Five cruise ships in today, tomorrow and Thursday!

https://www.portstmaartenwebcam.com/

That is so awesome! So let's say just 10 percent of these cruise ship visitors fall in love with St. Martin and make plans to return for an extended stay (like my wife and I did many years ago). If each cruise ship carries approximately 3,000 passengers and 80 percent of them take shore excursions, that means roughly 12,000 visitors hit the streets and beaches of SXM when five large ships are in port. If we use that 10 percent estimate then 1,200 people get back on their respective ships later this afternoon or this evening and begin to think (or make plans) about their return. "Where to stay, where to eat, what to do, etc." All the questions we try to help folks with each day on forums such as this. That's how an island recovers and bounces back from the tragedy that struck 18 months ago. Pretty exciting stuff to me!

And only a small minority of them spend a few bucks.

Small minority spend a few bucks in support of the island's coffers but a lot of them spend money on the offerings of the cruise ship.

From the looks of SSBB it's more than a small minority. LOL

In my experience, having taken about a dozen cruises, the on board things to do on the ship when in port is almost non-existent. When we got into port we automatically went ashore, except for Jamaica, and explored. We had been to SXM on many of those cruises and explored the different beaches, shopping and tours. That is part of the reason we decided to vacation there. Granted, as cruise passengers we may not have spent a ton of money on the island but we did spread some money around. We went shopping on one cruise, an ATV tour on another and found Orient Beach on another tour. Last year we spent a week on the island in September and this year we will be there for a week in June.

I think the merchants in Philipsburg would not agree.

"in my experience, having taken about a dozen cruises, the on board things to do on the ship when in port is almost non-existent. When we got into port we automatically went ashore, "
Same here. That is how we fell in love with St Maarten. Always spent money ashore.

Same here. Our first trip to SXM was on a cruise. We went ashore, rented a taxi, beach chairs and bought drinks from the beach bars. Many from our family cruise of 17 bought flowered shirts for our hawaiian themed dinner night. We did not spend a ton of money that day, but we really liked what we saw and now have returned several times. Now we spend a ton of money! LOL

Ditto, SXMbeacher. After our Princess Cruise Ship docked we had no idea what St. Martin was about other than what some friends had told us. Joined another couple and took a taxi to Orient Beach. Rented two chairs and an umbrella at Kakao. Then a few drinks, followed by a wonderful lunch. Onto Philipsburg later that afternoon where we bought some souvenirs. Maybe we spent about $100 that day. But, we were hooked. SXM blew away the other islands we had stopped at, and as we departed that evening we immediately began to make plans to return that winter and stay for a full week. The rest is history!

We also was no impressed with the other islands we visited by cruise. I did not want to get back on the ship that day after returning from Orient Beach. We planned a week which now has turned into 10 days!

WOW. SSBB webcam is crawling with people today on the beach.

Thats the one I was referring to. But now the rain moved them out.

It's back packed now, at 11:50..

Yep. Now Maho Beach patrons are back in full force. Lots of dollars flowing in there just in the chair turnover.

Chair turnover? The other two-thirds big spenders are laying on their towels. Cheap tour for them.