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Trip report 7/1/08 - 7/8/08
Trip report 7/1/08 - 7/8/08
Pictures from our trip http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim_m/sets ... 202471904/
Day 1 - a little background. We are a group of 4. 2 couples ages 30 - 40. This is our second trip to St. John. We left Cleveland, OH on Tuesday, July 1. Flew to Atlanta then to St. Thomas. We rented Splendore through Vacation Vista. Lisa recommended a private taxi driver (Bazile), which we hired. The agreement was $15 per person to Red Hook. We were to fax him our info, which we did. He never responded. However, he did show up @ the airport, waiting for us. We would definitely recommend him to anyone. He was very friendly and courteous. Even allowing us to leave our bags with him while we shopped/ate in St. Thomas on our return trip home. We arrived in St. Thomas @ 2:00. We were hoping to catch the 3:00 ferry in Red Hook. However, our 1 piece of luggage was one of the last few to arrive. We also packed a small backpack cooler of food. We carried this on the plane with us as our small personal item. We froze all the items and put ice in the cooler from one of the airport restaurants once we got past security. Our taxi driver took us to the Charlotte Amalie ferry and sent us on our way. He was also nice enough to call Katie from Vacation Vista to let her know of our arrival on St. Thomas. Once on St. John Katie took our luggage and we headed to Conrad's for our Jeep Liberty. We then followed Katie to Splendore. Nice villa with great views. We were greeted with a bottle of wine, crackers, cheese, chocolate, grapes, lunchmeat, 4 beers and 4 cokes. GREAT welcome basket. After checking out our villa we decided to head to Woody's for burgers. Walked over to carnival village and purchased a few souvenirs. Then headed to Pine Peace for provisions and alcohol. Made sandwiches and drinks for the next day. We were all exhausted after the long trek down, so we headed to bed.
Day 2 - woke up @ 6:00 a.m. because our room did not have shades or blinds!! However it had rained earlier in the morning, so we were greeted with a rainbow. Made a quick breakfast of peanut butter & jelly and headed to Salomon beach. After a long trek to the beach carrying a soft-sided cooler FULL of drinks, a backpack of sandwiches for lunch, beach chairs, floates to lounge on and our snorkel equipment (our usually supplies each day) we finally arrived at the beach. It was barely crowded. We proceeded to snorkel the left side of the beach. Saw eels, octopus and lots of fish. Before heading back to the villa, we stopped at St. John Ice and purchased water and ice. Tonight we ate at the villa. Made chicken, rice and salad. Nothing fancy. We then headed to carnival village and saw kids jump roping. They were great to watch! We also listened to a steel drum band play top 40 music. (Also enjoyed some painkillers)
Day 3 - woke up again @ 6:00 to another rainbow and great views. Made peanut butter & jelly for breakfast and headed off to Trunk Bay, as we knew there were no cruise ships in port. Got there around 8:30 and beat cover charge. We found a nice spot on the beach with shade and drank, ate, and snorkeled. We stayed until about 1:00pm then went back to the villa for an afternoon swim. Later we went back to Woody's for happy hour and food. Met a couple of fun locals and hung out with them. We made Woody's website!! We're the ones holding up the plate that says "miss you Mark & Angie" in week ending July 6th (they came on the trip with us last year and decided to go to Disney instead this year). Heineken reps showed up @ Woodys. If you purchased a beer you were able to spin a wheel. Depending on your spin you won another Heineken or a St. John Carnival t-shirt. Of course we had to try our luck. We won 4 t-shirts and a couple of Heinekens! It was a great time.
