Hello Curmudgeon,

Welcome back! Sounds like a nice time. Did you end up doing a sunset sail? Which one and how was it?

--Islander

I was wondering how the food was and which places you tried on site at Caneel.

How was the temperature around 4pm? Did you check out Hawksnest beach at all? Were the beaches crowded? Anything that is a must do while on St. John? I leave in less then 3 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon and cannot wait to relax!!!!

Islander

After looking at the various options and weather forecasts after we arrived, we chose to do a sunset sail (without dinner) right out of Caneel Bay on the Spitfire with two other couples; newlyweds on their honeymoon, a couple celebrating their 25th anniversary, and us our 50th. Made for an enjoyable sail even though it became overcast and put a damper on the sunset. But staying on Scott Beach, we got to enjoy the sunset nightly (weather permitting) right from the patio or beach in front of our unit.

Chris Cody wrote:

> I was wondering how the food was and which places you tried on
> site at Caneel.

Chris,
We ate at the Caneel Beach Terrace, Equator at the Sugar Mill, and the Caneel Beach Bar. After exploring the Turtle Bay Estate House and perusing the menu, we decided that it was not what we wanted as an Island experience. This is the most upscale restaurant on the property other than private arrangements at the Wine Room. The Turtle Bay Estate House was open Monday through Thursday unless they booked it for a special function. Reservations are required for diner at all resturants except for the Beach Bar.

We had dinner at the Equator two evenings and the food, service, and ambience was great. One rainy evening, we dined from the Equator menu at the Caneel Beach Terrace since the Equator does not operate in the rain. Again the food was very good. Other meals at the Caneel Beach Terrace consisted of only one lunch buffet and the hot and cold breakfast buffets in the morning. The food was acceptable but this opinion is biased by a couple who don't really go for buffets. But travelling to Cruz Bay for breakfast was not appealing.

On two nights we had a light snack and drinks at the Caneel Beach Bar. The food was what is to be expected from such a venue.

Other meals were taken in Cruz Bay (Stone Terrace, Lime Inn, and the Fishtrap) and lunches in St. Thomas. The private Caneel Bay ferry to Charlotte Amalie made the shuttle easy.

Curmudgeon

Diane wrote:

> How was the temperature around 4pm?
The first week that we were there, the mid afternoon temperature was in the upper 80's (F). This past week (May 25-28) the mid afternoon temperatue was in the mid 90's. Too hot (for us) to be on the beach at mid day.

>Did you check out Hawksnest beach at all? Were the beaches crowded?
Went to look at Hawksnest but spent our time at Scotts Beach since our unit (81) was less than 100 feet from the waters edge. And no children.

At Scott Beach, I don't believe that there were ever more than 30-40 people at any given time. The time that I bothered to try and count one afternoon, there were 21 people on all of Scott Beach. There appeared to be a few more on Caneel Beach but that is right at the reception area and all the watersports equipment is there. No beach looked crowed in fact it appeared than less than half of the beach chairs were being used.

>Anything that is a must do while on St. John? I leave in less then 3 weeks for my
> wedding and honeymoon and cannot wait to relax!!!!
I won't touch this one. You are going there for your weeding and honeymoon; we wen't there for our 50th anniversary. Different interests and expectations for a people a couple of generations apart.

Curnudgeon

Thanks for your overview.

Thanks for your reponse!

Diane,

Are you getting married on St. John and if so where? Just curious because we are also getting married on St. John but in October.

Yes - getting married on St. John, on the beach (probably Hawksnest) on the 21st of this month!!! I can't wait. Then we are staying for 10 days in a private villa. I cannot wait to leave, all this rain in Michigan is getting on my nerves! Almost 9 inches in one month - I'm getting antsy to do some hiking and outdoor activities!

Hi Curdmageon,

I am glad to hear about your fantastic trip to St. John. Thanks so much for sharing your experience on the message board and your kindness in answering questions especially for us first timers. We are leaving next week, and we are staying at the Caneel Bay too. Any episodes of the sand flies / no see ums? We are a bit scared, and wonder if it is really bad at Caneel Bay. Do you use any insect repellent? Any recommendations of effective insect repellents?

Does the ferry from Caneel Bay take you to Charlotte Amalie directly? How long does it take? How often does the ferry run? Where can you have a light breakfast?

Did you go to Trunk Bay at all? We are thinking of going since it is so famous. Have you heard anything, good or bad about the beach?

Last question: We like your idea of having to drive around. Are taxi's easy to get back and forth?

Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Sammy

Sammy wrote:

> Hi Curdmageon,
>
> I am glad to hear about your fantastic trip to St. John.
> Thanks so much for sharing your experience on the message board
> and your kindness in answering questions especially for us
> first timers. We are leaving next week, and we are staying at
> the Caneel Bay too. Any episodes of the sand flies / no see
> ums? We are a bit scared, and wonder if it is really bad at
> Caneel Bay. Do you use any insect repellent? Any
> recommendations of effective insect repellents?

