BethGrubb

ps note on bugs the sand fleas and no see ums are horrible! i wore bugs spray the whole entire time i was there (don't even bother to bring perfume) and i still got bit about 20 times over a 2 week period. The bug spray at the hotel is like $15 a bottle (also the sunscreen is that much) and we went through like 4-5 for 2 people for 2 weeks! If you have room in your luggage bring it with you and bring Off because the Repel they have down there is really sticky and smelly and the off went on much smoother. We couldn't find Off at any of the local tourist stuff. They do have a Kmart there and it woudl probably have Off but we never went to the KMart, just the touristy places.

Hi Gals, Jack and I just returned from our wedding in St. Thomas! We stayed at the Wyndham from 6/28-7/12 right during their switch to all inclusive, so I hope I can answer some questions for you guys and review our experience. Warning LONG POST! First, as I remembered, the beach is not rocky but down right at the waters entrance is rocky. You have to go to the far left end of the beach to get to a part to enter the water where there is hardly any coral & rocks. The beach was pretty clean and we saw a couple of weddings going on down there. The set up looked really nice for the ceremony on the beach with an arch and all. We then saw two receptions down near poolside and two receptions held on the terrace outside the casino and Manor House restaurant. The poolside receptions were daytime both around 4 and the pool was still pretty crowded. Basically the setup is by the grotto/waterfountain and they have an employee stand there the whole time blocking the area off so that no one can walk through your reception, however it is definitely not private. The terrace receptions were more private as you had to pass through doors to get outside to the terrace. These were both at night and the setup there looked fancier than the one down by the pool. If you have any specific questions re these receptions private message me and I'd be happy to tell you about them further. Second, the cleanliness of the hotel. I'd say it was about average, not exceptional but not dirty feeling either. Our room (727 oceanfront) was clean although the last 2 days we were there there seemed to be a whole lot of condensation from the airconditioner dripping onto the carpet so that the whole area around the desk on the floor was wet. We mentioned this to the maid but no one came to check on it and since we were leaving in 2 days we just let it go. Our fridge seemed to freeze almost everything and we couldn't find a level to turn the temperature down, and the one day we forgot to tip the maid I noticed was the one day that when the maid cleaned, she forgot to give us new hand towels and washcloths. Our room was not recently renovated and so you could tell a small amount of black grime in the grout in the shower. There were no issue with cleanliness around the rest of the hotel. The public bathrooms were always clean and well stocked. The inside restaurant was clean, and the buffet was as clean as could be for being outside seating. The pool was relatively clean and same with the hottub (which was very hot this time around) and I did see people cleaning them out in the mornings. The cabana rentals are $25 a day but worth it cause you get the shade and they bring you and refill up a cooler of drinks and get a whole bunch of extra towels. We had a large group (17 adults 4 kids) so it was well worth it to have a place out of the sun. There are iguanas there but they don't chase you or anything they just walk around. Also, there are cats at the hotel but this is because they are a cat friendly hotel meaning all the cats are spayed and neutered and given a small shelter outside with food and water. Basically we only saw the cats on the grounds (not in the hallways near the rooms). They are friendly but not unless you initiate contact with them. Okay, the food and the all inclusive. First you should be aware that the all inclusive does not include the to go cafe cart on the second level of the lobby. It does include the Baci Italien Restaurant which is down by the pool and used to be called the Caribe. BTW Baci had the best food on the whole resort. The short ribs were awesome (we got them three times) and the seafood pasta was also very good. Baci only takes reservations for people with 6 or more in their parties, so otherwise get there early (like 6 when it opens) or you will be looking at 1-2 hours wait to just be seated. The food ordered at the Turtle Rock Sports bar was actually pretty good too, your standard