Is Windjammer Landing "all that" ?

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

So, for anyone who has been, was it worth it? It requires a tremendous number of Points, and I don't think I could afford the all-inclusive without mortgaging the house but most of the reviews seem pretty positive.
I would appreciate any input!

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

It sure looks beautiful! St. Lucia Exclusive Offers: Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort caribbean islands area luxury hotels resorts suites rooms vacations getaways packages planning deals discounts specials promotions

We have never been, and I don't think it is in our future....but the website shows an absolutely lovely location.

I would also wonder about airfare and connections....I don't know a lot about that part of the world, but sometimes those caribbean locations can add up in the roundtrip travel costs.

If you do go, I am going to ask you to promise to share your trip....this way we can live vicariously!

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Its all suppy and demand. St. Lucia is a trendy destination in the Caribbean and has little timeshare. A lot of people want to go there and there is not much inventory.

I enjoyed St. Lucia, but did a stopover from a timeshare on Barbados and stayed in a hotel on St. Lucia. Nice island, but I'll exchange elsewhere.

Now imagine the supply / demand factors if someone opens a timeshare on St. Barths!

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

One of our members was there recently and seemed to think it was definately all that!

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...esort-spa.html

This one is also on my bucket list.

[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

Yeah, it's all that

So, for anyone who has been, was it worth it? It requires a tremendous number of Points, and I don't think I could afford the all-inclusive without mortgaging the house but most of the reviews seem pretty positive.
I would appreciate any input!

Just got back from a week; we got a 1BR for 60,000 RCI points, and last week was both my DW birthday and the spring break for the kids, so it was kismet.

I posted a review over yonder; I'll bring it over here, too. The short summary is: yes, it's all that, with the proviso that you have to get into the mindset that you're going to pretty much stay at the resort and take advantage of what they have there.

It's not that you can't go out to see St. Lucia; in fact, I think people should do that. It's more that the resort is really geared to doing things there, and the entire concept is more (risking stereotyping) a British-style rather than an American-style vacation. By that I mean we're used to going to a resort and using it as a basis for lots of adventures out, whereas WJL takes the all-inclusive mindset and applies it to the resort experience. There were many people there who only left the resort the whole week to go on a WJL-arranged day trip, and maybe one trip into Castries or Rodney Bay.

Don't get me wrong, we loved the resort, it just took us a day or three to get our heads around the idea that we weren't going to be going off property the way we were used to doing.

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[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

Allow me to follow up my own posting by saying (and knowing where HappyMum was recently) that we would probably go back to Grand Cayman/Morritt's (went last year) before we'd go back to WJL. For me, the snorkeling is the #1 reason to go, and you just can't beat the walk-out snorkeling at Morritt's or the Reef.

The snorkeling was ok on St. Lucia (it's like sex or pizza...is there really any *bad* snorkeling?), but the one thing I wished we'd done was to take a 1/2-day snorkeling trip (rather than the day trip pushed by the resort).

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[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

Thanks Steve. I really appreciate your feedback. It sounds like a great place and although I love Morrits, I do want to explore other destinations.
Its great to hear others opinions and experiences, and its good to know about the "staying on site" ethos.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Allow me to follow up my own posting by saying (and knowing where HappyMum was recently) that we would probably go back to Grand Cayman/Morritt's (went last year) before we'd go back to WJL. For me, the snorkeling is the #1 reason to go, and you just can't beat the walk-out snorkeling at Morritt's or the Reef.

The snorkeling was ok on St. Lucia (it's like sex or pizza...is there really any *bad* snorkeling?), but the one thing I wished we'd done was to take a 1/2-day snorkeling trip (rather than the day trip pushed by the resort).

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but no comment from a NYer who knows there is definately such a thing as bad... nevermind.

Thanks for the review Steve. I think I would also have a problem with a stay the entire week at the resort vacation. Doesn't mean the WJL has dropped off the bucket list though.

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

but no comment from a NYer who knows there is definately such a thing as bad... nevermind.

Snorkelling , right? At Morrits this year it was so windy that we didn't snorkel from the beach.

