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Trip Report: Jan. 16-23rd Frenchman's Reef Marriott St. Thomas
Bear with me this will probably become a novel!
We actually left Illinois on the 15th to drop kids of to my parents in Naples, FL. Next day & 4 flights later we arrived in STT around 3pm. Got to hotel, our room was in the east wing bottom floor w/walkout patio. View blocked by trees/foliage. Went explored the hotel grounds and then went to hotel's Sunset Grill & Bar for a few drinks and meet some fellow dealer's on this trip. Our company arranged a Welcome Buffet with open bar at poolside with live entertainment.Watcehed all the cruise ships leaving port. We had a Cariibean chicken dish, MahiMahi, and other island dishes. Tried the Voodoo Juice(6 shots of rum with a splash of juice). Got to know a lot of fellow pool dealer's also on this trip. After buffet, headed to Duffy's Love Shack. Had a great time and drank too much rum.
Mon. 17th: Got up and went for a walk-Queen Mary II was anchored right off the hotel's point. Then to Havensight to get Harry some boardshorts.Skipped breakfast, hungover with a voodoo juice hangover! Back at hotel by 10am to go to Coral World for SNUBA
(the company gave us excursion choices to gon which they paid for). SNUBA is like scuba, you have a respirator but it is attached to a 20-30' hose and the tanks float on the surface in a raft. You are instructed briefly on land, then go to Coki Beach where you get in the water and practice. Harry did'nt do so well, his mustache wouldn't allow the mask to seal properly and he kept getting water in it. Me, Harry, Jake,& Jessica are on 1 raft, the rest of the 6 people were on another one. We got out and Harry's mask took on water and when he tried to purge it out and it filled up completely and then he inhaled seawater. The instructor had to push him to the surface!LOL! He decided he's stay up top and steer the raft for us after that. After SNUBA, we checked out Coral World. When we got back to hotel we hung out at Morningstar Beach until time to dress for dinner. Our dinner group went to Bella Blue in Frenchtown(Our company split the 300+ people up into groups for two night's of dining out). It was a small place and there were 24 people in our dinner group. The place was not in a scenic location. We had a planned menu because our company was footing the bill. Appetizer choice soup or calamari. I had calamari and it was fantastic. Dinner: herb crusted salmon, sundried tomato ravioli, or gorgonzola/spinach chicken. I had the ravioli, Harry had the chicken, some of our friends had the salmon. It was all pretty decent fare, but not extraordinary. They did have some great artwork on the walls by local artists. All in all, it was an ok place but I'll skip it next trip.
Tues 18th: Got up and had the hotel"s breakfast buffet(our company footed breakfast everyday too) This was fantastic! They put out everything: made to order omelets, fresh fruit-every kind, every kind of bagel pastry, toast, muffins, donuts, cereal pancakes, waffles you can imagine,plus the usual bacon, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict, sausage, grtis/gravy, AND lox & bagels. The do this every morning! Hung out by the pool til it was time to go on our othe rexcursion choice. We chose a half day catamaran sail/snorkel trip to Buck Island on the "Dancing Dolphin". Nicole, Doug, Tim , & Roger are the crew. We saw a lot of sea tutles when we snorkeled. Doug brought up some live sanddollars and starfish to show us as well. They provided us a lunch of deli meats/cheeses and some salads and chips and dips. Beer, soda, and 3 dif kinds of rum punches were also provided. Harry forgot to bring a hat and the sunscreen so his head got fried. On the way back to hotel, the crew put a "Dancing Dolphin" tattoo on everybody. Doug insisted Harry have his on the back of his head! It was Baq rep Chris B-day, Nicole insisted he do not 1 but 2 snorkel bongs filled with....rum of course! That night our dinner group went to the Blue Moon Cafe on Sapphire Beach. EXCELLENT!!! Open air restaurant right on the beach with a fabulous view, the cruise ships go by here as well. The food was great! I had MahiMahi, Harry had the London Broil, the other choice was a pasta dish. I would go eat here again! Afterwards, (here is where I got into trouble) we were supposed to meet Islander, Marty, etc. at Sibs. I had thought it was scheduked for Wed. Night and when I called Marty it had already wrapped up for the evening. We ended up going to CoCo Joe's at the hotel and hanging with our dinner group/trip friends sarah, Bart,Elaine, Nathan, Jim, and Ron til they closed for the night.
