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virgin islands national park

Beach Weddings

Bob Every wedding needs three things.  A bride, a groom, and a photographer.  If each couple supplies the first two ingredients, St. John is blessed to have several excellent image makers to fill out the trio.

One of them is Bob Schlesinger who, with his wife Karin, have just added a wedding specialty Web site to the business.

While they've done weddings in the past, launching VIBeachWedding.com signals now that they're good at these events, they're getting serious about them.

One of Bob's distinguishing services is that he'll record the marriage whether it's been planned for a year, or a week. He always keeps some time available until the last minute for elopements. Prospective Bob also does vacationers wanting engagement or honeymoon photos.

 
The Schlesingers pride themselves on a Bob-arazzi style  that incorporates a variety of tools and techniques to provide candid and sometimes black and white images of the event.

He was recently voted 2010's Best St. John Photographer by readers of the Virgin Islands Daily News.  Not bad for a guy who studied electrical engineering and got an advanced degree in Physics.

Whatever mid-life review may have brought him and Karin to St. John, it's all to the island's benefit.

Free movie night

Casablanca image The island's film society has a great show set for next Thursday evening, but the best part of the night may be the warm-up.

La Plancha del Mar plans a pre-movie buffet on the third floor of the Marketplace.

They promise, "Scrumptious braised beef and preserved lemon chicken, a variety of vegetarian items and a special dessert."

Then when the lights go down, it's a free screening of 1944's Best Picture of the Year, Casablanca.

Interestingly, an e-mail about the event also included word that St John Film's fall showings are sponsored, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.  Kudos to whomever thought up the idea of applying for, and then got, the money.

Caneel conspiracy on Yelp?

Over the weekend, The Inquiring Iguana was mousing around Yelp, the Web site that's a resource for reviews of US businesses. including hotels, and restaurants.

There was a blurb indicating a new review had been posted for Caneel Bay Resort. Unusual, since until recently only two had been written; one in December, the other in April.  Both were positive. Here's a screen shot.

 

Reviews

But the new review, not so good.


Larryl

When the Iguana clicked on it, there was no 'there' there.  No review.  Whatever Larry L said, well you'll never know.

Then Monday morning, The Iguana again tried to find the review.  No dice.  Larry L had been shut down by the Yelp police.
Closed

Anything suspicious going on here?  Probably not, although some have accused Yelp ad sales people of heavy-handed tactics, i.e. 'extortion'.  Conspiracy theorists might wonder that if Caneel was an advertiser on Yelp, negative reviews of the resort might be suppressed. 

But anyone who's spent a week, a weekend, or an afternoon at Caneel is certain to tell you the place is luxurious and magnificent.  You do get what you pay for.

And, most likely, Larry L IS a phony.

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