While doing all this research I decided to register a new domain name seanandclaire.com and set up Google Apps for this domain which has allowed me to create a new email address that I have been using to communicate with all of the hotels. Every time you email a resort with requests for information they add you to their spam mailing list and when this wedding is over I don’t want to be receiving wedding related email on my regular account for the rest of my life. This also allowed me to get super organized by tagging all of the emails with information about the island to which they relate. I use stars to indicate which emails I still need to respond to and which ones I have already ruled out. I also uploaded all of the attachments I have been sent to Google Docs and filed them in specific folders making it really easy to get my hands on any information I need quickly. This has been really important because by now I have emailed 40+ hotels and received some information back from all of them.
It's getting confusing.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
St. Kitts, Grenada or somewhere else?
My Dad was visiting for the last few weeks and it seemed a little rude to sit typing on my computer while he was here so I took a break from blogging. Now I’ll continue the story. Where was I? Oh yes, I had just been majorly disappointed in the resort reviews on St. John. Add to those reviews, a good friend told me that she had been to St. Thomas and St. John and wasn’t overly impressed. The high levels of crime there intimidated her, but she had heard great things about St. Kitts and asked if I had looked into places there.
So off I went again on another (goose?) chase for the perfect hotel. I emailed a couple of places on St. Kitts but when I showed them to Sean he said, “Meh!” None of the places really seemed to sing to us. I resolved to go back to the beginning and read about each island in turn. I spent a whole weekend reading reviews of the islands themselves and was surprised to find that the island of Grenada, (pronounced Gren-ay-da, not like the place in Spain) seemed to meet all of my requirements. The crime rate is low, the people are very friendly, and the capital city has a reputation for being the prettiest in the Caribbean. It is a little off the beaten tourist path so wouldn’t be overly commercialized and there is wide range of accommodations which would give my guests lots of options for places to stay.
This really seemed to be the island for us. Having been disappointed in the results of being too choosy up front I decided to just email every hotel on the whole island with requests for specific information and see who got back to me. Our hotel is here I told myself. Somewhere on this island we will get married. Soon enough, the responses started flowing in. The first few were not very reassuring. $350/night? I don’t think so. So, all of the high end resorts were out. But there were loads left to choose from. No problem. Next I received responses from some of the lower end resorts. The room rates looked much more reasonable but when I looked at the photos online and the reviews it was clear that these hotels just didn’t meet our standards – thread bare carpets, worn, out-of-date furniture and few amenities just wasn’t what I had in mind. There were still the mid range places left though.
One in particular I had high hopes for. It wasn’t quite as nice as my dream resort but there were great reviews online and they all talked about the wonderful family run establishment where it was so obvious that the owners really cared about the place. After a week without a reply I sent them a ping just in case my email had been buried among other mail and received a weird one liner reply that I don’t think was meant for me, “Did you reply to this yet?” Oops. I replied and gently pointed out that I think I received the email in error but that I hadn’t yet heard anything back from them and was still interested in the answers to my questions about rates and packages etc. Several more days went by and my spirits began to drop. When they finally got back to me, my first reaction was that of relief. The room rates were in an acceptable range. They could offer rooms at $145/night + tax and mandatory service charge. That was still more than I had originally budgeted for but I was beginning to realize that hotels in the Caribbean are just really expensive. Nice hotels at least.
That night Sean and I went through all the information they sent in detail. The more we looked through it the more my heart broke. The room rates might have been OK but the price of everything else was astronomical. As an example they wanted to charge $45/person for a continental buffet breakfast the day after the wedding! The drinks, the food, the entertainment was so expensive I nearly cried. In fact, I think I did cry a few tears of frustration and disappointment. How many times could I get excited about a place only to find out that it wouldn’t work out?
Sean was great, as he always is in situations like this. His strength lies in recognizing when I’m just at the end of my tether and providing the calmness, confidence and support that I need to get me back on track. He put down the computer and sat back. “Let’s think this through again, “ he said patiently, “What other options do we have?"
