My wife and I just returned from getting married on Magen's Bay last week and after getting quite a bit of good info from this board I thought I'd give a short report of our trip.

We stayed at the Marriott using reward points and with an upgrade we were given a nice 2 story suite with two bathrooms on the top floor. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give the Marriott a 7. It was a nice hotel, but I wouldn't say it was a great, or world-class hotel. Had we payed the going rate (we were told it would be around $700 a night) we would have been disappointed, since we used rewards points it was not a big deal. The food at the hotel is nothing special and is pricey. The best spot was Coco Joe's which has some more variety. Havana Blue on the other hand, which is independently operated, was excellent. The service, food, drinks, etc. were all great, the staff were friendly and helped us out with our plans and the view was perfect. It isn't cheap, but it is worth it. Lotus Lounge in Red Hook, also owned by the same people as Havana Blue, was very good also. It isn't sushi like you'd get at a sushi place but more of a hybrid of styles.

We rented a car from Hertz and got a tiny Honda which was great for getting around the island and parking. A little sluggish on some of the hills but otherwise a good move. It made it much easier to get around, plan our days, and in the end was cheaper than using cabs.

Neither of us had been to St. Thomas before, and to be honest, we weren't overly impressed with the island. The beaches are incredible, some of the best I've been to, but the island itself reminded be of Jamaica - dirty. STT was also more "touristy" than we were expecting and not as relaxing. On the other hand - St. John was beautiful and much more what we were expecting. One hour on that island and we felt a 100x more relaxed. If we were to return, we would definitely stay on St. John instead. We did Trunk and Cinnamon bays and both were gorgeous, the snorkeling was great especially considering the amount of rain and wind there was a few days earlier. Saw a sea turtle, a few barracudas, and a ton of other tropical fish.

We waited for a day when only 1 cruise ship was in port to go shopping and it was a lot better than when there was a bunch of ships like the day we arrived. Avoid downtown when the ships are in, the traffic and congestion is insane, and this is from someone in southern California who deals with traffic everyday.

I was surprised by the attitude of the locals, which was cool to say the least. There definitely is an underlying tension between the locals and tourists. Not so much that it makes you feel unsafe or to ruin anything, but it is just a vibe I got. In my trips to Mexico I always try to talk in Spanish and meet locals, I even had a bartender take me to the airport because we had become friends while staying in Manzanillo, but in St. Thomas it was hard to engage a local in a conversation for any length of time.

There is a lot more, but I'm already rambling. All in all, a great trip, we learned a lot and would like to go back and give St. John a try for a week.