stuff like chicken fingers, mozz cheese sticks, buffalo wings, fries, loaded nachos, popcorn shrimp all were good. The poolside grill basically has hamburgers (eh), hotdogs (good when they had the relish out), mahi mahi sandwhich (didn't try but heard mixed reviews), and ribs (Jack said they were okay). Theres also straw/choc/vanilla/pistaccio ice cream there. I do not recommend eating the hotdogs from the Mangrove Restaurant, as they are buffet and the buns get really hard quickly. The Mangrove is Buffet and the food there for lunch and dinner is just alright. I ate their veggie lasagna and liked it and their cold pasta salads are good. One night they had steamed shrimp and it was pretty good. Sometimes they had chicken fingers and fries inthere as well and they were fine. We only ate there twice because the bugs were so bad we were being eaten alive out there at night (more on this later). Okay... the Manor House. This is the sit down place at the back of the hotel lobby. The breakfast buffet was great, loved it. The fruit is sooo good there. They always had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, build your own omlet, cereal, muffins, fruit juice, etc. Dinner: every night they have one whole page of entrees,apps, and desserts that never changes and then an additional page of "nightly specials" which change every night. Some of the standards were Lobster Bisque(good) , Salads, Skirt Steak (good), Shrimp with Feta and Pasta (good), Chicken Alfredo(okay) , Pork Medallions (good). Some of the nightly specials included NY Strip (good) , Curry Chicken (okay), Salmon, Grouper, Lamb Chops (good), chicken satay (not so good-not very flavorful). Also you can order for kids pizza, mac n cheese, chicken fingers. BTW their mac n cheese was really good! Even thought most of the food was tastey, the service at the Manor House was pretty poor. Once we were seated (just Jack and I) we often waited 10 minutes before our server would even come to take our drink order and another 10 before she would bring back our drinks! Once our meal order was taken it would often take a half hour or more for our apps to come out and then an additional half hour to 45 minutes for our main course. Also, our servers rarely came around asking if we wanted refills on our drinks, we would have to go up to the bar to get them ourselves. I am not exaggerating here, nor did this happen once or twice. It was consistently happening every night of our 2 week stay that we ate at the Manor House. I understand things are on island time but 2-2.5 hours for just one meal on a consistent basis is ridiculous, especially if you had other things you wanted to do after dinner. One night I ordered grouper and they brang me out chicken, I kept waiting for the waitress to come by to correct it but she never did so I just ended up eating the chicken cause I was hungry. Sometimes after our food was delivered we would never see the server again, she never came by to ask how everything was, until the end of the meal. Also consistenly we had a wait for dinner, even though we would see large numbers of empty tables. One night we had a large group for dinner and even made a reservation for the Manor House for 730pm. We did not get seated until 9 pm (although they continually told us that it would be 5 more minutes for an hour and a half) and didnt finish dinner until 1045. The service at Baci was much better, once seated you could eat your meal and be out of there in under an hour. Our server at Baci was Swayne and he was awesome! The service around the rest of the resort was pleasant. The bartender usually got to us quickly, the pool concierge was always very friendly and Augusta was so nice she gave us a free cabana rental one day. After our wedding (which was on Magens Bay) some of the staff even knew I had gotten married and asked me about the wedding and how stuff was going. The bell people were nice, the shuttle driver was nice, really all the service everywhere was great except in the Manor House, I really don't know what the issue is there but the floor manager needs to get a new crew and train them on proper ettiquette and then something needs to happen in the kitchen to get food out quicker, I dont know if it is lack of cooks back there or lack of servers to get the food out, but by the last night Jack and I were fed up with it. I really would say the the Wyndham was a great place to have all our wedding guests stay at if the service at the Manor House had been better. I hope this review is helpful for you. Please pm me if you want to know any more details about anything. Happy Planning Beth

