stevens397

We actually stayed in the timeshares when we went to St. John - a 3 bedroom, 3 /12 bath apartment with our own private pool - not to be believed.

There is a site for timeshare users called www.tug2.net (Timeshare Users Group). If you go to the Bulletin Boards and to the Hotel Based Timeshares, you can do a search for St. John and you will get a wealth of planning information. One of the things we got was the Reef Bay Trail tour by the US Park Service - a wondereful half-day that MUST be planned and reserved before you get to St John - and only costs about $15 per person.

I highly recommend checking this site - it was a great help to us when we went.

jchand

Have to agree with that. Zozo's is the best restaurant on St John.

jchand

Rent a 4 x 4 and take a drive around the Island ( Wont take that Long) You could probably vist 3 or 4 beaches and take in Lunch some place like Skiny Legs on the quiet side of the Island.

Flemish

Hi all,

for those of you that are interested:

My wife and I booked this hotel for a belated honeymoon. We looked initially at two resorts on St. John, Cameel Bay and the Westin.

Since I am Plat we decided to go with the Westin. We burned 2000 points to get 2 SPG 50 reservations since we planned to stay for 7 nights.

We stayed from Mar 6-13. Our experience in short: wonderful.

I highly recommend taking the Westin Ferry ($90 return per person), they take care of your luggage and you are greeted with a rum punch by management at the docks of the resort.

We got upgraded to a pool view room. Really decent spacious room with balcony, flatscreen TV and nice spacious bathroom.

In our room we found a bottle of champagne (mgmt had read my comments in the reservation) and a fruit dipped in chocolate dip together with a congrats card.

All of the staff was extremely friendly and went out their ways to help us. Eric the concierge was really helpful in giving us restaurant and tour trips.

One minor problem (no water in our room for a few hours) was aknowledged with a $100 credit towards our stay.

I recommend taking their 1,5 hour info session about the starwood vacation ownership for their villas. They dump all kinds of coupons and dollars on you that you can use towards restaurants, spa or sailing trips. No sales pressure at all during the pitch.

The cruze bay watersport company at the resort is another nice feature. They are extremely friendly and we took two day tours with them. Each one of them well worth it.

The Westin organized a cocktail hour for Plats where we could mingle with the resort management.

The pool is one of the best I have seen to date, large, nicely designed and open 24 hrs. The man-made beach is well maintained and you have beach service by raising a little red flag on your beach chairs....talk about being pampered.

The restaurants vary from very good (Chloe and Bernards) to OK (Pool bar). A cheaper alternative is their Mango Deli (sandwhiches are huge)

All in all we were extremely happy with our choice and we will definetely be back.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Steve

jamienbaker

Glad you enjoyed St John. I'd agree with most of your points, and indeed intend to return in February, 2008, having just stayed with our two kids last month. However...

Ocean view room, no platinum upgrade though we were there peak season.

Cleaning left something to be desired. Room was tired to begin with, and not particularly well kept during the day. Not to be purposely gross, but after my 3 year old hurled in the bathroom, splatter remained for several days.

Drunk pounding on the door at 3am. This was really unacceptable. Granted, this could happen almost anywhere. But here's the kicker - the guy had a security guard with him. That makes the door pounding officially sanctioned by the property, as far as I'm concerned. Rather than accompany the drunk door-to-door, perhaps the security guard could have a) radioed the front desk to see who was in this particularly room and/or b) wondered whether a patio full of children's sand toys and juice boxes was really the type of room where a drunk 20-year old something was likely staying. Complaint to management yielded a $60 credit, which was actually a $53 credit upon check out. Whatever.

But, as mentioned, we are highly likely to return, unless we give one of the other Island Westins a shot (Aruba?) With a 4 and 7 year old (by next February), we're hooked on Westins.

Jamie

kevinsac

I'll be there for a stay in mid-May, and I am looking forward to it, with bittersweet emotions. I had planned to take my 81 yo Mother for (what I assumed would be) a last vacation together. Mother's Day with her at home, then heading to the Caribbean for 2 weeks.

Sadly, my Mother died a few weeks ago, but I'm going to go anyway and drink many pina coladas in her memory!

She would have enjoyed the trip....and she'd want me to have a good ol' time, too. ^

bigjim

I'd be interested in some tips on St. John and perhaps towing parents around who don't travel well.

My brother moved to St. John a couple of years ago and broke my parents heart. I'd love to carry them to St. John, but my parents don't travel well. Only one plane trip in their life and it wasn't a pleasant one. At this point in their life, they can't handle a lot of walking.

They'd be perfectly happy with maybe a tour or two directly from the hotel and probably eating at the hotel the whole trip unless we could easily get around otherwise.

I do want to stick with and base out of the Westin, primarily to help lower the costs out of my pocket.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Sorry about your mom kevinsac. You've motivated me to move ahead with my trip.

Life_Platinum

We've considered staying at this property, but in the past they have not issued SPG points or other SPG benefits like qualifying nights toward the SPG Platinum level. Has this policy changed?

Flemish

Oh yeah...my points and stay have already been posted. It definetely takes part in the SPG program.

