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One tiny step for tourism

Header_01 The VI Department of Tourism has created a Web site for workers and business to pledge to improve service to customers and visitors.

The site is usviservicepledge.com.

But it doesn't do nearly enough.

Employees taking the pledge may receive a pocket-sized
customer service pledge card to remind them of their commitment, as well as a button reading "I took the customer service pledge" to distinguish them as being committed to service.

“As members of a tourism-based community, providing exceptional customer service is essential to the success of our destination and our future prosperity,” said Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty.

But wait!  There should be more. To make the 'Pledge' really mean something, Tourism should open up a comments section on the new Web site.  Tourists could give the department first-person feedback about the service they get and their experiences.

Photo For instance, No-See Um has a great point about the impression this >>>>> makes on the ferry passengers.  "So very welcoming and comfortable," she blogs at no-see-um.blogspot.com.

Have you had a good or bad experience during a visit to the Virgin Islands?  Talk about it here.

St. John’s Friday headlines

Coral Bay drivers: out of luck and gas

The Domino service
station in Coral Bay is still closed and likely to stay that way. 

A
'business issue' is the reason the fuel tanks are dry, according to the
Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, the St. John Source
reported.

The Source also quoted the Island Administrator, Leona
Smith, saying, "It looks like they have … financial problems.  I know
they got rid of all their employees in St. John."

Domino's
service stations on St. Thomas are also shut down.

This leaves
Cruz bay's E&C Service as the only gas station on the island.  A
gallon of regular is priced around $3.33.

Vic’s back to work

The M/V Capt. Vic is back in business ferrying trucks and cars from Red Hook to St. John.  The round trip price is now $45.

An official of Love City Car Ferries Inc. said Vic was "completely refurbished" in Alabama. Llewellyn Sewer said, "It's like new," also cleaner and faster and now offering "guaranteed on-time departures."  The St. John Source has more.

Paradiso is kaput

Tn-contact1logo The beautiful Italian restaurant on the second floor of Mongoose Junction is closed. Again. (We knew this would happen.) The phone's still ringing, but nobody's answering. 

The old management vacated July 1st, but left the answering machine on.  Don't bother to make a reservation.

There's no word on what happens to the space now, although a Help Wanted ad on Craigslist may provide a clue that, come fall, Paradiso or another restaurant, will be open in the fall. 

At the least, the ad offers a glimpse of life in the often dark, sweltering, crowded kitchens of some restaurants on the island.

"Saute, expedite and grill positions available for re-opening of our very popular, busy restaurant. Searching for even tempered, hard working and committed chefs/line cooks. Closed for 9 weeks, scheduled to re-open November 8, 2010 and close down again in August 2011. Must commit to entire season. Compensation: hourly $12 – $16."

Frankly, the ad sounds like just the kind of Boot Camp-experience anyone thinking about opening a restaurant should have, according to Cheryl Geller of Coral Bay. In a post on the Virgin Islands On-Line forum, she cited her experience opening and running three restaurants.  The latest is the popular Coral Bay boite, The Tourist Trap.

"Trust me… unless you have money you can afford to throw away, you do not want to come down here and open a restaurant until you come down here and work in a restaurant for at least a year. If you  open a restaurant here without first knowing the lay  of the land you just took what in a best case scenario is a rough road (opening a restaurant) and you poured oil all over that road then covered it with nine inch nails and disconnected your breaks. This is one of those rare occasions when I know of what I speak."

St. John loves a parade

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Who doesn't like a parade?  Certainly no St. Johnian eager to celebrate the 4th of July on the 5th. 

Despite temperatures pushing 90 degrees and rain that dampened parade goers but not their spirits, a good time was had by many.

The next-to-last St. John Festival event drew locals as well as visitors from St. Thomas. 

Colorful floats, or 'Troupes', included birds of paradise, messages to protect the environment, and reminders of the island's beauty.  Displays by both Caneel Bay and the Westin resorts mounted extravagant and multicolored costumed marchers and entertainers.

Stars of the parade were the Middle Aged Majorettes who, this year, put down their usual twirling batons in favor of t-shirts encouraging people to get cancer screenings.  Celia Kalousek, speaking for the MAMs, told the St. John Source that 13 of the 30 Majorettes are cancer survivors.

Tropical Focus Photography's Bob Schlesinger, naturally, worked the parade.  he grabbed these photos which make it clear that heat and raindrops could not keep a good parade down.

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Fireworks on the 5th

The St. John Festival came to loud and colorful end Monday night with fireworks over Cruz Bay harbor. (Click on any of the pictures here to see larger versions.)


BOB_4051 Tropical Focus Photography's Bob Schlesinger set up a pair of cameras on tripods underneath a deck top get these fantastic shots, (He's good!) a smart move given there was a threat of rain during the day. 

Don't you love this shot? Fireworks at the top of a palm tree?

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Using two tripods was smart, too, because it let the Virgin Islands photographer keep shooting
despite in-camera processing time after each burst of images.

RDS_5199 The Web site for Tropical Focus Photography is here: www.TropicalFocus.com

July 4th weekend fun turned up to ’11’

Festival_4Festival_2This will be a really really long Independence Day celebration. 

Festival Village opened this week in the Cruz Bay parking lot with fun, food, dancing and beverages for all.

There are about 20 booths in what's been named "Powellville" in honor of Selwyn Powell, a longtime Festival supporter and worker.

These photos of festival fun were sent along by StJohnJulie of the Virgin-islands-On-Line forum.

Saturday is Cultural & Emancipation Day  in the downtown park.  There will be vendors and live music during the day and into Sunday too

And then Monday … July 5th! … there's the festival parade, more music and foods and fun, and then the fireworks over the harbor at 9 p.m.

You shoulda been there.

Kati Steinborn is on the grow


Kati Katherine Steinborn (dba KatiLady) built a business the hard way. She's earned it.  

From preparing welcome baskets for villa renters to an award-winning catering business, Steinborn expanded her business from a core to its natural extensions which now include in-home gourmet dinner preparations and meal deliveries.  

Most recently, she's gathered the sum of her 14-year-old business' parts together to create a wedding/event planning business.

Now, Steinborn's going public, sort of.  She was out of sight, in the Tradewinds building. Not much drop-in street traffic there. Instead, her businesss' products were delivered to villas and events, and then gone.  

But now, she's had to go 'retail' because she needed more space.  She found that space at the Lumberyard.  She plans to offer more services as well as cooking classes and perhaps even wine tastings.

Carnival is for kids, too

The annual Children's Carnival Village opens Wednesday evening.  The Village has been built at the bulkhead of the Creek near the Virgin Islands National Park headquarters.  A handful of volunteers from St. John Rotary created the alcohol-free alternative to the 'adult' Village which springs up each year at the Cruz Bay parking lot by the Post Office.

The Children's Village offers games such as strongman, milk bottle knockdown, hot wheel racing and even in inflated castle to explore, according to the St. John Source.  All the money collected for tickets to the games goes back into prizes and refreshments, Rotarians said.