We were, yet again, back to assessing our original assumptions.But don't fret, though I didn't know it, I was pretty close...
So off I went again on another (goose?) chase for the perfect hotel. I emailed a couple of places on St. Kitts but when I showed them to Sean he said, “Meh!” None of the places really seemed to sing to us. I resolved to go back to the beginning and read about each island in turn. I spent a whole weekend reading reviews of the islands themselves and was surprised to find that the island of Grenada, (pronounced Gren-ay-da, not like the place in Spain) seemed to meet all of my requirements. The crime rate is low, the people are very friendly, and the capital city has a reputation for being the prettiest in the Caribbean. It is a little off the beaten tourist path so wouldn’t be overly commercialized and there is wide range of accommodations which would give my guests lots of options for places to stay.
This really seemed to be the island for us. Having been disappointed in the results of being too choosy up front I decided to just email every hotel on the whole island with requests for specific information and see who got back to me. Our hotel is here I told myself. Somewhere on this island we will get married. Soon enough, the responses started flowing in. The first few were not very reassuring. $350/night? I don’t think so. So, all of the high end resorts were out. But there were loads left to choose from. No problem. Next I received responses from some of the lower end resorts. The room rates looked much more reasonable but when I looked at the photos online and the reviews it was clear that these hotels just didn’t meet our standards – thread bare carpets, worn, out-of-date furniture and few amenities just wasn’t what I had in mind. There were still the mid range places left though.
One in particular I had high hopes for. It wasn’t quite as nice as my dream resort but there were great reviews online and they all talked about the wonderful family run establishment where it was so obvious that the owners really cared about the place. After a week without a reply I sent them a ping just in case my email had been buried among other mail and received a weird one liner reply that I don’t think was meant for me, “Did you reply to this yet?” Oops. I replied and gently pointed out that I think I received the email in error but that I hadn’t yet heard anything back from them and was still interested in the answers to my questions about rates and packages etc. Several more days went by and my spirits began to drop. When they finally got back to me, my first reaction was that of relief. The room rates were in an acceptable range. They could offer rooms at $145/night + tax and mandatory service charge. That was still more than I had originally budgeted for but I was beginning to realize that hotels in the Caribbean are just really expensive. Nice hotels at least.
That night Sean and I went through all the information they sent in detail. The more we looked through it the more my heart broke. The room rates might have been OK but the price of everything else was astronomical. As an example they wanted to charge $45/person for a continental buffet breakfast the day after the wedding! The drinks, the food, the entertainment was so expensive I nearly cried. In fact, I think I did cry a few tears of frustration and disappointment. How many times could I get excited about a place only to find out that it wouldn’t work out?
Sean was great, as he always is in situations like this. His strength lies in recognizing when I’m just at the end of my tether and providing the calmness, confidence and support that I need to get me back on track. He put down the computer and sat back. “Let’s think this through again, “ he said patiently, “What other options do we have?"
We were, yet again, back to assessing our original assumptions.But don't fret, though I didn't know it, I was pretty close...
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
The Virgin Islands
Soon after I decided to expand the search beyond Antigua I picked up the book about the Virgin Islands. These islands are quite close to the US so travel to them would be easy. I started looking closely into St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John of the US Virgin Islands.
St. Thomas is the more cosmopolitan of the three. Many cruise ships stop here and they have a big airport served by many different airlines. It's known as the Mall of the Caribbean because there is great shopping here but it's also supposed to be quite Americanized without a lot of local color or character. St. Croix is a little quieter, with less commercialization but it's also a stop on many cruises. St. John is much quieter than the other two. So much so, it doesn't have its own airport. To get there you must fly to St. Thomas and take a ferry to St. John. Rockefeller bought a large percentage of the island and gifted it to the US as a state park so it's mostly undeveloped natural beauty. Can you guess which island I gravitated towards immediately?
