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