Day 4 - HAPPY 4th of JULY! Woke up early AGAIN! PB&J for breakfast (again). Didn't go to Jouvert. We heard mixed reviews about Jouvert and the parade so we decided to go to Cinnamon Bay. Later in the day, we heard the 11:00 a.m. parade started @ 1:30!!! We left the villa around 8:00 and were able to avoid any street closures for the parade and traffic. There weren't many people at Cinnamon Bay. After being there for an hour it was too windy, causing sand to be kicked up on us, so we decided to head to Maho Bay. Maho was crowded, but we were able to find a spot. There were a lot of large yachts moored on the water for the 4th of July. We were able to enjoy music from their boats while we hung out in the water. We adopted a rooster who loved our Goldfish crackers! After several hours at Mahoo we decided to pack it up and head home to get cleaned up for dinner and fireworks. Unfortunately. I had a mishap where a large rock was thrown and landed on my left foot. (Thankfully it wasn't broken). I had a bad limp the rest of the trip and was only able to snorkel with one fin. Went back to the house and did the traditional 4th of July dinner - hotdogs on the grill! We headed to the Beach Bar for a couple of painkillers to get rid of the pain in my foot (which didn't help) and wait for the fireworks to start. There we met the owners of the villa Sanctuary St. John. They overheard us talking to our friends about our hometown and asked if we were from Ohio. It turns out they have a house in Ohio about a mile from our friends (small world). Fireworks were just OK, but watching them on St. John made them great. When the fireworks ended we went back to the villa as my foot started to swell and I had to get some ice on it.
Day 5 - Woke up around 7:30 am. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. My foot was very swollen and very hard to walk on. A huge rainbow did cheer me up a little. I decided I wasn't going to let my injury slow us down, so we decided to go to Hawksnest, which meant a short walk for me, which was good. I used a folded beach chair as a cane. We found a spot that offered a little shade. I snorkeled without fins, but it was very difficult getting in and out of the water with an injured foot. The rest of the time I used one fin on my good foot, which wasn't a bad way to snorkel. It started to rain, so we decided to go back to the villa. I was tired because I didn't sleep well the night before, so I took short nap. The rest of the group hung out at the pool. Villa gravity had set in. That evening we went to the Beach Bar for more painkillers. Then we headed across the street to the Banana Deck for dinner. The guys had Mahi Mahi while the girls had steaks. Everyone enjoyed their dinner. Our waiter entertained us by telling us stories of Jouvert and The Frontyard (a local bar).
Day 6 - Woke up around 7:30 am. Had PB&J for breakfast. Today we headed to Caneel Bay. It was easy to get into, just told the guard where we were headed. I walked to the beach again using folded beach chair as my crutch. It was early, so there were not a lot of people on the beach yet. My wife did a short snorkel to the right side. Upon her return, it rained pretty hard, although we just stayed in the water. After it stopped raining we all headed out to the right side and snorkeled all the way around the point. The water was cloudy from the rain and we swam into a shoal of fish that made it even harder to see. After a busy morning at Caneel, we headed to Jumbie for a couple hours. We lucked out that two cars left the parking lot when we arrived. Once we ran out of drinks we decided to hit the Fishtrap for happy hour. Had a few painkillers and frozen drinks. Then we headed back to our favorite place - WOODYS!! We met some people here who were going on a day sail the next day.
Day 7 - Went to Cinnamon Bay. We all snorkeled around the center island twice. It was really good. Saw turtles, stingrays, octopus, lobster, lots of fish and my wife claims she saw a shark!!! After this long snorkel we headed back to the beach to enjoy lunch and drinks, however the wind picked up so we decided to head back to Maho. We got the same spot on the beach as before and our rooster friend came back for more crackers. My friend wanted a shirt from Sloop Jones, so we decided to make the trek all the way to the end of the road! It was fun navigating the sharp turns and steep hills. After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived at Sloop Jones, however I stayed back since it there was several steps down to the store and my foot was sore from all the snorkeling I did today. My friend purchased a shirt and we then headed to Skinny Legs. We've eaten here before and decided to do it again since it was pretty good. However, we sat at a table and couldn't get anyone to wait on us. We then moved to the bar where we ordered 2 frozen drinks and 2 beers. Then it dawned on us that Skinny Legs doesn't have a blender. So the "frozen" drinks were just on the rocks (not very good). We also forgot they don't have a fryer, so no French fries. We decided not to eat there. Had some more beers and then left, but not before purchasing a couple of shirts and cozies. We headed back to town and went to Woodys for a beer. We walked over to Ronnie's pizza and ordered 2 large pizzas to go. Ronnie was there and the girls wanted bread sticks, so he whipped some up for us to enjoy while we waited for the pizzas even though he doesn't have bread sticks on the menu.
