USVI-On-Line

We had a fabulous week with the kids on STJ. Great weather, wonderful beaches, lots and lots of lounging around our pool (even the kids like "villa days" better than sandy beaches), everyone got to swim with turtles at Maho, great meals out (we never did cook dinner in unless you count carry in from Candi's), wonderful visit with Ruth and Ron. But, one thing stands out as a first ever horrible experience. The travel day home.

Bear in mind, we have traveled A LOT and have experinced many different airports, national and international alike. Nothing, ever, ever for any of us was as horrid as STT yesterday. In the nine visits we've had to the USVI, this one actually makes us take pause at returning.

Everything went smoothly with the private water taxi (Dohm's) and land taxi (Christopher). In fact, so smoothly it took us less than 45 minutes to get from Cruz Bay to the airport. Thank you to all who recommended Christopher's taxi service and Dohm's.

Once we arrived at the airport the hell began. The line at the United check in area went out to the street. No big deal we are thinking...we have more than two and a half hours until boarding time. But, the line didn't move. At all. Finally, it started creeping along and we eventually made it to the desk. That took 45 minutes. We then proceded to the customs line. That stretched out to the street, too. I kid you not. As you all know, once you get past the glass doors you weave through the room three rows deep before getting to the customs agent. We were at least 50 people out from the glass doors. No big deal, we have more than an hour and 45 minutes to get to the gate to board. This line would move quickly for a time and then stall completely.

Once we were inside the customs area we could see why it would stall. They were able to process people fairly efficiently through customs but once people were out of that, they had to go to the baggage screening area and those folks were unable to keep things moving along. So, customs agents would shut down and wait until the backlog of people waiting to get their bags to screening got caught up. It took us 35 minutes to get to the customs agent. Then, we joined the line of people waiting for their bags to get screened. No worries we have more than an hour before boarding time. We should have plenty of time to grab something to eat (we're all really hungry) if the food line isn't a nightmare, too.

We finally get to the baggage screening area 20 minutes later and then, get in the weaving line to get through security. At this point it's really, really hot and the people around us don't smell so good (I'm sure we don't either...we've all been in line for more than two hours). Someone, somewhere ahead of us in line throws up. Nice. The line for security moves a little more quickly but not much. An agent randomly shuts down our line and opens another, pulling everyone behind us into the new, shorter line. Ugh! We move to anothr, longer line, and finaly 15 minutes later, we've cleared security and we're in the waiting area.

We have a few minutes before boarding. We scramble to the concession area and thankfully (oddly) the line is not all that long and moves very quickly. We get our food and hear the call for our plane to board. We finish off our food to the best of our ablilities while in line for boarding.

So, it took us 45 minutes to get from the dock at Cruz Bay, across the water, to Red Hook and across all of St. Thomas to the airport. While it took us well over two hours to go about 150 feet in the STT airport.

Not a good way to end a perfectly wonderful vacation.

Just thought I'd give you all a heads up. STT airport really needs to do something to improve its efficiency. As I mentioned earlier, we're not newbies to STT. We have seen over the last nine years this airport go from fairly decent to nightmare. It's sad. Really, really sad.

I'll fill in details on the good stuff of our trip later. There's quite a bit of it!!

Marcia (Mrs. Pete)

Marcia - sounds like our day (Saturday) returning home this past June but without someone throwing up.

That compounded with many other problems in San Juan's airport (stayed in San Juan overnight intentionally) because of American Airlines (not San Juan Airport) and being stuck overnight in Miami (not intentional) caused me to take a while to overlook the hell going home and remember how nice our trip was.

So don't worry, slowly you'll forget about the horrible time you had getting home and remember all of your time on STJ, but it did take me a good week or two to where when someone asked me how my trip was, the first thing I thought of was no longer our travel days from hell.

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

nothintolose

Wow, I can't believe you're back already. I'm always amazed at how quickly time goes by. Glad you had a good trip, minus the airport nonsense.

I agree with nothintolose...the bad memories tend to fade away to be totally replaced with nothing but the great ones. I remember one of our last days on STJ, thinking I don't know if I can come back here again because of the literally hundreds of bug bites I had endured. I've never experienced bug bites on any other island... I still have scars on my legs! That thought quickly faded away and we booked our upcoming STJ trip shortly after our return.

I generally think airports and transportation to and from the airports in the Caribbean are always less than desireable, some better, some worse. I look at it as a necessary evil to experience paradise in between travel days. (just remind me of this next time I'm standing in line at STT!) Welcome back!

It's funny you mention San Juan and Miami. In some of our previous travels, we've been to both. How special that yesterday we had the rare opportunity to visit both of those airports en route home. One was scheduled (the United stop at San Juan to drop off a few and pick up a few passengers and refuel because theres no way a plane full of enough fuel to get to Chicago can take off from STT). We didn't deplane in San Juan, just sat on the plane for an hour.

