(Excellent)
We stayed at Morgan Point in late July 2010. By far, it was the best villa experience we'd had to date on St John.
The house:
It sits about 2/3 of the way out Great Cruz Bay atop a steep, somewhat twisty driveway.
You leave your car in a covered carport. This is a very nice feature and keeps your car cool at any time of day. In the carport area, you will find beach chairs and a hose (to wash that snorkel gear)
The hot tub is located just past the car port in a little corner of the house.
There are double glass doors that take you into the living room. Outside them, is a large gas grill. It's a monster and heats up almost too well!
The house has A/C...lots of it. The main living space has a large split system mounted above one set of glass doors. Each BR has a unit and the Main Master bath also has a unit. I'll admit; we ran it too much. But, it's a wonderful luxury to have while you're cooking or sunburnt.
There's a "normal door" that takes you into the laundry room. In addition to the machines, there is a large supply of stuff. There's a large telescope that begs to be set up on the deck. There are assorted umbrellas, mats, each and pool toys, etc. There's one of nearly everything in that room.
Through the laundry room, you walk into the main living area. Ahead of you is the kitchen. It's small and narrow (the open dishwasher nearly touches the fridge) but everything is in perfectly working order. The selection of knives and cookware is the best we've seen in a rental home. It's small, but as your group chef, you need to take control and throw everyone out of the kitchen. A door on the far side of the space takes you to the deck.
Across the kitchen's food bar, you see a computer desk (with printer) and a small 4-seater table. There are bookcases near the door to the laundry room. The stereo and iPod system is located there. The house has speakers mounted throughout the living area.
Behind the small table is the living area. There's a TV with DVD player, a sofa, coffee table and love seat. Our 8 year old can attest to the TV's ability to beam cartoons to the islands.
In the corner of the living room, a door takes you to a bedroom. I'd have to call this the "main master" bedroom. It has a king sized bed and all the usual furniture. The bathroom sits to the left and has a large stonework shower and plenty of closet space. Doors open from this bedroom to the deck.
Behind the kitchen is a small hallway leading to the other 2 main-floor bedrooms. On the right is a full bath with another walk-in stonework shower. At the end of the hallway is a smaller bedroom. It can be made up as a king bed or 2 twins.
To the left is the other master. It's a good-sized room with a king bed. The house's safe is located in the closet of this bedroom. To the side of the room is the bathroom. I get the feeling this part of the house (bathroom) was added as an addition. It's functional but has a funny downward slope that only gets worse after too many rum drinks.
From the living area, you walk out double glass doors to a large deck. The deck is mostly covered and overlooks Great Cruz Bay. The sides are uncovered. On the deck are 2 tables that can seat 8 between them. We ate every meal out on this deck. The large overhead fans keep the air moving and maintain a very pleasant temperature. They seem to have done a very good job of fighting what not be a primo location for breezes. The indoor areas are handled by the A/C and the deck has the 2 powerful fans. Never did we feel hot or sticky at this house. For us, that was a huge plus. We'd stayed in houses before that were like ovens
Past the carport and down the driveway a little bit is a gate that leads you down a few steps to the pool area. It's a small pool, but it serves its function. There's not much of a view from the pool, but it is beautifully landscaped and home to several different critters; little lizards, iguanas, etc.
Past the pool, and down some stairs is a small studio apartment of sorts. Peering through the windows, there seems to be a bedroom and living area with a small kitchenette.
Pros:
Location - if you ask us, it can't be beat.
Amenities - the house is loaded
Management - Carefree is incredible. The greeter called us within seconds of our friends' arrival on St Thomas. They were met and well-taken care of. The welcome gifts were very nice; snacks, drinks and a bottle of rum. Cindy called twice during the week to check in on is and to alert us that we could stay a few extra hours on the back end of the trip. We'll rent from Carefree exclusively going forward.
Cons (If you can call them cons)
The kitchen is tight. But, it works and is well-equipped. It can get crowded at times.
The pool - It's not attached to the house, so if you have a little fish in your group, you have to go "all the way" to the pool to watch her. This travesty was solved by loading one of the 3 supplied coolers with ice and beer and sitting there to hang out and read while the kiddies swim.
Otherwise, it was a wonderful house. The guestbook shows return visitors. To me that's a ringing endorsement of the property.
This review was originally submitted by Pipanale.