Day 8 - Time to leave
. Had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Our flight was at 3:00, but we decided to catch the 10:00am ferry to get some shopping in on St. Thomas. We called Bazile the day before to let him know we would be on the 10:00am Redhook ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry my wife spelled out my screen name in the sand for the webcam. Bazile was waiting for us and took us to Charlotte Amalie for shopping and lunch. He parked where the Charlotte Amalie ferry leaves and waited for us to return. I bought the better half some jewelry and we ate lunch at Gladys's Cafe before starting our long journey home.
Day 1 - a little background. We are a group of 4. 2 couples ages 30 - 40. This is our second trip to St. John. We left Cleveland, OH on Tuesday, July 1. Flew to Atlanta then to St. Thomas. We rented Splendore through Vacation Vista. Lisa recommended a private taxi driver (Bazile), which we hired. The agreement was $15 per person to Red Hook. We were to fax him our info, which we did. He never responded. However, he did show up @ the airport, waiting for us. We would definitely recommend him to anyone. He was very friendly and courteous. Even allowing us to leave our bags with him while we shopped/ate in St. Thomas on our return trip home. We arrived in St. Thomas @ 2:00. We were hoping to catch the 3:00 ferry in Red Hook. However, our 1 piece of luggage was one of the last few to arrive. We also packed a small backpack cooler of food. We carried this on the plane with us as our small personal item. We froze all the items and put ice in the cooler from one of the airport restaurants once we got past security. Our taxi driver took us to the Charlotte Amalie ferry and sent us on our way. He was also nice enough to call Katie from Vacation Vista to let her know of our arrival on St. Thomas. Once on St. John Katie took our luggage and we headed to Conrad's for our Jeep Liberty. We then followed Katie to Splendore. Nice villa with great views. We were greeted with a bottle of wine, crackers, cheese, chocolate, grapes, lunchmeat, 4 beers and 4 cokes. GREAT welcome basket. After checking out our villa we decided to head to Woody's for burgers. Walked over to carnival village and purchased a few souvenirs. Then headed to Pine Peace for provisions and alcohol. Made sandwiches and drinks for the next day. We were all exhausted after the long trek down, so we headed to bed.
Day 2 - woke up @ 6:00 a.m. because our room did not have shades or blinds!! However it had rained earlier in the morning, so we were greeted with a rainbow. Made a quick breakfast of peanut butter & jelly and headed to Salomon beach. After a long trek to the beach carrying a soft-sided cooler FULL of drinks, a backpack of sandwiches for lunch, beach chairs, floates to lounge on and our snorkel equipment (our usually supplies each day) we finally arrived at the beach. It was barely crowded. We proceeded to snorkel the left side of the beach. Saw eels, octopus and lots of fish. Before heading back to the villa, we stopped at St. John Ice and purchased water and ice. Tonight we ate at the villa. Made chicken, rice and salad. Nothing fancy. We then headed to carnival village and saw kids jump roping. They were great to watch! We also listened to a steel drum band play top 40 music. (Also enjoyed some painkillers)
Day 3 - woke up again @ 6:00 to another rainbow and great views. Made peanut butter & jelly for breakfast and headed off to Trunk Bay, as we knew there were no cruise ships in port. Got there around 8:30 and beat cover charge. We found a nice spot on the beach with shade and drank, ate, and snorkeled. We stayed until about 1:00pm then went back to the villa for an afternoon swim. Later we went back to Woody's for happy hour and food. Met a couple of fun locals and hung out with them. We made Woody's website!! We're the ones holding up the plate that says "miss you Mark & Angie" in week ending July 6th (they came on the trip with us last year and decided to go to Disney instead this year). Heineken reps showed up @ Woodys. If you purchased a beer you were able to spin a wheel. Depending on your spin you won another Heineken or a St. John Carnival t-shirt. Of course we had to try our luck. We won 4 t-shirts and a couple of Heinekens! It was a great time.
