This is my first trip report, so please bear with me- I'll try to include as many details as I can and I apologize if it gets boring. Before I begin, I should warn you that we had what I'll call "small issues" throughout the week, but despite a visit to the ER and no luggage for 4 days, we'd be back to the islands in a heartbeat!

Day 1: Tuesday 2/13
My boyfriend and I (Mike) arrive at Logan Airport at 6am for a 7:30am flight on US Air- no problem, plenty of time to get through security. We board the plane on time and everything seems fine. Taxi out and the pilot comes on and says that there is a malfunctioning cooling fan and we have to go back to the terminal. Doesn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes- to repair the fan. We're off down the tarmac and the pilot comes on again and says, "when we taxied out the first time, visibility in Philadelphia (stopover) was 8 miles. Now it is only 1 1/2 miles and they're not accepting any incoming flights." We were afraid of this since the Northeast was experiencing it's first major snowfall of the season last week-- figures.....

We return to the terminal once again and this time we have to de-plane and our flight has been cancelled. Mike calls his friend Nate who is already on STJ. His girlfriend and sister are supposed to return to Boston today and we recommend that they check their flight status before going all the way to STT and being told to turn around. (The girls didn't end up getting out until late Wednesday afternoon.) Nate tells us that there is an 10am direct flight on American. We get to the US Air window and they re-book us on the 10am American flight. Whew! We not only got re-booked, we got a direct flight! We have to literally run through the terminal, across the parking lot and into the American terminal. Since US Air still has our luggage (more about that later), we are chosen for the extra-super-duper security pat-down. We are seated with a few minutes to spare, and the flight is uneventful.

We arrive in STT at 3pm. Mike and I grab our Rum Punch and head over to the American baggage office. We knew that since we switched airlines, we wouldn't have our luggage right away. We filed all of the paperwork and walk over to the Budget desk. We reserved a Jeep for the week through Budget as we are staying on STT but plan to visit STJ. We waited over 2 hours to get our Jeep.... They kept telling us "10 more minutes, 10 more minutes." We kept telling ourselves that we're on vacation, there's no hurry. We finally get the Jeep and Budget gives us a 20% discount for making us wait so long. That makes it a little better to bear.

From the airport we head to KMart at TuTu to pick up the necessities since we won't have our luggage until, at the soonest, Wednesday. One swimsuit each, pair of shorts and the necessary toiletry items came to over $130 for both of us- ouch!

From KMart we finally head to Sapphire Beach (I took the chance after considering many opinions on this board). We arrive and get settled in our condo in building D on the beach. Beautiful view! It is about 7pm at this point and we are wiped out. We order pizza from Senor Pizza. We get 2 pizzas and keep one for Mike's breakfast (yuck). 2 pizzas and a 2 liter of (flat) Diet Pepsi is $34 plus delivery tip. I jump into the shower and the hot water knob falls off in my hand- uh oh, can't turn off the hot water..... We call the on-island contact and he arrives quickly with pliers and a promise to to return the following day with a new knob.

Mike wakes me up at about midnight and says that he can't move and his back is hurting terribly. He did something to it before we left but it had been okay- until he had to sit on an airplane for 5 hours. We call the travel assistance service he has through work and they tell us to go to the emergency room. We arrive at Schneider Hospital around 12:45 and are the only ones waiting! The nurse calls us (who is from MA too) and Mike is evaluated, given a shot, Vicodin and scripts for Motrin and muscle relaxers and we're on our way. We're back in bed by 2am. Not too bad!

Wednesday 2/14 Valentine's Day
We wake up early and start making calls to track down our luggage. Neither American nor US Air can tell us where it is or when we can expect it. To cut them some slack, many of the east coast airports cancelled tons of flights due to the weather. We take a break from our calls and head to Red Hook so Mike can get his scripts filled and we do a little shopping. We return to the condo and make some more calls for the luggage. Still nothing. Ugh. Now we're getting frustrated.

At this point I'm considering canceling our Valentine's Day dinner reservation at Robert's American Grille (also a recommendation from this board). I called and they really don't have a dress code so we can wear our KMart shorts and t-shirts to dinner. How romantic. Dinner was delicious and they gave every lady a rose for V-Day. This was also my first experience with noseeums. Unfortunately my bug spray was in my missing luggage.... After dinner we return to the condo for the night. Oh and the hot water knob is still not fixed.

I'll continue with Part II, but let me know if I'm including too many details.

New Englander