they got through.

We stepped up, said "good morning" and smiled, and it was like she was a different person. We laughed with her about my 6 year old's passport picture (her as a 2 year old), wished her a great day, and she did the same. Couldn't have been nicer. It really makes a difference!

And hubby got scolded by Mr. Sutton about three times but ended on a good note- so we have room to improve but are hopeful

Anthony wrote:"good selection of cheap wine" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Life is too short to drink cheap wine!

HERE! HERE! I couldn't have said it better myself, Anthony! I have poured out more than one "bargain" bottle of wine after a taste.....

-Bert

trick for cheap white wine- ice and club soda. Anthony are you DYING now???

Actually the best cheap wine in the world is where Anthony is- nothing better than the red table wine they bring out in Italy......

2 Comments:

Friendliness of the people: We've rarely met unfriendly ones, but as in many service industries (and I work in one) it's tough to always be "chipper".

Nice thing we had happen last month-while walking from the Tamarind Inn to Starfish at 8pm in the dark, husband and I had a car pull up to us and ask us if we needed a lift. It was an elderly gentlman, and we politely thanked him, told him we didn't have far to go and continued our way. We thought that was nice of him to stop for us.

Roundabout-saw 2 locals almost t-bone each other. One pulled out by the school right in front of someone already in the roundabout-much horn blaring and head shaking ensued. Otherwise it was easy to drive-many people waved us on into the circle.

SOonthebeach wrote:trick for cheap white wine- ice and club soda. Anthony are you DYING now???

YES! That is not fair...

Honestly thuogh I can drink inexpensive white wine... and I do drink white wine with ice sometimes (okay maybe not drink but wash down food with it) but not red. I know where $10 red comes from let's just say

Any wine can be a fine wine if you drink enough of it.

And when you said "4 hot topics" I thought this was going to be about Ruth, Bevm, Pjayer, and Marcia...but this was good too.

I think it is important to remember that in the service industry, even in paradise,no matter how kind you are, they just aren't in the mood. They are working. Be pleasant and let it go if your pleasantries are lost on them.

On the other hand, if the service industry we are talking about is from a waiter or captain of a ship . . . that is a problem. These people need to really be chipper or do something else. That is their job. JMHO

xoxo

Good points made. A friendly greeting and a good attitude is more likely to get a response in kind, but no guarantee. You just never know what kind of day the person on the other end is having.

Sort of like "Trunk Bay sucks as a snorkeling spot - we went there and it was really windy and the waves were big, I don't get why people think it's so great - it looks much better from a distance."

XOXO wrote:...if the service industry we are talking about is from a waiter or captain of a ship . . . that is a problem. These people need to really be chipper or do something else. That is their job. xoxo

Bingo! This is really the issue. Don't expect everyone in the "service industry" to be customer oriented, just like back home.

BUT...if we're talking about the hospitality industry in a tourism driven economy, that's an entirely different story.

I can handle a grumpy grocery clerk, but if someone's job is supposed to be all about me on vacation (waiter, captain, receptionist, villa greeter, etc), I get a bit peeved with surley. A huge part of your job is to NOT be in my face with your bad day.