Westin St John [Master Thread] - Part 2 (June 2014 and forward)

For car ferry, the latest leaving Red Hook is 7 pm.

SMHarman said:

So what's the latest you can arrive at STT to get over to StJohn?

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If you signed up for the Westin ferry, and your plane is delayed, they'll pay for a water taxi to get you over, no matter what time of the night.

If you're on STT doing your own thang, then midnight is the last public ferry from Red Hook, though you're welcome to arrange private water ferries anytime of the day or night. It ain't cheap, though!

https://www.seeski.com/water-taxis/
http://www.stthomaswatertaxi.com/ <-- after hours is their specialty, acc to their website

LisaRex said:

If you signed up for the Westin ferry, and your plane is delayed, they'll pay for a water taxi to get you over, no matter what time of the night.

If you're on STT doing your own thang, then midnight is the last public ferry from Red Hook, though you're welcome to arrange private water ferries anytime of the day or night. It ain't cheap, though!

https://www.seeski.com/water-taxis/
http://www.stthomaswatertaxi.com/ <-- after hours is their specialty, acc to their website

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Thanks. I'm thinking we won't need a car for the full 12 nights so may be better off with the ferry and some blocks of rental on St John.

We also have friends coming for some of the day's. Maybe they bring a car over. That said. I don't see many 7 seat cars.

And these jeeps can all be remotely hijacked now!

July 2015 WSJ-VGV Owners Update from HOA

July 2015

Dear Fellow Virgin Grand Villas Owner:

We recently participated in a meeting of the Board of Directors of our Association. This meeting, like most of the quarterly meetings, was held by conference call; only the meeting that takes place immediately after the annual meeting of the association is a face-to-face meeting. This is a relatively short report, reflecting the fact that things are going very well at our resort and there were not a lot of issues to discuss this time.

SVO Changing Its Name

As you may have read in the news, and as we reported in April, Starwood is spinning off Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO) as a new, publicly-traded company. It will be called Vistana Signature Experiences. According to the public records, Starwood and Vistana have agreed that the Westin brand name for our resort will be maintained for at least 80 years. In addition, several resorts in Colorado, Mexico and Hawaii are being added to the Vistana system, providing more opportunities for internal exchange (but who would ever want to exchange out of the Westin St. John?)

Resort Renovation

Our General Manager, Mike Ryan, reported that the recent renovations are now nearly complete. The sidewalk along the main road has been completed and the new dock should be in place by the end of August. Unfortunately, no restaurant has yet agreed to move into the space vacated by Cruz Bay Prime, but Mr. Ryan continues to try to find a suitable tenant.

Financial Report

As you know, since the recession hit in 2008, we have had a problem with delinquent accounts. Owners who pay their maintenance fees on time have had to pay more to meet our fixed costs as a result. We have been foreclosing on unit weeks for which owners were not paying their fees and as we recover unit weeks, we offer them for sale at bargain prices to existing owners in order for our Association to then receive the maintenance fee revenues going forward. As a result, the rate of collection of current year maintenance fees is 93.2 percent as of May 31, better than in the last two years. We are continuing to foreclose on unit weeks of delinquent owners, so we hope that this trend will continue.

Next Bargain Sale

Watch your email for the next bargain sale of unit weeks, probably by the end of August. At least 60 unit weeks will go on sale at eye-popping prices, some as low as $500. Proceeds go to the Association, not to Starwood.

Morning Coffee Service

Some owners expressed dismay that the Mango Deli moved to the area near the dock, making it more difficult to sit outside and enjoy morning coffee and pastry. It seems prohibitively expensive, however, to build and operate a coffee kiosk closer to the lobby, now that there is no longer a banquet kitchen near the meeting rooms. However, the Marketplace (the replacement for the Mango Deli) is only a four minute walk from the lobby, and we have been assured that owners and guests are welcome to take their coffee and pastry in the morning to the tables at Snorkels and enjoy a much better view than they used to have at the Mango Deli. (Also, copies of the island version of the New York Times, including the crossword puzzle, are available at the towel kiosk as well as at the lobby).

Freecycle Shed

Stocking of the freecycle shed (on the left side of the road leading to the hillside villas) remains sporadic. At the time of the annual meeting in April, there were about ten beach chairs in the shed, along with a lot of play equipment. When Phil was vacationing at the resort in June, there were only two, and very few children’s sand toys. We want to remind owners to enjoy the equipment in the shed, but please do not leave it in your villas or at a beach–return it to the shed at the end of your stay for others to use.

Upcoming Election
Next year marks another election year for the Association as Phil’s current term of service as a director will expire as of the Annual Meeting. SVO will soon be sending an email communication to owners inviting those who are interested in serving on the Board to submit their application for consideration. Please monitor your email accordingly.

All our best,

Philip G. Schrag
phil.schrag@gmail.com

Robert H. Werbel
robert.werbel@yahoo.com

I'm interested in the bargain sale. Do they ever offer EOY units? Will I just get an email with what's offered?

tammymacb said:

I'm interested in the bargain sale. Do they ever offer EOY units? Will I just get an email with what's offered?

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Yes, they have offered EOY in the past.
You will get an email - but available villas are not posted until request period opens. (iirc)

Thanks! I appreciate the info.

tammymacb said:

I'm interested in the bargain sale. Do they ever offer EOY units? Will I just get an email with what's offered?

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You need to be an owner already though.

I am. I own a two bedroom hillside villa.

No mention of 2016 M/F...hope it stays the same.

LisaH said:

No mention of 2016 M/F...hope it stays the same.

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See previous update - VGV MFs to increase because WSJ-CV decreases the number of 'doors' resulting in an increase of what VGV contributes to the Main Resort.