There were some sand flies and no seeums around the beach in the evening but nothing real bad. Again we had unit 81 right on Scott Beach and it came supplied with a can of OFF (never used) and a can of RAID for flying insects. A couple of evenings we used the RAID on the patio. One application took care of what insects there were.

> Does the ferry from Caneel Bay take you to Charlotte Amalie
> directly? How long does it take? How often does the ferry
> run?

The Caneel Bay ferry runs right to the waterfront at Charlotte Amalie at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 2:15 p.m., & 4:45 p.m. It leaves Charlotte Amalie for Caneel Bay 9:30 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 3:30 p.m. & 5:30 p.m.

>Where can you have a light breakfast?

Continental breakfast (juice, bagles coffee) at the Caneel Terrace 6:00 - 8:00 a.m. only. Otherwise its is the hot breakfast buffet ($25.00) or cold breakfast buffet ($22.00) or run into Cruz Bay.

> Did you go to Trunk Bay at all? We are thinking of going since
> it is so famous. Have you heard anything, good or bad about
> the beach?

Went by there but did not go to the beach proper. Scott beach on others on the property were adequate for us.

> Last question: We like your idea of having to drive around.
> Are taxi's easy to get back and forth?

There appeared to always be taxis in the taxi/parking area by reception.If a taxi wasn't there one would show up in less tha 5 minutes. And there was a phone to call for one. In Cruz Bay, there are always taxis cruising by. Never a problem. Fare is $3.00 p/p each way. Still cheaper than a rental unless you plan to travel the island a lot, don't mind driving on the left around blind corners on a 1 1/2 lane road etc. I was happy that my initial inquiry into a rental with Cool Breeze put a damper on my making reservations for a vehicle with their under 65 year old restriction.
>
> Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
>
> Sammy

Your welcome. Hope that you enjoy your stay there. We found the property well kept and all of the personnel very friendly. And if you need anything setup for you (cruises, diner in town etc.), see James the concierge. If yor request to do something that he feels may not be appropriate for you (i.e. for us it was a Jost Van Dyke trip), he will fully explain the pros and cons of the trip and let you reconsider.

Enjoy.
Curmudgeon

Sammy wrote:

> Does the ferry from Caneel Bay take you to Charlotte Amalie
> directly? How long does it take?

Forgot to mention in last message that the trip takes about 35 minutes.

Curmudgeon

Many thanks for taking the time and answering our questions, and thanks also for your well wishes for our vacation to St. John.

Just came back from St John, the beaches are fabulous. We went to Hawksnest and saw a shark, we saw an baby octapus at Trunk Bay, and tons of star fish at Waterlemon cay. The sea life was amazing. The food, and lack of great restaurants was another story, but the beauty of the caribbean sea and the friendly locals, well made up for the rude americans working in St John, and the horrible food. The beaches to see in my opinion are Hawksnest, Trunk Bay and take the hike to Waterlemon cay. Maho Bay was also a beauty most all were pretty bare, except for Trunk Bay, tourist were dropped in my the boat loads by noon.

Thanks for the review, Donna - I am getting married on Hawksnest in 13 days!!!!

My that's an awfully broad brush you paint with Donna. What restaurants did you visit? What was the problem? I"ve eaten many excellent meals on St John, I'm sorry you weren't as fortunate.
As for all the "rude Americans" working in St John, I have to say I've never had that experience and I'm sorry that you did.
Perhaps you could supply more details?

Mermaid

Chilly Billy's rude young americans working there. We entered to a please wait to be seated sign. The kids were hanging in the back talking. We waited five minutes, the tables were empty and clean, finally we decide to seat ourselves. Then they come out and say, we were going to seat you. We said is this okay, yeah sure. Then they walked away for another three-five minutes without a word. Then they come back and give us menus and walked away again. We waited ten minutes in a barely empty place for them to come back and ask for our order. No smiles, no how you doing. We even tried to lighten them up. No response. Unfortanetly this was isolated, we were silly enough to go back for a second helping of rudeness. Same thing. We also experienced rudeness in Mongoose Junction restaurant. Again, island time of not rushing to serve your customer must be the problem. I don't expect people to run, I only expect a nod or a hello, we'll be right with you. There they looked at you and walked away for 5 minutes before returning. Another restaurant in Coral Bay was also cold service. Skinny Legs was the only place with friendly servers.

I am sorry you had less than great experiences with restaurants. I've eaten many breakfasts at Chilly Billy's with good service but I'm not disputing your experience. The restaurant at Mongoose Junction isn't one that I have any experience with. Did you go to the Fish Trap, Lime Inn, Stone Terrace, ZoZo's, Asolare, Chateau Bordeaux or La Tapas? All of these have good to excellent food and in general great service and there are others I haven't mentioned. Please don't brand the entire island as having bad food and poor service based on experiences at a couple of places.
I hope if you decide to get back to St John you have better luck!
Mermaid