TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Drama on Orient Beach

Early morning entertainment on Orient Beach. We arrived at our usual time of 8 a.m. and took the first two Club O chairs near the "no Photos" sign. Peros had not yet set up their chairs, so when a couple arrived and put down their blanket where I knew chairs usually are placed, in my limited French I informed them that they would probably be asked to move. They insisted "plage public"!!
When the chair guy from Pedros arrived, he quietly asked them to move as he needed to put out chairs. They "exploded" in anger, and a loud violent scene ensued with yelling, shouting, pushing, shoving and THROWING of chairs. With threats of calling the police they gathered their belongings and left. Pretty scary scene!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Bet it was especially if they weren't fully clothed at the time. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Well, it is a public beach. Nevertheless, no need to have a tantrum I say.

Public Beach just means the public is allowed on the beach.....not necessarily where you choose to sit on your blanket! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Wow Maureen, that was free entertainment you probably didn't appreciate! They can't say you didn't warn them! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Be interesting if they show up again today <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Possibly "tourists" from a Cruise Ship? Locals would know better.

The beach staff should have set up the chairs all around them, as close to them as they could get.

Do Pedro's and the other businesses on OB pay a fee to allow them to claim certain space on the beach? Just wondering.

I would think unlikely. Monday is usually a light cruise ship day and 8 am is a bit early for someone to be off the ship and up to Orient . Just my thoughts

I seriously doubt they were from a ship. The first ship didn't actually dock until 8 AM yesterday and it would have taken them probably close to 9 AM to arrive at Orient. Plus people off a ship would not normally have a blanket with them.

I did a search back 7 years but could not find the post about a family that placed their blanket down between the chairs set up at one of the orient restaurants. The waiter confronted them in French that they could not occupy that area with their blanket. The three French (husband, wife and mother) refused to remove themselves. The waiter returned with a bucket of ice water and threw it on them.
French police were called and they argued back and forth.
I don't know the outcome. If someone remembers let me know. Thanks!

We're they constantly checking the time ? That's a dead giveaway for a cruiser. I know I always was.

Cheers

No they were not cruise people. They were only there for perhaps 30 minutes. No cruise towels etc. and they spoke Parisian french.

Curious - why did they sit where they did - if they went a little further south, isn't that where the Club O beach begins, generally no Club O chairs there - or was that beach gone
and
if they went north of Pedro's there is space in front of the unopened resto's or was there seaweed at that time?

Just curious, sounds random
J&B

Completely understandable for someone to set up on an unoccupied space. There is no signage or any other way they would know about reserved beach space particularly if they were first time visitors. Even with the no doubt friendly advice offered by the OP I can see why they were reluctant to break down and move. The escalation to angry confrontation was probably avoidable but who knows. It is unfortunate some would see this as entertainment.

Don't know why they chose to sit there. We had a language communication problem. It was wide open space as Pedros had not set up their chairs yet.

It is the drama on the beach that keeps me at the villa. I do not go to the beach for drama! I go to find sand gravity and to relax! My husband likes to people watch which he finds to be entertaining. I just want to get some sun and read a good book! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duel.gif" alt="" />

Perhaps I should have put "entertainment" in quotation marks. Don't know how you thought we might have enjoyed this argument, it was very scary!!! Please forgive my misuse of vacabulary!!!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

That was a statement in general not specific to you. The fact you were kind enough try and inform them says you are good people. I use the quote option (like now) to directly address a specific person.
Cheers <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

Failure to communicate is the root cause of many problems and that seems to be the case here.