Day 7: Wednesday, March 7 ~ St. Maarten

Our absolute favorite part of our snorkeling tour in St. Maarten in 2015 was the 20 minutes we spent at Pinel Island.  Everything there was so beautiful… the soft white sand, the bright blue water, the views looking back at the main island.  At the time, we wished we could have spent more time there, and we always said we wanted to return the next time we had a port stop in St. Maarten. A year later, we booked this cruise, and when we saw our first port of call on this itinerary, it didn’t take long to decide our plans for the day.  There is a company called Caribbean Paddling who has a tour that provides round trip transportation to their office, and then you rent a tandem kayak for the day and can take it over to Pinel Island, all for $80 total ($40 per person).  It sounded like a fun activity to make it more than just a beach day, and I was planning to wait until a few months before the cruise to book our reservation on their website.

Unfortunately, the rough hurricane season in the fall of 2017 put a kink in our plans.  St. Maarten suffered devastating damage, so much so that cruise ships could not visit the island for several months.  I decided to hold off on booking anything specific for our port stop here as I did not know for sure if we were going to St. Maarten or if we would have an itinerary change at the last minute.  I was diligent about checking Cruise Critic as people reported back their experiences as the first few ships docked in St. Maarten, and the overall consensus was that the Dutch side of the island was recovering much faster than the French side. Since Pinel Island is on the French side of the island, and I knew they suffered major damage in the hurricane, I decided to postpone our return visit for a future cruise (I am sure we will return here again eventually!), and I started to research options closer to the cruise port area.  In the end, we decided our best option would be to not book any specific tours. Instead, we decided to spend the day checking out the beach and boardwalk in Phillipsburg, renting an umbrella and lounge chairs for a relaxing day at the beach, and possibly going for lunch at one of the restaurants nearby.    

Today’s daily schedule:

I woke up this morning around 7am, with just a few minutes to get dressed before room service delivered our breakfast.  After re-plating all of the dishes onto our own individual plates, we brought our breakfast outside to the balcony to admire the beautiful views of the bay. This is definitely my favorite part of having a balcony cabin!

Side note:  The breakfast menu offers a choice of onion or plain bagels.  We ordered 1 onion bagel for each of us.  When we opened the basket of breads and pastries, we found 2 bagels, neither of which had any onions on them!  At the time, we assumed they must have run out of onion bagels and just gave us plain instead… okay, not a big deal.  But then the same thing happened again tomorrow, and the next day.  Ok, so let’s try a new tactic- one day we decided to order 1 plain bagel and 1 onion bagel as an experiment.  We definitely received 2 different kinds of bagels with our delivery, but neither one had any onions haha  One was the same size as the bagels we had been getting, and the other was quite a bit smaller, like a mini-bagel.  We came to the conclusion that “onion” really means “large” bagel, and “plain” means “small” bagel.  And to clarify, even the “large onion” bagel isn’t very large… it’s fairly thin and airy (not dense), so we had no trouble finishing the bagel with lox and cream cheese and the omelet, and even had room for a pastry for dessert.  If you like big, filling breakfasts (as we do when we will be out on a tour in port for several hours and won’t be able to eat lunch until mid-afternoon), then order accordingly!  

Looking out over the railing of our balcony to the far right, we could see the beach where we will spend our day.  I am used to traveling quite far from the port area, so this would be a first for me- relaxing on a beach so close to where the cruise ship is docked.  

The sun was shining bright and it looked like a beautiful start to our day in St. Maarten!  At 8am, they made the announcement that the ship was cleared, so we packed up our bags and went down to deck 2 to get off the ship.  

It has been 3 years since we were last here so it was hard to remember the specifics of the cruise village to know how many buildings were destroyed by Hurricane Irma.  I did notice a few buildings under construction, plus a bit of debris tossed to the side, but for the most part, most of the stores were open and looked like they were in good shape.

We followed the signs for the 5-minute walk from the ship to the water taxi booth to buy our tickets.

