Day 1 - Flew down on the Saturday before Easter. Delta was our airline of choice and may I just take this opportunity to say "They SUCK". Regardless, we made it into STT around 4pm. I really miss the old airport and wish that my kids could have seen it. Anyway, we stayed that night at the Holiday Inn in Charlotte Amalie (husband cashed in priority club points). Didn't know what to expect but it was actually quite nice. Kids enjoyed the pool and watching the seaplanes take off and land in the bay. That night we walked to Frenchtown to a restaurant called The Pointe - highly recommend it. <br><br>Day 2 (Easter Sunday) - Up early. Walked across the street (another nice feature of the Holiday Inn - proximity) to the ferry dock and caught the 8am ferry to WE. This ferry ride was the highlight of our entire trip according to our 5-year-old. If you ask him about the vacation he'll say "We went on a really cool ferry!" Doesn't talk much about the sailing or the beaches - just that ferry ride - go figure! Anyway, we cleared customs in WE no problem and headed by taxi to RT to Conch Charters. I had shipped 2 Easter baskets down for the boys and the nice folks at Conch were kind enough to put them on the boat earlier that morning so that it would appear that the Easter Bunny had caught up with us. The boys were thrilled as they had been a little worried that the EB wouldn't be able to find them. That afternoon we headed over to Norman Island. Unfortunately, we missed the last night of Billy Bones by one night. The Willy T was hopping though and my kids loved watching all of the drunks jump off of the top deck into the water.<br><br>Day 3 (Easter Monday) - Sailed at a leisurely pace over to CGB. Unfortunately that was a bad choice. Most everything was closed due to the holiday (and I had been 5 years waiting to have a cocktail and cheeseburger at Stanleys). Also, the cruise ship people were there en force. Must have been a ship from Europe because about a third of the women were topless and all of the men were in Speedos (ugh!). So, the beach was crowded but the kids had a great time playing in the sand with the beach toys the EB brought them.<br><br>Days 4 & 5 - Marina Cay. Had never been before and we enjoyed it enough that we stayed 2 days. It was nice to just sit at the beach bar and watch the boys swim and snorkel. The reef isn't great there but it's good for kids who are just starting out. We ate one night at the restaurant and the fish my husband and I had was delicious. They were very accommodating with the kid's orders (one wanted plain noodles and the other a half order of ribs). On day 2 we took the little ferry over to Trellis and did some shopping. Very nice shop there with local artwork. Upon our return to Marina Cay we had a very amusing show - big sailboat anchored in too close to the island and was stuck when the tide went out. After about 2 hours they did get it pulled off.<br><br>Day 6 - We were going to venture on to the Bitter End VG but my littlest one didn't like how "tippy" the boat got (he thought we were going right over). So, we revised to a little less ambitious plan and headed for Little Harbour, JVD. We were greeted at Sydney's Peace and Love by the always-so-cheerful Janet. We placed our orders for lobster dinners for that evening and cozied up to the self-serve bar while the kids played with some local kids on the beach. It was a perfect day. That evening the dinner was the best! The lobster was better than I remembered it and the kids again had a ball playing after dinner with their new friends. They had relay races from Sydney's to Harris' Place that went on until will after dark. <br><br>Days 7 & 8 - CGB - Now this is more like the CGB I remembered...no cruise ship passengers on our last 2 days. We basically took it easy. Kids played on the beach, swang in the tire swing. Spent lots of time at Stanley's during the day. We went to Myatt's the first night and Quito's the second. The music was great both nights.<br><br>That's basically it - days 9 & 10 were travel days spent in the USVI. Overall we had a wonderful time!!! The weather was perfect although it started raining a lot our last 2 days and understand that it stayed kind of stormy for a while after we left. This was our 7th charter over the past 15 years. I'm afraid that the BVI has gotten a little too crowded for us with the cruise ships and power boaters. So I think it's time to go a little furnther south. We are currently checking on St. Vincent/Grenadines. If you've been - any thoughts? As you can tell by reading this post, our priorities are nice beach/quaint beach bar/no crowds. Thanks everyone for this forum...it's addicting!
