From: Nicole, sockii@earthlink.net
Date: 9/12/03 10:01:21 AM
Remote Name: 68.164.120.164
Got back home last night from our weeklong trip, just going to summarize my thoughts--
As I said before, the Marriott gets points in a lot of ways from me: very comfortable beds and rooms, good service, outstanding breakfast buffet, and absolute steal at the roomrate we paid of $119/night. Very convenient dealing with Avis car rental right at the hotel; the car was new and in excellent condition. The casino is nice and after three losing nights on the slots, the next two nights I hit some decent payoffs and ended up $100 up for the trip. Hey, I only gamble $20-40 at a time, I'm no big spender, so I was happy. Certainly better than I ever did at the old Jack Tar casino, which is still open and looks pretty sad now in comparison to the Marriott's.
We had two dinners at the Marriott's Calypso Cafe and they were only okay, not great--in the future we'd just stick with breakfasts there. We didn't try the other restaurants at the Marriott as we weren't interested in coming to St. Kitts for steak or standard Italian, and most of the reports we'd heard about them weren't all that tremendous.
One thing I noticed was that I think come season the Marriott's going to regret not having a bigger parking lot--for several days at the end of our trip there was some big event going on at the hotel and they roped off a large section of the one main parking lot as "reserved". Maybe if they take over and rebuild the Jack Tar land as we were told has been talked about they can have more parking space. It certainly looked like it could get to be a sticky situation in the future otherwise.
Didn't do much of anything except spend every possible minute down at Friars Bay. Yes, there are a few more beach bar stands than before but it didn't feel all that different. Still hardly any tourists (most of the folks at the Marriott never seemed to stray from the hotel grounds or their section of North Frigate Bay). Had lunch every day with Olivia at Sunset Beach Bar and she has me totally spoiled for Kittian food now--I had outstanding red snapper or lobster every day, yum! Some of the best lobster I've had on St. Kitts, too, and way more reasonably priced than getting it at any of the hotels or big restaurants on the island.
Went to Ballahoo once and it was a bit disappointing compared to old memories. Seemed like some of the prices have gone up and the chicken was tough and overcooked--and NO rum and banana sandwiches! Boo hoo. Still, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt as it was their last night before closing for a few weeks, so maybe things just weren't up to normal standards. Total bill for three people eating two appetizers, one expensive ($18) and two inexpensive ($8) entrees and a few drinks: $80. Our most expensive night out.
Had two dinners at PJ's, which hasn't changed a bit and still was very tasty and reasonable--about $35 for two with entrees and simple drinks. My biggest issue with them still is that I can't go there when it's too hot out--the heat is just stiffling in that place and they need more fans going or something.
We only had two headaches during our trip, one of which was dealing with the new First Caribbean bank, which has taken over the old Barclays. It was a nightmare getting our old bank account straightened out with them, involving repeatedly down computer systems, rude treatment, and even having to get a letter from our lawyer on the island to prove who we were! Never again. Next trip we're switching over to National or Royal Bank of Canada.
Our other nightmare was dealing with Caribbean Sun and US Air on the flight home, but I'll detail that in a separate post. Needless to say, next time I'm taking the direct flight from Philadelphia so I don't have to deal with San Juan customs and clearance ever again!
All in all it was wonderful being back, and we hope to return again as soon as possible, maybe even before the end of the year.Where we will stay is up in the air; if the Marriott still has the best prices we will return, but otherwise we'll go back to the more self-sufficient style of one of the condo communities in Frigate Bay, like Horizons, Leeward Cove, or possibly the new Calypso Bay condos which looked VERY nice.