Miami was unscheduled. About half way across the ocean, the copilot informed us that there was something wrong with the plane and we needed to land in Miami. This scared the *$#@ out of me. I'm not real cozy with flying as it is. Our stop in Miami was brief and, again, we did not deplane. The rest of the flight home was uneventful. A few vodka tonics helped.

You are right, in a week or so, the horrors of the travel day will be replaced with the memories of all of the wonderful things we experienced on our vacation.

Marcia (Mrs. Pete)

Sorry about the airport horror. We left on a Saturday as well and the lines were long but they moved. We were on Delta and I noticed the other lines were much longer than ours. The longest line was the food line, so I will definately avoid that next time! PS, the food is not very good. I wonder if Fridays are any better than Saturdays? Anyone know?

Exact same thing happened to us in April. It took us 1 hour from STJ to the Airport and then 2 hours to get from the outside of the airport to the inside. So many people were freaking out at the thought there were going to miss their plane that it made things even worse. It really stinks to end a week in paradise at the STT airport!

XOXO
Bug

Welcome back! It's too bad about the airport.
It sounds like you had a lot of fun though.
Ksea, Friday was fine on June 15th.

KSea - I can tell you that this past trip was the first time we ever left on a Saturday, and it WILL be our last.

We have only been three other times, but those three times we left on other days and we barely had to wait in ANY lines (maybe three or four people ahead of us).

This time we got to the airport at least three hours earlier because we went with Cat and Hubby because their flight was leaving an hour before ours. Thank God we did go earlier!

I will tell you that their line at Delta took them alot longer than our line at American, but they were wise enough to remember to get a porter which got them through MUCH faster than us. When we got to the lounge area, they were sitting at a table drinking drinks. Next time, if it's crowded, we WILL get a porter.

nothintolose

p.s. I had heard Saturdays were bad and now I KNOW Saturdays were bad. Honestly though, we were never really upset about it at STT - just dealt with it - it wasn't till the rest of the nightmare kept building that it got worse - STT by itself wouldn't have been so bad.

Ok, well next year we are travelling on Fridays so Im looking forward to less congestion. It really didnt bother me too much since we had the best vacation ever...but the easier the better, right? Im also packing much lighter next time...we were the idiots with 2 bags each and purse.

Glad you had a nice time. We always travel on Saturdays due to my husbands work schedule, I feel your pain. Maybe the crowds have outgrown the system. The bathrooms were absolutely disgusting our last time out. Food is terrible too. Not much going for that airport.

Welcome home Marcia and family -

We also had a wait from he@@ last year on a Saturday with the kids. They are not patient - nor should they be in the heat and a long line that move slowly for several hours.

This year, we opted to leave on a Sunday instead due to last years experience. It was SO much better. We were through all the lines in about a half hour.

I am concerned for next year as we are bringing two new families with us and will be doing the Saturday to Saturday thing again. I'll have to try and prepare them in advance.

Tracy

I'll never forget our first San Juan airport experience..we were coming home from our honeymoon in Aruba, traveling thru San Juan. We must have gotten in the wrong line as no one spoke any English and the customs officers continued to pull fruits and vegetables out of so many other people's luggage! Another agent took pity on us and plucked us out of that line and directed us to a quicker-moving, non-fruits and vegetable line.

Then while we were waiting to board the plane, some woman ahead of us was holding up the line trying to get onto the plane without a boarding pass. The only thing she kept saying over and over to the airline employees was "I want to go to America!". I think that was the only English she could speak. They wouldn't let her board. I felt sorry for her, but was glad to get on that plane. We try to avoid San Juan as much as possible now.

We used to do the Saturday thing...now we love love love love love flying Wednesdays! Cheaper...too!

210 & Counting!

The odd thing here is that we always return home on a Saturday...even on our two week April/May trips. We like to leave on a Saturday because you never know what might happen and it gives you a whole day to use as a cushion for errors (one time we ended up in San Juan over night due to a flight issue).

Never, ever has it been as horrid as this.

Some people in the line were griping about all of the flights scheduled to leave at one time. That's not the issue. It's always been that way.

Some people were griping that there weren't enough people working there to move things along. That's not the issue. We saw plenty of people standing around doing nothing more than watch us all shuffle through.

Some people might say it's because there are so many more people going to the islands. That's not true either. Once we got into the gate area it was less congested than the last time we were there (May).

I really don't mean to be a downer on this whole thing but seriously, why does the airport experience have to be so bad? It's hard enough leaving paradise. Wouldn't you expect the USVI, which relies so heavily on tourism for its economy, to do all that it can to entice you to return by leaving a GOOD taste in your mouth?

Just sayin'

Marcia (Mrs. Pete)

Good point...maybe they should ply us with rum punch on the way out, instead.