Trip Report 9.24 - 10.5

mdcoles1 · Post by **mdcoles1** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 1:28 pm

Enjoyed some “old” and some new….

**Villa Jumbie in Coral Bay. I just can’t say enough about this villa. The covered porch overlooking the bay in Coral Bay and the Moravian Church is absolutely perfect. For only $800,000.00 it could be mine. I will hope it continues to be a rental when it sells. It is perfect us. We spent a lot of time in the pool just floating and drinking in the evening. This was our second time staying here.

: Villa

**Courtesy Jeeps-no insurance problems or issues. Nice newer tires. Yeah.

**Loved apps and frozen Painkillers at Longboard. Wings were to die for!

**Loved Aqua Bistro for dinner…best conch fritters on the island.

**I was so impressed with the upgraded Dolphin Market in Coral Bay. We did bring a cooler with steaks, chops and shrimp. Our Polar Bear Cooler and Techno Ice kept it all nice and frozen. I was not impressed with Starfish Market, either in the quality/freshness of the food or the friendliness of the cashiers.

**Best Painkiller-Skipper’s. Foods was just so-so.

**Cruz Bay Watersports trip to Baths and Caves-excellent trip. This was our first time and I am glad we waited until our 5th trip and one that was longer than a week.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

**Beach Bar- burgers were just so so. Excellent Bushwhackers.

**Rachael Private Tax– just a relaxing experience both ways.

**St. John Spice for some spices and hot sauce.

**St. John Vibe Jewelry-very nice for my belated birthday gift. 

**Best snorkeling we have experienced! Five minutes after entering the water at Maho, we saw multiple turtles and rays. And yes, even a 5-foot nurse shark. We saw one shark each at Maho, Cinnamon, and Francis. Salt Bay Pond, Maho, Frances, Jumbie and Cinnamon were great snorkel spots. Lameshur was a bust for us.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ateposted/

One thing new I used for snorkeling and highly recommend was the use of a Personal Swim Buoy. The one I bought had a dry chamber that we kept our keys, phone etc. in when snorkeling. It attaches with a belt and is made for open water swims. The buoy have me peace of mind, if needed it can be used to “float” and rest. I have used vests and belts and this was just much less intrusive. We buckled them to our tubes when out floating and drinking and never worried about our “stuff”. We each had one and could easily spot one another as we snorkeled. We also bought the TriBord Masks. We both LOVED these masks. NO fogging, NO leaking and we could snorkel so much longer.

** We hadn’t been to Trunk since our first visit about 10 yrs ago. We decided to go early on a Thursday. At 9:30 am we were 2 of 4 on that entire glorious beach. It was the least crowded beach of the week. This was a slightly windy day so we did not snorkel just sat and read.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

Funny Story: We were on the beach at Francis early (9am). By 12:00 we had a large, joyful group next to us playing their music. Yes, I love classic rock but not at my beach. One lady was particularly loud and I told my husband I wanted to go snorkeling to get away from her voice. She ended up running down the beach chasing after me, whistling and yelling to me that there was a shark in the water near me. I can’t believe there was a fish for miles after her alcohol fueled chase. Lol.

We were very lucky to miss hurricane weather this trip. Made me re-think for a minute these October trips. But, the water was WARM and CLEAR... so it is definite trade off. It was definitely more crowded than our past trips at this same time.

Ten days turned out to be the magic number for us. Leading up to this trip, both of us were under a lot of work stress. I felt like I had not had a good night’s rest in months. Slept like a baby every night I was there. Not sure if it was the island or the rum. 

Once on the island, I was totally relaxed and chill. I never even thought about work. I hardly got out of my bathing suit and never work any make up or used a hair dryer. Our best trip ever.

We will be back in 2 years.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144037843 ... ed-public/

ArkieLovesSTJ · Post by **ArkieLovesSTJ** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:32 pm

Nice Report. Looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for taking time to do a trip report!

mindehankins · Post by **mindehankins** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 6:40 pm

Great report! I always hear good things about Villa Jumbie!
THANK YOU for the information on the swimming float. That is going to make it much easier for Blaine to spot me, when he's sitting on the beach while I snorkel. Bonus that it has dry storage. Thanks to Amazon, I had one on the way before I even hit reply!
Thanks again for sharing!

