First of all, I made a decision to drive 4.5 hrs from Cincy to Detroit to save about $800 in airfare. We spent the night at Hampton Inn and took Spirit Air from Det to PR after a stop in Ft. Lauderdale. Here's where our problems began. We arrived in PR at about 3pm and had a 4 hr layover before leaving for SXM. We got in line and about 1.5 hrs later when we were finally being taken care of, we were told that our flight had been moved up to 4pm and we had missed it. Caribbean Sun was very disorganized and never sent us an e-mail noting any changes whatsoever. They put us up in Best Western Airport Hotel and gave us $24 in vouchers good at Subway, Taco Bell and McDonalds. This error on their part caused us to miss the Celine Cruise which we were really looking forward to. We got a flight on Monday morning to SXM and checked into Pelican. They were dealing with irate customers in the lobby before giving us an upgrade on the 5th floor overlooking the ocean. We took our bags to our room and went in only to find someone else living there already. We carried our bags back down and went back to the lobby and from that point on, WE were treated like we had done something wrong. They were real snotty with us as they gave us a studio that wasn't nearly as nice as the previous room. From that point on, our trip improved greatly. We hung out with Fred and Leslie and Dee and Jerry and met lots of other real nice people. We enjoyed meals at Paris Bistro, Boathouse, Mark's Place and California. We bought 2 lunches at Lido's and that was way way too much food for a couple. Only buy 1 meal for the 2 of you to split. We also liked the chicken and ribs and hot dogs at Mullet Beach. We made it a point to stop at a very friendly french pastry shop in Marigot everyday. They gave us a nice cake pastry at the end of our stay. They are located across from the psot office. We spent our 2nd week at Royal Islander La Teresse and liked it much better than Pelican. We enjoyed the music (horn) of Watts at a couple different locations and also the piano play and singing at Soprano's. We went to the old Methodist Church in the center of Phillipsburg and were treated quite well and enjoyed their choirs and sermon. Dee advised that we try Atlantis Casino for free $10 in slots with the purchase of an additional $10 in slots. We did and Pam won $1000 on her 4th quarter. That made our trip even more fun. We got a scare when Pam lost her wallet and charge cards and cash in front of Hagen Daz in Maho. We had thought she lost them in Phillipsburg and didn't realize they were gone until the next morning and when we started out on our search, we got a call from Cheri's advising that someone had left the wallet on their doorstep with all contents inside. No one would take a reward. It's nice to know how honest some people are. We always notice how well behaved the children are in SXM also. The streets are still bad as usual but we expected that. Our flights home were long and tiring. From SXM to St Thomas to PR to Lauderdale to Detroit...all in 13 hrs. We then checked back into Hampton Inn for the night and a 4.5 hr drive to Cincinnati the next morning. We will never try to save a few bucks again on air. I will look for direct flights and pay the extra. We loved meeting up with friends and making some new ones and really look forward to returning next January