Anyone care to share their car rental experience? :)

I'm thinking about getting a rental car from STT and take the barge to St John. It's probably the easiest way to get around.

How's the barge? Are there a lot of companies running ferries? I'm not even sure how it works. You drive directly onto the ship yourself and sit in your car? Any tips?

Thanks!

I think that the only compny allows you to take your car from St. Thomas to St. Johns is Budget be sure to check before you rent if they allow or bardge wont take you.

There is a rental car company on the grounds of hotel, I found it MUCH easier to rent the car there due to the ferry schedule. The price of the onsite car rental wasnt more expensive than renting in STT then taking the bardge over.

The absolute fastest way from airport to hotel is Dohm's water taxi http://virginislandswatertaxi.com/ if you are 4 people its break even to hotel ferry and if you are more it saves you money. Best part about this ferry is they are on your schedule, when you are ready they go. The hotel ferry has a set schedule and depending on flight arrival time you can wait at airport for up to two hours for next ferry.

Funny, I just booked a 4 nite award stay here for feb and went through a lot of the ins and outs of renting a car on island vs off island. Friend of mine spends a lot of time on the island and after speaking with him, sounds like renting for a few days on island is the way to go. I priced out a jeep from STT and it's ironically not terribly less than renting on island, when you factor in all costs....further, the barge seems to have less options timing wise (and you need to get there early, etc), so in the end, you seem to save a few bucks but add some hassle (and lose some hrs) to your journey. He also recommended just taking the regular ferry and not the Westin ferry as it's much cheaper and runs every hour (with a second ferry that's 5 mins from the airport that runs 3 times a day; the cab driver will know which ferry takes off first when you are picked up at STT). My plan is to use cabs the night we arrive, rent a car for 48 hrs, and since we're sailing to BVI the last day we are there, we don't need a car for more than 2 days.

All that said, if you're there for, say, a week, and want a car the whole time, it might make sense to rent at STT

What's the latest opinions on plusses and minuses of the villa rooms vs non villa rooms? sounds like villa rooms are further away, but if you have a car, is it preferable to stay there? What are other plat's experiences with upgrade options?

Couple of quick questions.. I went back to mid 2010 and didn't see much, before that, policies, etc change. Thanks so much for your help! I just booked six nights there for a surprise trip for my wife.

How do they treat Plats? Anything special? The Concierge was very quick to point out that they do not offer upgrades!

What do you get with the $40 resort fee? Is it negotiable or not?

Are the beaches very full there in June?

Thanks so much for your help!

I'm interested in hearing an update from someone who's been there recently.

What is the state of the resort in terms of construction? Is this still an issue?

More specifically, how are the bungalows both condition-wise and in terms of availability. Ideally, if they're in good shape, I'd like to upgrade to one with cash or points.

Finally, I'm still deciding where to go. St. John's is a strong candidate thanks to the strong reviews here (and despite the mixed reviews on tripadvisor). I will be traveling with a toddler. Given the current condition of the hotel, how is it for a 2.5 year old?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

All must pay the resort fee including rfor reward stays. There are many beaches on St. John so you can usually find one with few people. Get the cruise ship schedule so you know when they are in port at St. Thomas. They offer their guests excursions to Honeymoon and Trunk so you'll want to avoid those time (11AM-2PM generally). Mostly Trunk, but I've seen small boats with snorkel tours come up to Honeymoon. Cinnamon is generally not busy and it's a long beach, but can get windy.

Just got back from a 4 night trip to this property on points and free amex nites...absolutely loved St John (we rented a car so spent most of our time off property) but our stay at the Westin was pretty sub-par. i wrote to SPG already and they were pretty helpful/apologetic, but i thought a few folks would be interested in a few of our issues, if anyone decides to try this place out in the future

1) Upon check-in, platinum status was not recognized
2) Was not expecting an upgrade, but there was zero attempt to find an alternative room - *any* room - with King bed. i understand that i had booked a 2 bed room (that was all that was available on the free nites stay) - and that they were booked solid. What made it worse, my 4th night - on points - was booked in a king bed, but when I had attempted to move, was told that they did not have a king room available for me.
3) No offer of 500 Starpoints or Platinum amenity at check in
4) No mention of a resort fee; no recognition of Platinum status + no Platinum resort fee amenity in lieu of resort fee (I stupidly should have asked about both at check-in, but after a longish day of travel, it slipped my mind)
5) No waters of any kind in the room at any point during our stay.

