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TRIP REPORT DIALOGUE - Day One, May 17
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Robin in NC
- Posts: 332
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:19 pm
- Location: Kernersville, NC
TRIP REPORT DIALOGUE - Day One, May 17
Two endless years. That's how long we waited to get back to our favorite place in the world. And then it went by in the blink of an eye. Wouldn't it be nice to have the power to control time, to stretch out those all too infrequent periods of joy and minimize the times of problems and heartaches?
WAIT. IS THIS A TRIP REPORT OR (A VERY LAME) INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY 101?
Why, it's the Forum! Hi, friends, and thanks for being my Greek chorus as I recount a great visit to St. John. First, let's set the stage. There were three couples in our traveling party - Robin and Jeannie, Gary and Pam (second visit each) and Jeff and Teresa (first-timers). We started planning this thing in May, 2007 (actually, I probably started planning right after returning from our first trip in 2006). We flew American Airlines from Greensboro to Miami, Miami to St. Thomas. Our fare was $497, and according to Yapta it never went lower than $467 and spent most of the time in the $550-700 range, so I guess we got close to as good a deal as we could have. By the way, if you're not tracking flights using Yapta, you're missing out on a great tool. We could have saved money by flying from Charlotte as we did last time, but we opted for the convenience of our home airport.
WHAT'S WITH THE MONEY STUFF?
I'll include prices throughout the report. Although veterans have a feel for what things cost, first-time travelers may not. Of course, you can't put a price on happiness.
LOOK, THREE PARAGRAPHS IN AND YOU'RE ALREADY RELYING ON CLICHES.
Moving ahead, we had great flights, which is to say, uneventful and on-time flights. Outside of first class, there's no such thing as a great flight anymore. We took the advice of many on here and shipped boxes ahead to our villa company containing snack foods (to save money) and liquids over 3 ounces (for our convenience and to avoid having to check baggage). Each couple sent a box Priority Mail, ranging from 18 lbs. ($29.95) to 28 lbs. ($35.20). We had delivery confirmation included, and the boxes were there in two days.
GOODNESS! HOW'D YOU MANAGE THAT?
I originally called Connections, because I planned to send the boxes there until they told me they closed now at 1:30 on Saturdays. The woman I spoke to said they had called the post office in Puerto Rico and asked why some packages reached them in no time and some took forever. The answer was that the address must be in all caps, bold print, with no punctuation except the hyphen in a 9-digit Zip Code. Seems picayune to me, but we followed the directions and were startled at how fast our boxes arrived.
PICAYUNE IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME.
No, it's George. A family name.
GOOD GRIEF, WE WERE SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY. THE VILLA COMPANY MUST HAVE BEEN THRILLED TO DO ALL THIS FOR YOU. WHO DID YOU USE?
We rented L'Esprit de la Vie (http://www.carefreegetaways.com/lespritdelavie.htm) through Carefree Getaways. Not only did they pick up the boxes, they were waiting for us at the villa.
CAREFREE GETAWAYS OR THE BOXES?
The boxes. That was quite a service, and I'm trying to think of something more original than a thank you note as a way to express our appreciation. Okay, back to the chronology. After landing, we were to call Dependable Car Rental to pick us up, but try finding a public phone in the airport. I never did see one.
THERE'S THIS AMAZING INVENTION, MAYBE IT HASN'T COME TO GREENSBORO YET. IT'S CALLED A CELL PHONE.
Yes, but we all showed "Roaming." We didn't want to spend $5 or whatever just to make a local call. Finally a nice woman in the liquor store let me use their phone. Dependable soon arrived and took us to their place above Charlotte Amalie. It was at that time we witnessed one of the most amazing things we saw all week.
THIS SHOULD BE GOOD.
Dependable's driveway goes up a hill, then makes a sharp 180-degree turn and goes uphill again to the office. Our driver drove it in about five seconds - in reverse. That guy is wasting his time in a car rental business.
YOU HAVE A WAY OF BUILDING US UP AND THEN LETTING US DOWN.
I guess you had to be there. Anyway, we signed the papers and were on our way.
HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. YOU HAD SIX PEOPLE...AND ONE VEHICLE?
That's right. I know that breaks all the rules, and I discussed this thoroughly with my traveling group. They assured me they wouldn't want to go in different directions during the week, and one vehicle was all we needed. I was prepared to call the St. John car rental companies and see about a Monday-Friday rental if things got off on the wrong foot, but one Suzuki XL-7 worked for us. We had one in the way back, three in the middle, and two in front, and we are all laid back folks, so we never had a conflict with the car.
