Can't tell you about anything on WI but there is a Pueblo Supermarket not far from the Crown Bay Marina (but too far to walk lugging a weeks worth of provisions) as you are heading to the Marina where you catch the ferry to WI. There is also a grocery store at the marina but VERY expensive to shop there. You may want to bring a cooler filled with frozen foods from home and cut your costs. The owner of your rental should be able to give advice on other WI related things. You may want to rent a car for the day and come to STT to shop.

I was on WI last week. Mermaid Villas is still under construction and not reliable as a place to stay. There are many rentals listed on vrbo.com. To provision a house I recommend Grocery Goddess. They have been very good in the past. The store at the marina is good for alcohol and fill-in items but can be pricey. The Dinghy Beach Bar has good lunches and dinners, and Heidi is open for lunch on the beach. If you want steaks or want to control cost bring a cooler full of frozen food with you; we do that every trip.

Still under construction??? We have been booked there since mid Summer and have reservations for 2 weeks in february. I hope that it is not still under construction because we have 8 people planning to stay there. According to the pictures, it looked like the Villas are complete and set up for rentals but i have wondered about the pool area and I have not seen any reviews on it. Hmmmmmm.

The best times to shop for groceries on STT is Tues., Wed., Thurs. as by Fri./weekends the fresh produce and other selections are pretty much picked over, wilted, molding or gone. Most groceries get fresh produce into their stores on Mondays/Tuesdays so plan your shopping trip around those days or you will have wasted a trip. Cost U Less has a pretty good selection for group shopping and meats at fairly reasonable prices. However, prices for groceries are high in the islands so it is good to bring meats/spices (which you can put in ziplock baggies and label), etc.

I looked up Mermaid Villas on the website and I was curious that it listed duty free shops (in STT not in WI) as well as ATM/bank, groceries , hospital, laundromat, massage therapist, medical services, Babysitter, fitness center plus some of the activities listed such as golf entails a trip to STT and are not available on WI, itself. At least to the best of my knowledge. Maybe someone living on WI may comment as to me, it gives the impression that those things are available on WI and doesn't entail a trip to STT to secure those activities or services.

I did note they mentioned a car available but the pool is a communal one you share with the other nearby rentals in complex and they did have a pic of it on the site. You may wish to contact the owner and get things straightened out.

Good Luck! Hope all will be well and you enjoy a wonderful vacation.

Full disclosure: I own a vacation rental home Flamingo Point USVI on Water Island.
I do recommend Grocery Goddess if you wish to engage a provisioning service for your stay on Water Island. I have used GG for provisioning a couple of times myself and many of our guests use GG. The last time I personnaly used them, we brought our own protein (steaks, bag-of-chicken, pork tenderloin, bacon, etc.) frozen in soft sided cooler and spices and coffee. (Bringing protein frozen in a soft sided cooler in your checked baggage has been discussed extensively in other posts on this forum so I won't go into that here.) I used GG for the "heavies".....meaning....case of [insert beverage here], bottles of liquor, milk, potatoes, etc. And then I just picked up the produce and other miscellaneous items myself at the Pueblo or Gourmet Gallery. Julie, the owner of GG, predominately shops at CostULess or Plaza Extra - which in my opinion are the least expensive grocery stores on STT. She might venture to other stores if you have a must-have very specific item. Julie does have a service charge for the provisioning (I just checked her web site -- 20% of the total grocery bill + $40 to deliver to the house (though she also does charge the $10 round trip ferry fee to/from Water Island). I guess at the end of the day it all boils down to time, money, convenience and which one is highest priority/more important for you and your crew.
http://www.grocerygoddesses.com/

If you'd like to avoid the additional cost of provisioning service, I always recommend that after you arrive at the airport and get to Crown Bay Marina, pick up from the Gourmet Gallery just those things that you and your crew might need for that evening and the next morning (drinks, snacks, lunchmeat, and whatever for breakfast). Then, the day after and more leisurely pace, a couple of volunteers could go across to STT and do the rest of the grocery shopping. We always have soft sided coolers and a rolling cart available at our home for our guests to make transporting groceries from Pueblo to Water Island a bit easier. And, there are always dock carts available for people to use at Phillips Landing on Water Island to get your groceries from the dock to your vehicle (golf cart, car, truck, whatever) if you wish to use them.

