Typing on the iPad so here goes nothing… With Blogger I can’t spell check. First of all the trip with baby Carter was a breeze. The connection time in Atlanta was sufficient, the flight to St Thomas had inflight seat back entertainment and Carter was a perfect angel. I never heard back on my inquiry from the Westin for their private ferry to the resort so we ended up in a cab to Red Hook and then the public ferry to Cruz Bay and another taxi to the Westin. We’ll take the Westin ferry back to St Thomas and the short cab ride from Crown Bay Marina to the airport. It is $65 one way per person or $120 round trip. With a five month in tow, we’ll pay the extra.

Cab service on St John is by open air taxi which is nothing more than a converted pickup truck. Lots of cabs and the prices are per person. ($6 per head to town)

The resort is sprawling over many acres and really not walkable hauling a baby, car seat, diaper bag and all the stuff but they have golf carts seating about six running around all over so not a big issue. Howie somehow used his Platinum status to get us each upgraded to a distance ocean view room. I’ve come to realize a room to me is just that a room. I don’t really care how fancy of it has all the working fixing you’d expect; phone, TV, Internet, toilet, shower, and bathroom sink. A refrig is a nice extra (yep), but I’m still just a 3 star kind of guy. Shannon checked the rate for the from a couple days before arrival and they wanted $650 per night. NOT gonna happen no matter how nice the room is. These were spacious but had their issues. The phone was sporadic as was the Internet (it was free although). Chris, Shannon, and Carter had a leaky faucet, the maintenance good to just a bit above that. The grounds were very well maintained and all the services were there i.e. water sports, free floating rafts. Nice sandy beach with good hillside views and plenty of umbrellas. The pool was nice, again with plenty of umbrellas and had a bar and refreshments handy for all. With Carter in tow I rented a cabana poolside each day for $80 (normally $150) that offered shade, TV, radio, power for the bottle warmer, a refrig with Evian spritz water (his favorite) and just a bit more privacy. They delivered a crib and we had four lounge chairs a table and hammock as well. Sometimes you just gotta do it.

Meals were resort priced. The breakfast buffet was $26 but there were menu items at $10 and up. Lunch was available poolside or there was a deli within easy walking distance.

The resort fee is a substantial $40 per night which covers the water toys and Internet as it were.

Here are the grades from our four travelers with 1 being never again and 5 absolutely top notch:

Katybug – 3.5
Chris – 3.5
Rick – 3.5-4.0
Shannon – 3.5

Was it worth $650 per night? Heck No. Was it worth 16000 SPG per night? I liked it better with the fifth night free bringing the cost down a little.

Now the big question? Hawaii or St John. It is still Hawaii but the shorter flight times and ticket costs sure make this more doable more often with Carter our grandson. I think we’ll still look around the Caribbean for another closer to home alternative.

Photos when I get home and off this iPad.