The Much Anticipated Trip Report Octology, Part One
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:29 pm
Trip Dates: 3/25 - 4/1/2007
Trip Report - Day 1, Sunday, March 25th
Whoever said that getting there is half the fun is not a frequent flyer
Even though I've only been hanging around the forum since January, you folks probably know that my posts can be long
I'm going to try something different with the trip reports. For each report I will include an Executive Summary for those of you with limit time or ADD 
Executive Summary
Travel day. This was a mostly uneventful day. We arrived at O'Hare much too early and hang around the Red Carpet Club until flight time. We boarded on time and then sat on the plane because TSA was slow in screening the baggage. We arrived at STT 30 minutes late and getting our bags took forever. We caught the 4:00 Red Hook ferry, found our car at C&C Car Rental and made it to the villa by 5:30. We did some shopping, cooked at the villa and crashed early.
The details for the non-executive
When I travel for more that a couple of days I use a local limo company to get me to and from O'Hare. I've used the same company for 10 years and trust them. I had originally requested them to pick us up at 5:45 for an 8:20 flight. That would get us to O'Hare at about two hours before the flight. They called me on Saturday and suggested an earlier pickup since on Saturday morning the airport was a total zoo. So, the limo picked up me, my bleary-eyed wife (Amy) and the two surly girls (both named Kristen, oddly enough. We'll call them KK and KP for simplicity. KK is my daughter and KP is her friend).at 4:45. We were at O'Hare at 5:30. There was no one at the Skycap station near the priority check-in (I'm Premiere Exec on United so I take full advantage of that ) so we checked our bags and went in to get our boarding passes. I had checked in the night before on line but the girls were not seated together so I wanted to talk to a human. There was also no one at the check in counter. We were able to get the girls seated next to each other in an exit row. On to security. The priority security line had about 20 people in it (pretty typical for O'Hare lately) so we waited in line. When I travel on business there are three times of the year that I hate: Christmas break, spring break, and summer. No offense to all of you, but the once-in-a-while vacation traveler is a frequent flyer's worst enemy. Even though we were in the priority line there were folks spilling over from the "regular" line (which was fairly long). We had to wait for several people who apparently live under rocks and had no clue that they couldn't bring more than three ounces of liquid with them or hadn't heard that whatever liquid they did have had to be in a quart-sized clear zip-top bag. Geez.
Even after the security line we were sitting in the Red Carpet Club sipping coffee with two hours to spare (!). I heard about this from Amy and both girls. They could have slept another 30 minutes, ya know The time went by quickly and we were soon sitting in our seats on the plane and ready to push back. Then the Captain explains to use that TSA is slow in screening the bags and we would have to wait for them to catch up. I guess no one told TSA that it was the start of spring break so they didn't have enough people on staff that morning. We ended up leaving about 30 minutes late. The flight was uneventful and we landed in STT still about 30 minutes late.
I had hoped to catch the 3:00 CA ferry but with the late arrival that just wasn't going to happen. The bags also took forever to come out since out late flight had arrived at the same time as an American and a US Air flight. We eventually found ourselves in a taxi with a family or 5 who were also going to Red Hook and a newlywed couple who were going to the Elysian Resort (spelling?). The couple were very friendly and we had a nice time talking to them, but the family of 5 was pretty grumpy and didn't respond to anyone's attempts to engage them in conversation. Along the way to RH Amy saw an iguana on a rocky hillside that she says was "the size of a baby alligator". No one else saw it, but we believe her
We had a nice ferry ride to Cruz Bay on a beautiful sunny afternoon. We would have enjoyed it more if we suspected that this was the last sun we would see for three or four days. Our first glimpse of Cruz Bay was a beautiful site.
I had called both Marcy, the villa manager for Cloud Nine Villas and C&C Car Rental from RH so when we arrived in CB, and after grabbing our bags, mugging for the web cam (well, OK... I mugged. Amy and the girls tried to drag me away) we saw a rather tall gentleman with a C&C sign and a bright red Liberty. Stretch (apt nickname) drove us to C&C (near the Texaco) and fifteen minutes later we were trying to remember to drive on the left and navigating to our villa.
