I learned from TTOL to check cruise schedules when planning what to do. Yesterday and today under 600, Monday will be about 9,000 and Tuesday 18,000, so we decided to go to Orient and Mullet on the light cruise days. Yesterday was Orient - a bit windy , but not bad, a little bit of sargassum, but not bad at all. There are a number of places to rent chairs and get lunch at the far end of the beach - we go to Orange Fever - can't say it is better than the rest, but enjoy the service by JC, and the chairs are quite comfortable. $5 a chair and all the chairs had cushions. Food was very good , I had the ceasar with shrimp my wife had the salad with goat cheese. We also ordered a pizza to go when we were leaving and had that for dinner. Walked down to Mt. Vernon, they did a nice job with the pool, but no poolhouse anymore.

Today we went to Mullet. Yes the chairs are right on top of each other but we lucked out, Chester gave us chairs at the end of the row of his section, which gave us plenty of space on the one side. He also met us in the parking area and guided us to a nice spot. I started talking to him about his business and he laughed and said he worked for Rosies. I told him I thought the chair rental business was his own. He said if you are a good employee, you treat the business as if you own it. What a great attitide.

Water was great, and not very crowded. We got there aound 10:15 and got second row. There were lots of vacant loungers in all the sections. In fact, the loungers in front of Kalatua were all vacant when I walked by at around 11. We ate at Rosies, nothing to write home about.

For dinner, we went to La Villa. Again, the servers are all extremely friendly, JC and the rest are all very attentive. My wiife got the chicken supreme which was extremely good. By quarter to 7, there was not a empty seat in the house, other than the baby highchair. Walked to the other end of Grand Case and again, most places were quite full. The one downside was Java had a DJ and it was ear splitting just walking by, not sure how anyone could enjoy their dinner.

Since tomorrow is a busy cruise day, will probably just stay at Grand Case. BTW, while Rainbow is closed, it sounds like Tropics had been handed the baton - they have their subwoofer at full volume.

I kind of enjoy Orient on cruise days. I'm a people watcher and am not bothered by the activity.

Thanks for the report. Unfortunately, it sounds like Grand Case has become totally unusable, with all the places blasting music. Obviously, Rainbow was not closed due to noise.

Carol, actually , we ate at La Villa, and the noise was not an issue at all. It is just later at night when the beach bars have a need to blast a subwoofer till 11 that can be problematic. So far, it was just Sunday, and hope that is it for the week.

barry--I hope you are correct, but as you said, those two places are new, right?

Greetings,

An observation from Christmas week about Kalatua's empty chaises.

Their chaises longues were $45 for front row, from memory.

$45 EACH chaise or for 2?

Last May it was for two included water and towels.

OK. I assume it's still the chairs that lay flat on the ground? I personally would not use them, as I couldn't get up out of them.

We didn't stay. Those chairs are stationary, low and I didn't think too user friendly for reading. At that end of the beach the water is usually rougher.

Carol, on the noise issues, Java is at the far end, so I don't think I could hear them, we are on the other end, down about 1/8 mile from Tropics. BTW, Rainbow is open today. So far the noise has not been too bad.

barry--best wishes with the noise.

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.