Wed. 19th: Had breakfast, watched the cruise ships come in and then took the hotell ferry to Charlotte Amalie to shop. Marty met us at the Harley shop and then took us on an island tour. He took us up to Paradise Point where we met his friend Sean of the Pirate's Chest , we bought some cool treasure coin jewlry. Replicas made from silcwer from the Atocha for me and our kids and ana authentic 1669 coin for Harry. Then Marty took us to mmet his wife Tiffany at Havensight where she does the B.O.B. subs. From there to a lookout above Charlotte, then Drake's Seat, Moutaintop, Marty's house, and Indigo's for lunch, then back to Paradise Point. We rode the lift back to Hvensight, stopped T bIker John's for a dink and then to Shipwreck where we met the VI weatherman SuperDave. Back to hotel for the Farewell reception, and again hung out at CoCo Joe's.
Thurs. 20th: Breakfast and Back to Charlotte Amalie and Havensight for more shopping. Ate lunch at Shipwreck then back to hotel and hung around beach/pool til evening. That evening went to a pub called Bobby's in Drake's Passage. Watched SuperDave throw on his dart league and then went to the Greenhouse with him andf his wife Barbara. Then back to Shipwreck and then Barbara dropped us off at hotel on her way home.
Fri 21st: Got up early with horrible hangover. Left hotel at 6:30 am to go to marina to get on the New HorizonII BVI trip. Virgin Gorda- the Baths- freakin awesome! Pictures do not do justice to this place-INCREDIBLE! Then Marina Cat (Cuervo Island) for lunch at Pusser's-very good food. I had jerk chicken wraps. Then to Guana Islan to snorkel-we saw barracuda. Then to Jost Van Dyke-Soggy Dollar Bar. I fell in love with the beach at this place! Absolutely beautiful! I could have stayed there forever! Unfortuantely we had to go back evetually. We were wiped out after that day, went and ate at the Greenhouse and listened to the band there for awhile then called it an early night and went back to hotel.
Sat. 22nd: Breakfast and cruise ships, hung at beach and pool all day, ate an early dinner at CoCO Joes, and to bed early.
Sun. 23rd Breakfast, hung out at pool/beach til we had to leave at 1:30 pm to catch our 3:48 flight back home.
I absolutely love the Virgin Islands and was happy to find out our company is going to do this trip yearly! I'm already working on points so I can do this nezxt year free again! I met a lot of great people! I have pics for viewing as well. Like this report, I went overboard. Some might find them tedious, repetitive, and even offensive but I posted them for the benefit of my friends who were on the company trip as well, so I'll aopolgize now for those of you who don't like them. Hope this report is helpful to some of you, or gets a giggle or two from the rest!
pictures @: http://www.shutterfly.com/view/pictures.jsp?pg=0&nm=670de21b327c2fa45a4
also in a day or two i'll have the pics from my underwater camera on there-i haven't got those back from developer yet.
Tam
Thanks for the great trip report. I tried to view your pictures but the site is asking me to log in. Did you post the whole url to your pictures?
if you want to view the pics, type in the password "tteurp".
also the other album posted there is pics of mysister's trip to australia, feel free to look at those too.........
also go to dancingdolphin.com they post pics of all the excursions they do,some of ours are on there as well.
apolgies to all, i just reviewed my report and am apalled at all the typos and misspellings!
Another thing I forgot to mention, the day after we got there, we had our room change because the air conditioner was leaking all over the floor, so they moved us 4 floors and the view of Morningstar Beach was fabulous! I can't say enough about the treatment we received at this place even though it was a company trip and all paid for by them. The staff was friendly, helpful, and really went out of hteir way to make sure every guest was happy and satisfied!