Day 4 - HAPPY 4th of JULY! Woke up early AGAIN! PB&J for breakfast (again). Didn't go to Jouvert. We heard mixed reviews about Jouvert and the parade so we decided to go to Cinnamon Bay. Later in the day, we heard the 11:00 a.m. parade started @ 1:30!!! We left the villa around 8:00 and were able to avoid any street closures for the parade and traffic. There weren't many people at Cinnamon Bay. After being there for an hour it was too windy, causing sand to be kicked up on us, so we decided to head to Maho Bay. Maho was crowded, but we were able to find a spot. There were a lot of large yachts moored on the water for the 4th of July. We were able to enjoy music from their boats while we hung out in the water. We adopted a rooster who loved our Goldfish crackers! After several hours at Mahoo we decided to pack it up and head home to get cleaned up for dinner and fireworks. Unfortunately. I had a mishap where a large rock was thrown and landed on my left foot. (Thankfully it wasn't broken). I had a bad limp the rest of the trip and was only able to snorkel with one fin. Went back to the house and did the traditional 4th of July dinner - hotdogs on the grill! We headed to the Beach Bar for a couple of painkillers to get rid of the pain in my foot (which didn't help) and wait for the fireworks to start. There we met the owners of the villa Sanctuary St. John. They overheard us talking to our friends about our hometown and asked if we were from Ohio. It turns out they have a house in Ohio about a mile from our friends (small world). Fireworks were just OK, but watching them on St. John made them great. When the fireworks ended we went back to the villa as my foot started to swell and I had to get some ice on it.
Day 5 - Woke up around 7:30 am. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. My foot was very swollen and very hard to walk on. A huge rainbow did cheer me up a little. I decided I wasn't going to let my injury slow us down, so we decided to go to Hawksnest, which meant a short walk for me, which was good. I used a folded beach chair as a cane. We found a spot that offered a little shade. I snorkeled without fins, but it was very difficult getting in and out of the water with an injured foot. The rest of the time I used one fin on my good foot, which wasn't a bad way to snorkel. It started to rain, so we decided to go back to the villa. I was tired because I didn't sleep well the night before, so I took short nap. The rest of the group hung out at the pool. Villa gravity had set in. That evening we went to the Beach Bar for more painkillers. Then we headed across the street to the Banana Deck for dinner. The guys had Mahi Mahi while the girls had steaks. Everyone enjoyed their dinner. Our waiter entertained us by telling us stories of Jouvert and The Frontyard (a local bar).
Day 6 - Woke up around 7:30 am. Had PB&J for breakfast. Today we headed to Caneel Bay. It was easy to get into, just told the guard where we were headed. I walked to the beach again using folded beach chair as my crutch. It was early, so there were not a lot of people on the beach yet. My wife did a short snorkel to the right side. Upon her return, it rained pretty hard, although we just stayed in the water. After it stopped raining we all headed out to the right side and snorkeled all the way around the point. The water was cloudy from the rain and we swam into a shoal of fish that made it even harder to see. After a busy morning at Caneel, we headed to Jumbie for a couple hours. We lucked out that two cars left the parking lot when we arrived. Once we ran out of drinks we decided to hit the Fishtrap for happy hour. Had a few painkillers and frozen drinks. Then we headed back to our favorite place - WOODYS!! We met some people here who were going on a day sail the next day.
Day 7 - Went to Cinnamon Bay. We all snorkeled around the center island twice. It was really good. Saw turtles, stingrays, octopus, lobster, lots of fish and my wife claims she saw a shark!!! After this long snorkel we headed back to the beach to enjoy lunch and drinks, however the wind picked up so we decided to head back to Maho. We got the same spot on the beach as before and our rooster friend came back for more crackers. My friend wanted a shirt from Sloop Jones, so we decided to make the trek all the way to the end of the road! It was fun navigating the sharp turns and steep hills. After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived at Sloop Jones, however I stayed back since it there was several steps down to the store and my foot was sore from all the snorkeling I did today. My friend purchased a shirt and we then headed to Skinny Legs. We've eaten here before and decided to do it again since it was pretty good. However, we sat at a table and couldn't get anyone to wait on us. We then moved to the bar where we ordered 2 frozen drinks and 2 beers. Then it dawned on us that Skinny Legs doesn't have a blender. So the "frozen" drinks were just on the rocks (not very good). We also forgot they don't have a fryer, so no French fries. We decided not to eat there. Had some more beers and then left, but not before purchasing a couple of shirts and cozies. We headed back to town and went to Woodys for a beer. We walked over to Ronnie's pizza and ordered 2 large pizzas to go. Ronnie was there and the girls wanted bread sticks, so he whipped some up for us to enjoy while we waited for the pizzas even though he doesn't have bread sticks on the menu.
