Day 4, St. Maarten!!!!!
Well, let’s see… Those who follow me know that I have been sailing the Western route for the longest time, mainly because of the cheaper rates that it offers. But mom and I had been dying to hit the eastern side of the Caribbean for the longest time. This was a huge deal, I have never been in St. Maarten and I really wanted to check everything out. I had done a lot of research on the island, and I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do with 4 of us was a tour so we would get to see the best of the island without the need to worry about anything else.
It was such a good thing that I decided on doing a tour of the island. We learned so much about St. Maarten, and even more so that the two countries agreed to share the island instead of fighting for it. St. Maarten was a good example of how two nations decided to share a territory and divide it evenly. Well, not really, we also learned how the French managed to cover more territory by sleeping less and drinking more
. Kind of a funny story really, I guess you can google it, unless our tour guide gave us bogus information.
I also learned how the French side tends to be the boring side and the Dutch the fun side. Anyway, also people from the french side tend to go to the Dutch side to buy their good because they are usually less expensive.
Phew, ok, let’s get on with the review.
So I woke up and the weather looked quite nice from the balcony.
I went to the safe to get all my money out and documents for port. I also took a picture of the safe. The safe is a good size. I think possibly the largest that I have seen on a cruise ship?
And as usual, I tried to give my computer some CPR, and guess what?!?!?!?!!
It gave sign of life, and I rushed to extract all my data!
The sad part was the fact that it died immediately and I was not able to rescue anything. But that was good news. It meant that there was a chance at saving my precious information! That made me feel very happy, and it pretty much made my day. It was the first thing I told my mom when I saw her. She knows how much my information means to me. After all, I spend half the day just playing with batteries and lenses, and knowing that all that is for nothing is just devastating!
When I got to my moms room, they told me about my uncles second big score!!!! I am telling you. This guy is as lucky as they get!
We all headed out to the buffet to get some yummy breakfast!
I think you’re noticing a pattern with my food here
We sat there and talked while the ship pulled into port. St Marteen is truly gorgeous!
We ate our food and headed upstairs since we were about to dock. I also want to talk as to why the captain backed into port, instead of bow forward. IN the Q&A, he said that the swells hit that port and the make the ship move uncomfortably if the ship is not backed in. So he makes the decision to back the ship in, to main the passengers as comfortable as possible while the ship is docked.
Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures while the ship was docking. I hope you like them 
I like the looks of Getaway much more than Breakaway! Although I have to say that NCL Escape looks much better than all of them put together.
I love the old rugged look of the rope course.
I hope they are all not sleeping in that room
As usual NCL has loud music and a fantastic party while you get off the ship. It was so loud that I could hear it from up there. I love that!
Loved it!
Those water slides are some of the best at sea!
I never had a picture like this, and I always wanted one. You can really tell the real size of those balconies.
I am glad to see that they added a real table on those larger balconies, vs that ridiculous tiny one on the other ones.
Cruise Ship Canyon!
Is breakaway like that? I never noticed those tarps…
How much $$$ is that room again? 
. You won’t see Gambee there, anytime soon 
Isn’t she Gorgeous?!
Is that a helipad?
These folks are paying major bucks to be there! I love DCL!!!!
I got some really nice pictures of Divina’s indoor pool without anyone inside.
Soon Andre our CD come on the microphone and said we were all clear to get off the ship. So we headed downstairs into St. Maarten!
You can get your towels here, but keep in mind if you lose any of them you’re out of $30.
I started heading to our designated Bernard’s Tour assigned point. It is right next to the information center.
Don’t they look great?
This is the information center
We did the line and were told to wait for a little while. I think they were waiting for the rest of people to get there. So we went in front of the CELL company and sat there to wait. We would later go there and buy some internet time so we could catch up with our tech life.
Then the Mailman came by and got us. We got very lucky that the Mailman was our tour guide. If you go on trip advisor, you will notice that he comes highly recommended by pretty much everyone there. He told us to follow him and so we did, the bus parking lot was adjacent, it was just a short walk away.
Then he showed us to a bus and told us he would be right back with the rest of the group. The bus was on and the AC was blowing nice cool air. It was a good thing because it must of been 100 degrees that day in St. Maarten. I also went ahead and grabbed a bottle of water. I have read that they were included so I thought it was ok to grab one. It was so hot and we were all dehydrated by then .
We waited about 15 minutes in there. They were in elections and they had some political radio show, with a bunch of BS political debates. If you can’t tell, I hate politics
It was not a bad wait, we were comfortable in a cool environment, so it was all good. Soon enough the mailman came back with the rest of the group, it was a full bus, every spot was taken.
I will talk briefly about Bernard’s. I think by now they have a huge operation, I think i saw about 8 people there in the check in line all related to Bernard’s. We had a great time and the Mailman was absolutely fantastic, quite honestly, I cannot imagine any other way to see St. Maarten for the first time.
Soon enough, the tour was on the way. I did not take many pictures from the bus, because we all know how bad those pictures turn out. The weather that day was a bit lousy, but nothing that would damage our experience in St. Maarten.
Sarah asked me to take notes on the drinks that are available on the tour. The offer sprite, diet coke, coke, water, their local beer, and the rum punch. Now here is the thing, they claim the punch does not run out, however, in our tour it did run out. So, just make sure that you get it early. The punch is strong and sweet as hell, but the truth is that between my uncle and I, we could put down a bottle of it EASY!!!! I think there were a total of 3 bottles, but I could be wrong.
You’re supposed to sip it and not take it as a shot! The sipping thing did not work for us
So our first official spot was in a bay where you could get some amazing pictures. The exact name of the place? Ummmmmmmm, I have no clue, I have no notes and my memory is blank! All I know is that I got some amazing pictures there!
It was fabulous!
How gorgeous is this island?
I think I might enjoy this.
You can walk down and there is a gentleman there who has a bunch of sea urchins and such that you can grab. All he asks for is a tip, very nice fellow. Please be nice and tip him a dollar or two . What comes around goes around.
I did ask him if any of the specimens died on him and he kind of avoided the question. I was not a fan of that, it is very likely that they do not care much for the specimens there. But understand that he has to make a living. Kind of sad either way…
This map is available in the visitor information center.
The next non-official stop was to watch some iguanas on the side of the road. Apparently they are abundant in the island. They are are also claimed to taste like chicken, as the Mailman said, each country has their animal that is claimed to taste like chicken. I have never tasted iguana, well not that I am aware of at least, lol. Tried gator though
They used to stop in the iguana farm, but they are closed for renovations.
We kept on going and passed a very old Catholic church, I want to say that this was the first Catholic church in the island?
Then we got to the nudist beach resort, well to the front gate at least. He made a couple of fun jokes. If I recall correctly something along the lines, if the airlines lost the baggage, they had nothing to worry about. I am not a good joke teller, so please don t judge him, lol
Then he drove a little more and he showed us the entrance to the nudist beach. He said that if there were any kids on the bus he could not do that part of the tour.
I took a few pictures, please note the picture is Cropped . I especially love the contrast of the picture showed on the billboard and the one of the gentleman there. He was very proud of being there, Mailman told us that he was a local and knew specifically that everyone was taking pictures of him there. But yeah, that is the beach that you want to go if you want to be nude.
. If I recall correctly the entire beach was nude, but due to complaints from tourist with children it was changed to 25% nude and 75 % non-nudist.So he dropped us off in the safe area and told us to meet there in 2 hours. They had a few art and craft stores. Oh, lol, this is Orient Beach, I don’t think I have mentioned this yet, lol.