[pcgirl54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pcgirl54]

I almost traded to WL then cancelled. A travel agent told me to try Barbados Crane or Buganvilla resorts or WL on St Lucia . I was told there was plenty to see and do like rainforest, wild monkeys and volcanic area. We like to explore and not just sit at the beach. I also want to say WL was on my to do list. The resort photos are pretty nice.


I read trip advisor and Tug reviews about both places. It seemed to be a 50/50 split between those that like it and those that did not. Con comments were price of food, staff, the ordeal to get to the resort and to get to town lots and open air units with birds or bugs in the units. Airfare is expensive from New England $700 plus pp. So due to the economy I cancelled the hold and decided to revist this in a year or two as I can take two vacations for the same price.

St James Club Antigua is also on my list.

[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

Nothing requires you to stay on-site at WJL

I don't want to overstate the case; we could easily have taken the car down to the south end of St. Lucia for a day to visit the rainforest, et al. Part of the reason we didn't is that we lost a day due to airfare; that is, to get our airfare down below $1100/person (for 4), we ended up flying in a day early (Friday), spending a night in a hotel, and then leaving a day early, so we only had 6 days at WJL.

If we'd had 7 days, we would've taken that extra day to do a driving day trip down to the southwestern part of the island. This is partly my fault because I didn't do the research I normally would before going, so we didn't have a clear idea of what we wanted to do before we got there. If I knew then what I know now, we would've skipped the all-day boat trip, and replaced it with other activities. The resort does offer a 1/2-day zip line rainforest adventure that we thought about, but didn't do.

I think there's plenty to do away from WJL, and plenty to do *at* WJL, so everyone can be happy!

And I'm a New Yorker, just not The City kind I know, that means I'm not a real New Yorker (I'm really a buckeye, anyway).

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[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

Snorkelling , right? At Morrits this year it was so windy that we didn't snorkel from the beach.

Funny, it was that way last year (late April) too. There were strong on-shore winds and rain several days so that it was just too stirred up to see much for a good part of the week. We only had one day where I could really snorkel right off the resort, but we went to Rum Point, Spotts, etc., and did plenty of other snorkeling.

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[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

I almost traded to WL then cancelled. ... I read trip advisor and Tug reviews about both places. It seemed to be a 50/50 split between those that like it and those that did not. Con comments were price of food, staff, ...

Staff? Wow, that one I don't get at all. The staff there was, almost to a person, amazing. We had one mildly grumpy waiter, and the person who checked us out wasn't very hospitable, but other than that, everyone was friendly and really went out of their way to welcome us.

And for the price of food, the WJL food isn't significantly different in price than the restaurants down in Rodney Bay. I generally expect to pay a lot for food when I got to an island where they ship a lot of it in. We cut costs by buying groceries and cooking in, and also by finding where the locals eat.

We got the dinner the first night from a roadside stand. While trying the left-hand rule (remember, it's a British island, so one should adopt one's maze-solving strategy to handle local customs) to locate the road on which WJL is located (Trouya Rd., I now know), we found Mafi, who works for American Airlines during the week and grills chicken on Fridays and Saturdays. He sets up his grill just a bit south of Trouya road. We pulled in there and he gave us directions, and we told him we'd be back for dinner.

He was surprised when we did come back, and said we were the first non-locals that he'd had stop in 2 years. So c'mon, people, when you go to WJL, stop and see the locals! The St. Lucians were generally very friendly (with the exception of one guy who was climbing a coconut tree on Pigeon Island and started shouting at me that I had to pay him $2 for taking his picture; I resolved the situation by deleting his picture from my camera).

We got a recommendation for the Lime restaurant, which we didn't find until we were leaving. It's on the west side of the main drag through Rodney Bay, and it's a little tiny "hole in the wall" type place where the locals go. We love to find these places (like the jerk shack in Spotts on Grand Cayman, or even Vivine's Kitchen) and go there.

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[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

Steve. these are just the kind of places I love to find. I love eating with the locals. shaggy