USVI-On-Line

RANTS AND RAVES-STJ 2007 WITH KIDS


We just returned from a week on STJ with our four kids. Here are our "Rants and Raves," in no particular order:

Raves

Stone Terrace-We always go there for our "special" dinner. It is consistently excellent. The rack of lamb; tenderloin fillet and duck were all good. The service is impeccable. Shout out to the manager, David, and the bartender, Alan...and to our waitress, Dana. This place is a "must do."

Sosa's-Don't be intimidated by the music or "Latin vibe." This place has good, honest homemade food. There were six of us and we all ordered something different. Maria went into the kitchen and cooked her a$$ off for us. The fried chicken with beans/rice; pork chop and shrimp in pasta, in particular, got high marks from our picky group. Six full dinners, with several rounds of drinks, came to about $120. As you all know, that is pretty reasonable for STJ. It is good, old fashioned down home cooking...if your home were to be the Dominican Republic.

Candi's BBQ-No more Uncle Joe's for us, Candi's blows it away. We had four orders of ribs, four orders of chicken and eight side dishes (pasta salad, great coleslaw and rice/beans). The total came to $94. The consensus among our group was that the ribs, in particular, were the way to go. By the way, it only took about 15-20 minutes for her to produce all of that food. Take that Mr. "maybe you'll get your food in an hour" Uncle Joe.

Conrad Sutton's-All I can say is that we never have had a bad experience with them. To the contrary, they have been pleasant, and sometimes downright funny. This time was no exception. Carmen and Mr. Sutton were wonderful. After many years, Mr. Sutton finally has gotten to the place where we are able to joke and tease each other. We really like these people and their service.

Christopher's Taxi/Dohm's Water Taxi-Seemless service. Our way home provides a great example. The water taxi was supposed to arrive at 10:00; it was there by 9:50. About 5 minutes later, we were across the sound at Redhook, where Christopher was waiting for us. From the dock in STJ to the airport in STT...approximately 40 minutes. No lines, no pesky porters, no fuss, no muss.

Snorkeling at Maho-Turtles galore. Everyone in our group saw at least one. One of our kids reported seeing four...but she does tend to be somewhat of a drama queen. Anyway, it was a big hit with the kids...and us.

Trunk Bay-In all of our years of visiting STJ, we never went to this beach. I guess we were put off by the prospects of hordes of yellow-vested cruise ship people. Big mistake. This should come as no surprise to the rest of you, but it was stunning. Our kids (ages 12-16) thought the snorkel trail was a hoot.

Bananaquits-We always have put out sugar water for them, with mixed results. Thanks to Jeff at On St. John, we filled the bowl with straight sugar. Wow! At one time, we had over thirty of those little buggers going for that bowl. It reminded Marcia and me of the way our four kids act when we put out a bowl of chips.

The great people we meet/have met-David and Alan at the Stone Terrace; Mr. Sutton and Carmen; Maria at Sosa's; Demetrius at Banana Deck; Dave at the Beach Bar; Candi at the BBQ joint of the same name; Christopher from the aforementioned taxi service and, of course, Ruth and Ron. It's the people that make STJ special for us.

Will Culver/Surf da Web-I don't want to rehash the whole laptop debate. Suffice it to say that, for business reasons, I needed internet access while on island. Our villa was not wired. For $155 for the week, Will came up to our villa and hooked us up with a wireless connection...which was very fast. At the end of the week, he came and picked it up. No worries.

Low Key Watersports-They outfitted our four kids in complete snorkel gear in about 10 minutes. Somehow, the total bill for rental for the better part of a week was under $100.

Bushwhackers at the Beach Bar-no explanation needed.

While I would prefer to dwell on the positive, I would be doing you, my fellow forumites, a disservice were I not to share some of the negatives. So, here are the rants.

Rants

The STT airport-This place is awful. After a wonderful vacation, this place just sucks the fun out of you. You can read Marcia's post for the details, but let me just say that getting there two hours early for departure may be pushing it. We stood in various lines for over two hours. There was the line to check in at the airline, followed by the line at customs (which stretched out the glass doors all the way to the curbside drop off), followed by a line right after customs that snaked from customs to the place where you dump your luggage...wait, I'm not done...followed by another long line to get through security. I heard more than one disgruntled fellow traveler mutter that, no matter how nice the islands are, this ordeal just isn't worth it. It really is a shame that a vacation has to end with that crap.

The villa not being as advertised-We all plan these trips for months, some of us for years. In renting a villa, we factor in such things as the number of bedrooms and whether it has a pool and/or a hot tub. We rented Vistaero. In part, we liked it because it has a pool and a hot tub. (Marcia and I could care less about the hot tub, as we have one at home that we barely use.) The kids, however, were looking forward to it. Of course, it was broken. I will give Destination St. John credit; they did send someone up to try to fix it. But, when you see the guy banging on the electrical board with a hammer, you tend to suspect that he really had no clue what he was doing. It remained broken all week. It's a bummer when you rent a place based on it having certain amenities and it does not.

Miss Lucy's-Before I draw too much ire, we love this place...when it is open. We have taken the kids to STJ twice and have tried to share Miss Lucy's with them both times. She has been closed on both occasions. The first time was our bad, we went on a Monday, not knowing she always is closed then. This time, we carefully avoided that and went on a Tuesday. Closed. Her bad. Note to self...call first.

