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We are a groups of 7 staying at Villa Agel near Coral Bay in March. We can't wait! One of the last things our groups wants to do with this precious vacation is spend a lot of time getting groceries. Can anyone recommend a reasonable food stocking service?
Also, we are restaurant owners, and thought about shipping a few cases of wine down. Are the prices pretty high on the island? Think it is worth doing that?
Has anyone stayed at Villa Agel?
We rented through Catered To as the villa agency.
In there stuff they have sent they provided this link for provisioning if you so choose
www.katilady.com
We are not sure what we are going to do about provisioning. I know nothing about them, but it is a start and will give you a comparssion
Provisioning can be very pricey and then you are stuck with what they find for you. I think that you will find that in Cruz bay you will find some great food shopping for a small island. While you may not find all the wines that you want, you can certainly find some great ones and the prices will not be as bad as you think. I would not risk shipping wine, you just never know with your shipping options to the VI.
Get a booze order from mixology delivered to your villa and have Christy's drop off some food for your first night. Send half your group to Cruz Bay the morning after you get there and stock up with things that you really like and save the extra money for fabulous meals out at night.
I know that many people are willing to pay for the convenience, but I really like to hvae my own choices. I would rather spend my money on great dinners out and maybe some jewlery too.
Mixology is a great recommendation! Thanks! I just checked out their website. An essay contest to win the business ??? wow! I had better keep my husband away from there. Or maybe not 🙂
Our other big dilema is the car rental thing. Right now we are renting in St. Thomas and hope to get on a ferry. We will be shooting for the 5pm or 7pm, so that late in the day makes us kind of nervous we wont make it to the other side on a Saturday. Well, what's the worst that can happen...we leave the cars in Red Hook and take a passenger ferry over and then come back and get them in the morning. Right?
I tried booking on lovecity's online site but I keep getting an error. Has anyone else been able to do it? http://www.onlinebookinglovecitycarferries.com
PS - I am currently house-bound in 12 inches of snow in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. I'm ready for this vacation!
Ideas:
We generally pack a soft sided cooler on the morning of our flight frozen meats/fish that we've purchased from Sam's Club or BJ's or whatever. The big bag of chicken breasts, burgers, steaks, shrimp, pork loin, etc. All are still frozen by the time we get to our house on Water Island. We unpack and load into the freezer. Then, every morning while we're having coffee on the deck we discuss what everyone feels like for dinner. We pull the selected item out of the freezer and by dinner time - it's ready to be grilled. We shop dairy, produce, beer, liquor, wine, soft drinks, bottled water, etc. at either Pueblo or Gourmet Gallery. If you have multiple couples going, have a Trip Planning get-together a couple weeks before you go. Accomplishes a couple of thngs.....builds excitement, you talk about meal planning/preferences (even "assign" a meal of their preference to cook for the group on whatever evening which avoids the same individual(s) getting roped into doing all the meal preparation, cooking, etc.), and couples can buy there or bring with whatever meal they've accepted responsibility for.
Another idea: I think there's a couple of ladies called the "Grocery Goddess" (?) that provide provisioning. You fax them a list. If you have a preferred brand name (e.g., Heinz ketchup, Hellman Mayonaise) then you should note it and they will buy that brand....may not be the least cost option but you have to weigh your priority of preferred brand versus cost. I tried searching for article on VI Daily News or St. Source but couldn't find the article I thought I remembered seeing. Maybe someone on the board has the information on these ladies. (I understand from word of mouth that they provide great service at reasonable cost on both STT and STJ.)
o.k., I just googled and found the following web site
http://www.grocerygoddesses.com/
Your best bet is not to prebook the car ferry because you have to wait for that one to show up just get there get in line and pay for a one way trip if you pay for a round trip you end up waiting for that same ferry again
Villa Agel has it's own website where they list reviews and also give some e-mails of people who have stayed there. I was looking at the villa for this May and got a response back from one of the people. Check it out. She also sent some pictures. I can see if I stil have them. e-mail me and I will send them to you if I have them
susan
