WSJ Trip Report 1/17-1/24/15

WSJ Trip Report 1/17/15-1/24/15

This was our third trip back to St. John and our third time staying at WSJ
Saturday, 1/17/15
• Arrive in St. John
• Meet Amy from Amalie Car Rental in the airport
• Stop at CostULess for groceries
• 6:30pm Car Ferry to St. John
• Grilled steaks (we’d brought meat) for dinner. Grills are VERY nice!
• Bed (and dinner/cocktails)
Checked in ~7:15pm. Seamless check-in, though the reservationist indicated that they’d been having major computer problems that day. We were assigned Villa 3121 in the Hillside section. First time we’d been assigned anywhere but Bay Vista.
My husband and I went to bed around 9:30pm but the other couple opted to walk down to the Lemongrass Restaurant and have dinner. They said that both the dinner and drinks were awesome.
Sunday, 1/18/15
• Breakfast in the room and watched a bit of the Aussie Open
• Headed to Hawksnest for our first snorkel trip of the week. It was overcast and the perfect temperature.
• Headed to the pool for lunch and to watch the playoff games.
• Sandwiches for dinner.
Monday, 1/19/15
• Honeymoon Beach package – I’d bought a Honeymoon Beach (a “secluded” beach attached to the Caneel Bay Resort) package with points from Viator. They provide a beach chair, kayaks, SUPs, a locker for your things, and snorkel gear (if needed) for your use from 9am to 4pm. You can buy drinks here and a few lunch items.
• This was MLK day and this “secluded” beach was wall to wall people. Not exactly what I had pictured in my head, but we enjoyed use of the equipment.
• If this interests you, it’s $50 retail for the package, but see Viator for better deals.
• Grilled pork chops for dinner
Tuesday, 1/20/15
• Headed to Hansen Bay (near Coral Bay) and paid the fee to park at Vie’s Snack Shop, which is on Route 10 several miles past Skinny Legs.
• Chairs were provided with the fee (first come first served), so I stayed behind while the others snorkeled.
• Lunched at Vie’s Snack Shop. Vie is a St. John local who has been operating her snack stand for decades. Expect a wait, but it’s worth it. We shared 2 orders of garlic chickens and crab cakes and a few rounds of beer.
• Played a few sets of tennis back at WSJ, followed by a trip to the hot tub.
• Grilled steaks again for dinner (quick and easy)
• Euchre tournament girls v boys
Wednesday, 1/21/15
• Island Roots charter ($700 with gas + gratuity)
• Met Capt Jason at the National Park pier at 8:30am.
• We circumnavigated St John and he showed us some great snorkeling spots for later in the week
• Stopped at 3 different snorkel spots which could only be accessed by boat (the prime goal of our charter). Really enjoyed the first (on North shore past Waterlemon) and third stop (Hurricane Hole).
• Lunch at Skinny Legs
• Capt Jason dropped us off at the Westin, which saved us a ferry ride. Lots of fun, and Jason is very knowledgeable about the island.
• Dinner at Lemongrass Restaurant on-site. It was dee-lish.

Thursday, 1/22/15
• Resort day – We lounged around the main pool and beach all day.
• Headed to Cruz Bay after dinner for some light shopping, then RhumbLines for dinner. Food was good, if not overpriced (e.g. $25 for PadThai). Service was sexist. (Every server was a young, attractive woman in a short skirt and they all flirted excessively with the men while my coke glass stood empty) Bizarre. PadThai was good.
Friday, 1/23/15
• My husband and I packed a lunch rented a dinghy from Cruz Bay watersports ($315 for an entire day), something I’ve always wanted to do.
• Stopped at one of the Cays across the way from Caneel and had the beach all to ourselves. Snorkeled around the island and noticed that the coral was much, much healthier here.
• Next stop: Waterlemon. We tied up a short way from the cay off Waterlemon. The current was very strong between the island and cay, and my husband opted against attempting to cirumnavigate the cay. You have to constantly be aware of currents when you’re in the ocean, and we saw lots of struggling swimmers.
• It was awesome not to have to hike the mile from Annabelle parking lot to Waterlemon, but not being able to beach dinghys is a major downside.
• Next stop: Maho. In all of our trips to St. John, we never actually made it to Maho, so it was a treat to try a new beach.
• For dinner, we bought two pizzas and a large salad from the Marketplace on site. Overpriced and not outstanding pizza, but super convenient!
Saturday, 1/24/15
• Travel day. 9am car ferry back to St. Thomas.