Regarding Pirate's Ridge, I understand they are still doing Friday-All-You-Can-Eat pizza. As for the convenience/deli, not sure that he's still doing that but you can contact the owner to verify. (Send a PM if you'd like his name and phone#)

Though I have not used it, there is an ATM machine at Dinghy's Beach Bar - as with most ATM machines, there is a fee associated for each transaction. Regarding Medical Services, only for emergencies. To my knowledge, 911 does not extend to Water Island. Made up of trained and certified volunteers, the Water Island Search and Rescue team (WISAR) are the First Responders for Water island medical emergencies. There is an ambulance on the island to transport injured or very ill persons to the ferry landing where St. Thomas rescue personnel can then take the patient to the Roy Schneider Hospital for treatment. The mobile phone is carried by the WISAR member on call. This number should only be used for emergencies. Phone # 340-642-5660. All non-emergencies need to get themselves to STT. There is a Doctor's Choice pharmacy just outside the Crown Bay pedistrian gate, right at the corner, across the street.

Heidi Honeymoon Grill does offer for sale t-shirts, beverage coolie's and bumper stickers. There is also a beach vendor who offers sea glass jewelry hand made by local artist. I am not aware of duty free shops, bank, grocery store , hospital, laundromat, massage therapist, non-emergency medical services, fitness center, or golf offering on WI. However, It is a challenge sometimes for owners on Water Island to fill out the standard "template" on sites like VRBO or HomeAway. I don't believe the owner meant to imply these activities were offered/available on Water Island - rather he meant that these activities can be easily accessible on STT.

I can tell you the pool was not completed as of a week ago. I would contact the owner directly.

halfman wrote:
I can tell you the pool was not completed as of a week ago. I would contact the owner directly.

Yikes! Yes, contact the owner immediately!

Islandshe, I sent you a PM.

Thank you.

islandshe,

Just wanted to update you. We are currently staying on water island and if you have not arrived or made alternative arrangements I would do so ASAP. We just drove up to pirates ridge because we were having trouble contacting Mark regarding pizza night. And the Mermaid Lagoon Villa's are no where near complete. I would honestly venture to guess they are many years away from being complete. I too saw them listed on VRBO and the pictures posted on there are either photoshopped, artist renderings, or taken from very selective locations because it currently looks nothing like what is posted online. Something fishy is definitely going on there.

I hope you can find an alternative arrangement, because Water Island is an amazing place. And most the people here are extremely friendly.

Good Luck

Islandshe - Please let us know how this turns out.

This is an update since several wanted to know how it turned out at Pirates Ridge /Mermaid Villas.
We arrived on Feb 2nd and as we suspected prior to leaving, found that the Mermaid Villas are completely under construction and not ready for guests.We asked Mark several times prior to leaving to refund our money if it was not complete and if the bad review on VRBO was true but he insisted that everything would be complete. I'm not real sure why Mark continues to rent his place and take guests there when he knows what the outcome will be like. I can only guess that it is so that he can collect the money.
It is nothing like depicted on VRBO and the pictures are definitely photoshopped or he just takes a picture of the sink which is a beautiful sink by the way. The problem is that he doesn't have running water for the sink or numerous other amenities listed.
I could go on and on about the bad experience with Mark on our first day on Water Island and will be glad to give more detail if
someone wants it but I would rather talk about all of the wonderful people on Water Island that helped us out.
Water Island has so many kind people and they all treated us so nice when they learned about our dilemma.Lisa and Giorgio Bertrand took us in at Acquavilla that night with only an IOU from Mark which he did end up paying by the end of the week. We were really lucky that they had an opening at the last minute. I could name so many of the people that helped us that night and throughout the week but I'm afraid that I will leave someone out. In a nutshell, we didn't let one bad apple spoil our experience at WI because 99% of the people there are very good and we absolutely loved our 2 week vacation after those first couple of days. I really can't say enough good things about WI and we will definitely go back for a visit. We will just be renting from one of the legitimate owners with good reviews next time. Lesson learned.

Wow. That's pretty amazing that the owner/manager would accept money for a rental that is not yet finished and allow people to arrive without making alternative arrangements in advance for their stay and comfort. Very bad business. Be sure to report it on the websites he advertises on. VRBO, Flipkey, Homeaway, Trip Advisor, etc. That's just not right especially since you gave him ample time to make sure things were as advertised!

So glad that you were able to meet great people and enjoy your stay despite the rocky start.

I have NEVER written negative review online before, but in this case I felt like I had a moral obligation to do so...This properties and all other properties listed by this individual are FRAUDULENT. The photos are ALL photoshopped. We arrived for our stay 1/4/14 and the units were NO WHERE near completion. He could not even let us in to this "Dolphin Suite". The other two units were uninhabitable. The pool has never held water.

The owner Mark apologized and told us he would refund our money. HE HAS NOT. It is mid-Feb. We have filed claims with Visa as well as Paypal and other agencies. We have it in WRITING that he will give us a full refund due to all of his units not being completed. We ran into other people who were supposed to stay here as well and lost ALL THEIR MONEY as the toilets in their units were not even installed or able to flush. AGAIN - photos are PHOTOSHOPPED!! BEWARE!

Wish I would have seen this forum BEFORE we spend our hard earned vacation money!!!