TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Day 3

I will try to keep this one short. The morning started with a breakfast at the new for us place, next door almost to Zee Best, called Reveil Matin. Lots of great choices, probably 20-30% more expensive than the Zee Best but food was very good and the portions were large enough to share- precisely what we did. The bill came in and I noticed a 15% service charge.
Now please I’m not discussing the gratuity customs here, so we paid what was on a bill and left. The waiter gave me a cold shoulder but that’s his problem.... not sure if we will be back, will see.
Went to the Karakter for the remaining of the beach time. Again, I was very surprised to see that most of the chairs were not taken and there wasn’t many people there by the time we got there- that was around 11am. Last year if you get there that late you wouldn’t be able to find a spot to park or even a chair to sit...
The whole day went by and we were thinking that they would get busy but no. I would say maybe half of the usual amount of people that we are used to see there over the years.
The food was good but the service was very slow. Probably because of not too many customers, they are running a skeleton crew...
Decided to go back to Tropicana for dinner. We got lucky again to find the parking spot close to the restaurant. The place was fairly busy today with two large groups having dinner. But the marina itself looks pathetic.... there was only one more restaurant open, none of the sore were opened either.... It looked dead.... But Tropicana never disappoints ! Food was awesome and service was top notch.

Thanks for the report. Very sad about the marina area.

If you go back to the Marina try Be Kool restaurant across from Tropicanna next to Sarafina. Excellent and rsvp recommended.

Will give it a try for sure. My wife and daughter might have their own dining schedule thou that I must follow, lol!

Yes indeed. The marina looks decimated. It’s empty. There are a few small rental boats and wave runners there and that’s it. Nothing like it was before.
There are only a handful of restaurants and shops opened. It’s a real pity to look at it. One of the waiters at the Le Croissant mentioned today that the French government has a lot of red tapes regarding rebuilding the marina... that is another reason why Le Serafina isn’t expanding in the new location. I talked to the lady there and she said that they are thinking/working on getting back to the old location. Serafina had a few pastries on display and that’s it. Nothing like before...

I hear you. I always (try to) dictate where we will eat. Some make plans for daily activities but I make rsvp for dinners.

As for the rsvp - I really don’t think it will be necessary, it was literally empty yesterday.

We also recently dined at Reveil Matin for breakfast and although it was a bit more expensive than Zee Best, we thought the overall meal was much better than any other place we had breakfast (even Cafe Atlantico and the Yacht Club).