We just returned from 6 days on island, and naturally wasn’t long enough. It had been 3 ½ years since our last visit, so to say we were looking forward to it was an understatement. For this trip, we stayed at Club O the first 2 days for the first time, after being beach visitors for nearly 20 years. Booked it through Jim Ruos at Caribbean Travel, and we stayed in 156, which was perfectly fine accommodations. Staff was great, and it really was a pleasure not having to head for the car at the end of the beach day (and several libations!) for a change. Got to play volleyball as well for the first time since we’ve been going there, which was a lot of fun, so many thanks to those who went to the trouble of organizing the game.

While in the area, we tried a couple of restaurants in Orient Village for the first time, Le Piment and Little Italy. We’re not really foodies so we just keep it simple. Food was good at both, but we felt the service was better at Little Italy (the hostest was really great, in particular that night).

The remainder of our trip was at Royal Islander, which we have stayed at a couple of times before. Though we have owned at the Towers for 20 years, and have no issue with it, when we have a short trip we like to be in town so that we don’t waste the time in the car going back and forth, and with the new causeway and frequent visits back to Orient, there’s now way less time in the car. Well, we sweated out being able to make a trade, and I have commented in another thread about the challenges with RCI in trading, and just as I was about to pull the trigger on a rental there about 2 weeks before, not only did RCI come through with a unit, it came through with the mother lode…unit 6102! Top floor, end unit, next to the runway, overlooking the beach and SSBG, 3 bedrooms, monstrous kitchen and a balcony with beaucoup wrap around sq footage, and all this for just the 2 of us! Was very cool.

We ate at Pizza Pasta, which we love and always visit, Pineapple Pete, with the most excellent service, also as usual, then tried SMYC for dinner, which was pretty good, but the atmosphere was great with a lot of yachts still in port from the previous weekend. Finished up with a dinner at IZI, which my wife felt was her best meal of the week and I certainly didn’t complain.

We use Lesley Bruce at Kenny’s for the car, and Sharon for the phone as always, and I highly recommend both of them. Now we just gotta figure out how to make sure another 3 ½ years don’t pass before the next visit!