Letter from the Editor
August 24, 2004
Dear Friends,
Since the first of the year we've been on an island extravaganza, so I'm pleased to present this update for your future travel planning. Near the end is practical information about buying liquor and my unfortunate experiences on Spirit Airlines.
ST. KITTS
This was my first visit to the idyllic island of St. Kitts, where I was happily ensconced at the new St. Kitts Marriott Royal Beach Resort, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the windward side of the island.
St. Kitts Marriott Royal Beach Resort
There are 237 rooms in the five story main building and I stayed in one of the additional 234 rooms in a series of three story garden villas surrounding the swimming pools. The resort offers five restaurants, four lounges , a casino, teen club, disco, and spa. This is a giant property with lots of activities for the whole family and, believe me, families were everywhere. Many companies have business conferences that allow and encourage the participants to bring their wives and children, and in the case of the St. Kitts Marriott there is no lack of things to do.
Tourism officials told me the temperature in St. Kitts ranges only four degrees year round, from 80-84. This could add to the popularity of several colleges, including one for veterinary medicine located on the island.
The snorkelers in our group were pretty enthusiastic after their morning excursion. I enjoyed the scenic and historical railway tour-3 hours if you do the entire trip. Most of the charm, besides just riding along, is the scenery looking towards the beach and catching Nevis in the distance or towards the mountains and ancient sugar plantations with workers carrying the large bails of cane on their heads to rail stops.
Scenic Train
The live narrative by an attractive local woman was superb, in clear English and highly informative while entertaining. We later saw her in several venues selling her pottery and other artwork.
We made a stop at the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and impressive man-made outgrowth of the natural hill that creates a fortress of historical, cultural, and architectural significance. Constructed intermittently between the 1690s and 1790s, it is of singular importance as the remains of a large, complete military community, a time capsule of the 18th century.
Brimstone Hill Fortress
Brimstone Hill is nearly 800 feet high with steep and precipitous slopes, and the structure's walls are predominantly constructed of stone fashioned from the hill's hard volcanic rock. The location of the fortress, even if you choose not to climb the driveway to the top and remain at the parking level, presents attractive panoramic vistas of forested mountains, cultivated fields, the historical township of Sandy Point, and neighboring Dutch, English, and French islands across the Caribbean Sea.
We had a chance to visit several other inns for snacks and lunch, including the romantic Golden Lemon. Everyone gushed unabashedly over the décor and view from each room and suite, since no two are decorated alike. The Golden Lemon has been used for many movies, and that week MTV was shooting. Our lunch was served on a veranda adjacent to a small picturesque pool. The sandy beach ringed with foliage and palm trees continued the movie-set look.
Rawlins Plantation
Then up a bit into the hills was the Rawlins Plantation, one of the smallest (10 rooms) and finest of St. Kitts' hotels and resorts, with the atmosphere of an English country house and traditional West Indian informality-perfect for relaxation. With its 12 acres of lavish gardens, beautifully landscaped grounds and surrounded by fields sugar, I wanted to stay here, too. Built from the ruins of a 17th-century sugar cane plantation, perched at 350 feet above sea level on the slopes of Mount Liamuiga, the inn is at the "quiet" northern end of St. Kitts, also featuring spectacular views of neighboring French and Dutch islands. No TV or phone jacks in your room-just peace and quiet with fabulous service and renowned food. I'll write that great novel on the porch.
St. Kitts offers such a wide variety of accommodations and dining. The next day we stopped at the family-owned Bird Rock Beach Hotel, where they provided a very nice lunch steeped in authentic local flavors while we overlooked the beautiful sea. Lots of divers stay here.
Some friends told me they enjoyed a few days on St. Kitts and then took a ferry to Nevis for a few days there to savor all this area has to offer. Other islands are also nearby.
We did a quick visit to Basseterre, the capital city, to check out the local markets and pier-side shopping and discovered the fantastic Brinley Flavored Rums. See more on the rum below.
Historic sugar cane farm
Like much of the world, Caribbean islands are picture perfect, but it still behooves one to practice reasonable precautions against pickpockets and other nefarious characters.
