Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Caneel Bay/St. John Trip Report Part 1

Okay here is my entire trip report. This way if anyone else cannot find the continuation you can just read this!

Caneel Bay/St. John Trip Report
My husband and I just returned from a 7 day stay at Caneel Bay for our 2 year anniversary (10/11/03-10/17/03). After doing a lot of research and of course with help of Fodor?s talk forum, I decided to go with Caneel. I am so glad that I did! I will warn you ahead of time that this may be long, so if you don?t want to read it be warned!
Day 1
We got up early, around 5:30 in order to go to the airport (Newark Liberty) to catch our 9:30 flight. We had a nonstop flight from Newark (NJ) to St. Thomas. I was worried at first because the day before we were scheduled to leave I saw online (even though everyone says not to go by the weather) that there was a tropical depression over Puerto Rico and USVIs. When we got on the plane the captain came on and said the weather in St. Thomas was party cloudy and 82 degrees - from that point on I knew that we were going to have a wonderful vacation. We arrived after the 3 and 1/2 hour flight in the airport. I immediately went to the Caneel Bay counter check in area in the airport (which is located in the same area as the luggage claim). The receptionist was very pleasant and accommodating. She told us that the ferry wasn?t leaving until 3:15 (which was an hour away) so she said we could wait in their AC room that they had, but we decided to first get our luggage and then have a welcome drink at their bar in the airport. About two weeks before we arrived I emailed Caneel Bay and mentioned that we had a beachfront room booked, but if it was possible to to get an upgrade to their premium beachfront rooms on Scott beach (of course with no extra charge). They replied by saying if they have the availability they would try. Being that it was low season I had my fingers crossed. Once we got our luggage we went back to the counter and the receptionist gave us luggage tags that had Caneel Bay, our last name, and our room # on them. I saw the # 71 on them, and I held my breath. She gave us a welcoming package containing their property map, list of ammenities/activities, and their dining schedule. (we were on the MAP plan which included breakfast and dinner). I then opened the map and saw that #71 was indeed on Scott Beach! I was SO HAPPY! I couldn?t wait to go to Caneel!! For all of you Verizon WIreless people, I am on the plan (forget the name) where its covered throughout the states - american plan or something. So I did ?try? to call my sister in NJ to see if it worked (from the airport). And it did!!! It also worked in St. John, no problems at all. Of course I don?t have the bill yet to see how much the roaming charges were, but being that Caneel had no phones in the rooms, this was a BIG plus! Okay, back to the trip. Finally it was time to take us to the ferry. There were about 3 other couples on board, maybe 4. But not to many people. The driver took us in an open air taxi-like bus to the ferry. From there we were escorted onto the boat where are luggage also followed. (Once you check in at the airport counter you don?t have to worry about your luggage, it will be brought to your room later on). The ferry was so enjoyable, the sun was shining, we were sipping on our rum punches and enjoyed every moment. It took about 40 min. Once the ferry slowed down we could see the famous sign saying ?Caneel Bay? and their dock. It was so beautiful, the water and the grounds. We were greeted by several employees with cool towels to wipe our faces. Each couple or 2 were then taken by an employee and escorted to a golfcart. We were welcomed and told a little bit about the history of the resort. Mike, I believe his name was, very friendly and informative. He gave us and the other couple that were with us a package which contained our room keys. He took us first to our room, which yes was on Scott Beach. We got to our room and it was so beautiful. Like others say, the room isn?t glamourous, but has an understated elegance to it. Very simple, comfortable and clean. And that VIEW From our window.. Scott Beach is just like a postcard. We were just steps away from it! Plus being on Scotts, the rooms are only one level, so our room had a nice cathedral ceiling. The