I wrote a rather lengthy trip report the last time I went to St. John in May of 2005. Orginially posted on the USVI forum where I am a frequent contributor. I wasn't a blogger at the time so it has not been immortialized ... that is, until now. It was a 13 day trip ... so it will take days to post it all.
Day 1: Getting There: Planes, Boat & 4WDs & Finally Maho Harmony Studios
First a warning - this is going to be long - I took notes! A first for me, but I figured a good trip report was the least I could do for all you guys who give so much free advice!
Let's actually start at T Minus 24 hours and definitely counting. Neat sheet & St. John Tunes packed. Ipod – check. Swimgear – check. 200 swim diapers – check. I decide to follow FlaGeorge’s lead and get a town car to come to the house to pick us up as we are departing in the morning at 4:30 am for our 6:10 am flight out of Dulles to Atlanta & then on to STT!!!
If you are from the DC area I highly recommend limos4less – you can find them with a quick google search. $66 includes tip and gets up to 3 adults to Dulles from Springfield. A cab would have been at least $55 & it was much nicer to go in style. The driver was very professional.
Gramma calls as promised at 3:30 am to make sure we are up and at ‘em. Finally pry myself out of bed at 3:45 am. We are fully packed so all we need to do is shower, dress & scoop the kid up and run. Her mother wisely put her to bed in her travel clothes. Driver calls at 4:15 to confirm our location & I realize he’s about 5 minutes from our house. Kick into high gear. Driver arrives. We load up. Run upstairs scoop up mini flip-flop & head for the car. By 4:35 am we are on our way.
The girl sleeps all the way to Dulles. Wakes up as we arrive to say – “there’s my plane” (it wasn't but she's 3 what does she know) & “thank you” to the driver and we are off to curbside check the mountain of luggage. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a mountain of luggage to take one to paradise. The swim diapers alone take up a full suitcase ;)
5:10 am and the bags are checked and we are hauling it to our gate for departure. We had done online checkin the day prior so boarding passes in hand we head for security with a glance at the poor suckers who are waiting in a long line to check-in.
6am we are on board waiting for takeoff. We wait & wait. Finally captain comes on to say there is a computer malfunction – I want to cry. They are waiting on maintenance to come & all I can think is we’re gonna end up getting put on a different plane. Visions of missed connections dance in my head. But NO Wait. It's the captain again. We're fixed and ready to go. All systems go, by 6:30 we are wheels up on our way for Atlanta.
Tip #1 – If you happen to be traveling with a 3 year old like we were – pack a goodie bag. Our little one had her very own bags of goodies to keep her busy. My favs include the sticker book with 1000 seek and stick stickers & the markers that magically will only mark on special paper!
9ish we are landing in Atlanta. Hello 2.5 hour layover. Hey that’s what you get when you pay $10 per ticket via frequent flier miles. We decide to hit Chili’s for a bite of breakfast.
Tip #2 – just say no to the Chili’s in the Atlanta airport. VERY slow & not really very good service or food.
Off to our gate area and YAY a kids play zone. Mr. Flip-Flop is fully occupied with his PSP (that’s playstation portable for those who don’t know), Mini F-F is occupado with the other kiddies & I throw on the ipod earphones and chill. We wait.
12:00 we are loaded up and ready to head to STT. The little one crashes before we even leave the ground and we are happily & quietly on our way. What a great traveler.
3:40 pm I SEE ISLAND! No rain!!!! A bit hazy but touchdown is smooth & officially we are now on that sweet island time. Pick up the rum punch on the way to baggage claim, get the bags and a porter.
Tip #3 – porter is so worth it when the bags far outnumber the people with free hands. I swear I lost my mind at some point in childbirth & haven’t regained it since. But hey if we needed it we had it for the most part.
We load up in the first taxi van we see and we are off to Charlotte Amalie to catch the 5:30 ferry. We get there at about 4:15 and have a bit of time to kill. The ferry men are extremely kind & take pity us by relieving us of our bags & we are off to do a little shopping – aka recon for jewelry purchases. I see a great ring at my favorite store – Magnum Jewelers – but we decide we have time to contemplate. A good excuse for a return trip to STT later in the trip. Grab a drink and we’re headed back to the ferry for our final leg to St. John.
The ferry is almost completely empty. It is just the three of us and 4 other folks. The boat men outnumbered the passengers. It is clearly NOT Saturday! I think to myself it’s kind of nice to travel on a weekday. 1/2 an hour later at we pull into Cruz Bay. Ahhhhh…Home again. We scurry off the boat, take a deep breath & smile.
I leave the hubby at the dock with the bags & the little one & I head off to Conrad Sutton’s to pick up our Jeep Liberty.
Tip #4 – Strollers & Cruz Bay do not mix well.
About 2 minutes into the walk I fold up the stroller (luckily its a lightweight umbrella stroller) and instruct the little one to hold on to my hand. She happily complies and we make our way to the Sutton’s lot. About a 4 minute walk from the ferry.
I had attempted to call to let them know we would be a bit late (they officially close at 6pm) and though I think Carmen could hear me I couldn’t hear her at all. I am relieved to see her there waiting for me. Now these ladies at Conrad Sutton sometimes get a bad rap, but I have to say that I couldn't have had a better nicer experience. A kind word, a smile and a grateful thank you go a loooong way. The car was in great shape – 1400 miles on it. We fill out a couple of forms, grab the keys and we’re on our way. Back to the dock to get the man & we’re off to Maho.
Our first two nights are going to be at Maho in a harmony studio. Maho is quite the hike (though we laughed later in the week when we realized its truly only maybe 6 miles from Cruz bay). We follow the north shore road all the way out to the split and turn left where you see the sign for Francis. Quite a road getting up there! We find registration, register & decide to hit the restaurant before we miss dinner completely. Our intention was to stop at Uncle Joe’s in town and get take out but we got distracted. Hey we’d been on the go for a long time. Dinner at the Maho Pavilion was ok – a bit expensive but nourishing enough. The view was great, but I don’t think I’d dine there again. Very summer camp like experience. Hubby definitely was less than pleased. I was just glad to have some food!
Ok, so tummies full and we are off to find our studio in the dark.
Tip #5 – uh, if they tell you to bring a flashlight, bring a flashlight.
We kind of neglected to do so and finding/feeling our way to Studio 5A was an adventure. But 100 stairs later we find the door, manage to get the key in and find a light.
The Studio is very nice. Extremely spacious. Nice and clean. No A/C but 2 ceiling fans and a big floor fan. Kitchenette & bathroom are up to my discriminating standards. There are 2 HUGE sliding doors and a nice size deck facing the water which we can barely make out as it is now DARK! 5A has a king size bed, a fold out sofa and two more twin sized beds that you could roll out of the closet if you needed to. The real shower and potty were the clencher for me. It’s a bit (ok a lot) more expensive, but it was worth it to me. Later in the week when I realize the studio cost us exactly what our split of the house was per night, I decide I’ll probably not be back to Maho. Though I am happy for the experience and that we gave it a shot, its just really not our speed. A bit too granola. NOT that there is ANYTHING wrong with that. Its just not for us.
Quick showers all around & we are all ready to crash. It is all of 9 pm … we decide it feels like midnight! The little one is very concerned about “what’s that noise?” I must get the question, “what’s that mama?” a dozen times --- the wildlife - frogs and bugs are quite noisy but she quickly settles in to her “bed” and we are all snoozing happily before 9:30 pm.
Tomorrow ... Flip-Flop Faces the Scuba Fear & Mr. F-F & Mini F-F explore Maho
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