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This may be a silly question but if you never ask, you won't know...
We'll be leaving in two weeks for St. John, me, my husband, and our two small kids. We're staying at Maho Bay and have rented a Jeep Liberty in STT. I have a beach umbrella but it is too long to fit in any of our bags.
1. Will we want it on St. John?
2. has anyone ever checked one?
I'm not really worried if it doesn't show up, that's a risk I don't mind taking, but will they let us check it?
Thanks!
Keri
HI - Glad to know I'm not the only "silly" one - lol. I'm one of the ones who packs very few clothes but lots of "stuff". My husband calls it my "villa kit" and I keep it replenished and ready in a large plastic tub marked "villa" in our basement - lol. Last May we took our aunt (who is 87) with us to a villa in STT. She can't take too much sun and we wanted her to be able to go to the beach with us so we took a tilting beach umbrella - and checked it through. It was in 2 pieces and packed into one long skinny carton about 40+ inches X 6" X 2". It was taped shut with clear postal tape and I fashioned an almost flat carry handle out of duct tape on one of the long sides. We taped a contact info card to it. We did curbside check-in at ORD and the Skycap told us there would not be a problem. He said a clear outline would show up on the luggage scanner so it most likely would not even be opened. We connected through MIA and the package showed up at STT without a hitch. No problem on the way home, either. If you are worried about it you might be able to carry it on - call your airline and see how long the overhead bins are or if they would let you stow it in a clothes closet. I can't see much difference between that and a collapsible stroller. It will probably take you a few minutes longer going through security to the gate, tho. Funny thing, I checked K-Mart on STT to see if they had anything similar that I could have purchased down there but they did not. Closest thing I saw was a large patio umbrella ($$). Anyway, the umbrella really came in handy. We had one of those screw-type sand mounts for it (got it on eBay) and and then we just filled up some plastic grocery bags with sand and piled them at the base - kept the umbrella just fine, even in the wind.
- Margy (aka The Pack-rat)
Thanks so much! I think we'll try checking it. I'm doing a great job on keeping the clothes to a minimum but the gear is starting to pile up, almost to the point that keeping the clothes to a minimum seems ridiculous!
Keri
Another option would be to get one of those beach cabana/shade things...I've seen families with them in STJ before...they fold up really small....if you do a search on ebay for "beach cabana" you'll see what I'm talking about (there are several types)...it might be an easier way to go.
