Flew Toronto nonstop on WestJet, flight was mostly full. Quick flight, wheels up at 10:45, landed 3:45, four hours in air exactly. No jet way, but the stairs and bus were quick, no signage for which carousel to use for luggage, so stood by the usual and five minutes later picked up our bags. Flight back was equally painless, except the snow and cold upon return.
We split our stay with Les Balcons, Oyster Pond and Royal Islander La Plage. We needed one last night and stayed in Maho at the new Ocean Pointe.
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Wilfred Brooks took us to Les Balcons – always great see Wilfred and know everything is all right.
AAA – car was delivered the next day at Les Balcons – quick and easy. We had elected to use Wilfred on our 1st day, just seemed easier and had our flight been delayed no worries driving in the dark.
Shop n Drop – nothing to say except fabulous service as always. When placing our order, had what seemed to be a server issue preventing us from ordering, Jeannie jumped on it immediately. We asked Jeannie to source out some items not on her site and of course she did.
Accommodation
Les Balcons – our 1st visit, Les Balcons was like being at the cottage, on a hillside overlooking water with a lovely large deck and a BBQ. Depending on the wind, the lights on the water at night were fabulous, like an impressionism painting, the way water distorted the pools of reflected light. Carine and David are lovely hosts. One day we sat by the pool in the afternoon, lovely, warm with a view of the Pond. Unit was well equipped
Royal Islander La Plage – lovely, well kept, nice to see familiar faces, a favourite for us
Sonesta Ocean Point – the Sonesta Maho was where we stayed our 1st visit in 2008. The grounds seem a little spruced up, the buffet looked better, and the staff seemed to smile more. Cheryl is back at the Palms bar; Ramon is working the Ocean Point bar. The Ocean Point was still under construction, but no noise to disrupt. Rooms were new and nice, the lower level swim out rooms will be popular I’m sure. The upper pool area is refurbished with new loungers, needs more umbrellas. Azul will be their new resto for OP, but it is not open yet, so the Point was renamed Azul for the moment and served the OP guests. The upside for the Maho guests is the buffet which used to have serve 500 rooms, now serves about 250 rooms, which lets the buffet operate better. New and more chairs and tables for the buffet.
The Azul food was very good; we were only there a day and a half, but no daily special, so it would get old in hurry after a week. Doubt we can afford to return if the posted rates actually pan out. The front desk said they hoped .... The OP would be fully open by March or April.
Side Trip
Went to Anguilla for the day with another couple we know - took GB Express – had made reservations. Just the four of us on the boat, lovely calm day, great ride. Cabbed to Shoal Bay East – lots of cab options when you get to Anguilla, but we used the cab driver we used before – “Tall Boy” – we reserved with him by email - he knows the island well. He told us when he would be back to get us to the ferry at the time GB said to. Sure enough at the time, a beach boy came by to say Tall Boy was there. Turns out the beach concession person and the lounger person were also related to Tall Boy! Camped out on Shoal Bay east in front of Madeariman’s – 2 chairs and an umbrella were $10 – the chairs are not associated with any resto Liked the Madeariman food and free wifi if you ate there – not a basic burger bar, we enjoyed our lunches. When they say a tuna BLT, they mean large fillet of fresh grilled tuna! Shoal Bay was lovely, walked it end to end. Gwen’s has moved and was rebuilding up the beach, seemed to serve drinks and had chairs but no food and they were obviously building so not so peaceful if you camped there.
Note gigantic house – villa - being built a bit up from the beach down from Gwen’s with three giant observatory pods atop – was told one pod is for a telescope, the other two are bedrooms??
Impressions / Observations / Thoughts
Driving to Les Balcons, the island seemed greener than last yr.
Note - The map shows a road to Oyster Pond that does not exist!, we twice tried to find it, finally Carine laughed and told us it does not exist.
Mama’s Pizza for the first night, Steph’s favorite was the pizza we choose. Good, seemed to have a local take out / delivery business going on. Best part of pizza is to save some for the next morning and have it with a poached egg on top, yum. My morning coffee location is Dirty Des’s, a short walk – note French coffee is their name for espresso.