AND THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE.
Maybe we're the exception that proves the rule. Anyway, it worked. Now, they say that car barges run every half hour, but when you're dealing with time in the Caribbean, think of it more as a guide. When we arrived, we just missed being the last car on the 5 pm ferry, but there was another one loading right beside it. We got on there, and it left about 5:10. The ferry captain didn't try and put a move on me; I guess I'm no longer young and beautiful. Vicki from Carefree Getaways met us at Enighed, and led us to L'Esprit. J&T were surprised by the sharp turns and switchbacks, especially that one on the South Shore Road just before Gifft Hill Road. When we got to L'Esprit, Vicki gave us our orientation. When she was telling us about the restaurants, I wanted to tell her about my blog, but I kept quiet instead because it was interesting hearing her opinions. She was a big fan of Waterfront Bistro and Paradiso, two places I'd like to try if I had been on the island longer than a week, but which didn't make my cut.
TELL US ABOUT L'ESPRIT DE CORPS... DE LA GUARDIA ... WHATEVER.
Very nice location in Point Rendezvous on the south shore right above Ditleff Point. On our last visit we stayed in Lost Horizon which is directly above L'Esprit, but its bedrooms weren't adequate for three couples, so we had to change. Lost Horizon's view is better, encompassing all of Fish Bay. We were only able to see the entrance to the bay this time, and we couldn't see down to Ram Head, either. Inside, though, L'Esprit is much better. It has four king bedrooms featuring spacious bathrooms with large stone showers and double vanities. The great room was nice, but we spent almost no time indoors so it wasn't that important. It had a terrific kitchen, and though the only cooking we did was on a grill, we liked a kitchen with lots of conveniences. And we didn't see any of the little ants that plagued us last time, though we had everything we could think of in Ziploc bags.
The biggest drawback, for me anyway, was that it didn't have a dining area on the veranda to take advantage of the view. There was a table where the grill was located in a courtyard on the back of the house, which would have been fine if there wasn't a view of an aqua bay only a few feet away. Oh, and every door in the house stuck, and made a racket when being opened or closed. Small things, every house has some similar issues.
The driveway wasn't too steep, but the parking area was small, necessitating a four-point turn to get out of. The landscaping was nice, with abundant bougainvillea providing color all around. We never lost power, though one night at a restaurant the power went out...but more about that in a later report.
DID YOU DO GROCERY SHOPPING THAT NIGHT?
Yes, we did. We went to Starfish, and I have to say I thought it was better stocked and in overall better condition than in 2006. We also shopped on Saturday night then, and I wrote in my trip report that it was a bad night to go because stocks of many things were low. Didn't notice anything like that this time, everything looked great. The quality of meats and vegetables surprised me, so did the selection.
SURPRISED YOU - IN A GOOD OR BAD WAY?
Good. Now, if they could just do something about the surly check-out clerks. The man who helped us in the deli was fun and personable, but the check-out ladies must have had personalityectomies. (Spell Check didn't like that.) You know, I realize they deal with people every day who have more money than they do and who are purchasing things their family can't afford. But you know, neither can the maids at the Carlyle Hotel, and I bet the management there wouldn't put up with rude behavior. It's no big deal to me, I mean I'm in there, what, twice every two years? But how much more effort does it take to be nice and engaging? I think they'd have a more enjoyable working shift, too, if they interacted with the customers. Not that I'm going to rant about it or anything...
OH NO, YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT.
So after we got groceries it was almost 8 pm, and we decided to go to Uncle Joe's and get some hearty grub to take back to the villa. So we got there, and they'd run out of ribs. And steak. Now, I suppose I was just tired, but that hit me the wrong way. Your entire menu has three meats, and you run out of two of them on Saturday night? Boy, I had my taste buds set for those ribs, too. The ironic thing is that I was going to try Candi's on this trip, but opted for Joe's instead after someone reported that Candi ran out of ribs when they visited. Oy. So we all got barbecued chicken, and it really was good and a lot of food for the money. After that we just relaxed on our veranda with the near-full moon reflecting on the water and the refreshing breezes cooling our faces.
YOU KNOW, A LOT OF PEOPLE INCLUDE PICTURES IN THEIR TRIP REPORTS THESE DAYS. YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T BELIEVE IT, BUT ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
Not your words, dear Forum, certainly not your words. Actually, I do realize that, but I think pictures interfere with our dialogue. So I'll just wait till the last report, and that'll be all pictures. Okay, that wraps up day one. Tomorrow, island tour and ZoZo's...
WAIT. IS THIS A TRIP REPORT OR (A VERY LAME) INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY 101?
