3 Surprising Things to Know Before Moving to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. St. Croix has many unique things to offer such as living the island life on American territory, numerous historical stories and culture enriched locals. However, sometimes there may be a few challenges in paradise that you weren’t aware of.

I’m about to shed some light on visiting the island versus moving to the island. Many folks visit St. Croix, fall in love with its tropical wonders, go bonkers and pack their bags to become future residents without considering major differences. One major difference is the way Crucians speak. You can learn more about the Crucian dialect here.

To those wanting to live on St. Croix, you will love its beauty, but please consider that what you may be used to back home in the states may be completely different than what being a St. Croix resident is really like.

St. Croix has shown itself nationally throughout tourism ads, commercials, and even popular television shows. This makes me feel proud to see my childhood home make itself known around the world.

St. Croix is doing a great job showcasing itself and all of its beauty. However, there are a few things you must know before changing your address to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1) Island Time

Island time is real! This is not a made-up saying or joke of any kind. This is a real situation that occurs almost everywhere on the island of St. Croix. I am not talking about meeting your friends for dinner and they arrive 15 minutes late. That would qualify for fake island time.

Island time is going to a restaurant, waiting 10 minutes to be acknowledged (acknowledged by a host, not waiting for a seat), then seated. Once you are seated and place your orders for drinks, you wait another 15 minutes to get your drinks, if you are lucky. Then you place an order for your food.

My advice is after you place your order, especially if you are with a group of people like your family, take this time to go back home. Why go back home? You will find and cook some food at home, eat it, let it digest, then take the scenic route back to the restaurant.

Once you arrive, your food still won’t be ready. However, you’ve already eaten, so you can just chill and enjoy the ambiance. THIS is island time!

What about going to that fast food restaurant? Don’t even bother. Those are decoys of gasoline cults to test to see if your gas tanks are really low and how long you can keep your car running in the long car line of the drive-through before you crank out. The winner, who’s gas outlasts the others, gets the cold fries.

When we visit St. Croix, one of our favorite places to go for a family meal is at Rum Runners Restaurant. This popular laid back restaurant is located on the beautiful Christiansted dockside with a nice water view and the service is great.

If you order something from overseas that says it will take 2 – 3 days, that’s a lie. It will be half a century before it reaches your mailbox. Oh, and when you pick up your packages from the post office, get ready for island time. Yep, you’ve got to wait there too.

Here in Florida, you usually are in and out of post offices, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, you know, places with multiple workers. Nope, you must have enough patience for atleast one million and 39 people for a happy life on St. Croix. Be prepared!

TIP: If the restaurant allows, call ahead and place your order. Also, not every restaurant or business moves on island time, so ask around and find out the best places to dine or companies to deal with. The locals are very helpful in suggesting what places to avoid.

2) Power Outages

Unfortunately, power outages may be a part of your weekly routine in St. Croix. Unlike Florida, most power lines do not run underground, therefore causing frequent power outages on the island due to rainstorms, heavy winds, or malfunction of electrical transformers.

In Florida when there are power outages, the power returns usually in a flash. Not even a minute later, your home is lighted up again. Unless there has been a severe storm like a hurricane, we usually don’t lose power regularly in Florida.

When you lose power in St. Croix, how long does it take to return? Yep, you figured right. Power is also on island time. It comes back on when it’s good and ready. That might be sometime within the hour, within the day or within the month. Whatever mood it’s in.

If you think everything will be okay without power, wait until it’s time to go to bed at night and your fan or air conditioner doesn’t work. You will be sleeping in a river of sweat all night.

Also, don’t forget, you only have 2.3 seconds after you open the refrigerator door to get what you need so you don’t “let the cold air out”. Aunty Esther will scream your head off if you don’t hurry and close that door. She will hate you if you let her meat spoil.

Then there’s my favorite. If you have kids and power goes out with WiFi and they can’t charge their electronics, I’ll see you in heaven. Your life is over.

TIP: Since you already have grown patience due to island time, you should be fine dealing with power outages too. You also need to get in the habit of having flashlights or lamps around your home just in case you do lose power at night. If you can invest in a power generator, go for it. It’s worth it. Do it for Aunty Esther.

3) Potholes

St. Croix has so many potholes from city to city. Potholes are areas of the road surface that have cracked and begin to form a hole. Sometimes these holes can get quite large.

St. Croix roads can be known to have ginormous holes or potholes. The holes can get so large, they can look like a meteor has struck the island.

Florida also has potholes here and there BUT the difference is….should I even say? In St. Croix the potholes take a much longer time to fix than it does in Florida. Unfortunately, the pothole fixing service is also on island time in St. Croix.

In Florida, if I leave my home in the morning to head for work and see a small pothole, the very next day that pothole is gone. In St. Croix if I leave my home in the morning and head for work, the process is not that simple.

First, you must decide how big is this pothole. Is it a small pothole where I can drive over it? Is it a bigger pothole where I can drive around it? Is it a ginormous pothole where I need to say “screw this”, put on my helmet, protective glasses, and driving gloves and call for back up?

Many of these potholes can get so large that you end up driving off the road and down the hill around the bushes to get to the other side. If you own a Jeep Wrangler on St. Croix, good for you! You made a big boy choice and now you don’t have to worry about losing a tire in the middle of the road.

Back to the process. So you’ve gotten around the pothole and made it to work safely. Tomorrow morning, it’s the same darn pothole. This time there is another driver coming from the opposite side of the road trying to get around the same pothole.

However, he’s on your side of the road and you can’t go. Now you’re stuck waiting to pass, because there are 19 more cars behind him trying to get over this pothole.

Don’t worry, you still have that patience from island time, so you wait for the traffic to pass, then you continue on to work. You pat yourself on the back because you are proud of yourself and you didn’t have to release any curse words so early in the morning.

The next day on your way to work, as you were getting in your car, you notice you have a flat tire. Why? Because when you had to drive around that pothole through the bushes, you drove over a nail and punctured your car tire.

Now you can’t go to work for the day because your car won’t be fixed until whenever (car mechanics are also on island time) and there goes your pay for the day.

You finally get your car back and you decide to go another route. Why? Because by now you’ve learned your lesson that the pothole is still there and you don’t want to ruin your car again.

Wait a second, you’ve discovered on your new route, there are 17,000 more potholes! Welcome to St. Croix! There is no getting around potholes.

TIP: For your safety, drive at speed limit and even slower if you are not familiar with the roads. Try to avoid driving on strange roads at nighttime and make sure you have a plan if you do get stuck on the road somewhere.

I’ve prepared you with three things to know about St. Croix before you move there. St. Croix is a very lovely island and can be a tropical oasis. However, like every other place, it does have some major issues you need to know about before becoming a lifetime resident.

I love St. Croix and will continue to visit my childhood home and expose my children so they too can learn more and more about it. Moving to an island will be different than living in the states.

If your kids are like ours and are used to living in the states, this too becomes a huge adjustment for them as they are not used to island time or other challenges you may encounter.

Just remember to pack your patience with you and your time on St. Croix will be alot more enjoyable for your entire family.

Need More Info on St. Croix? Check out: 11 Most Frequently Asked Questions About St. Croix

The Best U.S. Virgin Island to Visit with Families

Have you thought about moving to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands? If you did decide to move, was the transition a little more difficult than you thought it would have been? If you relocated to a new island or country and had to face surprising challenges, share with us your story and how you overcame those challenges. We would love to hear from you.