Long trip reports are sometimes tough to get through so I'll split mine in 2 - restaurant reviews to follow.

Well I won’t dwell on the weather too much but it was terrible. This was our 8th trip and our most disappointing. We did not see the sun from Sunday to Thursday and in that time it dropped around 27.5” of rain. Even after that we only got sporadic periods of sunshine in between torrential rain storms until we left on Sunday afternoon. However we didn’t just brood and did our best to make the most of what was possible and had some fun times. At the end of the day though it was a disappointing experience. Missed out on Tiko Tiko ( didn’t sail many days ) and planned trip to Anguilla.

That said here’s all the other stuff.

Travel.
FF tickets on US Airways from Hartford thru Charlotte on the way out and back thru Philadelphia. No major comments here – everything was pretty smooth. It was our first time thru Charlotte – nice airport – modern and spacious – easy connection. Both flights in and out of SXM were pretty full and one piece of advice – don’t rely on the in flight food – the dry ham & cheese sandwich will not cut it – bring something on board.

Rental Car
Used Alain at AAA once again – excellent service as always – got our usual small 4x4
( RAV 4 ) this year and, considering the flooding and potholes we experience during our stay this was a good choice.

Accommodation

We have normally stayed in the mid section of OB ( L’Hoste, St Tropez, Palm Court etc ) and this year we decided to try Residence de la Plage. As I have not seen many reports on this I’ll spend a little time giving some details. We selected # 38 and were very happy with our choice. It was well equipped and comfortable. It is a studio apartment with a loft bedroom that is situated at the end of the plaza that house Tap 5, Café Belge etc and faces towards the bay, overlooking Bikini BB and adjacent to L’Hoste. The entrance is on the 3rd floor so access is via 2 sets of stairs. Once inside you have a well equipped kitchen area with the shower/bathroom off to the right. As you proceed through there is a living area with couches and chairs. TV with satellite access was in the corner and sliding glass doors open to the balcony. Also in the living room was a closet ( note : no closet on the upper loft area ). In addition to the clothes hanging space was the safe and on the upper shelf you could find lots of useful goodies like iron, hairdryer, transformer for 110v.

Just to the left of the sliding doors were the stairs up to the loft bedroom which is fairly spartan with just the bed, bedside tables and chest of draws.

Other comments:
Good
1. The balcony was spacious with room for a table, 4 chairs and 2 loungers. The view was spectacular – straight out over Bikini and a bay panorama to die for. It was so pleasant I slept 2 nights on one of the loungers ( before the rain set in ) – falling asleep with the sound of the waves rolling up on the beach was exquisite.
2. Large fridge with cold water and crushed ice dispenser ( gotta have those cocktails )
3. Bed was very large and very comfortable
4. The location was excellent. Close proximity to the beach, Bikini, Le Playa, shops and the Orient Village Square
Bad
1. The stairs to the loft area were quite steep. Not a problem in normal circumstances but you did have to take care if you needed to go down them in the middle of the night
2. The AC was just about adequate for the apartment but the only inlet was in the loft area above the bed – not very flexible
3. The TV had a satellite feed but although it had 40 so channels they were all French except for one European news channel that repeated itself every hour.

All in all though, quite comfortable, good value and great location

Boat People
We experienced a new phenomena this year. It seems crowds delivered to Pedro’s parking lot, sometimes 20/30 at a time, were being encouraged ( by cab drivers ? ) to walk en masse on the grass area above the beach to the Perch Bar. This seemed to be much less intimidating to them so almost everyone joined in parents, grand parents & kids etc. Once they were at the Perch they would congregate on the new deck extension and used it as a viewing gallery which of course made some of the couples just in front very uncomfortable to the point where they moved further towards Papaguyo. The security staff of course made sure there was no camera action but they did not seem empowered to move them on. After a while I and a few of the other guys formed a vigilante group and decided to go to the bar for a beer and, as it was so crowded on the deck, we had to work our way through the crowds to get to the bar. Well, the close proximity of so many naked men seemed to make them nervous and after a short time the started to disperse. Most went back to the parking lot but one group started to walk past the volleyball court and towards Papagayo. My wife went after them told them it was private property and they could not walk through that way. They also turned around and went back to Pedro’s.

Par deux to follow