Westin St. John [Master Thread]

[CAK1]

At the Westin St John now

Hi RobinandMark,

I'm here now. The resort pool is open and looks great. The pool chairs are new but they do not have umbrellas up yet. The beach at the resort is closed but Westin is providing a shuttle 3 times a day to the national park beaches. There are a few sailboat still grounded on the Westin beach.

Snorkels is open. Kids Club & arcade are closed but they are opening the Kids Club at a temporary location on Thursday 18th.

The grounds are a being worked on all day long. I haven't been across the street to check on the Hillside Villas but plan too today.

Is there anything specific you want me to check on? I know it's tough to get information from the Westin Reps.

It's been sunny & warm the last 2 days!
Carrie

 

[Robin&Mark]

Hi Carrie,
Thank you very much for responding. We were wondering about the reopening of the beach at the resort, have you heard of any anticipated time they hope to have the beach available for guests?

Also, do you know how long the time intervals are in between the transportation to the beaches?

We will have one group of our party in Bay Vista and another in the Hillside while we are there. If it were just Mark and I coming none of this would be an issue, but with some elderly folks along planning is different and trying to have as much figured out as we can so all goes smoothly for them.

Thank you Carrie, glad to hear the pool is open and the weather has been warm!! I appreciate your help here.
Robin

 

[CAK1]

RobinandMark,

The Westin beach shuttle is 3 daily roundtrips to Cinnamon Bay, Trunk Bay and Hawks Nest Beach.

It leaves from the Hotel Lobby @ 10am, 11:30am and 1pm

Returning from the Beaches at 1:20pm, 3pm and 5pm.

You need to stop by the Front Desk to obtain your complimentary pass to the beaches.

As for the Westin Beach, there are chairs set up on the beach for guests to use and people have been swimming there although its "officially closed"

I've asked around but haven't been able to get a straight answer when the beach will reopen.

It appears the resort is focusing on getting the buildings with roof damage fixed (some of the hotel buildings by the pool) and the grounds looking beautiful again.

When are you coming down? I debated not coming because of the storm damage but glad I decided to come.

Hope this helps
Carrie

 

[DavidnRobin]

How did Building 34 hold up? Specifically 3410?

 

[CAK1]

I will check on that building for you tomorrow am. It's too dark out now.

Carrie

 

[Robin&Mark]

Carrie, All of the information you have provided is great, you have been very helpful and I appreciate your responses.
We come after Thanksgiving so there is still a bit of time before we arrive. I am glad to hear you are happy you did not cancel, we are very excited to be going down!
I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week, and thanks again.
Robin

 

[DavidnRobin]

November 16, 2010 Update

Updated as of November 16, 2010 (from MSC)

Travel Update for The Westin St. John Resort & Villas

During the months of October and November, The USVI has experienced extremely heavy rain associated with various storms. As a result, the area around The Westin St. John Resort & Villas experienced some flooding. Significant progress has been made in restoring the resort to the pristine condition our Owners enjoy.

A current update:

Due to the heavy rain resulting in severe beach erosion, the beach is currently closed. To support your beach experience, the resort is providing complimentary round trip shuttles to the local beaches until the sand replenishment for the resorts beach is completed. The pool is open for your enjoyment.

The tennis courts also received significant damage. Efforts to reopen are underway. The resort is scheduled to reopen two courts starting the week of November 27th with all courts available December 6th.
The Kids club and Arcade encountered water damage. The carpets have been removed and currently in the process of being replaced. These two areas are scheduled to re-open November 22nd.

While these amenities may not be available, we expect Owners traveling to the property to have a very enjoyable vacation. Please contact Owner Services toll free at 888.WV.OWNER (986.9637) or direct at 407.903.4635 with questions.

 

[CAK1]

Building 34

DavidandRobin,

We drove up to building 34 and it appears to be in working order. The villas looked occupied. I'm scheduled to go to an owners update Friday morning (to get my 6,000 spg points ), will see if I can get more information on the damage to the hillside villas.