Life_Platinum

You are indeed correct. I just checked those Starwood Hotels that are non-participants in the SPG program and found only about a dozen Meridiens, 2 Sheratons, 2 St. Regis, and 3 properties not using the hotel name. We will have to put this hotel back on the list of hotels we must try.

That is good news and indicates that Starwood strongly is urging their hotels to participate in the SPG program.

MarkRichmond

I wrote a fairly extensive review of our stay at the Westin St. John.

You can read it here:
http://www.reviews.ubr.com/hotel-rev...n-st-john.aspx

Happy to answer any specific questions if there are any.

Mark

kevinsac

I am happy to report that I had a very nice stay at this property. I was on St John for 4 days, before heading off to Virgin Gorda for the rest of my holiday.

I was very pleased with the ferry service; I thought $95 pp was well worth it. The STT airport does not offer many (any!) nice features; it's all open air, and since it is enclosed on 3 sides, there is absolutely no circulation. Upon landing, you pick up your luggage and then you handle the entire check-in process at their airport "Westin desk." You sign all the usual check-in papers. They take your luggage......and you never see it again until it is delivered to the room. The airport's Westin desk also offers a small waiting room with cooled water (!); I'd swear the room is not air conditioned, but it is a bit cooler (similar to old-South swamp coolers). Quick bus ride to the marina and then a 40-min ferry ride. First sun warning: unless you are already well-tanned, do not sit on the open deck. Some nice viewing during the ferry ride--the speed gives you a breeze. Cooled water also available on the ferry.

Upon arrival at the resort, plain and run punch offered. Then, they hand you your room key and give you a golf-cart ride to the room. (While all the guests are being sorted out....enjoy a quick visit with the two parrots at the Beach Cafe. The red parrot (right pillar) is quite friendly to all guests; you can slowly approach him and then pet him. The blue parrot (left pillar) absolutely despises all men, and has been known to take a severe hunk of meat out of any male hand that approaches him; he'll sweet talk (chirp) any woman who approaches.)

I had booked an ocean view room; I was the last room in Building 23. If you want a quiet location, the best room IMHO. It is labeled as a Lower Hillside Building. Small patio out front, where you could sit and read, or breakfast, with no one around and no one walking between you and the bay (altho it was probably 250 yards back from the shore line). No problem and no great distance to the amenities. (Ocean front rooms, while probably more-often requested, I would think have less of a view. A dense planting of palm trees at window level, lots of activity on the beach, people walking to and fro, 10os of beach chairs, etc. right in front. Not my preference for location.)

The room and furnishings in my building were quite tired. I was disappointed by that, considering how nice the rest of the resort was. I had to think of 1970's-style, imitation rattan, furniture, painted that boring faux antique-white/beige. Large room. A comfortable easy chair in which to sit and read. Very efficient a/c!

I was on an award stay; I did not get upgraded. What I booked is what I got. I did get a very nice Plat amenity; a platter of about a dozen choc dipped strawberries, some truffles, and some fresh fruit. The local geckos appreciated the rinds and fruit-leftovers which I shared. They eat well; some over 2-feet long with tail!

In walking by some of the beach front and pool view rooms, I did see that they have been recently renovated with new W-style furnishings and with flat-screen TVs. I'm not sure if those are upgrades for the entire resort.....I'd think so, since "pool view" is below an "ocean view" room.

The SVO villas are way far away. You walk out (or let them drive you in a golf cart) the front entrance to the resort, go across the street, and up a hill. I spoke with several who stayed there--they said very nice villas, but the distance was a drag.

Food was very good at all the restaurants, and the drinks were strong enough to justify the price. Service in the restaurants was more than adequate -- if you can remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life and adjust to "island time."

I only left the resort once. I took a local jeep/taxi/jitny ride into Cruz Bay ($4 each way pp; they seat about 12 people and jump on/off wherever you want along the route), walked around, saw that there was nothing to do or see (other than some nice restaurants), and came back to the resort.

Would I go back? In a second! ^ I enjoyed the location, food, staff, and facilities.

But for the same money per room (if travelling with enough people to share), I'd instead go back and rent a house on Virgin Gorda.

socalterp

IMHO, I can't imagine staying at the Westin and only leaving the resort once??? Tremendous beaches, great scenery, amazing views...if you think that Cruz Bay represents the rest of St. John, you are really missing out. Just the other beaches alone - Trunk Bay (early or late), Cinnamon, Maho, Gibney to name a few. The beach/bay water at the Westin is terrible...we stayed there a few years ago, and aside from using the pool, we basically just used the hotel as a place to sleep and went out and explored.

kevinsac

My time at the resort was planned only to be on site. Besides, I was by myself and enjoyed the quiet time. I agree that for most people, exploring the island certainly would be worth it. Who knows.......you might run into Kenny Chesney at the beach at his home.

The following weeks were spent with 65+ people at a string of homes on Virgin Gorda. I had plenty of time for "activities" after I left the Westin.

ezron

FWIW--the Pool View rooms and Ocean Front rooms ARE an upgrade from the Ocean View rooms.