CV pricing

We were offered the following during our recent Owner's update:

Resort Season
- 148,100 point package (converts to 80K SPG) - $38,100, 50K SPG signup bonus

and variations of that offer at lower point packages, etc

We picked up a WSJ Explorer Package (100K SPG points, 5 nights or 70K SPG points if converted instead) for a return stay (May1-Dec15 in the next 2yrs) in a 2BR villa including ferry passes for two. The $4K price can be used towards no more than 10% of a purchase from the developer.

This is our 3rd Explorer package, each one named differently ("West", "East", "St John"), which may correlate with the "limit" of how many you can buy...

More restaurants

Vista Mare (upstairs from Water Front Bistro I think) -- good simple Italian food, WAY better than Da Livio. No owner freebies. V/MC/AX.

Virgin Fire -- good food, you either get an appetizer or a dessert with the owner card. V/MC/AX. Probably took WSD as well (can't remember).

The ice cream place at the far end of Mongoose Junction was pretty good. Cash only.

And we did Lemongrass for another breakfast and a dinner. Three times is enough that you've done the highlights of the small menu I think.

And finally, my opinion, the $3 fried chicken at the "deli" in St John Market across the road combined with the $4 potato salad at the "deli" at the on-site Marketplace makes a pretty good flavourful lunch.

YYJMSP said:

Vista Mare (upstairs from Water Front Bistro I think) -- good simple Italian food, WAY better than Da Livio. No owner freebies. V/MC/AX.

Virgin Fire -- good food, you either get an appetizer or a dessert with the owner card. V/MC/AX. Probably took WSD as well (can't remember).

The ice cream place at the far end of Mongoose Junction was pretty good. Cash only.

And we did Lemongrass for another breakfast and a dinner. Three times is enough that you've done the highlights of the small menu I think.

And finally, my opinion, the $3 fried chicken at the "deli" in St John Market across the road combined with the $4 potato salad at the "deli" at the on-site Marketplace makes a pretty good flavourful lunch.

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Just back from WSJ myself. My family's new favorite restaurant-Ocean 362. Priced about the same as ZoZo's but more intimate, better service and really good food. Oh yeah they have a pretty good sunset view.

SLC said:

Just back from WSJ myself. My family's new favorite restaurant-Ocean 362. Priced about the same as ZoZo's but more intimate, better service and really good food. Oh yeah they have a pretty good sunset view.

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We ate at the upstairs bar at Oceans362 for our anniversary - great!

SLC said:

Just back from WSJ myself. My family's new favorite restaurant-Ocean 362. Priced about the same as ZoZo's but more intimate, better service and really good food. Oh yeah they have a pretty good sunset view.

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It was on our list, but only so many nights, and we were too tired a few nights that we just ended up at Lemongrass for the convenience.

In hindsight, I would have skipped Da Livio for sure and gone to Ocean 362 instead. I think every other place we ate at was good.

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

SMHarman said:

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

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:hysterical:

:rofl:

SMHarman said:

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

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Depends on what you like to do. Most of what we like to do on St. John involves being outside. Snorkeling is the primary activity, followed by tennis, hiking, kayaking, lounging by the pool, taking a charter, grilling out. You could hop over to STT and/or other islands, such as Virgin Gorda, for day trips, too. Does that sound like a great vacation? If so, then 12 days will be fine. If you want more activity or don't want to be in the sun that much, then it might be too much.

Because being 60% national park, there's honestly not a whole lot to do on St. John that doesn't involved nature. The "downtown" area is just a few blocks, and nothing to write home about. There are no movie theaters, for instance, and just a few great restaurants. Folks who aren't into the beach, people who are disabled and not able to swim and climb and kayak, or teenagers who are used to Disney or HRA might be bored to death.

To be honest, a week is perfect on St. John for me. If I had 12 days, I'd probably head to St. Maarten, just because being larger and more "urban" there's so much more to do on St. Maarten.

If this is your first visit and you are into things LisaRex has described above, I think 12 days will go quickly. You might also explore St Thomas more during your stay.

SMHarman said:

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

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We did 10 nights recently, and felt it might have been a little too long, probably 7 nights would have done it quite nicely for us. Our gang needs constant commercial stimulation, which doesn't necessarily involve the outdoors. The 5 nights we spent in Puerto Rico afterwards balanced the vacation out.

Bottom line, it all depends on what you want to do while you're at a particular destination.

Babysitting in our Villa

My wife and I are making our anniversary trip to the WSJ in 9 days.

Our kids, now 7 and 10, have infiltrated what used to be our annual marital sanity getaway...but we want to have at least one nice night out at Zozo's or Asolare.

Does anyone have experience with babysitters on island?

Anyone have experience with the folks at Kids Night In? http://www.kidsnightin.com

Thanks in advance for any advice.

SMHarman said:

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

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We would put that at around 6 months...
of course, lack of commercial stimulation is what we are seeking.
We do 14 days and have gone annually since 2006 - and find it to be too soon to come home.
Feel the same way about HI, but for different reasons.

ekinggill said:

My wife and I are making our anniversary trip to the WSJ in 9 days.

Our kids, now 7 and 10, have infiltrated what used to be our annual marital sanity getaway...but we want to have at least one nice night out at Zozo's or Asolare.

Does anyone have experience with babysitters on island?

Anyone have experience with the folks at Kids Night In? http://www.kidsnightin.com

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Sorry - we are lucky to go sans kids. But have heard good things about Leslie of KidsNightIn

It's 19 nights for us next year

SMHarman said:

Is 12 nights on St John too long?

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We like 19 nights. The four 20-some year olds who join us for our week in our pool villa think that 7 nights is not enough.