RADISSON SEVEN SEAS NAVIGATOR
I sailed on the Navigator from New York to Bermuda, where we docked in Hamilton for three days and St. Georges for one, then sailed on for a full day visit in Norfolk. Virginia, before returning to New York.
There isn't much I can say about sailing with Radisson on the Navigator except they have a six-star rating, one of the top three lines, and that doesn't do the food or service justice. Seven Seas ships have people who hardly ever get off, and after one trip you'll understand why. Well, sometimes they get off and go on a different Radisson ship. Passengers gossip about the chefs and staff, regarding them as personal friends. With a capacity of 490 passengers, it is just about the perfect population for everything.
The routes all sound so wonderful, whether along the coast of Asia, the South Pacific, St. Lawrence Seaway, or Europe and the Mediterranean. I'm talking myself, the non-cruiser, on another one.
Navigator in Bermuda
The entertainment on stage or in the lounges, the total spa services, the superbly prepared-to-order gourmet food (no midnight buffet of leftovers here), other dining options including wonderful room service, spacious suites, and all the staff are the way life should be.
You can choose a themed cruise for gourmet cooking, jazz, history and antiques as well as the destinations. I used the computers to check my e-mail twice but they run about the speed of dial-up and it isn't long before your charges add up. My cell phone only worked while in the ports.
Bermuda is so beautiful, one could just gaze at it from the dock. Shopping is fun, but everything is really expensive-perhaps that comes with the territory of being an island. The weather is quite perfect, although winters can descend into the 60s. More on Bermuda below.
Norfolk, one of our stops, is a great city to visit, with a total renovation of its downtown plus several fun historic neighborhoods. Like many ports, one can just walk off the ship and visit many of the city's main attractions. Plus there is a free trolley that circles the downtown with 12 stops.
Norfolk Harbor
On previous trips to this rejuvenated city I had visited the Chrysler Museum of Art, home to a world-class collection of more than 30,000 pieces of art and housed in a gorgeous building. Nauticus, the National Maritime Center with its interactive science and technology center exploring the power of the sea, is right on the dock. It features more than 150 exhibits, including computer and interactive video (actually about 150 more computer and interactive video than I cared for), films on a giant screen, exotic aquaria, touch pools, shark petting, and the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. Or walk to the massive McArthur Shopping Mall with Dillard's, Nordstrom, and about 150 other stores.
Chrysler Museum
This visit I rode out to the beautiful Norfolk Botanical Gardens, 155 acres featuring one of the largest collections of roses, azaleas, camellias, and hollies on the East Coast. If that isn't enough, there are more than 25 theme gardens, plus Lake Whitehurst and the garden's canals and fountains. The narrated boat tour along the canals was my favorite.
Perennial Garden
Trips to the Mariners Museum in Newport News and Colonial Williamsburg were also offered. It was in the low 90s and those getting off the bus from Williamsburg were bright pink and pretty exhausted. I recommend anyone, boat lovers or not, to make a visit to the Mariners Museum. It is a spectacular collection of watercraft and related items covering the full spectrum from historical times to modern.
Chris-Craft, Miami, Florida, 1925
My only critique was nothing new: too many of the same old tired shore excursions. No different or better than any other cruise line, and I expected more. Do some reading and plan your own outing.
BERMUDA
Fairmont Southampton
Just a few weeks after sailing into Bermuda, I flew in to stay at the historic Fairmont Southampton and celebrate their reopening after almost a year's work of restoration and renovations from the serious damage caused by Hurricane Fabian.
Willow Stream Facial
Located on 100 acres at the highest point on the island with nearly 600 rooms, indoor and outdoor heated freshwater swimming pools, 11 all-weather tennis courts, an 18 hole executive par 3 golf course-considered one of the finest of its kind in the world-health club and the signature Fairmont Willow Stream spa services. There isn't any lack of activities to occupy your time.
