This is part one of my trip report..I wanted to get this part posted for the people who told me they are going to Emerald Beach this week. Hope I posted it in time for you..

US & BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS TRIP REVIEW – 12/2004

Part 1

GETTING THERE:

Flights found 3 weeks prior to departure through Orbitz.com

Airline used: American Airlines. Tulsa to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, Miami to San Juan, San Juan to St. Thomas. Return legs: St. Thomas to Miami, Miami to Dallas, Dallas to Tulsa.

No notable problems with American until we arrived in San Juan. There was a 3 hour delay with our connecting Eagle flight to St. Thomas. Flight was scheduled to leave at 7:35 p.m. The plane didn’t arrive at San Juan until 9:30. After boarding and all the checks and weight shifting re-arranging that is done on the small Eagle planes, it finally departed San Juan at around 10:30. The AA Eagle touched down roughly (literally bouncing the plane back into the air a couple of times) around 11:15 p.m., over two hours later than the scheduled arrival time, causing us to miss the rental car agent. Picked up the luggage only to find that our daughter’s suitcase was missing. No one knew where it could possibly be. We were told to just fill out the form and if they found it, it would be sent to our hotel. So we took a $15.00 taxi ride 2 blocks to the resort. After trying in vain to find any information out the next day about the suitcase, we resigned ourselves to the fact that it was gone and we would have to replace all of our daughter's clothing for the trip. So, a trip to K-mart and $300 later, we were ready to start the vacation. The missing suitcase showed up 5 days later.

ACCOMODATIONS

Best Western Emerald Beach Resort. Check-in Date: 12/20/2003

This beachfront resort is located literally 2 blocks (3 minutes by Taxi) from the airport.

We checked in at 11:50 p.m. Saturday night. The girl at the check-in desk didn’t acknowledge us until 5 minutes after we walked in the front door. She stood at the desk continuing to total receipts on the calculator. When she finally got around to looking us up on the computer and assigning our room we were too tired to argue about the need for a non-smoking room. We did get a room on the 3rd floor (there are only 3 levels total). All rooms are identical at the Emerald Beach, all with oceanfront, large balconies or patios. Upon entering the room, the first thing we did was check out the air conditioner and the water pressure in the shower because those are two things most often complained about in other reviews. The air seemed to work well (very noisy, but this became a plus because of some airplane noise as well as my husband’s snoring). The water pressure in the shower wasn’t great, but it was adequate..(you’re on vacation!!!). Flushing the toilet, one had to hold the handle down for a count of 5 to get an adequate flush. Once we remembered that, there was no problem.
Now, the smoking room issue. I always try to request non-smoking rooms. We don’t smoke and don’t appreciate going home with all our things smelling like we do. Most hotels say they can’t guarantee a non-smoking room, however, we usually use a medical excuse (I won’t say what here) that usually guarantees us a non-smoking room. Not the case at the Emerald Beach. In order to be moved to a non-smoking room, the manager said we would have to wait until 3:00 the next afternoon and then she only had a room on the second floor. My husband was adament about not losing the 3rd floor room view so we opted to remain in the smoking room. To those who are truly allergic to smoke: BEWARE. These are very smelly rooms. The smoke is not only in all the bedding, etc..it is in the furniture and the ventilation system, so when the air-conditioning comes on, it is like being in a small smoky bar. I would even say that the smoking rooms at the Emerald Beach Resort are WORSE than the smoking rooms in the Vegas hotels. I had to wash everything TWICE once we got home.

The floors are tiled which is good, and bad. They get really sandy and if you’re not careful, they can get really slippery. Housekeeping seemed to do a great job of cleaning them every day however, even sweeping off the balcony. (See additional housekeeping comments below). The rooms are fairly large. They have adequate drawer space. Irons and ironing boards are supposed to come with the room, however, our room did not have an ironing board. One was delivered when I requested it however. There are large in-room safes requiring keyed in codes. We used the safe every day (there is a $1.00 per day charge fee for this) to store my husband’s laptop computer, mini-camcorder, digital camera, several wallets and misc. jewelry. The TV worked fine (satellite so there were a few freeze ups, but who watches TV there anyway?). The internet is dial-up in-room so that did us no good, but if you want the DSL, you have to go to the office at $5.00 for 30 minutes. The bathrooms are small and a bit awkward in their design. If one is sitting on the toilet, they can expect to get smacked into with the door. My husband and I (neither of which is a large person) could not both stand at the vanity at the same time. The shower has a dispenser with Shampoo/Conditioner and a Shower gel. We used neither, since we weren’t sure the last time it had been cleaned out. There were only 3 bath towels, two washcloths and two hand towels that seemed to be standard issue on a daily basis. This was not adequate for our family of 3, especially since we were showering every day. We requested more from housekeeping. The view from the balcony was great. We did have one large tree that partially blocked our view, but we grew to be fond of it since it housed the rooster couple that woke us up every morning as well as it offering a bit of privacy from the beachgoers. The only real complaints of the room would have to be the smoke smell, the vent in the bathroom didn’t work, the water pressure was very low (but I suspect it’s that way throughout the Islands) and two of the lamps didn’t work. Yes, we could have requested new bulbs, but the pace at which things are done on the Islands, it could have been the last day before we received them.