Comments:

Rental Car (Amalie’s) Amaliecar.com

Amy from Amalie’s Car Rental met us at the airport as promised. We only had to retrieve our luggage, sign a few papers, and we were on our way! On the way back, it was very convenient to have someone meet us at the departure gate at the airport. Saved a lot of time and hassle. Very seamless, albeit pricey ($641.25 for weekly rental), however the car was in great condition and anyone over 25 could drive without additional charge. Good brakes are essential for driving on the USVI.

The main reason we rented a car was because we cook/grill a lot of our meals and the prices on St. Thomas are significantly cheaper than St. John, especially if you can swing by CostULess, which has very good prices (see their website for exact prices). Unfortunately, our luggage took up a lot of space so we couldn’t get everything we needed in one trip, but we got enough to make the side trip worthwhile.

We found our way to the car ferry without incident, and just missed the 6pm ferry. While we waited for the 6:30 ferry, we bought some “Welcome to the Islands” cocktails courtesy of the bar shack located in the parking lot. Unlike most of the states, you are allowed to carry drinks around in public everywhere.

After a 20 minute ferry ride ($30 cash + $4 fee that you pay at the parking lot entrance), we made the short trek to WSJ.
I’ve traveled both ways and, assuming money isn’t a huge issue, I still recommend using the Westin ferry for your first time to St. John. St. Thomas is not the most beautiful island in the world and I’d hate for your first impression to be a negative one.

Another trip we might even try taking the passenger ferry over and then renting a car only on the days we need it. 2 days we didn't use the car at all, and anytime we ventured into Cruz Bay, we called for a taxi v. trying to drive into town.

WSJ – Hillside Villas

The prior two visits, I’d exchanged into the Bay Vista phase. Both times we were assigned 2 bdrm lofts, which are two-storied buildings with tons and tons of space, perhaps too much space for 2 couples. This time, we were put into a 2 bdrm loft in the Hillside section, unit 3121, across the street from the main campus.

I’m sad to report that I was not overly impressed with either the layout of the unit, or the condition of it. Bay Vista villas are much, much nicer. If this room is any indication of the condition of the other units, they’re long overdue for a refresh.

As an example, when we walked in the kitchen, there was a pool of water in the middle of the floor. It was enough water that it soaked up an entire beach towel. By the next morning, there was enough water to fill up 3 towels, at which time we called for service. There is no way that unit below us was not getting water damage in its roof. This was the 2nd out of 3 stays where we arrived to a refrigerator with a leaky icemaker. Hint: Either quit turning off/off the icemakers (which is leading to the copper tubing getting clogged with ice, hence the leak) or exchange them out with refrigerators that don’t have them. Water damage is very expensive!

Other issues: The tile in both bathroom showers was disgusting. Pink and black mold was evident both in the shower and the ceiling above. They’d attempted to solve the problem with bleach, as evidenced by bleached grout, but that just made the black mold stand out even more. The reason for the mold was very obvious – the fan in the bathroom was broken. Without adequate ventilation, which is difficult enough in a closed bathroom but even worse in high-humidity areas like the islands, they will never get rid of that black mold. Yuck!

Flimsy furniture. Sigh. There is really no excuse for a developer to install cheap furniture in a heavy use villa. Very few of the drawers anywhere closed properly. The dining room table had been fitted with a glass cover because it was getting so beat up. The drawers in the kitchen couldn’t be opened without banging into another one. And because there was not enough drawer space for a silverware divider, they put it in an upper cabinet. Oookay.

Okay, so much for the condition of the unit. The layout was also kind of bizarre. It was a 2 level unit, and the staircase Y’d to either bedroom. It wasn’t much of a problem for us (2 healthy couples), but if you had knee issues, or had kids you had to tend to, it was strange to have to go down 5 stairs, across a landing, and then up the other 5 stairs to get to the other bedroom.

Finally, they scheduled our midweek tidy for Tuesday. At that time, we’d only been in the unit for 2 days. It was too early and rather pointless. And they should supply dishwashing detergent, for pete’s sake.

Positives: The living room was adequately sized, and the couch and chaise were comfortable. The chair was not (too narrow). The dining room table seated 6 comfortably, which is as many people as I’d put in this unit. The kitchen was small but was stocked with everything we needed. The first floor bathroom had a tub and the washer/dryer, which I love, love, love having. Balcony was decent sized as these things go and the view was nice.

