Thank you, Chris. We are visitng in 3 weeks, I will be very excited to check it out! If you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them - it sounds like you are extremely knowledgeable of the island. Thanks again and have a great day!

Well, my main suggestion with a group of that size is to figure out quickly how many nights you are all eating together and which nights you all split up. Any dinners with parties of 6 or more, it is HIGHLY suggested to get reservations at least a day in advance. If you want your pick of places, a week or two is usually safe. Most places with a large group will require a deposit. I condsider a large group as anything ten or more because usually you are moving more than a table or two. When my family was in town, we only had 13 or so but getting everyone to agree on a place was always a task. This far in advance, you really can pick and choose and get an itinerary going for your boat excursions and nights out in cruz bay. I would leave a few night open just to be able to have flexability and then you can try things you see that you wanna try. Personally, I dont like a strict schedule but with weddings, at least two or three of those days have to be planned out a little. Another thing I could suggest is maybe hiring a wedding coordinator down here to execute your dream wedding. Some people think its a waste of money but it will give you a few less things to worry about and let you concentrate on other things.

Had a sensational week in St. John back in March 2004. Saved our last night for the highly recommended ZoZo and loved everything about it. Decor, view, menu, presentation, etc. Except for one inexcusable hitch: the waitress (who nearly made up for the following gaffe by being breathtakingly beautiful) put my wife's order in but somehow neglected to enter mine. Profuse apologies and a promise to have my tuna out in a matter of minutes proved to be an underestimation, so we chose to share each dinner as it arrived rather than keep the first one artificially hot while awaiting the other. To make up for this they brought out a dessert on the house without asking our preference - it was so rich and gooey (not our taste at all) that we sent it back. Would have much preferred a break on the bill!

Hi Chris,

We are planning to stay at Caneel Bay for one night in August (all we can afford, unfortunately) to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday. There will be the two of us, our two children aged 11 & 8 and two friends.
As someone who works at Caneel would you recomend a celebratory meal at Turtle Bay Estate House or Equator? What sort of money are we talking per head? Thanks in advance.

Well, I am not in charge of the money aspect of bookings at Caneel. You can keep it as low key as booking a reservation or as luxurious as reserving the famed wine room. Our menu for Turtle Bay Estate is arounf 15$ for apps, 10-12 for salads, and under fourty for entrees which is comparable to most high end fine dining on STJ. The facility at Turtle Bay is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. If you are interested in setting something up as far as a tasting menu or something, call caneel resort and ask to be connected to the executive chef(Raymond Henry) and tell him that I wrote you. I would strongly suggest Turtle Bay Estate over the Equator.