Why, it's the Forum! Hi, friends, and thanks for being my Greek chorus as I recount a great visit to St. John. First, let's set the stage. There were three couples in our traveling party - Robin and Jeannie, Gary and Pam (second visit each) and Jeff and Teresa (first-timers). We started planning this thing in May, 2007 (actually, I probably started planning right after returning from our first trip in 2006). We flew American Airlines from Greensboro to Miami, Miami to St. Thomas. Our fare was $497, and according to Yapta it never went lower than $467 and spent most of the time in the $550-700 range, so I guess we got close to as good a deal as we could have. By the way, if you're not tracking flights using Yapta, you're missing out on a great tool. We could have saved money by flying from Charlotte as we did last time, but we opted for the convenience of our home airport.
WHAT'S WITH THE MONEY STUFF?
I'll include prices throughout the report. Although veterans have a feel for what things cost, first-time travelers may not. Of course, you can't put a price on happiness.
LOOK, THREE PARAGRAPHS IN AND YOU'RE ALREADY RELYING ON CLICHES.
Moving ahead, we had great flights, which is to say, uneventful and on-time flights. Outside of first class, there's no such thing as a great flight anymore. We took the advice of many on here and shipped boxes ahead to our villa company containing snack foods (to save money) and liquids over 3 ounces (for our convenience and to avoid having to check baggage). Each couple sent a box Priority Mail, ranging from 18 lbs. ($29.95) to 28 lbs. ($35.20). We had delivery confirmation included, and the boxes were there in two days.
GOODNESS! HOW'D YOU MANAGE THAT?
I originally called Connections, because I planned to send the boxes there until they told me they closed now at 1:30 on Saturdays. The woman I spoke to said they had called the post office in Puerto Rico and asked why some packages reached them in no time and some took forever. The answer was that the address must be in all caps, bold print, with no punctuation except the hyphen in a 9-digit Zip Code. Seems picayune to me, but we followed the directions and were startled at how fast our boxes arrived.
PICAYUNE IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME.
No, it's George. A family name.
GOOD GRIEF, WE WERE SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY. THE VILLA COMPANY MUST HAVE BEEN THRILLED TO DO ALL THIS FOR YOU. WHO DID YOU USE?
We rented L'Esprit de la Vie (http://www.carefreegetaways.com/lespritdelavie.htm) through Carefree Getaways. Not only did they pick up the boxes, they were waiting for us at the villa.
CAREFREE GETAWAYS OR THE BOXES?
The boxes. That was quite a service, and I'm trying to think of something more original than a thank you note as a way to express our appreciation. Okay, back to the chronology. After landing, we were to call Dependable Car Rental to pick us up, but try finding a public phone in the airport. I never did see one.
THERE'S THIS AMAZING INVENTION, MAYBE IT HASN'T COME TO GREENSBORO YET. IT'S CALLED A CELL PHONE.
Yes, but we all showed "Roaming." We didn't want to spend $5 or whatever just to make a local call. Finally a nice woman in the liquor store let me use their phone. Dependable soon arrived and took us to their place above Charlotte Amalie. It was at that time we witnessed one of the most amazing things we saw all week.
THIS SHOULD BE GOOD.
Dependable's driveway goes up a hill, then makes a sharp 180-degree turn and goes uphill again to the office. Our driver drove it in about five seconds - in reverse. That guy is wasting his time in a car rental business.
YOU HAVE A WAY OF BUILDING US UP AND THEN LETTING US DOWN.
I guess you had to be there. Anyway, we signed the papers and were on our way.
HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. YOU HAD SIX PEOPLE...AND ONE VEHICLE?
That's right. I know that breaks all the rules, and I discussed this thoroughly with my traveling group. They assured me they wouldn't want to go in different directions during the week, and one vehicle was all we needed. I was prepared to call the St. John car rental companies and see about a Monday-Friday rental if things got off on the wrong foot, but one Suzuki XL-7 worked for us. We had one in the way back, three in the middle, and two in front, and we are all laid back folks, so we never had a conflict with the car.
AND THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE.
Maybe we're the exception that proves the rule. Anyway, it worked. Now, they say that car barges run every half hour, but when you're dealing with time in the Caribbean, think of it more as a guide. When we arrived, we just missed being the last car on the 5 pm ferry, but there was another one loading right beside it. We got on there, and it left about 5:10. The ferry captain didn't try and put a move on me; I guess I'm no longer young and beautiful. Vicki from Carefree Getaways met us at Enighed, and led us to L'Esprit. J&T were surprised by the sharp turns and switchbacks, especially that one on the South Shore Road just before Gifft Hill Road. When we got to L'Esprit, Vicki gave us our orientation. When she was telling us about the restaurants, I wanted to tell her about my blog, but I kept quiet instead because it was interesting hearing her opinions. She was a big fan of Waterfront Bistro and Paradiso, two places I'd like to try if I had been on the island longer than a week, but which didn't make my cut.