Carrie

 

[DavidnRobin]

DavidandRobin,

We drove up to building 34 and it appears to be in working order. The villas looked occupied. I'm scheduled to go to an owners update Friday morning (to get my 6,000 spg points ), will see if I can get more information on the damage to the hillside villas.

Carrie

Thanks Carrie - there was a report that the 2Bd THs were affected - these villas are on the sides of the buildings.

I just bought our plane tickets for next June - SFO-ATL-STT (~$730pp RT on DLT)

 

[GeneNWendy]

Westin St John voluntary directory is out

Hi all, for those of you who own at the Virgin Grand Villas, the voluntary owner directory is out. If you didn't get it, and, I can verify that you are in fact an owner there, I will try and get to you.

Gene

 

[DavidnRobin]

Gene - how was this sent out?

 

[GeneNWendy]

Regarding WSJ Voluntary Owner Directory

Robin and Dave,

It was sent by an e-mail from Starwood with a link to the 151 page list. I then printed it out and scanned it in PDF format. I can forward to you the e-mail from Starwood and/or send you the 2 PDF files.

Please send me a Private Message with the best e-mail address to use. I believe your name was on that list, but I wasn't familiar with that particular address.

Gene

 

[DavidnRobin]

can you send me the email address contact? i want to know why i didnt get it. you have my contact info from the other list - does it not match?

added - they have my email address incorrect - likely my poor handwriting. I incorrectly read your post as 151 people - not pages. It has 1280 Owners representing many weeks - excellent.

 

[DavidnRobin]

2011 Wsj-vg Mf/rr

WSJ-VG (Hillside) 2Bd TH - 2011 MF/RR
2011 MF = $1892.76
2011 RR = $782.68 (last part of 3-year additional RR... maybe...)
Total = $2675.44

2010 Total = $2866.05
(a decrease of $190.61 --> 6.65%)

I received this by mail - not on MSC yet.

MM/RR for all villas:
3Bd Pool = $3210.58
2Bd Prem = $3210.36
2Bd TH = $2675.44
1Bd = $2140.31
Studio = $1605.18

 

[DavidnRobin]

just for fun... the ruins and villas along this road are worth checking out - but hold on!

Jeep Cam for John Head Road - a reason to have a 4WD while on STJ.
http://www.on-stjohn.com/2010/12/03/jeep-cam-john-horn-road/#comments

 

[Robin&Mark]

Update St John

Thought I would post an update after being in St John last week. The resort looks great, there had been a lot of damage to landscaping around the hotel building which has been replaced. They are also upgrading the water lines, work is in progress with the hope to be finished by the end of this week I believe. There is major work being done on the road between the resort entrance the the St John market, the area of the gut which was one of the causes of the flooding during the heavy rains this summer. The gut itself is being widened and cleaned out, the road raised and new concrete bridge was being done. Two of the tennis courts were completed, the rest close to completion when we left on Saturday, the ping pong table is not back yet but should be in a week or so. The beach is open, and has been restored, I believe more umbrellas are have been ordered and are due soon.
We attended the owners meeting, they are having them weekly for anyone going anytime soon.
I am happy to say our parents loved the week. We did manage to get them to Cinnamon Bay one day, and on the beach at the resort 3 additional days. We did rent a car, thank you Gene, and they enjoyed seeing the island, we took them to Coral Bay one day and lunch at Miss Lucy's. Maneuvering across sand was their most challenging, but with lots of help from us and our children were in pretty good shape helping them to where they wanted to go. I want to thank all of you who offered us suggestions and thoughts prior to our trip, it was definitely a wonderful week for us.

 

[jerseygirl]

Very happy to hear you had a good time and that your parents were able to enjoy themselves! Thanks for the update on the resort.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Glad you enjoyed yourselves

Hi Robin and Mark,

I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves. BTW, for anyone interested, I'm offering to give away one of my units. Send me a private message if interested.