Day 8 - Time to leave
. Had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Our flight was at 3:00, but we decided to catch the 10:00am ferry to get some shopping in on St. Thomas. We called Bazile the day before to let him know we would be on the 10:00am Redhook ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry my wife spelled out my screen name in the sand for the webcam. Bazile was waiting for us and took us to Charlotte Amalie for shopping and lunch. He parked where the Charlotte Amalie ferry leaves and waited for us to return. I bought the better half some jewelry and we ate lunch at Gladys's Cafe before starting our long journey home.
Last edited by Jimm on Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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vacationpants
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:50 pm
- Location: Ohio
We stayed at Splendore 5 years ago and loved it. It is a little hot in the afternoons but I love the ocean views and the location. We also used Bazile - he was great. This last year we used Rachel and she was also great- I just wanted to get a different point of view. We got pizza to go at Ronnie's this year - they have a generator and when the lights are out on St. John and you have a hungry family - they are the place to go to!!
Spendore was very nice. We had much better breezes this year than when we stayed at Dream Come True last year. It has 4 sliders that you can open to really take advantage of the breezes. The villa was stocked with everything from garbage bags and laundry detergent to booze and cooking spices. The only negatives were a slight ant problem around the kitchen sink and bathroom sinks, no shades in the bedroom that has the private balcony, and the A/C in the bedrooms did not keep it as cool as I would have liked. The wall that separates the bathroom from the bedroom does not go all the way up to the ceiling, so a lot of the A/C escapes through the garden shower which has a screened ceiling.Pickle wrote:Nice report, Jimm!
Splendore was a close second for our choice of villas (we will be staying at two different villas) in May/June next year. How did you like the villa? Did it have a good breeze?
I'm with budman - what is the story about the rock landing on your foot?
As far as the rock landing on my foot, while at Maho I found about a 10lb. rock that I decided to use as a coaster so I didn’t have to put my beer in the sand. When we were leaving my friend took the rock and threw it towards the bushes without looking. Well, I was standing by the bushes and he scored a ringer on my left bare foot.
I did not realize there were no shades in balcony bedroom. My mom and boyfriend stayed in that room and by nature are early risers, which is probably why they didn't mention it.
We stayed in the bedroom off of the pool and that room had blackout shades.
Interesting that one room has blackout shades and the other has no shades at all.
The rock incident? I could totally see that happening with our group.
We stayed in the bedroom off of the pool and that room had blackout shades.
Interesting that one room has blackout shades and the other has no shades at all.
The rock incident? I could totally see that happening with our group.
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nothintolose
- Posts: 1960
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:36 pm
- Location: New Orleans, LA
Jimm - I would believe your wife about the shark at Cinnamon as alot of people (including myself) have reported seeing one there.
Of course, I kept hearing it was a nurse shark, but the day SO and I were there, it was NOT a nurse shark and SO was too busy watching pelicans dive to notice that it came back a second time and checked us out! That's the ONLY time I have seen something other than a nurse shark off of STJ.
Where did you see the eels at Solomon and the octopus at Cinnamon???
Loved your report! Gonna check out your pics now. t
nothintolose
Of course, I kept hearing it was a nurse shark, but the day SO and I were there, it was NOT a nurse shark and SO was too busy watching pelicans dive to notice that it came back a second time and checked us out! That's the ONLY time I have seen something other than a nurse shark off of STJ.
Where did you see the eels at Solomon and the octopus at Cinnamon???
Loved your report! Gonna check out your pics now. t
nothintolose