At some point yesterday, DH picked up a coupon for $1 off the water taxi.  He said they were handing it out somewhere on the ship but couldn’t remember exactly where he got it.

As it turned out, the lady selling water taxi tickets did not need the coupon to honor the price.  As we approached the booth, she said it would be $6 USD per person for unlimited rides all day.  Does anyone pay $5 for a one way ride??  That is not a good deal at all!!  The lady handed us each a wrist band and directed us to walk between the buildings, out to the water, then to turn left and walk down to the pier to board the water taxi.  It took us about 5 minutes to reach the water taxi, and luckily, it was just about ready to leave as we boarded.  Once we left the dock, the crew on the taxi announced that they were selling bottles of water and cans of soda for $1, and cans of beer for $2.  

While I know the walk from the cruise ship to downtown Phillipsburg only takes about 20 minutes, and we had at least 10 minutes of walking to get to the water taxi, it was still worth it for the beautiful views as we sped across the bay.

Some of the boats that were destroyed in the hurricane are piled up on the shore

Approaching Bobby’s marina

Lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas set up along the beach, ready for hoards of cruise passengers to arrive

I thought that each water taxi made 3 stops at the piers along the beach, so I
planned to get off at the second or third stop. When we got to Bobby’s Marina, the driver said that everyone had to get off and he was not going to the other piers.  As it turned out, each boat only went to 1 pier and then returned to the cruise port, but there was no way to know which pier they were going to because they just said they were going “to town”.  The entire taxi ride took exactly 5 minutes, so honestly, I don’t think it saved us much time over walking the whole way, but like I said, it was worth it for the views.

We got off the taxi and as soon as we started walking towards the beach, someone approached us to ask if we needed beach chairs. He offered us 2 chairs and a shared umbrella for $20.  The loungers he pointed out to us did not have any padding, so we said “No, thank you” and kept walking down the beach for a better option.

The next guy we saw had loungers with thick yellow cushions that looked very comfortable.  He offered us 2 chairs, a small table, 1 umbrella, free wifi, and changing rooms for $15, plus we could buy a bucket of 5 beers for an additional $10. We tried to negotiate unsuccessfully, so we agreed and picked 2 loungers in the front row along the water.  It was barely 9am so very few people had arrived yet, and we had the beach to ourselves!

Notice how all of the cushions are flopping over? It was another windy day in the Caribbean!

Looking back towards the boardwalk… throughout the day, the guys continued to set up more loungers behind ours

I really liked that they put the umbrellas close together so there was lots of
shade on the lounge chairs for most of the day (…until the sun moved over the bay and then there was no way to avoid it!)

Soft white sand, turquoise water, views of the cruise ships and the island of Saba in the distance… what more could I ask for?  (It also helped that there was a major blizzard in the Northeast today, so when I posted this photo on my social media, I made a lot of people very jealous haha)

Be careful where you step… there were a lot of small shells washed up along the shoreline

Good morning from St. Maarten!

It was so relaxing to sit on my lounge chair, take notes in my journal, and listen to the waves roll in against the shore.

We had the beach mostly to ourselves until around 10am when a cruise ship excursion took over the chairs in the next section over from ours.  At that point, there was a DJ who started playing somewhat loud music, and lots of people started splashing around in the bay.  It didn’t really bother me, but it was noticeable that our quiet beach morning was turning into a more vibrant and lively scene.  With our prime front row seats, at least we could do some great people watching!

At around noon, we started getting hungry for lunch.  We considered eating at one of the restaurants along the boardwalk, but ultimately decided to make use of our unlimited water taxi rides and to head back to the ship for lunch at the buffet.  The guy who rented us the chairs said it was no problem to leave for a few hours for lunch, and he would hold our chairs for us.  We left behind a few less valuable things (sunscreen, water bottles, and books) to hold our chairs, and took our now-much-lighter beach bags with us as we walked back to the water taxi dock.  When we got to the dock, someone told us we missed the last taxi by 5 minutes, so we sat in the gazebo to wait for the next one which arrived about 10 minutes later.