Moonsong Villa is near Chocolate Hole out past the Westin (one hill past the Westin in STJ terms ) so it took us only 10 minutes to get out there. Marcy was waiting for us and gave us the tour.
Our first reaction was "Wow! This place is small!" but after we got settled in we found that is was perfect for us. The girls took over the lower level which has two twin beds and a bath with a shower and Amy and I took over the upper level. The upper BR has a queen bed and a bath with a decent sized shower. The main portion of the upper level is a kitchen with gas stove, microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher and refrigerator, and a living room with two comfortable chairs and a comfortable couch. There is also a 19" TV with cable, DVD player and VCR and a CD/Radio system. The upper deck has a built-in hot tub, two lounge chairs and a table with four chairs while the lower deck has two lounge chairs. Moonsong and it's sister villa, Sundance (get it? Mon and Sun, Song and Dance? Clever) are both older but it great shape. They are nicely decorated and well cared for. The appliances in Moonsong are a bit worn, but worked fine. The dishwasher door will wake the dead, however.
After getting our stuff unpacked Amy and I ran to Starfish Market to grab some basics while the girls walked down the hill to the Hart Bay Trail to explore the beach. The previous week had been busy on STJ and Starfish hadn't had a chance to restock yet so pickings were slim. We just grabbed what we needed for dinner and some staples and decided to come back later in the week. We cooked chicken on the grill for dinner and relaxed for a while before Amy and I crashed early. The girls went down to their deck and talked about whatever 18 and 19 year olds talk about until about 1 AM.
Tomorrow: The last of the sun and Trunk Bay
All of the pictures are available at...
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d172/ ... ch%202007/
For whatever reason the bulk upload to Photobucket it putting the pics up in reverse order. I also have another 200 or so to upload so you may wee some changes over the next couple of days. Stop back often!
So... Is this format going to work for all of you? Am I being too wordy? Let me know before it's too late![/b]
Trip Report - Day 1, Sunday, March 25th
Whoever said that getting there is half the fun is not a frequent flyer
Even though I've only been hanging around the forum since January, you folks probably know that my posts can be long
I'm going to try something different with the trip reports. For each report I will include an Executive Summary for those of you with limit time or ADD Executive Summary
Travel day. This was a mostly uneventful day. We arrived at O'Hare much too early and hang around the Red Carpet Club until flight time. We boarded on time and then sat on the plane because TSA was slow in screening the baggage. We arrived at STT 30 minutes late and getting our bags took forever. We caught the 4:00 Red Hook ferry, found our car at C&C Car Rental and made it to the villa by 5:30. We did some shopping, cooked at the villa and crashed early.
The details for the non-executive
When I travel for more that a couple of days I use a local limo company to get me to and from O'Hare. I've used the same company for 10 years and trust them. I had originally requested them to pick us up at 5:45 for an 8:20 flight. That would get us to O'Hare at about two hours before the flight. They called me on Saturday and suggested an earlier pickup since on Saturday morning the airport was a total zoo. So, the limo picked up me, my bleary-eyed wife (Amy) and the two surly girls (both named Kristen, oddly enough. We'll call them KK and KP for simplicity. KK is my daughter and KP is her friend).at 4:45. We were at O'Hare at 5:30. There was no one at the Skycap station near the priority check-in (I'm Premiere Exec on United so I take full advantage of that
) so we checked our bags and went in to get our boarding passes. I had checked in the night before on line but the girls were not seated together so I wanted to talk to a human. There was also no one at the check in counter. We were able to get the girls seated next to each other in an exit row. On to security. The priority security line had about 20 people in it (pretty typical for O'Hare lately) so we waited in line. When I travel on business there are three times of the year that I hate: Christmas break, spring break, and summer. No offense to all of you, but the once-in-a-while vacation traveler is a frequent flyer's worst enemy. Even though we were in the priority line there were folks spilling over from the "regular" line (which was fairly long). We had to wait for several people who apparently live under rocks and had no clue that they couldn't bring more than three ounces of liquid with them or hadn't heard that whatever liquid they did have had to be in a quart-sized clear zip-top bag. Geez. Even after the security line we were sitting in the Red Carpet Club sipping coffee with two hours to spare (!). I heard about this from Amy and both girls. They could have slept another 30 minutes, ya know
