I concur, a stop over would never put me off somewhere. It's a bit of a novelty and as you say it's a great chance to have a natter with the crew.

We did Punta Cana via Antigua last year, built up a great rapport with the outbound crew from LGW and had plenty of time for a chat on the ground in ANU waiting for the new crew to arrive where we were personally handed over and introduced to the new CSM who really didn't stop on the short flight to make sure we had anything and everything we wanted - there were only about half a dozen of us left in Club for that leg.

Also had a great visit to the flight deck, their own replacements were running late so we were up there for about 15 minutes whilst they literally had nothing else to do. On the return sector from ANU to LGW a week later the captain from our inbound came out to say hello to us in our seats having recognised our names from the manifest, lovely touch.

The there and back shuttle is the only flying they do that day before heading back to the hotel from where they came so you can usually tell they're oozing a bit of holiday spirit themselves.