Both bedrooms were right sized, and had plenty of storage (and a safe). Both bedroom enjoyed a nice-sized en-suite bathroom, though the bathrooms needed to be redone. Certainly, the fans need to be repaired asap.

One major upside to staying in the Hillside units is having parking right outside your unit. For avid snorkelers, this is a major plus.

The pool area was very nice and had shade and nice lounge chairs (if you could get one). It’s a bummer that they don’t offer some sort of pool service for folks up here. I realize that food delivery might be impossible, but it’d sure be nice to have some sort of towel exchange program. We snorkeled just about every day, and had to launder our towels several times because the main pool towel hut closed before we returned.

The major downside, IMO, is how far removed we were from the main campus. We can rent a villa anywhere. We chose a resort because we like the amenities of a resort. Most days we walked down the hill to the pool, or beach, or hot tub, or tennis court, or restaurant, or Market, and it wasn’t a short walk. Luckily we are in good shape and luckily the weather was mild (high of 83 and low humidity). Had it been 85 and 85% humidity, I might not have been so cheerful about the walk. Guests do have free use of “iguanas” (aka manned golf carts), but there aren’t enough iguanas for the demand.
The last two nights we walked from the pool to our villa without seeing a single iguana at all. I’m sure that they were all tied up getting new guests to their room, but small consolation if you’re tired.

I'd hate for anyone to think that my complaints meant that we had a bad time. That is certainly not the case. It's just an honest assessment of the condition of the place. I'd still recommend traveling to WSJ, even with moldy bathrooms!

Campus
Well, the birds are gone. Apparently they didn’t like the renovations. Oh, and the trampoline is gone, too. Boo! The main campus grounds look great. The landscaping is beautiful. The pool was as nice as any I’ve seen in the SVO network and the loungechairs are very comfortable and in good condition. Drinks were expensive, but it’s soooo nice to be able to order a cocktail from your lounge chair. We never had any issues finding beach chairs and/or shade.

The hot tub area has been cleared out so that it's not as secluded as it was. People still bring their young kids in it (with diapers), a habit that squicks me out.

The tennis courts are much improved from last time, including the lighting.
FreeCycle is a bust. Nothing was ever in it. They host round robins in the morning, something we found out from people on the ferry back to St. Thomas. Too bad they didn't let their guests know about it.

The Marketplace was predictably expensive, but the food was good.

Didn't venture into the workout facilities.

St John
St. John itself is the same as we remembered. The weather in January is glorious! High of 83 and low humidity, with occasional rain showers. Its major attraction is the park itself. Much of the island is undeveloped forest. It’s definitely more crowded than the first time we went, so I guess the word is getting out what a great place it is. A double-edged sword for sure. If you love snorkeling, it’s a great place. If you want to learn to snorkel, there are fewer places more hospitable to newbies.

What is developed is in various shades of disrepair. Cruz Bay (the main town) itself is a mess. There is lots of garbage and lots of buildings in disrepair. They really need to make an effort to get rid of the rubble, as it’s a blight on the island.

Coral Bay also is showing signs of neglect. For instance, the dock outside of Skinny Legs is running amuck with old boat parts and tons of half-sunk ships are in the bay. It needs to be cleaned up!

On the positive side, I saw several stray cats but no evidence of feral dogs like I’ve seen exist on St. Maarten and heard exists in places like Puerto Rico. We did see tons of other animals wandering around the island that tickled me – donkeys, chickens, roosters, goats, pigs (and piglets!), deer, iguana and mongoose. It’s a part of the charm of the island!

Sadly, the island still has plenty of evidence of racial divide. It’s disturbing to me that all of our waiters were white and all the iguana drivers and taxi drivers were black. It’s a really small place, and I guess it’s silly of me to hope for a day when it isn’t as segregated.

Service is improved from last time, I think, at least in the places we went.

Taxis are plentiful and convenient. We didn't catch the new $1 bus to Coral Bay, but someday!

That's it for now!

Nice, thanks for the detailed report.

Only 162 more sleeps until we arrive. :whoopie:

Thanks for sharing such a great report! Glad you had a nice trip. Interesting to hear about the condition of the villa-hopefully that gets sorted out soon. It such a great resort in such an amazing location that it is a shame to see deterioration in those villas. I am, however, excited to see how Coral Vista turns out.

Great report - well done!