HOUSEKEEPING: Here’s my general take on hotel housekeeping. If one is spending 150 + per night for a room (and that is a modest rate for most hotels), than one should have no problem leaving at least 5 dollars a day for housekeeping. I know that I for one, would not want that job. I can only respect the people who do this for a living. If you want something extra than fork over a couple of extra bucks. When I left a nice tip we got excellent service and even had our tissue box topped with pretty tissue “fans”. The linens were changed daily (I marked them to be sure) and the extra pillows were left on the bed on which they were obviously being used.

HOTEL RESTAURANT/BEACH BAR:

The Palms: This is a typical example of a “hotel” restaurant. The best thing I can say about The Palms? The openness and view of the water was great. The worst thing? Outrageous prices on very limited dinner menu.

A complimentary continental breakfast buffet is served every morning in the restaurant. The same food was offered daily (and I mean, it was possibly LITERALLY the same food offered again and again). The fruit offering was always watermelon. Individual cereal boxes with our choice of Raisin Bran or Frosted flakes (doesn’t matter which one you choose, they’ll both be stale). Yogurt that looked way too lumpy to me (my crazy husband ate it though) and granola bits to sprinkle on top. Orange juice and milk in pitchers. Breads: Various sliced breads (all stale), English muffins you toasted yourself using the commercial type conveyor toaster (people don’t understand the concept of this toaster so only use it if you’re the ONLY one standing there cause other people will handle YOUR muffin). Burned blueberry muffins (I think they were blueberry). Pats of real Butter, no margarine or cream cheese. Do yourself a favor and shell out the money for a real breakfast (away from the hotel) or buy your own breakfast stuff and keep it in your room fridge.

Lunch seemed to be better. We got a couple of Palm Clubs while we were hanging out on the beach. I think we paid 10 bucks each for a sandwich and fries.

Dinner at The Palms: Just don’t do it. The menu is VERY limited and expensive. The food is way overcooked and of course, it took forever for it to be served. We ate dinner there once because it was convenient and we just wanted to try it.

Beach Bar: This is just a tiny tiki hut. No one was there at night. People gathered on Monday night for the free rum punch and wings that are offered to hotel guests. Then it quickly cleared out. The only good thing about the Beach Bar is Sam. He makes a good drink. Tip Sam well...you will only need HALF the drinks you normally would buy, if you know what I mean...

If you are hanging out on the beach or are just too tired to go anywhere offsite to eat (or if you don’t have 3 hours to take a taxi somewhere), trod on down the beach to the hotel next to Emerald Beach, The Beachcomber. They have a GREAT bar and it is more lively at night and the restaurant serves good food too. Avril is a nice, efficient waitress. They decorated the whole hotel nicely with Christmas lights and lighted mechanical deer and they had wreaths on all the room doors.

The BEACH is GREAT! The water was always warm and calm. One could walk out pretty far too without going under! It is perfect for smaller children. The beach seemed to be pretty clean. The chairs are pretty comfy. Get up early and throw your stuff down on a couple to claim them though...no one messed with our towels (heck, I even left a bag with my watch and other things in it). They give you towels at the lobby desk, but bring your own beach towels or do what we did, buy em at K-mart cheap. There were a few cigarette butts in the sand, etc...but I don't blame the hotel for that. I don't understand why smokers think it's perfectly ok to put out their cigarettes in the sand and then just leave them there. We went to Coki beach (more on that in the next part) and Magen's Bay and ended up leaving Magen's Bay because we much preferred the hotel beach. Didn't seem to be many locals there either at our hotel beach, just a few on the weekend. (All beaches in VI are public by law).

A word of warning: If you hate roosters, then think about staying somewhere other than Emerald Beach. There is a couple (we named them Ritchie and Rita Rooster) who live on the beach. They ate potato chips and Funyuns. They hung out in the tree directly in front of our 3rd floor balcony and Ritchie served as our alarm clock every morning. This didn't bother us and it just tickled my daughter, she felt like she had her own personal pet for the week.

Part 2 coming soon...

Joanna