The time went by quickly and we were soon sitting in our seats on the plane and ready to push back. Then the Captain explains to use that TSA is slow in screening the bags and we would have to wait for them to catch up. I guess no one told TSA that it was the start of spring break so they didn't have enough people on staff that morning. We ended up leaving about 30 minutes late. The flight was uneventful and we landed in STT still about 30 minutes late. I had hoped to catch the 3:00 CA ferry but with the late arrival that just wasn't going to happen. The bags also took forever to come out since out late flight had arrived at the same time as an American and a US Air flight. We eventually found ourselves in a taxi with a family or 5 who were also going to Red Hook and a newlywed couple who were going to the Elysian Resort (spelling?). The couple were very friendly and we had a nice time talking to them, but the family of 5 was pretty grumpy and didn't respond to anyone's attempts to engage them in conversation. Along the way to RH Amy saw an iguana on a rocky hillside that she says was "the size of a baby alligator". No one else saw it, but we believe her
We had a nice ferry ride to Cruz Bay on a beautiful sunny afternoon. We would have enjoyed it more if we suspected that this was the last sun we would see for three or four days. Our first glimpse of Cruz Bay was a beautiful site.
I had called both Marcy, the villa manager for Cloud Nine Villas and C&C Car Rental from RH so when we arrived in CB, and after grabbing our bags, mugging for the web cam (well, OK... I mugged. Amy and the girls tried to drag me away) we saw a rather tall gentleman with a C&C sign and a bright red Liberty. Stretch (apt nickname) drove us to C&C (near the Texaco) and fifteen minutes later we were trying to remember to drive on the left and navigating to our villa.
Moonsong Villa is near Chocolate Hole out past the Westin (one hill past the Westin in STJ terms
) so it took us only 10 minutes to get out there. Marcy was waiting for us and gave us the tour. Our first reaction was "Wow! This place is small!" but after we got settled in we found that is was perfect for us. The girls took over the lower level which has two twin beds and a bath with a shower and Amy and I took over the upper level. The upper BR has a queen bed and a bath with a decent sized shower. The main portion of the upper level is a kitchen with gas stove, microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher and refrigerator, and a living room with two comfortable chairs and a comfortable couch. There is also a 19" TV with cable, DVD player and VCR and a CD/Radio system. The upper deck has a built-in hot tub, two lounge chairs and a table with four chairs while the lower deck has two lounge chairs. Moonsong and it's sister villa, Sundance (get it? Mon and Sun, Song and Dance? Clever) are both older but it great shape. They are nicely decorated and well cared for. The appliances in Moonsong are a bit worn, but worked fine. The dishwasher door will wake the dead, however.
After getting our stuff unpacked Amy and I ran to Starfish Market to grab some basics while the girls walked down the hill to the Hart Bay Trail to explore the beach. The previous week had been busy on STJ and Starfish hadn't had a chance to restock yet so pickings were slim. We just grabbed what we needed for dinner and some staples and decided to come back later in the week. We cooked chicken on the grill for dinner and relaxed for a while before Amy and I crashed early. The girls went down to their deck and talked about whatever 18 and 19 year olds talk about until about 1 AM.
Tomorrow: The last of the sun and Trunk Bay
All of the pictures are available at...
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d172/ ... ch%202007/
For whatever reason the bulk upload to Photobucket it putting the pics up in reverse order. I also have another 200 or so to upload so you may wee some changes over the next couple of days. Stop back often!
So... Is this format going to work for all of you? Am I being too wordy? Let me know before it's too late![/b]
