We're long time visitors to SXM who spend virtually all of our beach time at Club Orient. Our son Daniel (11) grew up visiting Orient during our yearly May visit. He loves Orient but never found children in his age group visiting the island in May. We switched our travel to July this year due to school considerations. Arriving to the beach and finding out it was the first week of Family Month at Club Orient was a surprise.

There is certainly a more noticeable presence of children in Orient village and elsewhere on the island. Club Orient offers upgrades and a daily activity for children staying/visiting ClubO. One afternoon a scavenger hunt~another day a trip to an inflatable water park. A temporary game room was opened.

What an amazing sight. Thirteen children playing and swimming together at Club Orient. Most of the boys and girls were between 8 and 16 years of age. The harmony was magical. All of the children were at ease being there. Younger ones loved being with older ones, the older ones loved leading the youngest ones. All of the children were vibrant and animated, friendly and respectful. All of the children were welcomed into the crowd of new friends. Everyone introduced themselves and knew each others names.

It started with a small game of water ball toss. One by one the circle of children playing together kept growing. The group drifted out to the south raft and took over for an hour. Never saw something so beautiful and funny to watch. A few different games were going on concurrently like Awesome Diving, Flip Out, Marco Polo, the Raft is Lava, Tilt the Raft....

It was also amazing to meet other parents at visiting with their children at Club Orient. The parents kept a healthy distance from the kids who had already found their own balance together. Aside from eating with families and reapplying sunscreen the kids were in their own world.

I hope others who had the good fortune to experience Family Month at Club Orient will add their thoughts. Our experience was better than we dreamed it would be. We look forward to returning next July.