Princess Beach Club
The Princess Beach Club with its secluded pink sand beach is perfect for sunning or water sports. All the amenities; towels, lounges, umbrellas, and more are here. Scuba diving and snorkeling equipment are available for an extra charge, six tennis courts (three of which are for night play), the Cabana bar and fast-food restaurant, plus the great Whaler Inn restaurant.
One night we had a romantic dinner on the beach while an almost full moon rose over the water. It made for a very special occasion.
Dinner on the Beach
Serious water sports arrangements can be made through independent concessionaires for sport fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling and sailing. The Southampton will always be known as the location of my infamous jet ski initiation! I will admit to not driving as fast as the rest in our group but it was great fun especially feeding fish in the shallows. The water was a little rough, requiring a vice-like grip. The following day I was unable to lift my arms up more than an inch or two. Ahh, the weekend warrior syndrome.
Looking out over the island from my room was like a water color of blue and turquoise, lush green vegetation, and immaculate houses in the many colors of sherbet offset with glistening white roofs. Bermuda astonishes you with its cleanliness, lack of billboards or graffiti, and only on rare occasions roadside debris. One fast food franchise snuck into Hamilton, but I believe that is the only one on the island. They are so civilized about traffic, and each household is allowed one car and as many scooters as they need.
Room with a view
At the pier are horse-drawn carriages for tours that are leisurely and very pleasant. Unfortunately, many of the scooters that alleviate the traffic problem run very nosily, drowning out the tour narration. My driver stopped frequently for photo opportunities and did a good job of answering questions.
There are several places to rent scooters, and you can always spot the tourists, scared to death after their six minutes of instruction, riding interminably slower on what they truly believe is the wrong side of the road. In a crisis, they tend to fall back on their U.S. driving on the other side of the road and messing up for turns. Like my visits to Nassau and other islands with scooter rentals, a number of visitors appear at the end of each day bandaged, skinned, and bruised.
There is a Fairmont ferry that goes from the beach area to the heart of Hamilton. You can also connect to St. Georges by ferry or try the island's efficient bus system.
Dinner at the Princess
We toured and ate another spectacular dinner on the waterside terrace at the historic and wonderful Fairmont Princess in Hamilton, fondly referred to as ''The Pink Palace.'' In the "old days," the staff dressed in white jackets and waved pink handkerchiefs when greeting luxury liners loaded with affluent Americans, who summered in the Berkshires and wintered in Bermuda. As a person who doesn't wear jeans or flip-flops, I would have liked the formality of the 1880s.
Fairmont Princess
The Princess is full with business clientele during the week and romance-seeking couples and families on the weekend. Bermuda is a giant business center, and in addition to Bacardi Rum and other worldwide corporations, it is the corporate home for 18,000 insurance companies.
Both the Southampton and the Princess are wonderful for weddings, anniversaries or any kind of celebration. You have so many choices-get married on the pink sand beach, a terrace overlooking the water, on a boat, or in a garden or gazebo. You name it, and if you need more than several hundred rooms for your nearest and dearest, the sister properties can easily accommodate all.
We did a fascinating and informative nature walk through the Southampton grounds and along the historic railroad trail. I had heard about the train, in existence from 1931 until 1948, whose tracks and right-of-way now allow a wonderful trail running approximately 21 miles, the length of the island. I swear we walked the part that only goes uphill, and this little band of warriors thought they were taking a stress test and failing fast!
Old Railway Trail
Our guide and co-owner of Bermuda Lectures & Tours, Mary Anne Rogers, was extremely well-versed in the botanical, animal, and bird life, along with details of island history.
Mary Anne Rogers
The company can do tours tailored for specific interests and distances. They are highly rated by guide books and others. Botanical outings are really my favorite everywhere, especially when I can ride in a golf cart! Many hotels and resorts have grounds staff that lead tours on a weekly basis. You'll learn that most plants, birds, bugs, and everything else are native to someplace else. South Florida actually has three native palm tree species, not the hundreds of varieties you see. None of the islands, including Bermuda, is any different in this respect.
