Whew, that was close!

[decosuz]

FIrst off, I want to say that I am a serious overplanner and organizational freak. I've been planning this trip for about a year, and not a day goes by that I don't log into this site and add some tidbit of information to my little St. John journal. I have checklists on top of checklists. So, last week my husband and I are talking about what we have left to do before our trip. We start going through the list -- Car rental -- CHECK. BVI sail trip reservation - CHECK. Passports - CHECK. Snorkel equipment - CHECK. Flat rate boxes from Post Office to ship ahead - CHECK. Buy Neat Sheet from drugstore.com - CHECK. Rashguards for entire family - Check. I even did a dry run on packing, meaning I packed and unpacked everything we are taking just to make sure we could do carry-on only. Looks like we are all set, right? All of the sudden it dawns on me, (and I don't know why this wasn't on one of my checklists) I didn't send in my final villa rental payment which is due 60 days in advance, and it is now 1 month before our trip!!! PANIC!! Get on the phone right away to Villa Rental agency hoping that they didn't cancel our reservation only to find out that they didn't even notice that we were late. THANK GOD for Island Time!!! Sent it out next day Priority Express. Crisis averted. Anybody else do anything stupid like that??

Suzy

[Pia]

Too funny

Anyway, you might want to call them and let them know it was sent Priority as even though in the States it is guaranteed 2-3 days it will take 7-10 days to get here. Express is the only way to get something here within 1-2 days.

When you ship your flat rate boxes down (Priority) give yourself 10 days.

Pia

[Teresa_Rae]

No, I’ve never done that, but I have had a reoccurring dream (nightmare) over the past few years that I forgot to pay the balance on the villa and got to STJ before realizing it and then didn’t have a place to stay.

[RickG]

I forget to send the final payment as a rule. I get a nice email reminder. Its always interesting when the rental agent says "Oh, I've heard about you."

Cheers, RickG

[martini girl]

You're not alone. I did that a few months ago. Last year we booked our villa directly through the owner who wanted the final payment 30 days prior to check-in. This time we went through an agency and I just assumed it was 30 days again. When I was casually looking over the arrival info on the contract with approx 25 days to go, I saw that they wanted the final payment 60 days out. OMG. I immediately called, admitted my mistake, and sent a check (regular mail.) All was well. Whew!

[liamsaunt]

I've never forgotten, but once I got an email from the villa rep saying she had not gotten our final payment. I knew I had sent it out at least 2 months prior, so I was confused. I had figured she was holding on to the check until closer to our arrival date. I sent a replacement via priority mail and just assumed that the original check vanished into the Post Office ether.

Well, about three months later, I got the original check back in the mail. I had forgotten to put the zip code on the envelope. Where the envelope had been for the past five months I do not know, but it was definitely my fault, and hey, the post office got it back to me eventually.

I send the checks with delivery confirmation now.

[chicagoans]

Welcome to the land of other serious over-planners! When you have a forumite who does experiments to see how long Techni-Ice will last in a cooler and keep meat frozen, and reports back because all the rest of us are wondering, you know you are not alone. (Rick, I love that you did that!)

I was late on our final villa payment too, but we paid using PayPal so it was remedied immediately. (It was also great because all 3 families sharing the house used PayPal and got miles on their credit cards.)

When my son Nate passed along my STJ books to his 3rd grade teacher for him to use on a trip this summer, Nate told him we're going to Kauai in December. The teacher's response: "Wow -- your mom plans way in advance, doesn't she?" Doesn't everyone?!?!? (OK, I know not everyone does, but the people who booked the beach condos on top of my wish list did!)

[decosuz]

chicagoans - Do you think we need a twelve step program?! I always start planning early because we usually use my husbands frequent flier miles for our airline tickets. If you want to get four tickets on the same plane to somewhere anyone would even want to go you have to book as soon as you can, which is 330 days in advance.

But seriously, if you saw my lists you would think I have a problem. It starts out simple enough, -- restaurant lists, beach lists, snorkeling spots, and then goes to cruise ship schedules, ferry schedules, grocery stores, packing lists, sunscreen lists and bug repellant lists. My favorite list, and the one I plan to use most while on island is the list of island drinks that I just must try (I'm sure more than once). I'm sure I won't forget anything on THAT list!

[California Girl]

I made lists too. Packing list, restaurant list, stores list, beaches list + which side to snorkel, etc. Ha! Once I got my feet on STJ, the lists were rarely used. I had it so much into my head by then, the lists just slowed me up! I do wish I had checked my "which side to snorkel" list more often though

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[chicagoans]

chicagoans - Do you think we need a twelve step program?!

Nah - I dont want to be cured!

I always start planning early because we usually use my husbands frequent flier miles for our airline tickets. ...

I use FF miles, too, so I put reminders in my Outlook calendar starting at about 335 days before return date, so I can remember to set my alarm and call the airline. Going to Kauai that way; never did get any for STT, but I know others have from ORD so I keep checking.

As far as the lists, I'm still keeping track of new villas, etc, even though I don't have a trip planned!

Every time I read about a new (to me) villa on this board, I Google it to see if I should add it to the list. One of my stupid newbie tricks (did this last year -- first confession here) was reading a post headlined "Villa Gravity." I thought, hmmm, never heard of that villa, better Google it! Of course, someone was posting about the state of relaxation, not the name of a villa.

[pjayer]

Welcome to the land of other serious over-planners! When you have a forumite who does experiments to see how long Techni-Ice will last in a cooler and keep meat frozen, and reports back because all the rest of us are wondering, you know you are not alone. (Rick, I love that you did that!)

Ummm...anyone remember the answer? Just casual curiosity, you know. Not to be confused with OCD or over-planning.