So, as you can see, the raves certainly outnumbered the rants. All things considered, for week of vacation with four kids, that's pretty darn impressive.

I would have been upset about the hot tub not working. Like you said, we all go to a good amount of trouble to find the perfect villa and it's such a let down when it's not what you thought. I've learned to ask a lot of questions, and if the Villa reps wont answer me...I rent elsewhere. No more surprises for me! Im glad you had a very short rant list and a long rave list, that makes for a very nice vacation. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome home!
At least you have more raves than rants!

As you probably gathered, our rants were pretty minor...annoyances, really. But, the raves were pretty awesome. It was a fun trip, full of many memories.

I've been meaning to write one of these up myself so I'm not going HiJack your thread.
I do agree about Demetrius at The Banana Deck. I had my "last night on Island" dinner there last Monday night. My Garlic cover Ribeye was the food highlight of my trip, after eating barfood for a week.
Dave @ the Beach Bar is a great guy but my fav is Michelle. if you get a chance to talk to her during some downtime she's a very interesting lady.
I didn't rent a car this trip so I have no first hand experience when it comes to the Suttons. I did talk to two groups of people who rented from them while i was there and i'll just say you must have caught them on their good day.
Hands downs the best Bushwhackers are at the Beach Bar, made by Michelle. this is coming from the guy who spent all afternoon and a good part of a evening breaking in the new blenders at Woody's, which are a close second. worst, STT airport bar.
Ruth & Ron, I just dare someone to say a unkind word about them. 'em be fight'in words.
I'll save the rest for my own report.
kirk

Glad to hear about Stone Terrace, we are planning to go there on our trip. Missed it last time.

Re Trunk Bay, we hadn't visited for years and decided to go on a slow cruise ship day. I have to tell you that it was one of our best snorkel spots.

Glad your raves well outweighed your rants. A few questions about Vistaero - I know you have rented it before. Had some of your earlier concerns been addressed (i.e., plasticware for the bar area, stove that actually heats up). Also, how is the place holding up overall? I have to say, several people in my group staying there in April are BIG hot tub fans - let's hope it's fixed by then

First of all - Welcome home! We missed you here in the Madison area!

I was very pleased to read a report from one of you two who always promise to do so and then.....?? I guess that is called life with four kids and two full time jobs right?!

So happy to hear about all your raves and we will have to get to Sosa's one of these times. I think the latin music and such that you described does intimidate us a bit.

We will have to give Candi's another try, she was beaten badly by Uncle Joe's on our trip in June. We tried them both and I was very disappointed with her food. Must have been a bad night.

Glad to hear about the success snorkeling as well - It is always the highlight of our trip.

Thanks!!

Tracy

Welcome back. Bummer about the hot tub. That would have irritated me. We used ours quite a bit on our last trip. You would expect, for what you pay, that things are in working order, or at least can be fixed within a reasonable time frame.

I'm definitely putting Sosa's on the list for our next trip. It'll probably be a stretch for our 12-yr old, but she'll survive. We really loved Trunk, even with all the cruise ship folk. Glad you had a good time.

Kirk...We have spent time talking with Michelle and you are right, she is very nice. She used to be a bit gruff, but seems to have mellowed with time. Actually, our favorite of all time is Boo, but she is hard to find these days.

Paula...Our feelings on Vistaero are somewhat mixed. No, they didn't add any plasticware for use outside (a few more plastic "glasses" but that's about it.) It is odd...they added some new furniture and replaced the deck chairs (which was very nice) but seem to be letting some of the basic stuff go. For example, the faucet handle in one of the showers came off on day one. Many of the louvered window covers don't work; the electrical to the outside bar area didn't work, etc. I guess the best way to put it is that the place could use some love.

Tracy...we've been to Candi's twice now and have been impressed both times. I dunno what happened when you visited...maybe Joe was filling in?

Martini Girl...our twelve year old really liked Sosa's. She had a fried pork chop and most of my fried chicken, along with pasta that was done in a light tomato sauce with garlic. Our kids can be pretty picky and they all liked their food and enjoyed the atmosphere. It really can be a fun place.

When we left, Maria actually gave me hug. Mind you, I never had met this woman before in my life. She seemed genuinely happy that we brought our family in and allowed her to cook for us. It was damn sweet.

Thanks for posting your trip report. I enjoyed the read. Like others have said, at least there was more good than bad. I would have been irritated about the hot tub also.

We met Demetrius at the Banana Deck too and thought he was a great guy. We got there too late for dinner (our bad) and he said "I'll call Cafe Roma for you and see if you can get a carry out" which he promptly did and we placed our order. We seem to "forget" how early dinner places close down. We tried to eat at The Banana Deck the next night too which was our last, but it rained and they weren't cooking. We will definitely get our ribeye there in November. Thanks for the update on Candi's. Think we will give that a try next time too

Candi's BBQ-No more Uncle Joe's for us, Candi's blows it away.

Where is Candi's?

Gizzmo wrote:Candi's BBQ-No more Uncle Joe's for us, Candi's blows it away.

Where is Candi's?

As you are heading out of Cruz Bay towards The Marketplace (Starfish), it is on your left about a 100 yards before the Markeplace...it is at the funky triangle intersection where if you are turning right, you need to stop, but if you are going straight you need not...unless you want a local to run into you. It's basically a trailer with an awning out front and a few tables. There is plenty of parking, which also helps.