Then a visit and great opportunity to become acquainted with the Master Works Foundation and their future growth plans from Director Tom Butterfield. Here is a man truly devoted to the organization and with a zeal towards their mission of displaying and continuing to collect for the benefit of the public works of art depicting Bermuda or created by Bermudians. Pieces are now displayed at the Masterworks Gallery at 97 Front Street, the Colonial Insurance Building, Waterloo House, and the Premier's Residence at Camden, all within the city of Hamilton.
Georgia O'Keefe
I stopped at the gallery on Front Street in Hamilton, with its museum shop of posters and other collectibles and left with a wonderful, actually irresistible, copy of an old photograph. Master Works offers many educational opportunities for children and adults, and when their new home in the Botanical Gardens is completed even more will be available.
Twice now, I've been on the Botanical Gardens grounds and never yet had time for their tour. The slate was wiped pretty clean from Fabian, but you'd never know it today.
Alfred Birdsey water color
Sunday morning brought a visit to the Paget studio and home of beloved and prolific Bermudian painter Alfred Birdsey (1912-1996) who moved here from England with his parents at age seven. Today his daughter, Jo Birdsey Linberg, continues this family tradition with her own distinct water color works depicting the feel and favorite memories of Bermuda, animals and nudes for collectors all over the world.
Jo Birdsey Linberg
In addition to satisfying her collectors with a continuous outpouring of work, she is developing the home, studio, and gardens into a living museum based on Alfred Birdsey's life, his paintings and styles through the years. This was the type of experience we all long for with an artist, and Jo learned through her father that people liked to come into the studio and watch the actual work, see where he lived and how the inspiration evolved. I was quite entranced with the house and family belongings, the studio and charming gardens. Jo is also on a mission to locate more of her father's work for display here in his home. She has been working on a book of his life, too. Call her for an appointment to visit and see her wonderful work.
The Southampton was awash in families-am I phasing into an anti-children person? Well, when very small ones run up and down the halls screaming, I'm probably more concerned about the lack of parenting. Forget no-smoking floors, let's have no kid floors.
The many options of on-site restaurants, bars, eating romantically on the beach, all wonderful creative cuisine with the finest ingredients at both properties. Unfortunately and certainly uncharacteristically of Fairmont properties, room service was not a good choice here, even for breakfast.
Soon to follow Puerto Rico, Miami, plus updates on Jamaica and New York.
Buying rum and other liquors in the islands
I have never found a product cheaper than at the airport, even though some store keepers will stand there with a perfectly serious face and say it is less in their shop. However, If you buy liquor at the airport, you will have to carry those large boxes on board the plane. I like to pack mine in my wheeled carry-on ahead of time. If it is only a dollar or two difference, the convenience is worth it. Many times, items are not available outside each particular island, and none of the airports are very efficient (understatement) about getting one through the hours and hours of check-in, customs, and other lines in time to shop the duty-free stores.
The addictive flavors of Brinley Rums (mango, vanilla, and coffee) from St. Kitts are worth buying wherever you can find them, but I didn't see them in the airport-well, not true, I almost missed the plane because of a non-appearing airport transportation person and was truly run (wasn't that an old O.J commercial spot?) through the entire process by airline staff leaving no time to go into the duty free shop and check. Now according to their website Brinley Rums can be found in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as St. Kitts.
In Puerto Rico there are favorite rums not exported although available in stores and the airport. The most important thing is to know the prices in your home state and then decide if the savings are worth the hassle.
Spirit Airlines moves passengers to real anger
We're changing our opening page slightly to accommodate a separation of my monthly destination travel reports from the editorial opinions on travel, business, politics, and everything else under the sun.
I've allowed myself to simmer a bit since my last and in this life final flight on Spirit Airlines. One must be more than a road warrior to survive the experience of perhaps the most inept ground staff in history-add that to a general jumble of rules and regulations and you have mayhem reigning supreme. Perhaps some of the disastrous issues are the fault of a worthless Homeland Insecurity or the lack of any staff with a pulse in airports one flies to and from. But then I must ask, why don't other carriers suffer these problems with such magnitude?