Note that all the seats are protected from the sun… something I always appreciate!

This was the gazebo where we waited for the taxi… again, in the shade!

Our chairs were in the section of blue umbrellas. This also shows some of the damage to the hotel behind the section of red umbrellas.  There was lots of construction going on the whole time we were there.

Almost back to the dock at the cruise port

This beautiful yacht was docked next to where the water taxis left from.  I would love to travel around St. Maarten on a yacht like that someday!!

In all, it took us 45 minutes to get from our loungers at the beach to get back on the ship.  I had thought we could do the entire journey round trip, including eating lunch, in about an hour, but obviously that was not possible!  We went straight up to the buffet for lunch, where the theme of the day was A Taste of France.  I didn’t see anything at the specialty stations which appealed to me, so instead, I went to the made-to-order pasta station.  I love that they have so many fresh ingredients and you can pick as many as you want, including proteins, and then a few different sauce options which change day to day.

Bowtie pasta with mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, chicken, and tomato sauce, with a side of spinach and goat cheese pizza.  Don’t forget to take some parmesan cheese before leaving the station like I did! Oops!

I took a chocolate chip cookie for dessert as we left the buffet, and by 1:15pm, we were on our way back to the beach.  This time, when we got to the water taxi dock, the water taxi was already there but they said they were taking a lunch break and directed us to a larger ferry further along the pier.  I asked the driver if he was going to the marina and he said yes, so we got on. It took about 5 minutes for them to fill up the rest of the boat since this one was much larger than the boat we had taken this morning, and then they left.  A few minutes into the ride, I noticed we were very far out into the middle of the bay and not aiming for the marina.  He ended up docking all the way at the opposite end of the beach from our lounge chairs!  It was really annoying that he gave us wrong information, but it didn’t really matter because I wanted to take a walk along the boardwalk anyway, so we just did it now instead of later in the day (and we only had to walk in 1 direction in the heat, so maybe it was a win after all!).  

This was the larger water taxi we used for this leg of the trip

Nice views of the beach from the water taxi pier

I did notice signs down that way offering chairs/umbrellas/beer deals for $20 total, but it wouldn’t be worth it for us to walk that far from where the original water taxi dropped us off.  Plus, now that it was 1:30pm, it was possible that the prices were lower than they were at 9am since you wouldn’t have as much time to enjoy your lounger.

More construction, but it is all contained to the boundaries of the building and did not disrupt people walking on the boardwalk

When we arrived back at our lounge chairs, our belongings were still waiting for us, right where we left them.  The beach was definitely more crowded now and lots of people were swimming in the water.  I am not sure if it is always like this, or if the water was rougher today with all of the wind, but there was a strong current and small waves as the water reached the shoreline.  We watched as many people got knocked over by the waves.  They would be out in the water but facing the beach to talk to someone on the sand, so the waves snuck up behind them and knocked them down.  I guess it would have been nice for their friends/family to warn them the wave was coming! Haha  

We relaxed on our loungers for the next hour and a half, and at 3:30pm, we packed up and walked back to the water taxi dock.  It was nice being so close to the ship all day, and being able to stay at the beach a little longer than if we had a further distance to travel back to the ship. I don’t normally stay out until 1 hour before all aboard time, but we figured we were safe, knowing that we could always walk back to the ship in 20 minutes if a water taxi never showed up.  There was nothing to worry about though, as the water taxi arrived 5 minutes after we got to the dock.  There was a big line of people waiting to get on, but there were enough seats for everyone, with space to spare.  Those taxis are bigger than they appear!  We walked the 10 minutes or so back to the Eclipse and got onboard by 4pm.

Not quite ready to end our day, we went straight upstairs to the Sunset Bar for a few drinks and to watch the sail away. We found 2 open seats right at the railing, so we had a beautiful view to relax and look out over the port and the bay.  

