Westin St John 3 Bedroom Villa, Virgin Grand, In Loft: 3 King, Sofa bed, Resort view, Private pool ** Pluses and Minuses for 2025 Spring Break Use

[5finny]

I was surprised that I was able to get this 8 month Vistana StarOption reservation last night
When it popped up I just grabbed it thinking I could give it some thought later
My thoughts:

Minuses
Expensive- Required 309,240 StarOptions for 8 days (about $5,800 of Vistana Villages maintenance fees)
Ocean view iffy - Looks like about 50% of the units would have a water view and I assume owners would get first call
Air fare from Midwest is really pricey maybe close to $2000 per person roundtrip
May not be enough for grandkids to do

Pluses
Last week in March fits adult child's family's ( 2 adults 2 children aged 15 & 12) spring break needs and 1 unit will easily hold both families
Good resort, Good island, Good unit
Get to visit a location that I and they have never been

Probably airfare is biggest negative

Am I missing something or do I have anything wrong?

 

[daviator]

So far as I know, most or all of the Vistana properties still allocate rooms based on the time stamp of the reservation. So the best views are going to go to those who own at WSJ directly and reserved exactly 12 months in advance. You exchanged in via VSN, so you will be somewhere further down the list. I don’t know what the likelihood of having ocean views will be but it’s probably 50/50.

WSJ is a great resort and there is lots to do and see on the island but it is a pricey place. You’ll also need to pay for transportation from St. Thomas to St. John and back, the most convenient is the Westin Ferry but it’s also the most expensive option.

But it’s a truly beautiful place, both the island and the resort, and it would be a really memorable family trip (in a good way), I think. But it will make a Florida vacation seem really cheap by comparison.

WSJ isn’t an easy property to exchange into, so congrats on nabbing a great exchange.

 

[tomandrobin]

If you have a 3-bedroom with a private pool, those units are in the original phase and have no view.
That is a unicorn of a exchange, especially those 3-bedroom types.
We took the grandkids to Atlantis last year, St John two years ago, Disney World 6 times in the last two years and a Disney Cruise. We asked them over the weekend what is their favorite vacation and both choose St John. Our grandkids are 9 and 11 this year.
Airfare is tricky, post hurricanes, you really have to work and plan out the airlines. We play the point games to accumulate as much discounted flights we can get.
We are EOY owners, have have three units for our family. We had to skip going this year because of several destination weddings eating up a lot of my vacation time, so 2026 will be great to get back to St John for a few weeks.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Airfare is always changing. I would keep watching airfares. I am that person who checks every day for every flight we have ahead of us. I have a spreadsheet of dates/ times/ prices and refer to it for car rentals, airfares, and sometimes hotel prices, but we rarely stay in hotels. I like Google flights. I have used it to compare because it includes most airlines.

I have saved so much with Southwest by checking their sales that I have a lot of travel funds built up. I consider it free money.

 

[Eric B]

There aren't a lot of the 3 BR Pool Villas and they were all sold as fixed week fixed unit ownerships. While they may assign rooms based on timestamp, given the guaranteed assignment for owners of weeks there it isn't likely to make much difference as the unit you get during spring break will either be a developer owned one or one that the actual owner decided to use for SOs or Abound CPs. If it were me, I wouldn't waste much effort or concern on which unit I got as an SO reservation.

One additional plus is that if you rent a car, you won't have to walk far from the parking location to your unit. There's also a container near the drive into the 3 BR Pool Villa location that is the pass down the line spot for folks leaving stuff for others coming to the island to use - I've found very useful folding chairs, etc., in there on previous trips. It's supposed to be for owners but I believe they view it as all Vistana owners or perhaps more generously than that to include Marriott owners. You need the card key for your villa to get in - it's just a bit up the hill past the turn into those villas. Worth a check when you get there and when you depart to drop off stuff for the next visitors.

 

[5finny]

As expected the responses have been very helpful
Thanks to all
Airfare seems to be the biggest issue (maybe $12,000 for 6 people roundtrip )
I see flying to San Juan PR and then to STT is possible
I am guessing the local flights may have some reliability issues
Is that (or anything else) really a viable option ?

 

[ljmiii]

Airfare seems to be the biggest issue (maybe $12,000 for 6 people roundtrip )
I see flying to San Juan PR and then to STT is possible
I am guessing the local flights may have some reliability issues
Is that (or anything else) really a viable option ?

Airfare is certainly an issue. I don't know what your options from the Midwest are but I can tell you that prices from the East Coast are highly variable both by travel day and how far you book in advance (and cash vs miles for that matter).

I mainly follow United prices and I've seen them rise and fall rather dramatically as actual bookings have deviated from their predictive models. And from NYC there are basically three routes in the mix - a daily non stop flight, a one stop through San Juan, and a one stop through Washington D.C. Thankfully thus far (knock on wood), I've successfully been able to initially book the non stop flight or change to it when prices drop.

 

[5finny]

I need to quit concentrating on O'Hare

 

[daviator]

My advice would be to use a flight aggregator like Google Flights to search from the airport(s) near you to STT, and don't try to construct your own itinerary by combining tickets (like buying a ticket to SJU and then another ticket from there to STT.) When you do that, your luggage won't transfer between flights and you'll have to have a bunch of time at SJU to collect baggage and check it back in for the new flight. This is all assuming you are checking bags, of course. I tend to forget that some people don't do that!

The other problem with booking independent flights which connect is that you have no protection when something goes wrong. If you book (just an example) ORD-SJU and a separate ticket from SJU-STT and then your flight from O'Hare is delayed and you miss your connection, you are out of luck. The second airline will probably not allow you to rebook and they will not honor your ticket on another flight, because you were a no-show. But if your flights are all in the same itinerary, the airline has to get you to your destination, regardless of delays or missed connections.

American has a lot of flights in the Caribbean, they have a hub in San Juan, so they may be an option. They are not the airline they once were and I'm reluctant to recommend them, though.

The other thing I'll mention is that Google Flights has a feature where it will monitor the pricing for the route and dates you want, and let you know when to buy, even emailing you if the airfares decrease.

Good luck!

 

[5finny]

My advice would be to use a flight aggregator like Google Flights to search from the airport(s) near you to STT, and don't try to construct your own itinerary by combining tickets (like buying a ticket to SJU and then another ticket from there to STT.) When you do that, your luggage won't transfer between flights and you'll have to have a bunch of time at SJU to collect baggage and check it back in for the new flight. This is all assuming you are checking bags, of course. I tend to forget that some people don't do that!

The other problem with booking independent flights which connect is that you have no protection when something goes wrong. If you book (just an example) ORD-SJU and a separate ticket from SJU-STT and then your flight from O'Hare is delayed and you miss your connection, you are out of luck. The second airline will probably not allow you to rebook and they will not honor your ticket on another flight, because you were a no-show. But if your flights are all in the same itinerary, the airline has to get you to your destination, regardless of delays or missed connections.

American has a lot of flights in the Caribbean, they have a hub in San Juan, so they may be an option. They are not the airline they once were and I'm reluctant to recommend them, though.

The other thing I'll mention is that Google Flights has a feature where it will monitor the pricing for the route and dates you want, and let you know when to buy, even emailing you if the airfares decrease.

Good luck!

I was definitely considering independent flights
Thanks for the warning

 

[ljmiii]

I was definitely considering independent flights...Thanks for the warning

Indeed. In the examples I cited, when United was routing me though SJU to STT on Podunk airlines I could be a bit more confident that the right thing would happen (though it was certainly the least desirable of my three options).