Other issues throughout the stay.

1) Ice machines worked for 1 day out of 4. In order to get ice, I had to walk to bar (after walking to 2 separate non working ice machines)

2) Upon returning to the hotel at 5 pm on our first night, we found an unmade room. When we called the front desk to ask about the lack of service, they asked if they could come now. When we explained that we had been gone all day and wanted a rest, not only did they not offer to come later, they mentioned that they leave at a certain hour and would not be able to service our room if they could not come at that point. In the end, we had to vacate our room immediately so that they could begin cleaning a room that the staff had 7 hours to clean earlier. No apologies were made for the obvious inconvenience, although they did offer to put 1000 SPG points into my account, which still has not been added.


As for the room itself, it was pretty basic, as others have noted. Not terrible, not great. I would say the main saving grace was that we rented a car in STT (def the way to go and you don't really need a Jeep - at least we didn't) and spent almost no time during the day on property. It was kind of Romper Room in and around the property anyhow so if you're traveling sans kids and staying at the Westin, I'd 100% advocate getting a car and exploring.

All in all, we had a wonderful stay on St John, but many factors regarding our time at the Westin was marred by a lack of platinum recognition and basic service issues that would probably preclude us from staying at this property in the future. Which is a pity, considering we had such a wonderful stay at the W Vieques last December. The experience was night and day between properties.

When I go to St. John, I expect service to be non-existent or sloth-like and the snorkeling and scenery to be out of this world. I'm rarely disappointed.

Yeah, I hear that. Based on the various reviews I've read on this forum and others, i was not expecting much in the way of service. I guess my report was more guided towards some of the questions recent posters had about a) renting cars and b) platinum recognition

regarding a) my experience was 100% rent at STT. I found the process at STT (we used Budget, but apparently avis also rents cars that go to SJ. hertz does not allow cars off island) to be very easy and much more affordable than renting on SJ. We also found that the car barges left every 30 mins or so during the day, so that was not an issue in any way. Also, every car in SJ (which started at $75 a day, vs $42 at STT) was sold out for most of March. regarding b) I literally felt that there was zero Plat recognition, in amenities/resort fee amenity/desire to help me change rooms that went beyond basic service issues. i was ready for things like broken ice machines breaking and slow cleaning staffs; i was unprepared for the complete disregard of status at the front desk.

FWIW, we stayed in the villas and our ice maker was broken. My husband reached in and turned on the "On" switch, only to realize the next morning that the reason it was turned off was because it was leaking like a mother. (Nice communication!) We called for service and they came, reported that it was, indeed broken, and that was all we saw of them. We called and asked for regular old ice trays, but that was apparently akin to asking for the moon. So, we hiked to the main hotel's ice machine to fill up our cooler with ice a few times during the week. :p

Another time, my friends reported that there were no working lights in their bathroom. How the cleaning person managed to clean an interior restroom with no light was beyond me. Down in the kitchen, they replaced a halogen light with a regular light, and the light kept shorting out.

Lucky for them WSJ is so beautiful or one's blood pressure would increase.

Any info regarding the Westin's (free?) shuttle to the beaches?

What is the availability of parking in the Cruz Bay area?

Parking in Cruz Bay is tough. Doable if you go early in the morning.

There is no free shuttle. IIRC, it's $5 pp each way (plus tip) to Cruz Bay and the price goes up from there, based on how far away it is.

