TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Orient Beach - Orange Fever, Chez, Sun Beach club

We went to Orient Beach today to see the progress on the smaller bar restaurants. We are fans of Orange Fever so rented chairs there - $10 two chairs and umbrella, plus use of his restroom. He said he still has no power, so no blender drinks. So his Pina Colada had the right flavor, but had ice cubes, rather than crushed ice. His place looks nice, and the restroom is nice as well. He had two types of chairs, the white plastic lounges with orange cushions, or a similar color fabric lounger with the head visor.

I also looked next door, the 3 other buildings were in various stages of completion. Chez Leandra still needs a roof, but had chairs and drinks, and was using a generator to run their blender. Sun Beach Clubber looked closed up, but I think I heard people working on it. The 4th one, sorry don't know the name was serving at the bar. Hard to tell when they will be able to offer food, my guess is they need the Collective to run electric. There was also a building being constructed on the far other end, near the boulders heading towards Mt Vernon, not sure what that will be.

There were workers putting roofs on some of the buildings at Mt. Vernon, but the pool area still is torn up, and no signs of work there. Some of the Mt. Vernon buildings are in very rough shape.

Since Orange Fever could not offer food, we went to Kontiki, excellent BBC, crispy chicken wrap, and a chocolate, raspberry concoction for dessert. I asked the waitress to bring a spoon for me and a toothpick for my wife so we could share dessert, instead she brought two spoons and placed them in front of my wife.

Chairs look comfortable and I like the spacing between sets. Do most all the sets come with that wooden table or do you have to ask for them?

Image #5 (Construction near boulders) looks like what might be Coco Beach - or whatever it might become.

Thanks for the pictures and report!

We also are here on the island and also walked Orient today. Was disappointed Chez Leandra still isn't serving food. Was that last location down near the end boulder hill Boo Boo Jams? They were putting a coat of varnish on all those wood tables and chairs this morning as we were walking by.

Do you mean the old brick building at the end of the beach that was converted in to the "Palm Beach"? ( I think that was the name).

No it is before you get to that boulder hill. Palm Beach is still a complete wreck.

Yes, that is where Coco Beach was.

We got back last week from a two week trip. Used Orange Beach many times. The price is right and Luc makes a pretty decent rum punch for five bucks. The new chairs with the little adjustable head shade look nice but not comfortable for a head rest, we went early every day and got the cushions. Coco Beach is being rebuilt just to the north of the new KKO. Antoine will probably run it (Le Table d'Antoine, now SAO, and Kakao).

Oops, meant Orange Fever.

Thanks for the photos. Nice to see some of these places coming along (albeit slowly). $10 for chairs and an umbrella is a great value; the typical going rate has been $30 at other places along OB. Maybe the presence of new competition will entice some of the other places to adjust their pricing, or possibly provide a free drink to their patrons. That always goes over well with us.

Scuba, the wooden tables were at the chairs on the front row when we arrived. As to pricing, I think in their current state, the 4 small bars would have trouble competing with Kontiki and the rest if their pricing was similar. While I really like Orange Fever pre Irma, if I was fresh to the island, the 4 small bars looked pretty rough to a tourist, especially since Kontiki and the rest look so nice. Once they all have power and are finished out, my guess is the prices have to go up some, I don't know how they can make a living as it is.

The short answer is that they CAN'T make a living, so long as they are not doing food. Meantime, where in the h*ll are the utilities--along with the bathrooms--that according to the Collectivite', were completed in October last year????

Love the pictures!!!!!!

Thanks, I took a few more, but didn't want to upload tons of photos.

We love the small bars especially Le String, very nice people. It is absolutely scandalous they do not have power.

Scandalous is pretty strong.

No, actually, I would agree with that assessment.. Especially since they claimed everything was done, utilities and restrooms, in October 2019, a MERE 2 years and a month post Irma. And now it is 4 months later, and still no utilities and no restrooms.

They were expecting to be hooked into power by the end of November, beginning of December. Here it is, Mid February, and still no power installed to these hard working people trying to get back into making a living again....SCANDULOUS is probably not even a strong enough word to use!!!! It's been TWO AND A HALF YEARS of waiting t

I’m happy to report that both Le String and Orange Fever have bathrooms that work.

Thanks, the “blue” roofs are the new ones at Mt Vernon so looks like progress continues.

Will be interesting to see what is done to the pool. Restore to before hurricane or some other layout or facility upgrade. I would restore the bathrooms somehow and facilitate a vendor to sell canned/bottled drinks and maybe operate a grill on weekends or something for the residents.

In fact, we will take the job for half rent in a studio.

When you say "work", do you mean a real flush toilet, connected to a sewer system?? What about the bathrooms in that separate building, built only for that purpose? Are those working?

I'm thinking that separate building. The back hoe was there in January laying pipes in a very deep hole right at that building.

When we were there in December, the building shell of Le String was built out. The bathroom was in the back and part of the building.

I agree Carol, that there is something certainly suspect about the delay in utilities for the carbet's. It was looking like most of them would be fully functioning by high season, and now i doubt they'll be ready by April, which we were highly anticipating.

It makes no sense whatsoever. It wasn't like there wasn't electric, water and sewage hookups there, pre-Irma.

Le String and Chez Leanders appear to be serving food. Le String has only burgers and paninis.

OK, that's good news. Had not heard that before.

That is good news that food is starting to be served, as it had been drinks and chairs only.

Good news, but they should have enjoyed a normal business for the full high season.

With regard to bathrooms at Le String and Orange Fever- both have flush toilets and running water for the sink. I didn't ask about sewage hookups.

As an aside, the burger and fries at Le String is yummy and the Royal Rum Punch at Chez Leandra is awesome.

Thanks for the updates.

Was at orange fever today still no food or power. Did see people working on the roof of the transformer building though.