TELL US ABOUT L'ESPRIT DE CORPS... DE LA GUARDIA ... WHATEVER.
Very nice location in Point Rendezvous on the south shore right above Ditleff Point. On our last visit we stayed in Lost Horizon which is directly above L'Esprit, but its bedrooms weren't adequate for three couples, so we had to change. Lost Horizon's view is better, encompassing all of Fish Bay. We were only able to see the entrance to the bay this time, and we couldn't see down to Ram Head, either. Inside, though, L'Esprit is much better. It has four king bedrooms featuring spacious bathrooms with large stone showers and double vanities. The great room was nice, but we spent almost no time indoors so it wasn't that important. It had a terrific kitchen, and though the only cooking we did was on a grill, we liked a kitchen with lots of conveniences. And we didn't see any of the little ants that plagued us last time, though we had everything we could think of in Ziploc bags.
The biggest drawback, for me anyway, was that it didn't have a dining area on the veranda to take advantage of the view. There was a table where the grill was located in a courtyard on the back of the house, which would have been fine if there wasn't a view of an aqua bay only a few feet away. Oh, and every door in the house stuck, and made a racket when being opened or closed. Small things, every house has some similar issues.
The driveway wasn't too steep, but the parking area was small, necessitating a four-point turn to get out of. The landscaping was nice, with abundant bougainvillea providing color all around. We never lost power, though one night at a restaurant the power went out...but more about that in a later report.
DID YOU DO GROCERY SHOPPING THAT NIGHT?
Yes, we did. We went to Starfish, and I have to say I thought it was better stocked and in overall better condition than in 2006. We also shopped on Saturday night then, and I wrote in my trip report that it was a bad night to go because stocks of many things were low. Didn't notice anything like that this time, everything looked great. The quality of meats and vegetables surprised me, so did the selection.
SURPRISED YOU - IN A GOOD OR BAD WAY?
Good. Now, if they could just do something about the surly check-out clerks. The man who helped us in the deli was fun and personable, but the check-out ladies must have had personalityectomies. (Spell Check didn't like that.) You know, I realize they deal with people every day who have more money than they do and who are purchasing things their family can't afford. But you know, neither can the maids at the Carlyle Hotel, and I bet the management there wouldn't put up with rude behavior. It's no big deal to me, I mean I'm in there, what, twice every two years? But how much more effort does it take to be nice and engaging? I think they'd have a more enjoyable working shift, too, if they interacted with the customers. Not that I'm going to rant about it or anything...
OH NO, YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT.
So after we got groceries it was almost 8 pm, and we decided to go to Uncle Joe's and get some hearty grub to take back to the villa. So we got there, and they'd run out of ribs. And steak. Now, I suppose I was just tired, but that hit me the wrong way. Your entire menu has three meats, and you run out of two of them on Saturday night? Boy, I had my taste buds set for those ribs, too. The ironic thing is that I was going to try Candi's on this trip, but opted for Joe's instead after someone reported that Candi ran out of ribs when they visited. Oy. So we all got barbecued chicken, and it really was good and a lot of food for the money. After that we just relaxed on our veranda with the near-full moon reflecting on the water and the refreshing breezes cooling our faces.
YOU KNOW, A LOT OF PEOPLE INCLUDE PICTURES IN THEIR TRIP REPORTS THESE DAYS. YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T BELIEVE IT, BUT ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
Not your words, dear Forum, certainly not your words. Actually, I do realize that, but I think pictures interfere with our dialogue. So I'll just wait till the last report, and that'll be all pictures. Okay, that wraps up day one. Tomorrow, island tour and ZoZo's...
Fun report, thanks for posting it Robin.
STJ Villa Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie ... 2&t=h&z=14
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie ... 2&t=h&z=14
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California Girl
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Wanda Creech
- Posts: 345
- Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:47 pm
- Location: Raleigh,NC
report
Robin,
Loved your 1st report, and I could read it with a southern accent. Will be on St John 2 weeks from today.
Loved your 1st report, and I could read it with a southern accent. Will be on St John 2 weeks from today.
Beach Creecher
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Bob & Anita
- Posts: 611
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 pm
- Location: Charlotte, NC
