WSJ Trip Report: April 2012

Westin St. John Trip Report: April 14-April 21 2012

April 14: Arrival

My family and I traveled to St. John for the first time last week. We had a great time. I figured I would post a trip report to help future travelers, as I have seen other TUGGERS do in the past.

We arrived at around 2:00 pm due to a flight delay, and waited in the waiting room for the shuttle. We then sat on top while taking the 3:00 ferry over. We had a 2 Bedroom Bay Vista villa (got lucky with trading Orlando!), and our room was not ready at our arrival at 3:40. So, we had a quick bite at Snorkel's, and our room was not ready until 4:30, of course after the 4:00 designated check-in time. Our villa was great, but for the 30 min or so, housekeeping was still cleaning around the villa. We were extremely surprised and lucky to get a room in building 27 on the 3rd floor. We had an amazing view of the bay. After unpacking and relaxing a bit, we had a nice, late dinner at the on property steak house, Cruz Bay Prime.

-villa
-our view!

April 15

We had a notice on our phone that there was no hot water from 10am-2pm. We then discovered that our keys no longer worked, but luckily some of us were still in the room. We called down to get new keys, but were told the "system was down" and we had to get them at around 9:30. So, we had a nice breakfast at the Beach Cafe on property. Then we went on a 2-hr island tour as recommended by the concierge. It was a nice way to get a feel for the island and see some great sights. When we came back, we got the rental car from O'Connor Rentals (very friendly, good service) and headed back to the room with new keys. Unfortunately, these keys did not work! We were able to get security to let us in about 10 min later (no identification or anything-a little scary). However, their master key did not work! The electronic lock was broken. So, security gets a small computer and hooks it up to the lock to let us in about 10 min later. About 30 min later, after an engineer came and “fixed” the lock, we discovered there was NO running water in the villa, not just hot water as mentioned above. So, we went down to the pool, had poolside lunch at Snorkel’s, stopped at on-site Mango Deli for some key items, got new keys (3rd set) and came back to the room. The Keys worked! The water came back around 4:00pm, and the hot water came back around 5. We headed to Mongoose Junction and had a great dinner at Ocean Grille.

April 16

We had some pastries from Mango Deli for breakfast, and went to the Owner’s update to get $125 “sand dollars” for use at local restaurants. I’m sure glad we had breakfast beforehand! They a few granola bars and some juice at around 10:00. He informed us that no new resorts were coming, and began his sales pitch. We got to see a 3 bedroom pool villa, which was a nice surprise. We looked at some options of “enhancing our vacation portfolio” and went about our day. We headed to Caneel Bay for a nice lunch, and spent the afternoon on their beautiful beach. We also had some cocktails and smoothies on their rooftop bar overlooking the ocean. We then headed back to the Westin and took a quick dip in the pool. For dinner, we went to Cruz Bay, parked in “Slimman’s parking” lot (good lot, not overly expensive, friendly), and had an okay dinner at Spyglass (nice view, not great food). On the steep walk back to our villa, my wife fell on the poorly lit stairs. After this, we came back to the villa, tired and ready for a rest, and the keys once again did not work!! So, we went through the same process again, and about 30 min later, we were in our room with another “fixed” lock.

April 17

After a light breakfast, I called the general manager’s line and left a message about our issues. We got a call back around 30 min later, and were offered a $100 credit to the room. We headed to Trunk Bay in the morning, and it was extremely crowded. We rented some snorkel gear and the kids went snorkeling. The crowds and rough(er) water made this our least enjoyable beach experience. We had some lunch and relaxed at the pool for the remainder of the day. We played some games around the resort and went back to the room to get ready for dinner. At around 4:30, housekeeping arrived for our mid-week cleanup and changed the sheets and replenished the soaps and towels. For dinner, we went to Zozo’s, and although expensive, it was our best meal on the island. And of course, the sunset view was spectacular. We got back to the room, and the keys worked!

-Sunset at Zozo's

April 18

We went to Beach Café again and had a nice buffet breakfast overlooking the water. We went to Mongoose Junction for a little shopping, and we reserved the poolside cabana for the afternoon. The cabana was great to have as it included waters, a fridge for other drinks, several pool chairs, several towels, and a hammock, which would have been great if it was not broken. We had lunch from Snorkel’s in the cabana and relaxed at the pool. In the evening, we took the sunset cruise at the resort (Cruz Bay Water Sports), and had a delicious dinner at Café Roma in Cruz Bay.

April 19

We had some pastries from Mango Deli, and headed to Maho Bay. This was one of our favorite beaches. Everything was so beautiful and it was not crowded at all. We did a little snorkeling, and went to Caneel for the delicious buffet lunch. We relaxed and did some great snorkeling on their beach, and my daughter even saw a turtle. We took another quick dip at the Westin pool and had a great dinner at Waterfront Bistro in Cruz Bay. (We were now well known by the employees at Slimman’s parking!)

-Maho Bay

April 20-Our Last Full Day

It was already the last day. Why does vacation go so fast! Anyway, we had some yogurts and pastries from Mango Deli and then took a drive to Coral Bay for some shopping. We then headed back to have a casual lunch overlooking the water at the Beach Bar. We headed back to the pool and had some drinks. We returned the car and a nice final dinner with wonderful views at the Beach Café on property.

April 21

We had a nice, departing breakfast at Beach Café and took the 9am ferry back to St. Thomas. We went through customs and security very quickly, a nice change from the trip TO St. John. We then took our flight home.

Overall, we loved our trip to St. John. One word I kept using in my report is “relax.” We really felt so far away from home and work and any other troubles/worries. It was great to get away and just relax. I highly recommend St. John and the Westin.