And... I completely fell in love with this one hotel on St John. Their website was absolutely stunning. Their photos of other weddings really captured my heart and I pictured us standing on that beach. One prior review mentioned that the place was so natural that a wild deer peeked through the trees during their ceremony to watch them say their vows! Wow! They described how they meet you from your flight and check you in to the hotel there and then, tagging your bags and transporting them separately. They bring you to their private dock in St. Thomas and transport you to St. John on their own private ferry, providing a glass of champagne on the way. When you get to St. John your bags have been delivered to your room already. I exchanged several emails back and forth with their wedding coordinator and started to commit my heart to this place. The room rate was reasonable and the food options and everything else were something we could work with. All that was left was to do my due diligence and then sign a contract. I knew Jenni would be on trip advisor first thing when I told everyone about the place so I had to go read the reviews before the final go ahead.
And, then everything crashed. The reviews on trip advisor were TERRIBLE. And there were lots of them. And they were very recent. And they showed photos to back up their complaints. There was no denying these reviews. The fabulous rooms? Were dirty, badly maintained with photos of mold growing in the bathroom and the ceiling of the bedroom. Many people talked about the bad state of repair of the rooms. The fabulous airport transfer? One couple told a story about how it took 5 hours. They were abandoned at the ferry dock with no food or water for several hours because the ferry was delayed. The staff were really unfriendly. The way they handled a hurricane coming through was terrible on the guests. They simply closed all the restaurants, stopped most of the services and left the guests to fend for themselves. That's a very different story from many other resorts in the Caribbean who are much better equipped for the expected bad weather. The bad reviews went on and on. The lower price tag on the rooms made sense. The more I read the more I realized I couldn't settle on this resort.
I was back on the search again.
St. Thomas is the more cosmopolitan of the three. Many cruise ships stop here and they have a big airport served by many different airlines. It's known as the Mall of the Caribbean because there is great shopping here but it's also supposed to be quite Americanized without a lot of local color or character. St. Croix is a little quieter, with less commercialization but it's also a stop on many cruises. St. John is much quieter than the other two. So much so, it doesn't have its own airport. To get there you must fly to St. Thomas and take a ferry to St. John. Rockefeller bought a large percentage of the island and gifted it to the US as a state park so it's mostly undeveloped natural beauty. Can you guess which island I gravitated towards immediately?
And... I completely fell in love with this one hotel on St John. Their website was absolutely stunning. Their photos of other weddings really captured my heart and I pictured us standing on that beach. One prior review mentioned that the place was so natural that a wild deer peeked through the trees during their ceremony to watch them say their vows! Wow! They described how they meet you from your flight and check you in to the hotel there and then, tagging your bags and transporting them separately. They bring you to their private dock in St. Thomas and transport you to St. John on their own private ferry, providing a glass of champagne on the way. When you get to St. John your bags have been delivered to your room already. I exchanged several emails back and forth with their wedding coordinator and started to commit my heart to this place. The room rate was reasonable and the food options and everything else were something we could work with. All that was left was to do my due diligence and then sign a contract. I knew Jenni would be on trip advisor first thing when I told everyone about the place so I had to go read the reviews before the final go ahead.
And, then everything crashed. The reviews on trip advisor were TERRIBLE. And there were lots of them. And they were very recent. And they showed photos to back up their complaints. There was no denying these reviews. The fabulous rooms? Were dirty, badly maintained with photos of mold growing in the bathroom and the ceiling of the bedroom. Many people talked about the bad state of repair of the rooms. The fabulous airport transfer? One couple told a story about how it took 5 hours. They were abandoned at the ferry dock with no food or water for several hours because the ferry was delayed. The staff were really unfriendly. The way they handled a hurricane coming through was terrible on the guests. They simply closed all the restaurants, stopped most of the services and left the guests to fend for themselves. That's a very different story from many other resorts in the Caribbean who are much better equipped for the expected bad weather. The bad reviews went on and on. The lower price tag on the rooms made sense. The more I read the more I realized I couldn't settle on this resort.
I was back on the search again.
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