bathroom was fine, but note you are in the caribbean and YES there are bugs. We had very tiny little bugs in the bathroom. DIdn?t really bother us (almost like no-seeums) but you did see a couple. They leave a fresh cut flower in their bath products on the counter, and I think that?s what attracted them. Just make sure you keep your luggage/clothes either above the ground on a baggage holder, or in their drawers. We did keep everything else on the floor. We also brought (highly recommend) an alarm clock, and a cd player. I did manage to bring two bottles of wine with us. They do give you a free bottle of rum and water in the room, but after that?s gone everything in the mini bar is charged (good tip while waiting for the ferry in St. Thomas airport) theirs a liquor store (duty free) and you can by some liquor/wine/beer there and bring it with you. After about 20-30 min. in the room our luggage arrived. We were told that dinner was at the Equator restaurant and that reservations were recommended. I used my cell phone and called the activities desk and made a 7:00pm reservation. We unpacked and got settled. Sat out on our back porch and just gazed at the beautiful water. We then went to dinner and had a fantastic view of St. Thomas. I had the grilled caribbean lobster and my husband had their pasta special. Their food very good, and excellent choices of wine. If you are not on the meal plan, be forwarned that their prices for dinner are very expensive. We then were ready to go back to our room and get some sleep!
Day 2
We went to their beach terrace for a nice breakfast buffet. After we were done we went to Caneel Beach to pick up our snorkeling equipment, which you can hold on to for your entire stay but be sure to bring it pack before you check out. We were then ready to do some snorkeling (just at the Caneel Bay beaches). I will try to be brief on their beaches. First stop, Scott Beach. Snorkeling very good but you do have to swim out a ways. We saw a lot of fish, such as the parrot fish, grouper, etc. Then we went to Hawksnest. Yes this is a windier side. The water was a little rough. We went in and immediately saw two turtles, and then two stingrays. It was really exciting to see (I?ve been snorkeling before but never saw turtles or stingrays). We also saw on Hawksnest on the beach donkeys. St. John has wild donkeys that roam the island, and you are warned not to approach them. It seemed sort of odd to see wild donkeys just walking by on the beach. Anyway, we then went to Turtle Bay. I think by now I was tired of snorkeling so we just decided to relax. If you do not get Scott Beach, opt for this one. Very beautiful as well. (my favorite though is Scotts). The beach is bigger then Hawksnest and calmer. At this point it was in the later afternoon and we realized we missed lunch. (which is good because we only have the breakfast and dinner included). Earlier I booked their Sunset cocktail cruise for $45 per person. They took us and four other couples on a boat where we listened to live steel drums, sipped on some rum punches, and had some appetizer. It was nice because we went near Cruz Bay and other surrounding areas where we were able to see the Westin. That property looked nice, but I didn?t care for their ?objects? in the water. They were some sort of floatations, I assume for kids. The cruise was an 1 and 1/2 hours. We then went to the Caneel Bay Bar Terrace where they have TVs. My husband loved this. Being it was on a Sunday we were anxious to check the depressing Giants score! Here we ordered a very good drink that I have heard about for a while, its called a Bushwacker. Very good!!! It has amaretto, baileys, vodka, and kahlua. Tastes like a milkshake. Okay, enough of that, we then had reservations for their formal dining restaurant called Turtle Bay. This one has AC which was a nice touch. I must point out, Caneel Bay is very large, 171 acres and the grounds almost look like a golf course. Green lawns, palm trees, flowers, etc. They have shuttles and stops where you can pick them up to take you too and from different areas. So from the Caneel Bay bar (which is near the dock area) we took the shuttle to the Turtle Bay estate house. Also Caneel Bay has lit torches around the area at night, to me it was reminiscent of Hawaii in a way. My husband had roast pork tenderloin and I had their duck. Very good.

