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Westin St John review with Pics

OCsun

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We are going in Feb.2010 for our 25th and your pics are, well, amazing. Two questions. First, how much is the Westin shuttle and second,if we want to spend a few hours in St Thomas before our return flight, any ideas what we can do with our luggage since the airlines do not allow check in sooner than four hours before the flight and we would have more than that to shop on St Thomas. Feel free to PM.

If you rent a car on St. Thomas and take the car ferry to St. John, you could leave your luggage in the trunk of your car while you shop on St. Thomas. Note: Not all car rental agencies allow their cars to be taken to St. John; Budget Car Rental does. Pam
 

gregb

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A word about leaving anything in your trunk. If you want to try that, make sure you put the stuff in the trunk when you start off, not after you park. Once you park the car, DON'T OPEN THE TRUNK or put anything into it! Thieves wait in parking areas and watch for folks who pull into a parking spot, put stuff in the trunk and walk off. The thieves wait a few minutes, walk over and pop the trunk and take off with your stuff.

Greg

If you rent a car on St. Thomas and take the car ferry to St. John, you could leave your luggage in the trunk of your car while you shop on St. Thomas. Note: Not all car rental agencies allow their cars to be taken to St. John; Budget Car Rental does. Pam
 

Ken555

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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Sheraton Desert Oasis
Sounds like a SAFE place to visit.
 

joeamyaloha

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BBQ Grills

Have they added grills to the Bay Vista Villas? If not, does anyone know if there are plans to? We are visiting in Oct. 09
 

gregb

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Yeah, this advice is for anywhere. Europe, Caribbean, San Francisco, New York, Main Street USA
etc.

A word about leaving anything in your trunk. If you want to try that, make sure you put the stuff in the trunk when you start off, not after you park. Once you park the car, DON'T OPEN THE TRUNK or put anything into it! Thieves wait in parking areas and watch for folks who pull into a parking spot, put stuff in the trunk and walk off. The thieves wait a few minutes, walk over and pop the trunk and take off with your stuff.

Greg
 

tomandrobin

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Sorry for the break, had a little Disney trip before I could finish.

This is our last full day on St John. We are heading to Trunk Bay in the morning. Trunk Bay is run by the park service. The Beach is known for its beaches, and very good snorkeling. There is also an underwater snorkel trail with pictures and descriptions of the different corals and fish in the area. We chose today to visit Trunk Bay since there were no cruise ships in St Thomas that day. Trunk Bay excursions are very popular with the cruise ships. Showing at the beach when a cruise ship is in port will make a crowded and miserable day. There is an access fee for this beach, but its small. This beach is the most commercialized. There are public bathrooms and showers, a snack shack that serves burgers and fries, salads, chicken sandwiches, etc. It also is staff by lifeguards.

We get to the beach early, since parking is very limited. This beach is also the closest beach we will visit on this trip.

Trunk Bay as we approach from town.
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Pretty isn't it.
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A few minutes later we reach our destination, pay our entrance fee and hit the beach. Trunk Bay and its beach is just about as perfect as they come. Once again, everyone just drops everything and jumps right in.

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View from our "spot".
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Beach to the left........
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Beach to the right.......
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tomandrobin

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Once we get settled, we grab our gear and head out to the island and the snorkel trail.

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The trail starts by the buoy and runs out towards the end of the island.

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This is the fist marker of the trail. I am not going to post the rest....you need to go see for yourself!

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The snorkeling here is very good. We probably saw our most variety of fish here that day, including a very big barracuda.

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I love how the sunlight makes everything look so sparkly....like the new.
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I love how these fish swam in a line.
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tomandrobin

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Besides the turtles, this was the coolest thing we saw...

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A pair of squid was swimming together....so cool! At first, I didn't realize what the were....just another weird fish. But then I saw the eyes.

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And then the stopped and hovered a bit. Maybe checking me out too!

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Then we came across a bunch of smaller squid. They were all swimming in a straight line, from largest to smallest squid.

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tomandrobin

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After the snorkel around the island, we take a break for lunch. A word of caution here. The birds are very, very aggressive and will take your food right out of your hands. We knew this ahead of time and still lost one sandwich. One of the girls turned her head to talk to her daughter behind her, and that quick the birds swooped down and took her lunch.

