USVI-On-Line

15 years ago(beforekids) we had a 7 day cruise to Aruba, Tortola and a choice of St Thomas or St John...well, we chose STJ and rented a jeep and headed out to explore. The year before we had rented a house on STX for 10 days for all of $1800.

Driving on Tortola the day befoe gave us a hint of what to experience...but that 1st drive up Gifft Hill was quite an experience....Enjoying the open-air jeep as it labored to get up the hill was tempered by the rum and cokes we had a few To GO drinks(legal to drink and drive) and our youthfullness.

When get to the top of Bordeaux Mountain and stoped to have a cocktail only to be told by Kelly(RIP) to have a real man's drink...and the view was not only captivating and entoxicating but now we find after all these years addicting...we knew(although not at that time) we would have to return.
Now, its our 9th Spring Break and as many as 14+ trips to STJ, we find ourselfs blessed to be able to visit and share our favorite place in the world with so many close friends.
I know I'm preaching to the STJ Chior, but, would love to hear each devotee's 1st Virgin STJ Experience....(and yes I'm waxing on and on and may have had a few libations in my enthusiasm looking forward to the next 19 days)

Dave...

Vacation is almost OVER...LOL

I dont have the history most here have but ...

My first visit to STJ was only August of last year I wound up on STJ as I own a timeshare at the Westin resorts and it just happened to be available. I had a trip planned to my favorite place(at the time) The Atlantis , somehow our reservation got screwed up and all we could do at the time was go to STJ, i pissed and moaned a little - my wife was happy, she had wanted to do STJ for a while, i protested saying "whats there to do" - man how I was wrong- I think i really new it was special on the ferry ride over, just so peaceful, so NOT Atlantis . I was traveling with my wife and 2 children - it was the best trip we had ever had, just hanging out, beachin it ever day - swimming with rays and turtles - the look on my 4 yr olds face I will never forget. We then made it back to StJ in Nov. AND the two trips i have planned this year... Both STJ, I guess you can say we've been "hooked"

January 1975 --- to see the new building Glen Speer was building - Mongoose Junction - Linda Smith was a friend of mine and she invited me to look at it as a future tenant.

Thanks for posting this. I have tomorrow off from work and just spent an enjoyable hour re-reading the scrapbook I made from our first trip, which was in October 2003. We came down with only 10 days lead time and knew practically nothing about the island. Our adventures were comical in the extreme. For starters, we rented a house on VRBO that has beautiful views but didn’t really have a front—just a roll down tent that you could secure with Velcro to the walls. I was a Girl Scout and used to camping so this was fine with me, but when John saw it, he freaked! I don’t think he slept at all the first three nights. (BTW, this house has since been updated and looks really lovely).

Beach misadventures: I told John I wanted to go to Drunk Bay to look at shells. We walked over in standard flip flops, and after much slipping and sliding ended up at what we later learned was Blue Cobblestone. We never did find Drunk Bay that trip. We went to Maho Beach--but drove right by the big roadside beach--apparently I never noticed it there (??) and went to the campground, walked down all the stairs and popped out on to this tiny little beach, not at all what I was expecting! We just turned around and marched back up all those stairs. I was so confused, because our villa greeter told us Maho was the easiest beach to get to! We also went to Cinnamon but decided the cay was too far from shore to snorkel to (??)

Then, halfway through the trip, I opened the glove compartment of our rental car, and found a copy of “Feet Fins and Four Wheel Drive.” WOW! A whole new vacation!

After finding FF+FWD, Salt Pond Bay was our favorite beach—we went every day and had it to ourselves almost every time, except for the dog that would meet us at the beginning of the path down and then swim with us each day. Now I have not been there for years, it always looks so crowded when we drive by.

Finally, I discovered Caneel Bay when we extended our trip thanks to the Red Sox debacle. We had been driving by it all trip and never even noticed the entrance. I only found out about it when we decided not to come back to Boston just yet and I looked in the St. John phone book to see what hotels were on the island. Caneel and the Westin were listed. I called both with my sob story and Caneel was the most accommodating.

Any time I think people are annoying with their basic questions here, I will just pull out the scrapbook from our first trip, and remember that was me once. If I had known about this forum back then, maybe the first half of my first trip would have been as amazing as the second half.

Well, now isn't that quite the question!

Removing mind from gutter now...

Our first time was May 2009. It was a place on the planet that called to us. From the moment we stepped onto the RedHook Ferry we knew that there was not a more perfect place for us. We felt totally comfortable being on our own time-not anyone or anything else's - we felt like St John was there just for us ( and those like us) to enjoy. Mother nature (or God) put it threre so we could appreciate her beauty.

We camped at Maho, we are minimalists in life, as well as vacation (well this type of vacation anyway-why pay for a room when all you need is a bed?).

Can't wait to go camping again in July!