Day 3
In the morning after breakfast we went back to Scotts to snorkel and enjoy the beach. In the afternoon we signed up for a safari bus tour of the island. It was only us and another very nice couple from Illiinois on the tour. The guy was very nice and took us all over. For two hours and the ground we covered, it was well worth the $16 per person fee. He took us to various overlooks of Cinnamon Bay, Trunk Bay, Annesburg Ruins, and to Chateau Bordeaux which is a beautiful sight to see. He also drove through Cruz Bay as well. We got back to Caneel around 4:00 or so and we had a drink at their beach bar again (Bushwacker of course) and then went back to our room to get ready for dinner. This was Monday night when Caneel has a manager?s cocktail reception from 6:30 to 7:30. It was very nice. My husband had some rum punches and I had a two glasses of wine and we each had some food. All of this was free of charge. This was the only night that it sprinkled a little bit. Besides that night everyday was just perfect weather. Blue skies and 90 degrees. For dinner they had the buffet where they have breakfast, I just felt like a lighter dinner so we decided to stay at their beach bar and have some fried calamari and some sandwiches (burger). Plus my husband again enjoyed their tvs where he could keep track of the Baseball playoffs. We wound up going to bed early because we had to get up for our trip to the BVIs.

Day 4
I booked through Bookitvi.com the New Horizons II trip to the BVIs. We had to take a taxi from Caneel to the National Park Dock (which is right in Cruz bay) at 7:45am. The boat was a little bit smaller then I thought and they had the max amount of people. I think there was a total of 16. A little cramped but we made the best of it. There were only about 4 or 6 of us from St. John everyone else was picked up already from St. Thomas. First stop was the Baths in Virgin Gorda, a must do!! However you have to swim a surer so unless you have a waterproof camera you will not be able to bring it with you to this stop. (unless you want to swim with your arm extended out holding your camera). So I was sort of disappointed about not taking pictures, but it was neat to see. Next stop was lunch at Marina Cay. Warning their Painkillers (a drink) are insanely stronger. They use their rum called Pusser?s rum and it is really intense. Anyway, after lunch we then stopped at Guana Island and did an 1 hour long snorkel stop. Beautiful fish but the water was a little wavey. Our last stop was Jost Van Dyke to the Soggy Dollar Bar. Again, this stop you have to swim a shore but its a quick swim so you could carry your camera. It was neat to see this tiny little dive bar. We learned that Jost Van Dyke didn?t have any electricity until 1990! Pretty amazing. Then it was off to St. John where we were going to be dropped off. Overall the trip highly worth it, but I don?t know if it was because of being out in the sun all day, or the rocking of the boat, but when got back to Caneel I didn?t feel to good. For dinner we decided to go the beach bar again for a light dinner. I couldn?t handle the gourmet Turtle Bay Estate House that night. And that night we feel asleep right away, it was a long day! Oh one more note the beds at Caneel are SO COMFORTABLE! I will cont. shortly for Part 3.
Day 5
After our day trip to the BVIs we got a little sunburned, so after breakfast we decided to take a taxi to Cruz Bay. We were dropped off at Mongoose Junction and from there we walked around and did some shopping. Again it was a beautiful day and we needed a break from the sun. Around lunchtime we had enough and ventured back to Caneel. We then relaxed at Scotts. It was so nice to be able to lay out in the sun on the beach, go snorkeling, and then if you need a drink of water, etc. your room is right there. For dinner, we went to the Equator restaurant. In low season (not sure how it works in high season) Caneel Bay has each of the restaurants open at different nights. Where you wait for the shuttle there is a sign that posts the day?s events along with which restaurant is open. That night I opted for their grilled lobster again. Yes I LOVE lobster! Caribbean lobster though is not as sweet as Maine lobster, but it is still delicious.

Day 6
Our last full day we decided to get up early have breakfast and go to Trunk Bay. We took a taxi again (I was a little nervous renting a jeep - which you can do right from Caneel, because I wasn?t too sure how my husband would handle driving on the left). He dropped us off and it was about 5 to 9 so their information center where you pay was closed. Good note if you get there before 9am you don?t have to pay the $4 fee to get in. It was so beautiful. There really wasn?t anyone on the beach yet. We immediately put on our snorkeling gear and went to their underwater trail. Not too impressive as far as the quantity of fish. I guess because this spot is so popular among tourists that perhaps a lot of fish go elsewhere. But we did see a lot of different fish. I did notice that you see more fish (in my case) in the morning then in the afternoon. After an hour and 1/2 of snorkeling we decided to take a break. We then noticed a ferry coming in with TONS of people. We both thought the same thing, here they come!! So we agreed, we came, we saw, lets go! I guess they say to avoid crowds go either early or later in the day. When we were getting in the taxi to leave there were literally droves of taxis coming in filled with people. We both sighed in relief that we were able to experience Trunk Bay without all of those people! Then in the afternoon, yup we decided to relax on Scotts. That night was back to Turtle Bay Estate House. My husband had the beef tenderloin and I decided to with their rack of lamb. Excellent. Then we were off to the Caneel Beach bar to watch game 7 of the Yankees and Red Sox. My husband is a yankees fan so he wanted to see. I?m not really a baseball fan (football myself) so I didn?t really care either way. We stayed up for a while but we had to get up early for the ferry to take us back so we left when it was 4 to 2. Obviously when we woke up in the morning, my husband was very eager to find out the score.

Day 7
Yes it was time to check out leave. I won?t bore you with the ferry, puddle jumper from St. Thomas to San Juan, plane from San Juan to Newark, etc. but we made it back! All and all I see now why people fall in love with St. John. It is just a beautiful place. I could almost say that it is paradise! As far as Caneel Bay goes, yes its very expensive, maybe a little too much as far as your rooms go, etc. but the location and the access to their beaches definitely make up for it. Service was in general very good. No one was rude or anything. It does help to smile and say hello. They will not ?pamper? you but they will give you satisfactory service. Out of all the employees, maybe 2 of them weren?t exactly the most friendly. Being that we were on the meal plan we payed as we go for all our drinks in cash. Be careful because everything you do through them, such as the sunset cruise, taxi tour, etc. will be billed later on. Look over your bill carefully and if there are any discrepancies point it out and they will fix it. The ladies at the front desk are very friendly. We prepaid the 15% gratuity of the food and they charged us for some meals (tax only). So I showed her my receipt from Liberty Travel and they fixed it. So buy paying ahead of time for the drinks and the meal plan, the only out of pocket expense we had was about $200, for the day tours, mini bar, etc.

I will be happy to answer any questions regarding my trip. I would definitely go back to Caneel and St. John, if I could afford it again! I did take a lot of pictures I can email them to anyone if you would like. (I don?t have a website for them or anything) Again thank you to all of you Fodors people my husband and I truly had a fantastic trip to St. John. It was definitely worth it. And now its back to reality and COLD NJ!!!!