The liquor store at the Oyster Pond marina has liquor at reasonable prices – best price I found for Ron Zacappa 23. I also found – did not buy - bag in a box rum, white and amber, from one of the French islands, think I took a pic, but cannot find it. Was told very popular with the charter boats, I bet it is!
Skipjacks is a good source of fresh fish if going by on the way home. Bought fillets a couple of times, spice rub from home, cooked and finished in a wine butter sauce.
Wanted to like Caribbean Flavours – great flavour, but too much salt for our tastes.
Loved Happy hour at the Yacht Club, actual happy hour pricing starts at 4 pm. Loved the grouper fingers
Orange Fever was our choice on Orient. No beach in front of Pedro’s, everywhere else there is beach, no issue with seaweed. Most places have rebuilt. Orange Fever confirms the plans to build concessions at their end of beach, but no firm timetable. Twice met people we knew from Canada on Orient, small world!
Walked the beach to both ends most days we were there. In front of Pedro’s were rocks and you had to pass in the water. As you passed by you would / could view the “Ambassador” as I referred to him. Either standing, walking or lying down, legs towards you sans suit – I always said hello just to be polite!.
While walking south of Pedro’s one day I passed an unfortunate male, clothed wearing a Patriots tee shirt walking by slowly...; the inevitable deflated ball jokes began to fly back and forth at his expense.
Up past Coco’s near Mt Vernon, there is a beginning of a beach bar, drinks only and I’m told music at night. The east snow that disrupted flights also disrupted some mussel deliveries, much to our regret.
As you enter Orient from the backway, there is land being cleared and an obvious housing development, but there was also a substantial odor from the brackish lagoon – of which the water level seemed low.
Simply in Hope Estate had inexpensive French wines, just meant we bought more!. Bacchus has a lovely selection of wine, liquor and food.
The white butterflies were still attacking the pink road side flowers
Saw the horse and the man walking in front of the horse one day in Marigot. Stopped into the art gallery across from the market and bought some water colours by Antoine Chapon At the Marigot market stocked up on more French linen tea towels, some local baubles and Kalina sauces.
I was a little embarrassed, I picked up two bottles of Kalina’s sauce and as I started to pay for them, he stopped me and said that day was his one day of the year when he did not charge, they were mine for the taking. He was adamant; no I could not give him a donation for a charity. However later we did end up stopping by Bernadette’s and paid it forward.
Baguette beach days continued, local baguette, French butter, cheese, pate, mustard and ?, washed down with green cans was a common daily treat. At home we had found an insulated cooler bag that looks like a large beach bag, great for al fresco beach time.
Mullet was a pond for 2 days then the waves came – huge and random. Lots of fun to watch the same people attack the same waves and lose each time. That same week while at La Plage, I went to Tortuga for a morning coffee around 7:30. Went for a short walk towards the airport and realized the Maho beach sand was completely flat, ie during the evening/night the waves had washed up and over the sand.
One day on Mullet we came back from a swim to find a 3 generation family from a cruise ship camped out immediately in front of our chairs, with 2 baby strollers parked right in front of our chairs. We politely asked the strollers to be moved, which they were, but they were visibly unhappy. They had also swarmed around a chair, when that person came back it was impossible for that person to even sit, she gave up and went back in the water or walked away, too bad. No need for that, there was lots of room – grumpy old person rant is over
Stopped by Cupecoy one day, paid $5 to park by Dany’s, not much sand, felt like we were perching on the rocks, the waves were pounding in, probably about 10 -14 couples and a few singles.
Missed
Lagoonies, Layla`s, Yacht club breakfast, Baie Rouge, dinner in Grand Case [big miss!], Enzo`s pizza in Hope Estate among lots of others. We had a lovely lunch at L'Ouizeau Rare in Marigot our 1st trip and keep meaning to go back and try again but never make it. That’s why there is next time
Next Visit
The Canadian dollar is down, my US dollar account is shrinking but we will see. Thinking maybe to stay in the Orient Village area for part or all of our trip next winter. Like the idea of walking to the beach with my morning coffee.
That’s it so far – reading this back did not mean it to be so long, oh well
John & Bev
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