First time was 1995 or 96. My husband thinks it's 95 but I say 96 because there had been a big hurricane the year before and googling it there was hurricane Marilyn in 95. We only had a few days there; i read about the islands in a magazine and they just looked so beautiful. First time we'd ever flown through puerto Rico; when the plane landed everybody cheered
I remember the drive around stt, the devastating effects from the hurricane were all too visible-roofs lost, buildings collapsed. It was a totally new experience and I couldn't imagine how things could look so bad after 9 months still. I didn't know about island time or how difficult it can be to get things fixed.
We stayed at gallows-I remember seeing it in a magazine and thinking how pretty it looked. They had a notebook there showing all the pictures of the hurricane damage and the flooding. Gallows was stunning for the views and the location. We only had a few days to explore, we hadn't made a car reservation, I think we just rented one for one day to drive around.
it was just so peaceful. Just sitting on the balcony watching the harbor activity and the lights of St. Thomas. Just what we needed at that time. It was the beginning of many trips-

1972 January. Camping at Cinnamon Bay for about $100/week, before there were cabins!

Check out this photo taken from what is now the Peter Bay monstrosity.



pmk

Just after Hurrican Marilyn in 1995, I went to visit a friend that was living on island. 4 day trip.
I went home and decided that I was going to wait until after my brother's upcoming wedding and then pack up and move.

I had an uncle who lived on STX. We would stay at his house for one or two weeks and he would take us island hopping on his boat. So first trip to STJ was about 25 years ago and have been back about a dozon times. Our trip in July will be the first time we have rented a villa for a week on STJ and am really looking forward to it. Laura

Our first visit was as day trippers from a cruise also. it was the third time we'd been on a ship that went to STT. The first time we walked around town and shopped - not my favorite activity. The next time we had a highly unsatisfactory scuba excursion. On our third visit, probably in January of '98, someone we'd met on the ship suggested that we go over to STJ.

We did the standard taxi to Red Hook,ferry to Cruz Bay, taxi to Trunk Bay expedition, but as soon as we set foot on the island we were hooked.

The internet wasn't as fully developed and/or utilized in those days, and searching for STJ accommodations for a land based trip usually only yielded the Westin and Caneel, both of which were out of our vacation budget range in those days.

Fast forward to 2006. We were once again on a cruise that called on STT. By this time we'd had a couple more one day trips to STJ under our belts, one of which we even got a group of friends with us to rent jeeps and see more of the island day. This time around we just took a daysail charter out of American Yacht Harbor on STT. I remarked to the captain about how nice some of the homes were that we could see, and he told me that they were mostly rental villas, which were a bit of a cottage industry on these islands. Then he did two things that changed my life. He asked me to post a trip report on another board, which I didn't know about at the time, and he gave me the name of one of the more upscale villa management agencies.

The initial searches on the web site of that agency didn't really yield any properties that looked to be significantly more affordable than those westin and Caneel rates I'd been eyeballing for years, but the fuse was now lit on the obsession.

I dutifully posted my glowing review of our day on the water on the requested board, and I began reading through the topics there. I saw a good number of references to "the other" board, which led me...here!

The obsession was full on at this point. There was so much to learn, to do, to buy, to decide. EagleRayLover must have thought I'd lost my mind - "what's a Polar Bear Cooler, techni-ice, and neat sheets, and why do we need them?"

"You got some books in the mail today - Feet, Fins, and Four Wheel Drive, and St. John - Off the Beaten Track - shall I put them in the pile with your other STJ stuff?"

I believe I registered on this board in the spring of 2007, and the time between then and October of that year, when we finally took that first trip to the place we'd fallen in love with so long before, was a whirlwind!

Not long ago I went back and read some of my posts from the period leading up to that first visit - holy cow! I can only imagine the chuckling and head shaking that some of the STJ veterans must have had while reading those...

I can't believe that trips #6 and #7 are now on my ticker!

you have 2 tickers again? damn!!!!!!!!!

Fall, 1989, my husband won a incentive trip to the now Westin on St. John. It was a 4 day weekend for 2. We added a day and used miles to get 2 free plane tickets for our girls(5 & 9 years old). No internet research at that time..knew some folks whose parents lived on island and got a few hints. The ride to Red Hook was scary crazy. We got on a little ferry with 2 dozen school kids returning to STJ. We were the only tourists on board. The beach at the Westin was full of boats, no swimming. We rented a jeep at the Westinfor 2 days andthat is when we knew this was to become our favorite place!!!. Kids loved the steep roads and sharp turns. Went to Trunk first & kids snorkeled for the first time. Went to Shipwreck for lunch and Pussers (no longer there). Sleepy island back then, so many changes since then.

I remember that Mary Beth had a great first time story! Share pleeze!
Here's mine:
Our next door neighbors invited us to go to STJ with them back in 2000 and split the cost of a swanky new villa. We thought it was too far, too expensive, too much hassle to get there and I didn't want to lug my 2 yr old and 6 year old.
They went anyway and took their young kids to STJ for only 5 days and stayed in a huge villa that cost 8k!
When they returned, they showed us a slide show of all we missed and DANG! I knew we needed to go "one day"

The following October we went on a Disney Cruise, stopped in STT and we took the ferry to STJ, taxi to Cinnamon and the rest is history!
We've been back every year and it's the only place we vacation! (just not in 8k villas!)