StJohnbum · Post by **StJohnbum** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 7:25 pm

Great trip report. Glad you had a great time. We love the Coral Bay side but the Villa we had gotten used to renting, Casa Tua, went off the market, for a mere $2,000,000 it could have been ours! Ouch! So since that's never going to happen we're still looking for the next perfect villa to rent. Glad you found yours!

You were much more gracious than I would have been with some loud drunk trying to ruin your well earned vacation. Each to their own but we should have a dedicated beach for drunken loud mouths, oh, and it shouldn't be on St. John!

Thanks for taking the time to write the report and posting pictures and keeping this board active.

mahojim · Post by **mahojim** » Sat Oct 08, 2016 8:20 am

Loved your report and photos. We stayed at Villa Jumbie a few years ago. Loved everything about it. We left the rope ladder there for future guests for help getting into dinghys. Wonder if snyone ever got any use out of it...
Youve got me super curious about the food choices you made- my favorite wings have always been at Aqua Bistro, and conch fritters at Shipwreck Landing. Gonna have to try some new things next trip!
Thank you so much for your report! Going to look into the float!
Smiles -
MJ

Pickle · Post by **Pickle** » Sat Oct 08, 2016 3:16 pm

Looks like you had a much needed relaxing vacation. 10 days used to be our magic number but it has turned into 14 days (at least). We haven't been back to Trunk for a while now. It was the first and the most crowded beach we visited 15 years ago on our very first trip and we haven't frequented there since then. It is a beautiful beach, no question - I should revisit.

Thank you for sharing your trip and thoughts!

StJohnbum wrote:We love the Coral Bay side but the Villa we had gotten used to renting, Casa Tua, went off the market, for a mere $2,000,000 it could have been ours! Ouch!

We loved Casa Tua, too. Our reservation (our 2nd time staying there) was cancelled when the property was sold, which was, I still feel it, very disappointing. Wish we could've bought it (nooooo way).

philbetm · Post by **philbetm** » Sun Oct 09, 2016 8:17 pm

Really enjoyed your trip report ! Hubby and I would love to take a day trip to the Baths and Caves or Indians . We visited the Baths on a day excursion from a Cruise and loved it . Never been to the other places . From the pics it looks like STJ was really " Greened " up ....gorgeous ! Hoping you might share the actual name of the floatation belt . Would like to check into getting a couple for next years trip .

Thanks again

Sherry in SC

mdcoles1 · Post by **mdcoles1** » Sun Oct 09, 2016 8:40 pm

Really enjoyed your trip report ! Hubby and I would love to take a day trip to the Baths and Caves or Indians . We visited the Baths on a day excursion from a Cruise and loved it . Never been to the other places . From the pics it looks like STJ was really " Greened " up ....gorgeous ! Hoping you might share the actual name of the floatation belt . Would like to check into getting a couple for next years trip .

The personal swim buoy brand I purchased Was Speed Hound.

RickG · Post by **RickG** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:32 am

Thanks for the great TR. We're fans of summer/fall visits and head down in two weeks for Hallowen. We've gone to two week trips since we got our sailboat (1/2 share was 5% of buying a villa). After visiting the BVIs, SVIs, St. Martin and Anguilla, St. John is still our favorite. Looking forward to trying Skippers and hitting our old favorites.

Cheers, RickG

shoemak38 · Post by **shoemak38** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:41 am

kklay · Post by **kklay** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 1:23 pm

Where is Skippers? Is it on St. John or another island you visited? I have never heard of it!

philbetm · Post by **philbetm** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 2:18 pm

RickG .........." We've gone to two week trips since we got our sailboat (1/2 share was 5% of buying a villa). "

We are ....

Backtotheislands · Post by **Backtotheislands** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:20 pm

Thanks for the trip report! We stayed at Villa Jumbie several years ago and loved the whole house AC, pool, view, etc. I moved higher up on the mountain to get away from mosquitoes, BUT the pool is cooler. Wish I could buy it! How were the beds?

GraysonDave · Post by **GraysonDave** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:55 am

kklay wrote:Where is Skippers? Is it on St. John or another island you visited? I have never heard of it!

Sweet Plantains is now Skippers.

http://newsofstjohn.com/2016/09/09/swee ... -brit-pub/

kklay · Post by **kklay** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:30 pm

That's right! I had forgotten about the change and I even read the article. Thanks for reminding me!

usvi-on-line