After lunch we had a picture moment and then back off to do some more snorkeling....it was that good. I passed the camera to another in the group, so I didn't get any pictures of the barracuda.

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Paul and Mary Ann!
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T&R
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Sarah & Billy (the Honeymooners)
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During the picture session, we had a visitor..........

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And a few parting shots before we left.

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We pack and head back to town, first stopping in Cruz Bay. Everyone wanted to stop at Woody's for happy hour. Woody's isn't really much, but thay have a great happy hour and on occasion, Kenny Chesney will frequent the bar when he is home. Once we get back to the resort, we return the rental cars (It's nice having the rental car company on site) and head to the pool for a few hours.

That evening we cook on the grill, again and call it an early evening. We all have to pack and prepare for the travel day back to Baltimore.

The next morning is a sad day. We all gather and meet in the lobby, before heading down to the dock.

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tomandrobin

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The Westin ferry arrives on time. We board and head back to St Thomas and on to the airport. I get a few parting pictures as we are pulling away from the resort.

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We had a great, great time at St John. In fact, everyone just keeps talking about it and looking forward to when we will go back.
 

applekor

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TnR, It was great meeting you and your group of 13.Those are great pix. I can't wait to go back. I had to laugh at the down faces when waiting for the ferry. It is sooo depressing on leaving day (of course I have to sit and entertain a five year old for the long trip back home). Take care, Tom
 

tomandrobin

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TnR, It was great meeting you and your group of 13.Those are great pix. I can't wait to go back. I had to laugh at the down faces when waiting for the ferry. It is sooo depressing on leaving day (of course I have to sit and entertain a five year old for the long trip back home). Take care, Tom

Tom

It was great running into you also. I saw you in the pool the day before we left. I went to go over and say goodbye, but you had apparently left after a few minutes of my arriving to the pool. Did you ever book an excursion to BVI?
 

tomandrobin

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great pictures and captions to wit them. felt like i was there.

how was disney? we were there for the 4th weekend.

Thank You!

Disney was great! It was hot, but I had a fun filled three days. I wrote a mini trip report on one of the Disney sites. WE had a lot of firsts this trip. First stay at Wilderness Lodge, ate at Bongos and Ohanas, saw La Nouba, took the girls out on the sea racers and watch the fireworks from seven seas lagoon. We avoided the crowds and kept cool, which really helped.
 

DavidnRobin

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WPORV (Kauai)
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WKV (Scottsdale)
Got the camera yesterday - can't wait to use it (and figure it out...) - thanks for the idea.
 

Politico

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Got the camera yesterday - can't wait to use it (and figure it out...) - thanks for the idea.

Bit the bullet and picked mine up in the store yesterday. These things get more difficult to figure out how to use every year. Heading to the beach next week and hoping to get some good pics.
 

Transit

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I tried mine out this weekend .I give Tom a lot of credit for the great pics. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to take pics of fish moving underwater.I had difficulty seeing the screen with a mask on while trying to swim and keep the camera steady.I ended up shooting lots of emptyness to get some good shots in between. After experimenting a bit I found the setting "underwater 2" to be the ticket to get some small fast moving fish shot. PHOTOS
 
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Politico

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I tried mine out this weekend .I give Tom a lot of credit for the great pics. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to take pics of fish moving underwater.I had difficulty seeing the screen with a mask on while trying to swim and keep the camera steady.I ended up shooting lots of emptyness to get some good shots in between. After experimenting a bit I found the setting "underwater 2" to be the ticket to get some small fast moving fish shot.

Looks like TUG is giving Olympus a decent amount of business...
 

DavidnRobin

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tom should get a kick back...

i pretty much figured it out - now to get on vacation...
 

applekor

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Tom

It was great running into you also. I saw you in the pool the day before we left. I went to go over and say goodbye, but you had apparently left after a few minutes of my arriving to the pool. Did you ever book an excursion to BVI?

Yes , we ended up booking Magical Moments for the six of us. It was very nice but expensive. We went over to the Baths and then to Jost. The kids (2 and 5) absolutely loved the baths. I think next year we will do the great big bad kitty. I'm always open to any excursion that ends the day at the soggy dollar!!! That beach is my all time favorite.-Tom
 
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