One question: When you wrote something like, "We had steaks for dinner," is that all you had? Probably not, but I wondered what you did for side dishes.

2nd Question: It seems like you dad a lot of cooking for a vacation. After an active vacation day, do you really feel like cooking?

Hi DeniseM,
To answer your questions, when we timeshare, we normally eat breakfast in, pack a picnic lunch and eat it wherever we land, and either eat dinner out, or perhaps grill in one or two nights. It's not the expense as much as it's the quantity of food served when you eat out, which is compounded when you're routinely ordering heavy drinks like Lava flows and Painkillers from the pool bar.

On WSJ, we ate more dinners in than usual, by design. Why? First, we were often too exhausted from the snorkeling/tennis/hiking to get dressed up and head to town. It was actually easier to grill out. But mainly we chose to eat in because it was the opening week of the Aussie Open. The four of us are all avid tennis fans. We all play competitively and love to watch the pros duke it out. We actually plan vacations around tennis tournaments, because it's such a nice treat for us to watch tournaments with fellow tennis lovers. (BTW, I’m happy to report that the main tv was very nice at WSJ, much better than many of the pool bar tv’s.)

This year, my friends were in charge of bringing the meat, and they chose 4 Omaha ribeyes; 4 Omaha sirloins, and 4 Omaha boneless pork chops. So I tried to choose sides to complement that.

We always offered a salad and a starch. For the salad, we bought a 3-pack of romaine along with some fresh veggies (e.g. tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, avocadoes) at CostULess. I'd brought a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix from home, and to that we added mayo and milk bought on island. The salad lasted the entire week. (Next time I'll bring a packet of the Italian dressing for variety; I don't eat bottled salad dressing if I can help it.)

For sides, we bought potatoes at CUL, and baked them one night. Bought sour cream at the market and brought bacon bits and 2 sticks of frozen butter from home.

The other nights we cooked rice pilaf and angel hair pasta (both boxed and very lightweight) brought from home, both served with the fresh veggies bought on island.

I also brought an assortment of seasonings brought from home. One each of: salt, pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning, Old Bay Seasoning, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. I put them in plastic jars and labeled them with a permanent marker in case TSA wondered what they were. I found these jars at Amazon and they worked out great. I’ll use them for camping, too: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00523WBK2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope that helps.

I bring a "Thyme to go" inside a dedicated toiletries bag (that we call the timeshare bag) along with all the other things we bring to St John (knives, foil, kitchen stuff, tea,oatmeal, condiments, tide pacs,etc.)

But it looks like Thyme to go is no longer available: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/thyme-to-go-travel-spice-kit-pid-77846/#b

We also have a dedicated rolling cooler for travel. The timeshare bag lives in the empty cooler at home and we refresh the food items before we go.

Now I know to travel with LisaRex, hope you are enjoying the tennis from down under

I follow a similar pattern as Lisa on STT and STJ. We are usually very tired after a full day of snorkeling/hiking and prefer to cook in. Good idea about Omaha Steaks from home. My husband always travels with a rolling cooler.
I have not been to Cost U Less but purchase items at K Mart and Food Center.

Of course I always needed to go to Rhumb Lines. Always. http://www.rhumblinesstjohn.com

alexadeparis said:

I bring a "Thyme to go" inside a dedicated toiletries bag (that we call the timeshare bag) along with all the other things we bring to St John (knives, foil, kitchen stuff, tea,oatmeal, condiments, tide pacs,etc.)

But it looks like Thyme to go is no longer available: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/thyme-to-go-travel-spice-kit-pid-77846/#b

We also have a dedicated rolling cooler for travel. The timeshare bag lives in the empty cooler at home and we refresh the food items before we go.

Click to expand...

A rolling hard cooler or is it a soft cooler?

I don't mean to sound rude, but isn't it kinda weird to pack all of that food with you when you go on vacation? Do you not run into any issues at the airports?

Over a week, do you find that there is really that much extra cost for groceries being bought locally vs. bringing them yourselves?

When I say this, take in to account that perhaps where I am, our grocery prices may be quite high compared to your home (and factor in the 30% currently exchange rate hit we take right now), so maybe we're just not noticing that much of a difference when we go...

YYJMSP said:

I don't mean to sound rude, but isn't it kinda weird to pack all of that food with you when you go on vacation? Do you not run into any issues at the airports?

Click to expand...