Thanks for your report - sorry about your 'issues' with your room.
Just love that resort.

Sounds like a perfect vacation except for the minor annoyances! Thanks for sharing --- this is one of my dream vacations.

elaine

Great pics and trip report. We were also there the same week. One tidbit I heard was that SW is evaluating whether to convert some or all of the hotel rooms to a new Beachside section of timeshare units. The hotel rooms are badly in need of renovation and a decision will be made as to what to do with them sometime in the next 6 -12 months.

steve1000 said:

Great pics and trip report. We were also there the same week. One tidbit I heard was that SW is evaluating whether to convert some or all of the hotel rooms to a new Beachside section of timeshare units. The hotel rooms are badly in need of renovation and a decision will be made as to what to do with them sometime in the next 6 -12 months.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I am intrigued by the thought of a beachside villa, though my gut tells me that retrofitting a regular hotel room into a villa would leave something less than optimal. Marriott did this at their Maui timeshare, and the ones created to be TSs from scratch have a much better layout than the converted hotel rooms.

Nice pics .

I spent a week at WSJ at the end of March - a short summary:

Sunday 03/25 - Flight from Chicago to STT via Miami -me, hubby and 18 year old daughter arrived about 9pm. Greeted at the airport with Rum. Yum! Took a shuttle to the Red Hook Ferry, came in to St John in pitch dark. Arrived at the resort about quarter to 11 pm. Was expecting bottom of the barrel room since we arrived so late. When I booked, they told me I would be in Bay Vista, but the room we got was a Hillside 2 Bedroom Loft - so far, so good. Too late for real food, so ordered late night room service. No car, so taking taxis everywhere all week.

Monday 03/26 - Up early to walk down to St John market. It was pricey, but convenient. Unpacked groceries, then down to WSJ beach - there for about one hour - laid out on the floating loungers and immediately sunburnt my back, arrgh. Had a rum punch to help with the burn. Went to see concierge, got signed up for an "update" on Wednesday. Got Sand Dollars to spend in town. Went to town and enjoyed a late lunch at Uncle Joe's BBQ shack. We ordered both a rib and chicken platter and split it between the three of us. Highly recommend that place, interesting sauce. Did some window shopping, then back to WSJ for movies and went to bed early. The heat really saps a lot out of you if you are not used to it.

Tuesday 03/27 - super sunburnt, so we scrapped the idea of beach time, Took the Island tour recommended by the concierge - $25 each for two hours - takes you to the sugar plantation, and then back along the coast line - stopped at Cinnamon Beach for a few photo ops. He dropped us off in town and we went to mongoose junction. Ate at Sun Dog Cafe- good, but not great. I would probably eat there again. after a dinner of grilled chicken cooked by hubby, relaxed in the pool.

Wednesday 3/28- We were supposed to have our "update" but the person wrote Wednesday 03/29, which I didn't catch. So they didn't have room for us. Had to reschedule for Friday, but got more sand dollars. So we spent the morning at WSJ beach, and then we walked all through the town to see all the shops we hadn't seen in the two previous days. Bought a Larimar ring at the exotic leather store - they had some really unusual leather goods in there. Daughter wanted a tattoo, so we had to go to St thomas for that. A six hour ordeal, but we finally got over there. Dinner was grilled steak at home.

Thursday 3/29 - up early to take the ferry to Charlotte Amalie - took a tour from Godfrey's Tours - $30 each - all day tour all over St Thomas - lots of photo ops. Tour ran from about 9:30 - 4:15. Ferry back to Cruz bay, dinner at High Tide. Innervisions - supposedly a well known reggae band - played live music. Lots of drunks there. A homeless looking man came and had a long conversation with us, my husband and daughter were drunk, I wasn't, so I thought they had a better time than I did at High Tide. They do make a good Rum Punch.

Friday 3/30 - did the "update" which took all morning - saw a 3 bedroom pool villa, which we decided to buy. (I later rescinded because I wanted them to show my daughter the pool villa and they couldn't get back to me on Sat, Sun or Monday, despite repeated promises to do so and me calling them daily). Anyway - we then went to Trunk Bay and enjoyed the beach, then back home.

Saturday 03/31 - Wanted to go to Caneel Bay Resort and spend the day there, but we were less than disciplined after a week chilling, so by the time we were ready to go, it would have been to late to enjoy, so went to Cinnamon Bay instead. Watched the HBO new movie in the evening.

Sunday 04/01 - Moved from the Timeshare to the hotel. Packed everything up, spent the morning sunbathing so that I could complete the Lobster look on both sides, then went to town. Came back to check into the hotel, and found out that they gave us a 2 bedroom loft suite in the Starwood Preferred Guest building. Basically, there were two differences between that and the timeshare: the room looked a little worse for wear in general appointment wise, and had no kitchen - just a tiny fridge, but the square footage was actually bigger than the timeshare, and it had a dining room table, balcony with ocean view, AND there was a huge tub in the middle of the master bedroom. I added that night using starpoints and cash - so it wasn't a bad room for $90. (if they were to convert a hotel building at WSJ to TS, i think this would be the building, it was right by the ferry) Late lunch at the beach restaurant, where I had my first voodoo bucket. Hard to walk a straight line after that one! Love their rum punch there.

Monday 04/02 - home to Chicago via Miami again. The customs line was ridiculously long, but it went quickly. They confiscated a basket woven out of palm that we bought, I was very sad. But as wonderful as St John is, and believe me, I plan to return, it was good to be home again.