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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298299
03/26/2023 11:37 AM
03/26/2023 11:37 AM
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 687 Vail, CO/St. Thomas, USVI
caribbeangirl13
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 687
Vail, CO/St. Thomas, USVI
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Just FYI, during that time of year I would not swim off the beach in Water Bay which is where Margaritaville and Point Pleasant are located. It often fails the DPNR water test due to runoff. It is also known to get pretty bad sargassum, especially that time of year. Have you looked at Secret Harbor? We really like the beach there and the restaurant is really good as well.
Sue s/v Ripple Leopard 40
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298322
03/26/2023 06:34 PM
03/26/2023 06:34 PM
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35 Los Angeles
LA_FadeAway
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35
Los Angeles
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Thank you again for all the great feedback everyone! We do have a "hillside studio" held at Secret Harbour for now, although I may still book at Sapphire since we can save about $200 staying there and it is just for one night. The beachfront at Secret Harbour is like another $150. How bad is the hill for the "hillside" rooms? I understand Sapphire Village has a serious hill too.
Edit: Actually, looks like we can get beachfront at Secret Harbour for only $40 more if we prepay and book direct through their website or $60 more with a flexible rate.
Last edited by LA_FadeAway; 03/26/2023 07:49 PM.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298387
03/27/2023 04:21 PM
03/27/2023 04:21 PM
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 687 Vail, CO/St. Thomas, USVI
caribbeangirl13
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 687
Vail, CO/St. Thomas, USVI
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Thank you again for all the great feedback everyone! We do have a "hillside studio" held at Secret Harbour for now, although I may still book at Sapphire since we can save about $200 staying there and it is just for one night. The beachfront at Secret Harbour is like another $150. How bad is the hill for the "hillside" rooms? I understand Sapphire Village has a serious hill too.
Edit: Actually, looks like we can get beachfront at Secret Harbour for only $40 more if we prepay and book direct through their website or $60 more with a flexible rate. The beach at Secret Harbor is much better than the one at Sapphire IMHO.
Sue s/v Ripple Leopard 40
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298409
03/27/2023 10:34 PM
03/27/2023 10:34 PM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,347 USVI
LocalSailor
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,347
USVI
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The beach at Secret Harbor is smaller by far compared to Emarald Beach. Swimming is much better than Emerald.
Last edited by LocalSailor; 03/27/2023 10:35 PM.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298519
03/29/2023 03:26 PM
03/29/2023 03:26 PM
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35 Los Angeles
LA_FadeAway
OP
Traveler
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OP
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35
Los Angeles
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As info for those looking at Emarald Beach Resort:
While I was looking into our options, I noticed that Emerald has two room categories on their web site: Premium and Superior. Most booking engines just have one option, "deluxe". I emailed them to find out the difference and they responded as follows:
"The superior rooms have some renovations including a remodeled bathroom, new A/C and mattresses."
The only way to guarantee a renovated room is to book a "superior".
Edit: I don't know that I even trust the above. Some of their premium rates are higher than superior and then they have "superior beachfront premium", which is most expensive.
Last edited by LA_FadeAway; 03/29/2023 03:49 PM.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298574
03/30/2023 08:41 AM
03/30/2023 08:41 AM
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 816 Kannapolis, NC
ndfaninnc
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 816
Kannapolis, NC
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Emerald Beach is not a 5 star resort. I've stayed there 2 or 3 times and would give it 2.5 stars. But the convenience of being close to STT, decent food in the restaurant and a really good beach bar more than made up for any shortcomings. Would I stay there again? Yep. I'd much rather hang out there than STT. It is our go to after returning from Anegada even if only for a few hours.
Go Irish!!
Bill
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298649
03/31/2023 07:41 AM
03/31/2023 07:41 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,155 GA/NC
GeorgeC1
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,155
GA/NC
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The scammers can be very amateurish in their postings but there are professional web reputation services available that can be impossible to detect. We once stopped to eat at a place that had perfect 5 star reviews. As soon as we walked in I questioned the reviews. I was 100% sure they were fake when we asked for menus and the waitress said, “well we only have 3 things and we are out of one of them”!