Amazingly, DH was able to get a signal from the wifi back at the beach while we were sitting out there!  I’m really not sure how that was possible considering we weren’t THAT close, and I was not as lucky and couldn’t get my phone to connect, but he took advantage and checked his social media one last time.

The flag was blowing in the breeze.  Kind of cool that we could see the ocean out in the distance beyond the cruise port and the town.  I also love that the walkways in the cruise village look like a giant checkerboard.  It is hard to notice that when you are on ground level, but very obvious when looking down from the top deck of the ship!

Not many people on their aft balconies right now

We didn’t notice any pier runners, but it was kind of hard to know for sure
because we were docked next to the Freedom of the Seas and they had a later all aboard time than us.

A little after 5pm, we saw the crew bringing in the lines, and then we felt the ship start to drift away from the pier.  The views from up here were so wonderful, and we knew we would spend quite a few sail always at the Sunset Bar.

Until next time, St. Maarten!

Freedom of the Seas is still tied up at the pier for another hour or so

I never noticed this before, but they must bring in the flag after leaving port each evening, and then put it back out the next morning after docking.

Peek-a-boo!  I see you!  I’m not sure I understand the appeal of an aft balcony on the S-class ships when the sloped angle gives them very little privacy (and likely very limited shade when the sun is overhead!) I get that people love to watch the wake, but personally, I prefer shade and privacy when I’m on my balcony!

One last photo…

It was now around 5:30pm, so we ran back to the cabin for some quick showers and to get ready for the evening.  The sunset views from our cabin were stunning!

We also had a very clear view of Saba in the distance

We went down to the Martini Bar for a quick drink before dinner.  I ordered the Candied Apple Martini, made with Grey Goose Vodka, apple schnapps, pomegranate juice, and butterscotch schnapps, but I think they added too much butterscotch.

I’m not sure what DH ordered (likely a gin martini) but he managed to knock over his glass and it broke!  

We let the bartenders know right away, but I guess they were too busy with the pre-dinner rush because it took them a surprisingly long time to come clean it up.  We weren’t in a rush per se, but there was broken glass on the table and we thought they would have been eager to clean it up before someone got hurt. When someone did come over, he was extremely thorough and even checked to make sure there wasn’t any glass in the stack of clean glasses that had just come out of the dishwasher and was sitting right on the other side of the counter.  Luckily, it was all clear (pun intended) and the glass broke in fairly large pieces so it was easy to clean up!

We hung around at the Martini Bar long enough to catch some flair, then headed off to take our nightly pre-dinner photo.

When we arrived at the hostess stand for the MDR, Cervine told us there would be a short wait for Pinto’s section tonight. Waiting just a few minutes was well worth it for us to be seated with our favorite wait staff, and as an added bonus, we got a window seat!  I love when we get to sit next to the window because the window sill is about 18 inches deep and gives us lots of extra space to spread out.  I can keep my purse and camera there, and we also move the bread basket and butter tray over there when we need more space on our small table for the many appetizers and entrees we like to order.  In theory, the windows should provide a nice view of the ocean or maybe even the sunset, but the windows were always too foggy and dirty to provide a good view, and halfway through our meal it was dark outside anyway.

Tonight’s dinner menu

Duck Terrine

We had a bit of a snafu at dinner tonight.  DH and I each ordered one appetizer and the French Onion Soup.  Perhaps it was because we were not eating in their section last night and they forgot, but Jose did not deliver all of our appetizers at the same time.  This might have been okay, but for whatever reason, he chose to deliver my Duck Terrine at the same time as DH’s soup.  I don’t know if you have ever ordered the French Onion Soup on a Celebrity Cruise (it’s delicious btw!!), but it takes a very long time to eat it.  The melted cheese on top and the bowl they serve it in help to keep the soup piping hot, and it can be a little challenging to cut through the cheese and piece of bread, so it takes a while to finish it.  Had they brought both of our soups at the same time, it would have been fine, but I finished my duck fairly quickly and then DH felt rushed to finish his soup so they could bring out our second round of appetizers.  It wasn’t a huge deal, and certainly not something we wanted to complain about, but it was just not how we like things done. We also thought it was just kind of weird because it would have made more sense to serve the soup course at the same time to both guests at the table.