Mary from Wilm I just PM'd you. BethGrubb

I've seen some great must have photo lists for general wedding pictures. I was wondering if anyone has some great ideas for TTD positions or other ideas that are outside the box. We will be on the beach so heres some ideas I have so far: Rings in Sand held in our hands (thanks WTIW for the idea) a heart drawn in the sand one of me leaning against a palm tree and then him kissing me while im leaning there beach shots - walking down beach towards shot and away shot kissing under palm tree after i change just a pic of my dress floating in the water us standing in water kissing, him holding me up while hes standing in water with my dress trailing in behind him in the water us on lounge chairs with our sunglasses on us at the waters edge sitting down letting the waves rush up us running in the water any other good ideas out there? theres not going to be a dock and we won't be able to do us jumping off of a boat or anything like that? we aren't going to have time to go off the beach and do anything in town because we are doing it right before the reception starts (yes im wearing a different dress for our reception). Thanks for any inspiration. Beth Any help is appreciated Thanks

HI, My FI and I stayed at the Wyndham Sugar Bay back in 11/07 for a week. We really liked it and are having all our guests stay there for our July 3rd 2010 wedding. I fell in love with Magens Bay so we are having the wedding there instead of at the Wyndham. But the Wyndham was beautiful. As far as the beach goes... the actual beach part is okay, not too rocky. Its once you get down to the actual water part that gets rocky. So if you are having the pictures and stuff at the Gazebo or on the beach it should be fine, in fact some of the rocks (the larger ones) would be actually great to get some TTD pictures on. And the Balcony over looking St. Johns will also be beautiful for pictures If you are looking to do pictures in the water, its a little tricky cause there are a lot of rocks once you get close and into the water. The only thing we really didn't like was that the hot tub temperature was like luke warm, and they wouldn't raise it. We loved everything else. Hope this is helpful and congratulations. Beth

I have not done a wedding at Wyndham but my FI and I did stay there in 07 and are staying there for our DW, although we will be married at Magens cause I just fell in love with that beach. The Wyndham was very nice, a good pool area and plenty of room to set up a table for that amount of people. Only thing with Wyndham is the beach isn't very big and its a bit rocky in places. You do have the option of getting married on the veranda overlooking the ocean which is also a beautiful site at the Wyndham. We are getting married July 3 2010 so if I see anything new or of interest at the Wyndham that has changed I will let you know. I may also see a wedding going on there since we will be there for 2 weeks so I'll let you know when I get back. Happy Planning

Hi Everyone, I'll be getting married July 3rd 2010 on Magens Bay at 9 am. Then we will be taking the 30 person reception out on a sailboat for the rest of the day. My WC is Weddings the Island Way and I've been very pleased with them so far. I too had a horrific time trying to figure out a welcome dinner with pricing and places that charged not only for the food but for the rental space as well. In the end I decided it wasn't worth it and am just doing an informal get together at the bar located on our resort (Wyndham Sugar Bay). My FI and I stayed there the last time we were in St. Thomas and it was gorgeous, we had a fabulous time there. Happy Planning to everyone. Beth

My fiance and I went to Aruba in 2008 during Thanksgiving week. It rained consistently (not just a shower) for the first 4 days then it was bright sunny and hot the last four days. I think it was something like the 24th throught the 2nd of december. People kept assuring us it never rains like this in Aruba. Go figure. Good luck with your planning. We loved Aruba once the sun came out. We stayed at the Riu Palace and it was great!

Okay so today was my day to make all my calls about having a welcome dinner in St. Thomas. I've now called 5 places and every one of them has a busy signal. Is something down with the phone service there today? Very frustrating as I don't know another day for a week when I will be able to have a time chunk to call people. Arrgggg.

Hi St Thomas brides My names Beth and my FI and I will be married on July 3 2010 at Magens Bay at 9 in the morning. We just booked our WC today... went with Weddings the Island Way. I'm very excited and can't wait to get advice on the planning. I was originally hoping to do a catered brunch with eggs french toast and pancakes at one of the pavillions there but have now found out that Magens does exclusive catering (meaning they will not allow any outside caterers) and they don't really a brunch menu. The catering guy assured me that they can make pancakes etc but I would have to just get them from the concession stand they have there, not their catering department...which doesn't sound like it would be the best quality breakfast food. So, I'm now wondering about a restaurant that may do a catered brunch on a Saturday at 1030 or 11 am. Either that or waiting till 11 am at Magens and get their lunch catering (which would be something like hamburgers, dogs, and bbq chicken with potatoe salad and rice and beans). But if we get married at 9, pictures will probably be done by 10 and then we would have to wait about an hour for lunch, which I know people could swim and stuff but would it be weird to do the reception after some people have already got in their suits and everything? Any thoughts gals? Has anyone had breakfast at Magens or the catered Lunch there? Has anyone had a brunch receptions somewhere else on the island? Thanks for any ideas.

My name is Beth and my FI and I are planning to get married on July 3rd at Magens Bay in St. Thomas.