One last thing, feedback on this report would be great. Let me know if it was helpful or horrible!
Tam..excellent trip report! I loved all 398 of your pictures.
I felt I was on a tour. You didn't miss a beat. You took pictures of everything. You and Harry look like you had wonderful trip!!!
Those igauanas looked scary. The fish,St Thomas,BVI the boat photos
all were wonderful. Excellent job, You sure captured many Kodax moments. I even enjoyed the "full moon" picture. I could go on about your pictures. The Baths......the ships....the views....
It was great to see where you went on the NHII trip.I can't wait to go. I was excited before but now I know what to expect.
In case I missed something to rave about,the pictures were outstanding and I Thank you for sharing your trip and photos!!
59 more days......
Grace
P.S. Marty is cute...So is his wife....
I like your trip report.
I love your photo journal.
Thank you 🙂
Colo Boy
Excellant trip report Tam!! Thanks!! The pictures were incredible!Is it ok to copy some of those pictures from you? I was at some of those places, but wasn't as good a photographer as you! Or, didn't get the camera out for the picture!
You looked like you had alot of fun! What company do you work for??? I wanna job there! Quick before they send you back!!
Looks like the rum got to a few people in your group!! By the time we had fun with the alcohol, our pictures didn't come out that good!! Maybe we need a better camera...or less rum!!
tell me what pictures you want and i'll email them too you! and thanks for the feedback! i run my parents pool/spa store. the trip was through one of our pool/spa chemical (baquacil/baqua spa) suppliers and they've decided to do this trip every year! can't wait til next year! thanks again for the feedback!
tam
Tammy, really enjoyed your trip report and pictures. We stayed at the Marriott in a room right on the pool back in Aug. Our daughter got married on the beach at the point in front of the tennis courts. Your pictures sure bring back some good memories. The next time Harry goes snorkling, tell him to put a big heavy smear of vaseline on his moustache. It will seal up the mask and keep the water out. It's an old diver's trick, but works really well. Thanks again for the report.
Tammy:
Great Trip Report.
F.I.
My question is did you swim in when you were at the Baths?
It looks like you all took an open taxi. And how many were on you boat that day?
Thanks,
Grace
great pics!!!!
Great Pictures - thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing Tam! Great pics too! I say we all stay at Marty's B/B! Just Kidding! Looks like you all had a GREAT time. Can't wait another day June is just toooooooooo far away! UGH.....
Thanks again for warming up my day!
🙂
at the vigin gorda we taxi'd to the baths, got in the surf and splashed around a bit, the place was jam packed, i mean having to wait for right of way to crawl through some of the spots, i'd like to go back without a group to do a little more exploring, seemed like we were only there for like 30 min. i believe there were about 16 of us plus the 2 crew members. i would have rather have skipped the snorkelling and spent more time at the baths and more tim at jost van dyke as we had snorkelled buck island and SNUBA at coki beach, but it was great and worth the money regardless.
tam
ps. thanks for everyone's feedback, posting underwater pics tonight probably, just got them today!
From the pictures I can tell you had a GREAT time. Thanks for sharing. Great review!
--Islander
Thanks Islander, THAT means a lot from you!
Tam! Blue Moon Cafe was on the beach at Secret Harbour, last time I checked! 😉 Also, I have to say that when a group does a set menu, like you had a Bella Blu, I don't think you get the best that the restaurant has to offer. Bella Blu has some wonderful Mediterranean and Austrian food (schnitzel, etc.) The Frenchtown experience is fun- lots of bar and restaurant hopping going on. (Just to give the other side of the story!)
thnks for the correction on blue moon cafe location. and i agree with the select menu thing, i'm sure tha bella blu has some wonderful dishes, i just thought the place was too small fro a large group dining together, there were at least 24 of us and we couldn't be all seated together and the service was a little slow. i wish we had had the time to do a little bar hopping in frenchtown that night!
blue moon had us at 2 tables, food and service were excellent, as well as the atmosphere/view!
OK - I must be stupid or something if everyone else can view the pictures. Site is asking for an e-mail address as well as the password. Help!