Right around that time, the room service manager stopped by our table to check on us and ask how our meal was going.  We hesitated to tell him what happened but he could tell something was wrong and he really pressed us to talk to him about it. We really liked Pinto and Jose and we did not want them to get in trouble in any way, but the manager really wanted to hear our thoughts, so we told him what happened.  After we spoke up, there was an immediate change in service, and Pinto and Jose were overly attentive for the rest of the meal.  

French Onion Soup

Turkey Parmesan

Seared Branzino

Slow Braised Lamb Wrapped in Phyllo

Dessert Menu

I was too full to order dessert, but DH ordered the cheese plate.  If any of you have read my Paul Gauguin review, you know about my husband’s love affair with a cheese plate after dinner lol  This wasn’t anything like what they did on Paul Gauguin with a rolling cart brought to our table, but that was probably a good thing for the sake of portion control!  DH was very happy to receive real crackers instead of saltines (and this was proof that there are, in fact, other crackers on the ship besides saltines!!)

After dinner, we walked around the ship for a bit to work off some of the calories, then we made our way to the theater. Tonight’s show was called Rock City and featured the singers, dancers, and aerialists performing songs by The Who, Bon Jovi, Green Day, and many more.  It was more like a rock concert than a show in that it did not have a plot, and of course, we really enjoyed it.  This seemed like Celebrity’s effort to cater to a younger audience, which was okay with me since I like this kind of music, but I am not sure how the older crowd felt about it.

At 10pm, the activities crew was hosting an 80’s themed game up in the Sky Lounge.  The description in the daily schedule was quite vague, but we wanted to check it out. They divided the room into 2 groups based on where you were sitting, and asked for a team leader from each side. We were sitting in the front row so they asked DH to be our leader, and Mike (traveling-2) volunteered for the other team.  The game was name that tune with 80’s songs and you had to know the title and the artist. People from the audience were supposed to run up and tell the team leader the answer and he would then tell it to the host to get the points.  As it turned out, DH and Mike are both quite knowledgeable in 80’s music and they knew almost every answer without any help.  They recognized the songs after only a few notes, so the rest of us in the audience didn’t have time to run up and answer anyway!  Notice the activities staff member standing in the middle? That’s Flory, and he had his hand held out for DH or Mike to tap him when they knew the answer.  You can imagine how poor Flory got stuck in the middle as DH and Mike both rush over to him at the same time!  The poor guy seemed scared to stand there after the first few songs haha

In the end, it was a pretty even match up but I think Mike’s team ended up
winning.  I just want to take a moment here to talk about Flory… This event was held on the third night of our cruise, and from this moment on, any time Flory saw us, he made sure to say hi.  When DH first went up onto the dance floor, Flory asked where he lives.  When DH said San  Jose, CA, Flory immediately responded “Go Sharks!”  He is a big hockey fan and apparently knows all the teams, and he was very excited that we live in the city of one of the teams he likes.  If Flory spotted us from across the room, or the buffet, or the pool deck, or anywhere really, he would yell “Go Sharks!”, so it wasn’t just that he was saying hi to a familiar face.  We knew he remembered exactly who we were, which was quite impressive considering how many guests are on the ship and that he interacts with a new set of guests every 2 weeks.  He always had a smile on his face and so much energy in every event that he hosted, and we just thought he was wonderful at his job (and definitely made a point to mention that in our guest satisfaction survey after the cruise!).

Back to Wednesday night… The house band was scheduled to perform poolside at 10:15pm so we went over to check it out, thinking maybe there would be a party vibe on the pool deck.  No such luck! It seemed totally dead and there was hardly anyone out there, so we just went back to the cabin and called it a night.

Step Tracker Daily Total:  12,164 steps; 4.96 miles; 13 flights of stairs