St. John Virgin Islands: Entrances
Posted by gerald in St. John Virgin Islands, tags: Caneel Bay, St. John Virgin Islands, westin
Entrance to the Westin Resort
Entrance to the Caneel Bay Resort
Caneel Bay finally has its stone entrance/guard house/gate in place, wide going in, narrow going out.
For many months you could hear the chatter of French Creole and the pounding of sledges against stone, as the Haitian stone workers toiled at the front entrance to Caneel in the construction of this impressive stone guardhouse. During the construction, traffic was diverted to a dirt track around the site.
Now, as before, a guard sits in an open structure in order to control the ingress and egress of visitors, taxis, vendors and guests who arrive to the property by road. Now, as before, entrance to the resort is barely restricted. Visitors can park in the visitor parking lot and go to the beach, shops or restaurants and vendors can head to the employee parking lot where they can enter though a further security check.
Being that nothing much has changed, except the nature of the checkpoint, what was the purpose of this project? Anyone who has had stonework done here locally knows the high cost of such construction? Why lay out this kind of money, when times are tough in hospitality industry? Beats me.
Security? I doubt it. A guard on duty, is a guard on duty. Unless we subscribe to the “Three Little Pigs” syndrome, it won’t make a difference if they sit in a house of straw, a house of sticks or a house of stone.
The only thing I can come up with is an effort to make a statement. The vast majority of Caneel Bay guests arrive by sea and spend their whole stay on the property, so they’ll never even pass through his gate. The statement, therefore, must be meant for locals who now have to face this intimidating structure at the entrance to the resort.
The Westin on the other side of the island seems much more welcoming and just as secure.
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Hey at least it generated some employement for some of those stone workers during these tough economic times.
I would rather that they were Virgin Islanders, though.
G
I like it! I think they needed to control things better and they disguised it well with nice stone work – its a a pretty Virgin Island look – they could have gone more industrial and they didn’t
How does it control things better?
G
It’s all about Security Or Security Theatre, as in Dept. of Homeland Security. Not to really protect against anything real, but to look like they’re taking tough action against possible – what? terrorists? armed robbers? Undocumented deer or donkeys?
If you look closely at the new entrance at Caneel you’ll see see that any good SUV could simply drive around on the grass. There used to be a fence but they took that out when they built the new entrance.
They put up high fences with razor wire and security checks at the docks. Security props. Like on a movie set. There are boat rental companies in Red Hook and Cruz Bay. There are hundreds of beaches and bays where boats can come and go as they please with no supervision whatsoever. WTF?
The Dept. of Homeland Security has a big budget and they have to look like they’re doing stuff.
Some people just don’t know how to spend their money. They could have spent it elsewhere, like enhance the beach at honeymoon with new picnic tables and umbrellas, or hire someone or two and give them a golf cart to transport drinks from the bar, etc., etc., etc.
Or, hang a sign…Welcome to “Caneel World”!
Ed Gibney,
We are frequent visitors to St John and thought the same thing when we saw the dock area all battened down..
We laugh every time we see it..
The Customs interview is kind of funny also..
The Caribbean is ready to serve you with the best, and there are some of the most graceful hotels in the most romantic locations.