USVI-On-Line

Friday, December 8th – Airport car service arrives at 4 am to take us, (4) people and all our stuff to Logan. Easy check in, as we checked in on the net the night before. Note to self: do that again, it really cut down on the waiting time.
Great flight to San Juan, quick connection, when we arrived at the American Eagle gates, we jumped right on a bus, right to the plane, and took off. My husband was a little worried, because the pilot was on the bus with us and she looked like she was about 12. Needless to say we got to STT safe and sound.
Baggage was quick, about 10 minutes and all 7 bags made it, the frozen food in the cooler bag was still frozen solid. This was the first time I brought frozen food from home, and I’ll do it again! Got a rental car from Avis, great one day rate from Hot Wire $19.95, for a full size. We only need the car for 24 hours, to get provisions and such.
Drove to CYOA, which is in Frenchtown, unloaded our gear, boat was ready, so we loaded up the boat and headed out for provisions. The owner of CYOA suggested we try a place he had heard a lot of good things about. NOTE: anyone who gets food on STT, try the Food Centre! It was great! Best selection, just like home, produce was OK, same as everywhere else on the Islands, not great but OK. Deli was great. We usually go to a combo of Plaza Extra and the Marina Market in Red Hook. The Food Centre will be my only stop from now on! We spent $525.00 on food and beverages for 4 people(2 of whom really like to drink) for 6 days.
Went back to the boat to unload all the food and drinks, before heading to the GreenHouse. We just make it for the very end of Happy Hour. Sooo we have to order all our drinks at once. 4 painkillers, 2 BBC’s, 4 Caribe, 2 Bushwhackers, 2 diet? Soda, lots of wings and coconut shrimp. Hmmmmmm Good! Back to the boat and to bed, a very long day.

Saturday, December 9th – Had Breakfast at the Frenchtown Deli. They have the best home fries ever. Get ready to leave the dock, had a big problem with the main sail on our sail check. We sailed around and around and around the harbor for almost two hours, finally we are off. Head to Waterlemon (always our first stop). Have a great swim, great drinks and a great dinner. BBQ Chicken Souvalki, real Greek bread, the whole works.

Stay tuned for part two!

Question regarding the airport check in. We are flying AA out of ORD in April and were wondering how the prior night check in works? We will have bags to check... Any input on this process is appreciated.

Go to AA.com, click on flight check in, then it will ask you to but in your reservation locator number. It's a series of letters. Then your flights pop up. You can change your seats, then check in, and print your boarding passes.

When you get to the airport, use one of the self service terminals, put in your locator again, and check your bags. The printer behind the desk prints the baggage tages and the agent puts them on your bags, and your done. Very easy. It took us 5 minutes at Logan, and the line up to manually check in was about 100 people long.

We did the same leaving STT. Went to an internet cafe, printed the boarding passes, and believe it or not, there are even 2 self service terminals at the STT airport.

Good luck!

This sounds like it is going to be an interesting report! I don't know the first thing about sailing but I like reading about it.

Your dinner sounds yummy too. Did you make the bread from scratch on the boat? If so, my hat is off to you!

No I cheated. I brought it frozen from a Greek bakery at home.

Anxious to hear more, after staying on Leverick Bay overlooking the North Sound of the BVI's and watching and longing to be on one of those beautiful sailboats.

I like you idea about pre-check-ins. However, BOTH self-serve kiosks were down the day we flew home out of St Thomas.
The lines were miserably long, we got there 2hours early, and barely got to the gate area before they started boarding.

Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

For shopping give Cost U Less a try on STT. I also bring frozen food from home, usually beef tenderloin and various other steaks. Next time i think i'll toss in a Honey Baked Ham, yum.

Sue

We have tried Cost U less, but I like the Food Centre much better. Way more variety. It's actually just like shopping at home!