I've never run into any issues, though I label everything in case it's searched. I will say that I'm much less nervous hauling Tide Pods vs Tide powder in a gallon sized baggie, which just happened to look like a bag of cocaine on an x-ray machine.

As far as feeling "weird" packing food, no, I really don't. We camp a lot throughout the year, plus we have a lake cottage that is 45 minutes from civilization, so we're used to hauling food with us, not to mention finding creative ways to package/cook it. (If WSJ was a driving location, you can bet I'd haul along my crockpot. )

As to WHY I bring food along, I bring meat because I'm a food snob. If I grill out a steak, I want a good, quality steak and I'll willing to pay a premium for the best cut -- whether I'm at home or on vacation. If I'm not certain that I can get something comparable on island, I'll bring it.

The reason I haul along other stuff is because I've learned from 30+ years of traveling that bringing along just what you'll need of certain items is far less expensive, and far less wasteful, than buying it all at your destination.

For instance, say my husband can't live without sugar in his coffee. I can either buy a bag of sugar, at resort prices, so that he can enjoy his coffee in the morning, or I can throw a few tablespoons of sugar from my pantry into a baggie and toss it into my luggage.

I can either save ketchup packets throughout the year from restaurants and throw a handful into my luggage, or I can buy a 8 oz bottle at resort prices, and throw most of it away at the end of the week.

We love picnicking at local beaches. I can either buy an entire box of sandwich bags at my destination, at resort prices, or I can throw in a handful of baggies from my cupboard.

I can either buy a 6 pack of granola bars on island for $6.95 (seriously) or I can throw 6 granola bars from my behemoth-sized Costco carton into my luggage and cross that off my list.

So, it's a combination of not wanting to waste my money or perfectly good food.

That being said, I'm not crazy about it. If I read up and find that there's a decent grocery store with good, quality meat at non eyeball-popping prices at my destination, I might not bring any food at all because I always shop locally for most things anyway (produce, dairy, beverages, snacks and alcohol).

P.S. Some people don't appreciate timesharing because they don't see a place that is equipped to do your own cooking, your own cleaning and your own laundry as a "real" vacation. Different folks, different strokes.

Lisa - I admire your planning and organizing skills - you are a Pro!

But personally, I can't stand dragging a lot of stuff along. We have learned to travel everywhere with just carry-ons, and it's absolutely liberating. Now, I'm certainly not saying that my method it better, it's whatever works the best for you, but we just love traveling light.

Thanks Lisa.

I agree on the waste issue, as I find the same thing for some stuff even if we buy the smallest package we can't finish it.

I think the thought if packing that much stuff in checked luggage that we have to pay for and lug around and dealing with international flying deters us from packing much other than clothes.

Plus I always get randomly selected for additional security screening, so don't want to tempt the powers-that-be with the laundry detergent in the Ziploc...

carpie99 said:

A rolling hard cooler or is it a soft cooler?

Click to expand...

It is a soft one but has a removable, washable hard liner, for the best of both worlds.

Much like LisaRex, I bring small quantities of essentials in my timeshare bag. I only bring the rolling cooler with meat to the caribbean islands or Mexico. Not necessarily to save money (although it does that too) but because the quality of meat in foreign countries is iffy at best. In St. John the first time we went we paid about $12 for a chicken the size of a Cornish hen (or so it seemed). The steaks also did not compare to US steaks. So even if we just manage to bring meat and buy everything else there it's better than scrambling to find meat that still doesn't measure up.

However, the less people we bring, the less likely we are to go crazy with bringing a ton of food. On the last trip, we had 8 people, 4 of whom were teens/young adults that eat a LOT. 8x7x3=168 meals. If it's only two of us, 2x7x3=42 meals, is a lot more manageable cost wise and would not require much meat if any. But I also agree with LisaRex's thoughts about not wanting to get dressed to go out to dinner every night after I have spent the whole day relaxing.

BTW, because pictures are worth 1,000 words, and because some people are prone to exaggeration (cough), here are some photos of the master bathroom, with its mold issues.

Here is a photo of the odd stairs between the two bedrooms. I didn't take a photo of the flight of stairs leading from the parking lot to the villa, but suffice it to say that climbing was required. There was no elevator.

If accessibility is an issue for you, or if you have young kids and these stairs will be challenging for you, I'd advise communicating this when you book an exchange at WSJ. Both Bay Vista and Coral Vista phases have elevators to get to your floor, but Hillside does not. (And, of course, "loft" villas will have stairs no matter what phase.)