1. Meals: We had our traditional first day back meal at Spiga (2 meals-1st day and last day). We also eat at Fu2ion (Maho) Spicy (Grand Case), Piazza Pascal (Grand Case), Peg Leg (Cole Bay-Port DePlaisance) and the Stone (Simpson Bay Resort). We ate most of our breakfasts at Zee Best and we loved their pastries.
a. On a side note, for those who know Sophie, at Spicy, she is back from France and her surgery and chemo went well and things are looking better. I asked her if it was OK to mention this on TTOL and she said it was fine. She hopes to see hers old friends and make new friends.
2. Beaches: Orient Beach was still one of the nicest beaches, with warm water and lots of sand. Spent most of our time at Palm Beach and Kao Kao. We went to Palm Beach on the days that there were multiple cruise ships in Philipsburg (Tuesday, Wednesday). The Palm Beach was good, but expensive. We tried Friars beach and the road to the beach is still no better than it was 5 months ago.
3. Weather: The weather was less than we had hoped as it rained a lot, 3 out of 6 days. There were some incredible down pours. The first and last days were good but the rest were not so good.
4. Shopping: Picked up some alcohol and gifts to bring home from Gulmohar’s. They have a great scotch selection. We stopped at Bacchus to pick up some wines and had lunch there. What a nice place to buy wines, expensive but nice. It is right behind the US Import store near the circle between Grand Case and Orient Beach. Also picked up some inexpensive wine and common alcohol at the Prime. Great prices but they have reduced the amount and types of alcohol they are carrying for retail sales.
a. Picked up some chocolate at the Belgium Chocolate place and, on that day, they were having a power outage. Always hard to pick out the chocolate in the dark.
5. Simpson Bay Resort: Through RCI, we were scheduled in the “B building” and the Simpson Bay Management allowed us to switch to the original M building. It had a great view and was very close to the casino for late night gambling. The facility was not full and there didn’t appear to be a lot a people around and we weren’t sure if it was related to the economy, the recent Simpson Bay issues or that we were there the week before Easter.
6. Activities: Tried to attend the Harmony Night in Grand Case on April 12th, except it was rained out. Tried to attend the Salsa Reggae band night at the Calmos Café on Thursday night, except it was rained out. Stopped by the SSB&G on several nights and it was dead. Stopped by the Red Piano and it was OK but still not too active. The only thing that the rain didn’t affect were the casinos, and they were active every night, now who would have guessed that.
7. Car Rental: We rented a car from Thrifty and it worked out well. The car was pretty new and it cost $260 for the week, including liability insurance and taxes.
8. Travel: We flew USAIR from BWI to SXM, through Philadelphia. The flight down was fine. The flight back to Philadelphia was a problem in that we landed at the same time as several other international flights. We only had 90 minutes between landing and our connecting flight. We cleared the passport inspection in no time and then waited about 40 minutes for our bags. Then we had to clear the luggage inspection, recheck our bags, clear security and run to our gate. I mean we had to run to make our connecting flight and just made it.
9. Activity Cards: We purchased both the Caribbean Card and the Privilege card. We probably got more use of the Caribbean card than the Privilege Card only because we ate at several Caribbean card restaurants that offered 2 for 1 dinners. However, both cards were valuable to us.
10. Cell Phone: We rented a cell phone from Sharon and really didn’t use it much. Our Verizon service was also available and we didn’t use it much either. We had activated the Verizon Global package for the week and we will see how much it actually ends up costing us.
11. Overall: Even with the marginal weather it was still a good trip. Already counting down the days for the next trip at the end of November. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/circle.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />
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