Gene

 

[DavidnRobin]

New Gas Station close to WSJ

Looks like there will be a new gas station opening close to WSJ. Going to be interesting to see gas trucks going over Jacob's Ladder (steep road with blind/narrow hilltop between WSJ and Cruz Bay)

http://stjohnsource.com/content/new...-station-likely-get-permit-says-dpnr-official

Can't wait to see this flood into GCB and Tennis Corts... Typical of STJ to allow a gas station here in close proximity to other/only gas station, but no gas in Coral Bay.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Unit taken

For those of you who were interested, it appears that I have a taker for my unit.

Regards,
Gene

 

[DavidnRobin]

For those of you who were interested, it appears that I have a taker for my unit.

Regards,
Gene

Congrats...

btw - I heard that the Westin Ferry hit a reef the other day (injuring some passengers) - same reef that the STT-STJ car barge hit a week or so ago.
http://www.stjohntradewindsnews.com...-runs-aground&catid=554:201012-news&Itemid=38

 

[GeneNWendy]

Regarding Westin Ferry Hits Reef

Congrats...

btw - I heard that the Westin Ferry hit a reef the other day (injuring some passengers) - same reef that the STT-STJ car barge hit a week or so ago.
http://www.stjohntradewindsnews.com...-runs-aground&catid=554:201012-news&Itemid=38

The captain of the ferry needs to be careful!! Those passengers are paying $110.00 r/t to take that ferry. I read the article in your link. I find it interesting that there were only about 23 passengers on the Westin Breeze. When I used to take it, it was full to capacity. I bet lots of people stopped taking it because of the outrageous cost.

Actually, upon further reading, I see that these weren't hotel guests, they were employees or (associates) as Mike Ryan (Westin GM) calls them. The article also mentions that the Westin Breeze is owned and operated by Inter-Island Boat Services. I wonder how much less the ferry would be if they took competitive bids with other operators and chose not to have the Westin name on it.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Easier Way to read story about Westin Breeze

I took the article from Tradewinds and posted it into the St John Virgin Grand Villa Coalition Member's Blog. After you click the link below, there is another link within it that has the article on the Westin Breeze. This way you don't have to register for Tradewinds to see the story.


http://stjohnvirgingrandvillaowners.com/blog/?p=119

 

[jarta]

"I read the article in your link. I find it interesting that there were only about 23 passengers on the Westin Breeze. When I used to take it, it was full to capacity. I bet lots of people stopped taking it because of the outrageous cost."

Gene ... The accident occurred at 9:15 am on the run from St. Thomas to St. John. The ferry was bringing employees to work at the resort for the day.

The run from St. John back to St. Thomas is the one that carries guests heading back to the airport or for shopping on St. Thomas at that time of day.

I'm no fan of the increased fees and there have been posts about owners refusing to pay the fee, but I would not expect many tourists to be on that leg of the route at that time of day.

Interesting that another boat, the barge named General II, ran aground at the same rocky point less than 2 weeks earlier. I wonder how the resort's guests are getting back and forth to the resort (and at what cost) while the Westin Breeze is being repaired? Maybe someone who's there now can let us know?

I bet WSJ will be glad to see 2010 over and done with. lol! ... eom

 

[DavidnRobin]

"posts of Owners refusing to pay the fee..." eom

what...? a bit over-stated (as normal) - perhaps you mean owners finding other means of getting to WSJ from STT and not taking the Breeze due to the cost. That is a bit different than using the word 'refusing' because no one is forcing owners to take the Breeze (and never have...). This has always gone on - even when the fees were $65 and owner discounted.

The Breeze is convenient - but costs have become ridiculous - but there are many alternatives (also - repeatedly discussed here and in trip reports). We have now taking every option - renting on STT is clearly the best for anyone renting a car (for us...).

it has been speculated that the barge accidents have been cause by passage shortcuts by both the car barge and the Breeze. And in the case of the car barge - someone not certified was captaining the barge (it was rumored). This casual attitude about waterway usage is common in the USVI. Hopefully, the Coast Guard will investigate.