OK, I got in at 1am last night and am attempting to write this even though I still feel buzzed, but if I don’t do it now, I’ll forget everything.

Accomodations: Royal Islander
Number of visits: 20, since 1989
Length of stay: 10 days
Flights: Continental, American and USAIR (yes, I flew on all 3)
Partners in Crime: Leslie, Sheila, Susan, and 2 newbies-Laura and Julie, plus all the other friends we meet up with down there this time of year. Oh, and my mom…we celebrated her 80th birthday down there this year.


Flights: Friday March 7th. Well my trip got off to a not so great start. I got up a 2am, was picked up by the shuttle service at 3:15am for a flight leaving a 7am (Super Shuttle-price is right, but you have to give up a lot of your time). Got to the airport to check in at 4am with USAir. They can’t find my flight. They finally do find it and tell me I have the wrong day-that my flight is actually tomorrow. I shove my confirmation in their face and say “Check again.” Well, they discover that yes, they had indeed changed my schedule without my knowledge. Storms from the night before caused a ground delay, which in turn caused the crews to not have enough sleep, so my flight from Houston to Charlotte was delayed 3 hours, which meant I wouldn’t make my connection to SXM. So they scheduled me to stay over night in Charlotte and fly to SXM the next day. I tell them No, they need to get me there today. After an hour and a half, they finally got me re-routed, but on different carriers. I had to get over to Continental to Chicago, switch to American there to San Juan, and San Juan to SXM. I got in to SXM at about 11pm that night-better late than never!

Going home, USAir, half empty plane, JD was on my flight so we sat together. Only bad part was the damn Super Shuttle. Had an hour wait at the airport for it, then another hour and half til it was my turn to be dropped off. It took me as long to get home from the airport as it did to fly from Charlotte----never again. I’ll spend the extra for the Town Car.

TTOL Party: Having arrived so late on Friday, I missed the La Vista party, but did go to the SSBB party. I have to say, it amazes me each year how many great TTOL people there are. The parties just get bigger and bigger. SSBB was packed and everyone was having a great time. But what I hate is that I never seem to get around to talk to everyone. I always feel bad the next day when I realize I didn’t get to spend time with people or say hello to someone, or introduce myself or whatever……Sheila, thanks for hosting and to everyone else who aided in the planning…job well done!

***Edited to add*** To BobD and Bette, Marybeth and Don, Cheryl and Ted, Patty(sungoddess), and anyone else I forgot, I am sorry I did no get to spend more time catching up with you guys. Great to see you as always!!!!

Night Life: Spent a couple hours at the Regatta finale party. After having attended these many, many times over the years, I am about to the point where I am over it. I’d rather just hang with the great friends we’ve made over the years, and though I’m not saying I’ll never go again, just saying its not my main priority. I was lucky enough to snag a Golden Ticket to park at Royal Palm though, so blissfully, I didn’t have to worry about a parking spot.

Other than the regatta party and an early evening at the Lady C, we spent most of our nights at the Red Piana (note the new spelling!)
Colin and Jason have done a fantastic job with the place and we had a blast. Many thanks to Jay and Miss Chel who let me sing with them every night, and to Colin and Jason for the warm welcome (and the SHOTS) that they give us every year.

Dining: Because we can’t be bothered to stop drinking long enough, fine dining isn’t a priority. OK, not really, but we do try to mix it up a little while we are there. Never enough time to get to all the places we want though. We pretty much just stuck to Simpson Bay area this trip.

Fashion Café: Had pizza from here the first night-delivered to the condo. Excellent. $28.00 for two big pizzas.
The Wharf: We have known Bernard since he opened Paris Bistro, and have always enjoyed are meals there and at the Wharf. This year, while the food was good, it wasn’t great. I had Red Snapper, my favorite and it just wasn’t anything to write home about, but my escargot was divine. Service was wonderful. Prompt and pleasant.
Pineapple Pete’s: VERY crowded, and they were able to seat us right away, but were concerned that we didn’t have reservations. Everyone’s food was great. I had the filet mignon. It was really good. Steaks are definitely getting better on the island in the past couple years.
Skip Jacks: Though their menu is not as extensive as some other places, what they serve is great. One in our party had the lobster-huge and delicious. I had the Filet Mignon ( I think I had a steak craving on this trip). It was the best steak I have ever had. A huge, 10 oz filet, cooked to perfection, with a bleu cheese sauce that was to die for. My mom had crab encrusted tilapia and it was excellent too.
Lee’s: This has always been a favorite in the past, even with the slower than normal service. I was hesitant to go here as it seems they have been getting some less than stellar reviews lately. But we went anyway. It took over an hour to get our food –NOT acceptable-but I have to say it was the best Red Snapper I have had in I don’t know when. It was a large filet, and it just melted in your mouth, but the long wait has got to go.
Pizza Galley: (or should I say Pizza Gallery for those who think that is the name): Still, IMHO, the best pizza on the island. Loved it.
SSBB: Burgers were excellent. I wish I could have one right now.
On the Key, Pinel Island: 1 to 1 exchange, food was great! Price was even better, compared to other, way over priced places on Pinel.

Beaches: Mullet, Maho, Pinel, Orient. All great. Orient was more crowded than I have ever seen it, and TONS of young people-mostly from cruise ships, I am sure, but the college age kids were everywhere. Have never seen so many. We always camp at Kakao, and have lunch at the beach bar part. WAY expensive…the exchange rate killed us. At Mullet, we ate at Rosie’s We usually eat at Daleo’s, but this time we thought we’d try Rosie’s hat to say it, but we were disappointed. The ribs were barely an inch and half long, no meat on them and you got like 5 pieces. They were smaller than a fig newton. At Daleo’s we always get a large plate full and they are meaty and good. We went to Pinel on Tuesday. We chose this day because there was only one cruise ship in port. It was a good decision.

General Observations and Comments:
The island was lush and green.
Bruce finally came to our party!!
We missed seeing Sue and Augie.
The weather was perfect-no rain and breezy enough to keep you from frying too badly in the hot sun.
Never had nor heard of any crime issues at all.
Sharon Harris cell phone rental-quick, easy and inexpensive.
Never had any traffic problems of any kind-even for the regatta party. Go figure. We got everywhere we wanted to go, when we wanted to get there and no traffic tie ups. Right before the finale party, it was a little more backed up than normal, but we got from Maho to Royal Palm in about 15 minutes.
Met lots of great people, as we do every year, but the most special part is meeting up with all our other friends from all over. We have a great group that goes in March and it is what we look forward to the most!!


Pictures coming soon...do we still have that MSN site set up for SXM pictures?