I am going to respond random comments in posts #123 - 132... warning... YMMV
For disclosure... I own 2 weeks (June) in the Hillside villas and keep up the WSJ/STJ thread on the Starwood forum on TUG (Timeshare Users Group) as DavidnRobin. We have gone to STJ/WSJ for 5 years now and coming up on our 6th. We love STJ and the WSJ villas (not hotel part), and have been active in working with the WSJ-VG (Hillside villas) HOA BOD to get better control and transparency of the HOA BOD who up until recently was fully controlled by SVO (Starwood vacation Ownership = Timeshares). I post yearly trip reports on TUG with photos and videos (videos on YouTube under 'blujahz').

These are my own views and you may or may not agree - so with that said...

If you go to STJ and stay at WSJ - stay in the villas if you can (whether it is in the VG phase or the new BV phase). No matter if you are staying in the hotel or villas - adjust your expectations - especially the Platinum folks (who often tilt me TBH because they seem to have the most issues with expectations - sorry if this offends, but it is what it is). If you do not, then you will set yourself up for disappointment - if you cannot, then I would advise not going to STJ as it will make you unhappy and those around you (workers and visitors) unhappy. Things move slowly there and almost backwards - many workers - especially islanders do not take their job as seriously as mainlanders (yes - this is a generalization, but mostly true). Be happy - go slow - never demand - always smile - and keep expectations in check - your vacation will go much better.

Stay in villas (like I said) - if you can.
Rent a 4WD - and expore the island - we rarely go down to the resort. We also rent on STT and take the car barge over - it is much easier and can be cheaper.
There is no longer a free shuttle to the beaches - that was put into place after the storm damage from 2 different storms. The STJ taxis will take you to/from (not cheap - and are taxi-buses), but my advice is still to rent a 4WD - don't worry if it looks beat up as long as it has good tires, brakes, AC, and a lockable compartment.
Our maintenance issues (which always exist) have always been dealt with quickly - so try the smiling, laid back approach - not sure why anyone would use the ice from the ice maker/machines - buy your ice (and water) from the store.
Parking in Cruz Bay is not that difficult - you just need patience and creativity and the ability to walk a few blocks.
If you are Platinum, then I would advise strongly not to expect anything for being Platinum - it is just the way it is from the many reports I hear about. I know I wil get bashed for this... oh well - just trying to have your expectations readjusted - if you care not to take this advice - then at least you were warned. Please do not bash me(although I expect it...) - just being honest.
STJ is a beautiful and unique place, but it is not for everyone. We can go for 2 weeks and barely see the resort. Also, we prefer to have as little interaction as possible with the front desk or the service people - this helps when staying in the villas since they are fully contained and we are quite capable of cleaning up after ourselves (and prefer to) - and that includes changing a lightbulb.

Post #128 is good advice.
YMMV - sorry to offend...
(and do not buy from SVO - the resale prices are >90% lower in most cases - and some villas are essentially free - except for the ridiculous annual fees... but that is another story - also, try renting from a villa owner - there are some excellent rentals there)
enjoy... and Stay Left.

Westin St Johns - great place, very reasonable
 

Great trip - took family of four with 2 young kids. Rented a villa - extremely reasonable price. The villa needed some refurbishing and updating but was still fine - they have since been updated and i have seen some pictures, and they got the improvement they needed. If you like reefs/beaches this is a paradise as most of the island is national park and there are scads of public beaches with decent public facilities that have great reef systems right off the beach. All the other islands are easily accessible for day trips. If you go, do not spend any time in ST Thomas - gross - not even worth a day trip. I am a high maintenance traveler and usually stay at whatever the best hotel/resort i can find at the destination i am going and I would honestly say I would go back there in heartbeat. However, check your expectations - this is not a luxury vacation, but what it doesn't have it makes up for in value.

for Plat members - what does the hotel substitute for the Resort charge, if anything? it seems at least the internet and health club access is a duplicate.
2nd - Can you reserve a villa on points in any way?
last question - if staying in regular rooms - which are the most desirable location-wise? those closer to the beach? or something else?