Wanted: Cingular, Very Short Term Rental, and Island Car
Estimated Date Of Arrival: November 23!
CELL PHONE
We both currently have Verizon. From what we understand we might as well chuck those phones into the water once we get on island! We are planning on switching to Cincular, or at least get a Cingular phone for us to split.
Here are the questions:
1. Will Verizon more than likely let us out of our contracts because they do not offer service on St. Croix?
2. Is Cingular really the best service to go with? Most of our time will be spent on, Tortolla, St, Thomas, San Juan, and St. Croix. But home will be St. Croix. We are thinking the answer to this question is yes.
3. Should we wait until we get on the Island before getting the phone or should we get it before we leave? Are there cell phone stores on St. Croix? If so, how do the prices compare to back in the states.
SHORT TERM RENTAL
We have a couple of good leads on where we might live, but have yet to decide. One of us will be heading down for good next week, and will be responsible for finding "the place", the "better half" will follow about a week behind. While the is looking where is the best place to stay? We don't need anything fancy, and do not want to brake the bank on a place to stay. Probably 1-4 nights tops.
ISLAND CAR
Where is the best place to look for a island car. Once again, we don't want to brake the bank on this either. As long as the thing runs that will do for now. How long can you get along without a car? We will probably just pick up one for the two of us to use. I hear "beaters" hold their value or lack there of pretty nicely down there, so getting rid of a beater and upgrading down the road ought to be pretty easy I assume?
Thanks as always!
I talked with Verizon about cancellation fees if we moved out of their service area and was told that there would not be any in that situation. However, I ended up swapping to Sprint once my Verizon contract expired so I don't know how much trouble it would actually be. I also used my Verizon cell phone on STX when on vacation before we moved here many times (roaming only) and it worked okay. I live on the north shore near Cane Bay and can only use my Sprint phone at home if I manually select "analog roaming" only. If I allow my phone to automatically select between Sprint, digital roaming, and analog roaming, it constantly swaps back and forth because of the weak signal, disconnecting the call each time. I took my neighbor last week to get a Cingular cell phone. We were at the Cingular store (near Sunny Isle) for about an hour. They have the same plans/prices here as in the States but were out of stock on some phones. Her new Cingular phone works fine from her home also.
Verizon actually let me out of my plan with a lease proving I was moving here. You could probably dummy one up (that's what I had to do since I didn't have an "official" address yet). My plan was expiring soon anyway but my mom was on my plan and had over a year left. They let us both off.
I switched to Cingular before I left because it's a lot easier to deal with the salespeople because there is usually only one in the store on St. Croix.
Cingular (in my experience) has had more coverage island wide on St. Croix. There are a couple of black outs but it's an island 😉
Hope that helps a little bit.
We have a room available for rent, it is in a great location on the east end, close to red hook, you can also pick up the safari in the front of the complex. The safari runs frequently and does a loop around the island for 1-2$ depending on how long you ride. It is a great way to get around the island for the first couple days. The room we have available, has a small kitchenette, full bathroom, private patio and entrance. The room is a few steps from the beach and the development has its own pool. If you are interested please private message, or email apfeiffer7@yahoo.com
* I also have Sprint and I find that the service is pretty good, although itermitent sometimes.
* As far as buying a car goes, we purchased our car from Used Car Center (carribean auto mart) A four door, with 37k miles, asking $5,999 we got it for $2,700 and a 60 day warranty.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Annelies Pfeiffer and Gary Wood
We have a 1 bedroom villa that may be available for short term at a special rate. I sent you a private message or contact us at stxdd@hotmail.com.
If you are looking for a place to live in STX, we have a room that is available. It is in an estate house of an old sugar cane plantion located on the North Shore near Cane Bay. You and your spouse could share the room. If you are interested, you can call us at 340-773-2642.
The short term rental is taken care of. The cell phone situation is under control. Still a little fuzzy on what we will do for transportation when we first get down there. Do Island cars hold their value pretty well? Where would u recommend shopping for a island car at? Thanks as aways
Hello IslandPilots,
If you have the funds you can rent a car for a few days. You can look in the Avis' Classifieds for Used Car listings also try the Used Car lot at Carribean Automart.
--Islander
One thing you might want to consider is whether your phone provider will have service at the place you live. For me that has been a priority when looking for housing. My Sprint plan has unlimited incoming calls (for $5.00 extra a month) and it is a plan that was offered for 787 and 340 area codes. I'm not sure if that plan is still being offered, but it sure has cut our worry about overcharges for incoming calls! I also found out that as Sprint expands its cell towers, every 3 months or so I update my software, which is free of charge, to pick up the coverage from those towers. Otherwise, my coverage is limited to just the old towers. I'm not sure how other companies operate, but maybe it is something to look into.
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