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Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 #219514
03/03/2020 04:25 PM
03/03/2020 04:25 PM
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I
I_AM_CDN Offline OP
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I_AM_CDN  Offline OP
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I
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
St Kitts-Nevis Feb 1 to 6
Air Canada direct YYZ to St Kitts
Really bumpy flight down. No service / seat belts sign on for about half the 5 hour flight.

We were Zone 5 boarding until we volunteered to gate check our luggage at which point we were placed in between Zone 2 & 3.
Immigration and Emmigration were multi-stops…it was like someone is trying to employ all of their relatives with each cousin looking at different pages of our passports. Took about 40 minutes to get to taxi stand and then 15 minutes to Sugar Bay Resort.

Oceanview room on second floor so we slept with patio door open listening to the Atlantic waves crash at our footsteps.
First full day we did an all day cat / rum/ snorkeling trip with Blue Water Safaris…excellent day; great food / punch and snorkeling though no turtles. Met some really nice TD Bank folks with whom we dined later in the stay at the Spice Mill.
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZTXqW62i5dKsPySC-az5P7rVztQv7yxO/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Couple of days on the beach in Frigate Bay (avoid Shiggadity Shack burgers); one day we took the 40 minute ferry ride to Nevis where we then made our way to Oualie (“wally”) Beach Resort. Nice quiet beach, decent food and drinks. Took a 10 minute water taxi back to St Kitts, dropped at the Reggae beach bar.

Feb 6 Easy departure on LIAT for SXM …again after having all of the cousins in Emmigration have multiple looks at our passports.

SXM Orient Bay Feb 6 to 12
LIAT from St Kitts to SXM…nice views on the way over for 30 minutes.

Rental from Kennys: easy, admonished to not leave anything in car even as we stopped for groceries.

Found our way to the Village and our AirBnB. It had a shared pool but we did not use that as we were 3 minutes walk to the Village, beach and eateries. You can see the church
like theatre in the 2nd pic. It is part of the village square.

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SXG3MoTKxB4HC6w7ZMSBTQWGcBMJMuga/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Pe4uEqSUfCat-a67kDYpIaDCSzlibq6/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D65X4uC_fl-9a1m9949fie1TLwbd1abC/view?usp=sharing[/img]

We found all that we needed in the Village and only left to go to an ABM and one island tour.

There is however still lots of physical damage and unrepaired buildings.
This row of still damaged townhomes is right beside Le Telegraphe (great food).
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pB6XMvP2679q2sthEqZV4myvZPP0ZXYN/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_m3Kma0OQNZ5zTaRkbxZW-kGW1zDptrt/view?usp=sharing[/img]


After every Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63321157@N08/albums
SXM Sponsors
Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: I_AM_CDN] #219515
03/03/2020 04:26 PM
03/03/2020 04:26 PM
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I
I_AM_CDN Offline OP
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I_AM_CDN  Offline OP
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
PART 2
Ate lunch at La Playa, KKO, Bikini and The Wai which were all good.
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YBDzcTKK4kLluWzOub_O8i6b_YE6XZDk/view?usp=sharing/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k6cK_HyCgdYgzotDwvC0oml_tKPWHxvS/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TQivbFxpmtKTd3s_MZBI0rSoUQtEuYrl/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img] [/img]

Unfortunately the last lunch was spoiled by these ancient cretins from Carnivals Fascination (I think that is what it said on their lanyards on Feb 11). We sat down at The Wai at 1130 positioning ourselves so that we had a nice view of the water. We were at the end of the patio farthest from the bar closest to the washrooms (on the right hand side if you were facing the water) . At 1145 we saw a tour bus pull up in the parking lot and watch the 50 yard dash as these old plumpish hoards race walked through and around the tables at The Wai until they were upon us.

‘Where’s the washroom?” the first lady individual asked. Soon there were 20 of them lined up outside the washrooms while the rest of them proceeded to occupy the space between us and the beach. Just standing there and yattering away during our entire lunch. One lady stood with her back to the beach watching me eat my salad. Ok she may have been watching the washroom line over my shoulder but she was literally watching me eat the entire 7 minutes, only moving when I picked up my cell to take a picture of her staring at my food. I too am overweight and grey haired but I have manners which NONE of these clowns did.

The whole group spent $0.00 / 0 Euros. No Food or drink was purchased. Our waitress did not think the owners of The Wai received any compensation from Carnival for this beach stop. How is this tour promoted onboard…”enjoy the French Joie de vivre with a visit to this quaint beachside, Post Irma French style pissoir”

These rude creatures just used the washrooms, ruined our last lunch on the island and left. A POX on people who do this because they probably do the same thing at every cruise tour.

Bus ride / Pee / Bus ride / Pee.

If you recognize any of these folks please conduct an intervention with a heaping load of “how to have good manners” thrown in.
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OIEO4SUyNfnw4R2249O9lSUZy4etuL0Q/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wjrgSJEHY4UObCaj527cjq5u_rzlNgD4/view?usp=sharing[/img]


After every Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63321157@N08/albums
Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: I_AM_CDN] #219516
03/03/2020 04:28 PM
03/03/2020 04:28 PM
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I
I_AM_CDN Offline OP
Traveler
I_AM_CDN  Offline OP
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I
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 420
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MONEY

We went with some USD with the intent of using ABM to withdraw cash as we needed it. The week before in St Kitts we had the option of withdrawing USD or Euros
.
1. Staying in the Orient village we found no ABM's. We made the short drive to Hope Estate to withdraw at the bank beside the grocery store (name escapes me). There was only the option of withdrawing Euros.