Last edited by GeorgeC1; 03/31/2023 07:46 AM.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#298651
03/31/2023 08:24 AM
03/31/2023 08:24 AM
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 816 Kannapolis, NC
ndfaninnc
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 816
Kannapolis, NC
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"If you haven't noticed, my OCD make travel planning a little challenging at times, lol."
That is not a bad thing. You are about to spend a bunch of money for some time in paradise. Plan and question everything!
I am with Breeze. I'll trust the advice of this board over TA anytime. This board and its contributors have been invaluable to us having mostly smooth and pleasurable vacations.
GeorgeC1, hilarious story!
Go Irish!!
Bill
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: GeorgeC1]
#298696
03/31/2023 03:50 PM
03/31/2023 03:50 PM
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35 Los Angeles
LA_FadeAway
OP
Traveler
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OP
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 35
Los Angeles
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GeorgeC1 a Pats Rat?! Lol! Those are the absolute worst kind! RickinAtlanta, there are close to ten reviews in the last two years that mention rats and mice. Some in the rooms, some running around near the restaurant. The most recent review is suspect given that person signed up just to post that one review. If the Manager seemed to take other bad reviews more seriously, I'd be inclined to believe him that those people never stayed there; however, the Manager's poor handling of bad reviews is one of the biggest things that is turning me off of that hotel. He almost always accuses the person of lying or never having stayed there rather than offering a professional response. It makes it hard to know which ones are actually BS when he calls them all BS. He'd be better off with a canned response that at least sounded like he cared. At least he does acknowledge the power outages, which, as others have said are to be expected in the islands.
I don't doubt that you have all had decent stays there, but I also believe that some of the reviewers have run into a fair share of nasty conditions. At this point I've got it in my head that's it's going to be disgusting no matter what so why bother shelling out $300 just to go into it expecting it to suck. The price on our room at Secret Harbour just dropped $60 so now it's under my self-imposed $500 threshold. We're going to stick with that, at least for now.
By the way, you have to watch out for fakes in the Trip Advisor forums too. Many years ago, I caught a hotel Manager with multiple usernames promoting his hotel in the Belize forum, pretending to be past guests. I was already suspicious that someone was using multiple usernames when the wording in some comments was very similar, including grammatical errors. Then, he private messaged me under his manager name to offer a discount at his hotel, which they aren't supposed to do. The wording was just like all those other posts, so I called him out. He fessed up and begged and pleaded for me not to report him. I did not report him outright but did flag his extra usernames and let people in the forum know that "someone" was using fake accounts and to take those comments with a grain of salt.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: GeorgeC1]
#298763
04/01/2023 12:41 PM
04/01/2023 12:41 PM
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Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 549 Bay Area
Husker
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 549
Bay Area
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I was once in a decent downtown NYC hotel watching a football game on the TV when I noticed a rat on my bag also watching the game. It would not have bothered me much but it quickly became apparent that he was a Patriots fan and this was not acceptable! lol! You made my day, George.
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Re: Where to spend our last night?
[Re: LA_FadeAway]
#299701
04/14/2023 08:51 AM
04/14/2023 08:51 AM
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Joined: Nov 2021
Posts: 381 New Paltz, NY, Narragansett, R...
skipdastraw
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Nov 2021
Posts: 381
New Paltz, NY, Narragansett, R...
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I would wait to see what time you clear customs to decide when to head to the airport. If you blew through customs you could potentially have 4 hours before your flight. If the airport happens to not be busy, you will be sitting around for a very long time with really crappy food choices. If you don't think you have time for a potentially long sit down lunch, I would suggest Bumpa's in town. They are a quick, order at the counter place that does really good food. Whatever you do, don't go to that airport 4 hours ahead on an empty stomach.
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