Part ONE

So far so good. ...Great to be back

We have been on the island for 5 days and I am typing this from our deck at the Simpson Bay Resort (SBR). Have a nice breeze early this morning and the seas seem to be finally settling.

Arrival

We arrived on Saturday from, for once, a very noneventful trip from Wisconsin. Delta (our preferred airline for work and pleasure) finally has regular flights and connections to the island. We hope the economy sustains itself and we always can make it here in one day with only one connecting flight. Just made me happy that after getting on a flight at 7:00am I was standing on the island at 2pm.

After breezing through immigration and customs, as usual, we were met by Lesley from Kenny's car rental. We had to wait about 15 minutes, not a big deal and Kenny had his car ready to rock right on the airport road way. Quick signature and we are on our way. Simplicity at its best. No shuttle. Just sign and drive.

SBR…

My wife and mother in law have been owners since 2000. At that time, if many do recall, it was known as the Pelican. Long story short: Pelican from what I can tell was a MESS in 2000 on variety of levels. I won't go into details, but she purchased a unit via Royal Resorts (RR was not the owner but the sales agent). I am not a fan of timeshares. Never will be, but she purchased a unit in a woefully undersold building at a very low price during the lowest of the low season. So I did not have a big complaint (weren't married yet ;-0 )

We never came to the island until about 6 years ago. We'd either let my Mother in law use our week or let friends and colleagues use it. I won't regurgitate the soap opera about this property, (let some start another string on that one). However, since Royal Resort has become the owner and management of this property things have improved significantly in the way of infrastructure, staffing, and amenities. I could give you a laundry list of big and little the things I noticed but that will take too long. IN short, I am pleased on each visit to always see forward progress.

Check in is always seemingly slow, and we had to wait for our room to be ready, actually it always was ready, they just told us the wrong room. We are in a two bedroom in the Villas building. Very nice. Full kitchen with a one bedroom with kitchenette in the lock off. The villas are somewhat too much like a "hotel" for my taste but we can' beat the convenience and the view of the bay is great.

To its Royal Resorts has really amped up the customer service. They have an army of "concierges" that are constantly around the lobby area, looking for a confused face and during check in they make a point of meeting "owners" and sitting down to discuss changes, activities, schedules etc. Personally I find it tedious but my wife and mother in law were willing participants.

They will try to get you into a sales meeting but I wont call it hard sell. I notice on message boards people just get infuriated by this, but I have learned if you stay at an ostensibly timeshare property you will always get a pitch. Get over it or just say no. If you want the free prize etc, you need to sit through a sales presentation. That is their job. That said, almost all of the SBR sales staff are professional and courteous and don't suffer a high rate of turnover (we see the same senior staff year after year). That translates to happy employees who believe in what they sell. So I say let them do their job, and you can always say no. We have said NO a lot, however now the RR and the SBR has a points system we have taken advantage of our very cheap early owner ship and parlayed that into a great getaway vacation spot at a reasonable price and completely reasonable maintenance.

All that said SBR is putting final touches on its comprehensive resort overhaul, with new water front areas, "High end" on property, Mexican restaurant opening on November 15. They also plan have the shoreline in front of the villas converted to a private beach..should be interesting…

Activities thus far…

Dining. Bon Apetit first night. Great little restaurant located next (or surrounded by more like it) to SBR. Always a good bet. The next two nights we DIY'd our meals. A quick jaunt to Market Garden on Sunday got us necessities and Garnd Marche (Carrefour) on Tuesday for more substantial items. I also decided to make dinner for my wife and Mother in law while they remained on the beach and shot over to MG for some quick inspiration. Picked up some baby back ribs (I can't believe how cheap they were) and some local Guaveberry grilling sauce) and commenced to cooking. Another great SBR improvement are some Weber gas grills located about the property. They look like they have never been used…. Worked out perfect!! And, I got some jealous looks from the bleary eyed guests at the main pool "p" bar watching the platter of porky goodness go by….

Beach on Monday. Tried snorkeling but the visibility was poor, even if I swam out 100 yards or so...still was poor. The surf has been very high the last few days so snorkeling has been shelved util today/tomorrow.

More beach on Tuesday. Surf was very high. They actually had a red flag warning up. Very rare.

Made trip to Marigot, bought some little jewelry pieces from the larimar lady, couple of prints and I got a t shirt from the secret spot. (Hat tip to the SXM poster who clued me into that).

Today will be more beach time. Perhaps snorkeling and then either make dinner or try the Indian take out down the street. Its been there seemingly forever and looks like good reviews, so a curry may be in order tonight….


OK nuf' for now more later. (note : I purposely use my laptop on our deck to remind me to where I am and to stop typing. This is especially if I need to check in with work quickly...trust me. Very short. Spend no more than 15 minutes a day…..)