Let's start with my first ever experience a few weeks ago on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale from Washington National Airport. I can fly in and out of this airport as much as eight to 10 times a month and never on any carrier big or small, old or new, have I heard the gate agent announce "If you people don't get back, I'm canceling this flight." Now what kind of passengers are flying Spirit that don't understand the system of waiting until your row is called? These were admittedly not predominately business travelers but adults who even after several of the above announcements only parted a bit to allow the rear of the plane passengers to board. Why was the gate agent a one woman band except for a young boy in an athletic shirt and do rag helping her out?
If there is no control on the ground, who will be in charge in the air? Boarding on one return segment I asked the pilot if he had read the instruction book. Ineptness in more than two areas means every area and I'm not afraid to die but not via someone else's screw-up.
The majority of the flight attendants are experienced, having trained and worked at other airlines. They seem competent but with a serious lack of consistency. It's unfortunate, but most airlines have fallen back to loosely interpreting the two carry-on bag rule. On Spirit, families with babies are relegated to the smallest seats in the rear of the plane and obese women with hundreds of shopping bags and carry-ons get the roomy bulk head.
If you are in rows 12-5 there is no overhead space by the time you board. I'm surprised the plane has enough power to get off the ground-that is, once it finally leaves. Six segments in a month and not one boarded or left on time.
Not one business traveler I've spoken with would fly Spirit again no matter how cheap the tickets. There is a lot of time for comparing notes when you wait an extra 30 to 45 minutes to board.
I didn't know this about airlines but MANY companies qualify for free or huge discounted travel like Federal Express employees or their families, not just other airline people. On a flight from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the wife of a Federal Express employee and her daughter waited in standby boarding at the last minute. The daughter got to sit in first class. Now it seems to me a teenager could have sat anywhere and one of those parents juggling a child in the rear of the plane could have used the larger accommodation and upgraded snacks.
Then there was an animated discussion among several passengers who also were flying standby regarding a young family-husband, wife and baby who had been trying to get to San Juan by standby on Spirit for a week. They had come to the airport every day and waited for 12 hours through the three flights. Most annoying of all was they were left behind from our flight, although we had at least three vacant seats on the plane. If I would have known I would have given up my seat.
What kind of a gate agent, airline, or human being allows this to happen? A screwed-up mismanaged one to start with. I have to wonder also who would wait 12 hours a day for a week to fly any airline.
Returning from my first Spirit trip to Ft. Lauderdale, late of course, we waited at the baggage carrousel in D.C. for 45 minutes and the crowd was getting ugly. The luggage chute trickled out a few pieces and then stopped-the rest jammed in the chute. No one was around and as the crowd got more restless the counter agent for Spirit ran for hiding-helping to solve the problem would have been just a little too much customer service.
A passenger jumped onto the baggage carrousel and straddled the revolving section to un-jam the luggage. He threw out bags for quite sometime to cheers of the waiting passengers. Then a sky cap jumped up and continued the effort but he was a little rough with the suitcases and the crowd started getting unruly. Meanwhile the phones were ringing away at the Spirit desk; probably friends and families wondering where the heck the passengers had disappeared to as they circled National airport for now over two hours. I suggested that all the waiting people answer the phones and say anything they felt like, and when I left that is exactly what was going on.
Hello? Does anyone work at National airport? What about those gazillions of dollars in security we're paying for? Who knows why the chute was jammed, except it's usually those baby seats as big as Volkswagens. Less than 150 feet away was the check point where "untrained" guards were busy checking heels of shoes, under-wires in your bra, and, soon to come, sequins on your thong. But nearby a riot is going on and no one could care less or was alert enough to notice.
Six segments-all the same, with one misstep after another. I don't even want to remember any more of them. Like changing the gates but not making any announcement. "But we made an announcement." Then why are 100 people still waiting at the wrong gate?
Do not fly Spirit airlines, even if the tickets are free. It is a serious disaster waiting to happen.
And as I've said before, never believe that anyone in a police entity or any other protective service is going to save you from anything. Be alert at all times and watch out for yourselves.
As soon as I figure out how to get the photos of the passenger takeover off my cell phone we'll add them to this story.
Happy trails,
Mary Gallagher
mary@gallagherstravels.com
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