Thanks BigCheeze for bringing back the memories and so glad to be in the St John Choir! La la la la~~~~

It was 1998 aboard at catamaran named Heavenly days which was an champagne excursion from STT, where we had originated from a cruise ship. We sailed to Honeymoon beach and had some fabulous snorkeling with, out of all fish Barracudas. Little did we know that some 9 years later we would spend our 20th wedding anniversary on this magical island called ST John. and it was all by mistake. My beautiful wife Cindy was always so accomodating by traveling to Charlotte NC every October so I could get my Nascar fix. So I wanted to surprise her with a trip to STT mainly because when we cruised there we always talked about someday returning. Well I started to google vacation homes and by mistake I ended up on Vivacation.com thinking I was looking at STT, but by the time I figured out I was admiring all these beautiful villas on STJ I had made a choice to stay at the villa Waterfall in the Fish Bay area. The rest is history. We are returning to Coral Bay in April for our 5th trip in as many years. God willing looking to renewing our wedding vows to celebrate our 25th in 2012.Great thread BigCheeze!

Good topic. It's a story I've shared before but I like telling it again because it has a good ending.

I had been wanting to go for years but the cost of getting a family of five there just seemed too high when we could be on Florida's panhandle in about 6 hours on a tank of gas.

Went to St. Thomas on a cruise in 1977 and vowed to go back for my honeymoon, but when I finally found somebody who would marry me she chose Hawaii so I didn't make it back then.

Fast forward to Aug 2007 when my oldest, then 19, came down with a bad form of leukemia. Megan had intensive chemo, then a bone marrow transplant from her sister the day after Christmas and recovered.

She relapsed in Dec 2008. Initial treatments didn't work and she then had radiation and chemo. An unrelated bone marrow donor was located and another transplant was scheduled. It was at this point that the doctors took us aside and told us that if there was ever anything we had wanted to do or anywhere we wanted to go that we should do it right then. Obviously we had been dealing with a terrible illness for a while by then but that was the first time it really hit me how grave her situation was. They didn't talk percentages with us til later but have since told us she had less than a 10% chance to survive.

Megan said that before she died she wanted to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. Well, we didn't have time for that and didn't even have passports so that was out. But I had read enough about St. John to know that we could get there easily enough from Atlanta and that we should have plenty of snorkeling opportunity there. I had about 8 days to pull together a trip for 5 of us.

We got a little lucky in that I had some Delta miles and with the economic downturn at the time, the Westin was selling rooms for something like $238/nt. even though it was the last weekend of January. So I booked a trip for Fri-Sun nights. We were to come back on Monday and she was to enter the hospital on Tuesday for the last chemo before her second bone marrow transplant.

The people at Emory Hospital were amazingly accommodating. They opened their radiation unit early on Friday morning so she could get her last radiation treatment at 6AM and still make a 9:30 flight. (I later realized they were being incredibly kind to us thinking that this was our last fun time together as a family).

Now, we were totally winging it on that trip. Had no plans, no rental car, no idea on restaurants or beaches or anything. Flying blind. But the first morning I walked over to the rental car place on the Westin property and they had a jeep available. I still didn't know where we were going but I told the family to hop in. We ended up touring the north shore beaches, snorkeled Trunk, had lunch at the Cinnamon Bay place (I think), lounged at Maho, and went back to the Westin.



That Friday travel day and Saturday beach day both wore Megan out - her strength was sapped from the treatments. Had supper both nights at the Westin because she didn't feel up to going out. Which was fine, nice outdoor place with steel drum music.



Youngest is mad because she can't have an island cocktail.

Sunday while my wife and daughter slept in, me and the other two kids went and snorkeled Waterlemon at the suggestion of the beach attendant at the Westin. I didn't know exactly where to go so I think I missed the best spots but we did see some starfish and other cool fish.

Got back to the Westin and Megan was feeling OK so we booked a snorkel sail for the afternoon that left from there. Had a great time, snorkeled a couple of great spots, and I think that may have been what hooked us into wanting to go back.



Anyway, that day was Superbowl Sunday. We tried to look for a place to watch the game in Cruz Bay but ended up having a delicious meal at Banana Deck.

Forgot to mention that 5 of us weren't supposed to be in one room at the Westin, and it wasn't comfortable for all of us anyway, so the 2nd and 3rd nights me and the middle daughter got a room at the St. John Inn. Like I said, we were winging it on this trip. It was all a whirlwind with no relaxing at all.



Our final sunset for that trip.



Flew back late on Monday, had to drive the middle kid back to college in Athens, got home like 2AM, admitted Megan to the hospital at 7AM for her pre-transplant chemo and other treatment. Had a very rough time with the transplant - didn't get out of the hospital until mid-April, but she is recovering, is back in school, and just got admitted to nursing school!

Now you didn't ask about the 2nd trip, but that's a good story too. After it looked like Megan was going to recover I started doing more research on St. John with the idea to go back when we could. Medical expenses and lost income due to caring for Megan made it unlikely any time soon, but I like to dream.

Well, I "liked" all the St. John businesses I could find on facebook, including Caneel Bay. Didn't even realize it, but Caneel was having a drawing for a 4-night stay for everybody that liked them. I won! Went back for that trip last Feb.



Planning #3 now.