2. The exchange on the Euros was significantly worse.

3. Since the beach chairs / bars considered USD & EU to be 1:1 we would have been way better off taking a bunch of USD. Or perhaps we could have gotten USD by lining up at a bank counter but we were never there when the branch was open.

4. Non-beach stuff we put on our CC but with the knowledge that in the French side all CC charges are in EU. So with the higher cost of EU we got hit.

(re-posting the following…

1. Always rent a car, maybe with the taxi from airport / get rental on 2nd day. Kennys is good. We did one round the island drive and the back and forth to airport plus a couple of runs to ABM. Gas bill was $18.00

2. We picked up at airport from Leslie @ Kenny's and he reinforced 'do not leave luggage unattended' even in grocery store lot

3. Grand Case was a lost cause due to road closures and lack of parking. We made it back later in the week for breakfast but never ventured there for dinner. The place is still a shambles and I am glad that we cancelled our Grand Case hotel (Hevea) and elected to AirBNB in Orient Village. If we had thought about eating in Grand Case I personally would have taken a taxi. I enjoy wine and would not drive the roads at night let alone try to park my rental in Grand Case and then try to extract it in the dark and drive home.
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qgy16nJ7jcZhL8MqUjKK-vujWLuLC1Lf/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNQBS36_AaNbVNQipSqz-qqwoIINmG22/view?usp=sharing[/img]

4. We were told in the Village that there were no ABM's. We were directed to the banks in Hope Estate (10 minutes drive)

5. Bank machines in Hope Estate only dispensed euros. When we compared the exchange rates for those SXM EU versus the USD that we had withdrawn the week before in St Kitts - Nevis we got hosed on the EU. This is an important cost when beach vendors are taking 1 USD as 1 EU. Having a bag of USD dollars would have been better than withdrawing EU.

6. All of the Village restaurants present the bill in EU or USD but if you pay by CC you are charged in EU. Again the EU exchange premium only this time on your CC.

7. On our one day away from the Village we drove the circuit, stopping in Marigot briefly. Its marina is a wreck but Tropicana, which I remembered from my 1995 visit was fully open. As we left Marigot headed for the bridge we were greeted by a threesome of bikers doing 1/4 mile wheelies as we crossed the bridge. To think that I used to walk AM and PM from Nettle Bay to the Marigot Marina along that same stretch of road....I just wanted to get away from that stretch as fast as Kenny's Kar would take us. There are still a couple of piles of burned out cars along side the road.

8. La Playa is where we did all of our beach days....why pay $30 for 2 chairs 15 feet away at Bikini when $20 at La Playa gets you the same.

9. Dinners in the Village were excellent. La Piment for sure, and we did Telegraphie 2x.
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O6Zzb9K-sJ4BCdykerFdc7luDgqp-B0T/view?usp=sharing[/img]
[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_gbAJAq1VM6tpjUP8rx7kU4HuDoGYzMV/view?usp=sharing[/img]


After every Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63321157@N08/albums
Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: I_AM_CDN] #219523
03/03/2020 05:15 PM
03/03/2020 05:15 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Carol_Hill Offline
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Carol_Hill  Offline
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Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Thanks for the reports! Not sure why the pictures didn't show up in the post, but was able to see them.

I agree, Orient Village is much more the place to be these days than Grand Case. It's a shame..


Carol Hill
Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: I_AM_CDN] #219543
03/03/2020 10:07 PM
03/03/2020 10:07 PM
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 1,157
Cobourg Ontario Canada
J
jeepers Online content
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jeepers  Online Content
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Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 1,157
Cobourg Ontario Canada
Was credit mutuel atm in hope estate working? It used to have US $.

Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: I_AM_CDN] #219551
03/03/2020 10:51 PM
03/03/2020 10:51 PM
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,056
PA
biglar Offline
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biglar  Offline
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Posts: 1,056
PA
The entrance into the eateries looks like it has finally been repaired except for one of the lights on the top of the posts.

Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: biglar] #219557
03/04/2020 07:44 AM
03/04/2020 07:44 AM
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 383
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Uksimonusa Offline
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Uksimonusa  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 383
Originally Posted by biglar
The entrance into the eateries looks like it has finally been repaired except for one of the lights on the top of the posts.


yeah That's strange, they can make and install a new sign between the pillars, but cannot replace the light on top

Re: Part 1 : St. Kitts / Nevis and SXM Feb 1-12 [Re: Uksimonusa] #219923
03/07/2020 05:19 PM
03/07/2020 05:19 PM
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 18
3
319expat Offline
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319expat  Offline
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Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 18
Originally Posted by Uksimonusa
Originally Posted by biglar
The entrance into the eateries looks like it has finally been repaired except for one of the lights on the top of the posts.


yeah That's strange, they can make and install a new sign between the pillars, but cannot replace the light on top


I just looked back at my picture of the sign, and yes, still one light out on February 28.


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