As a preamble to this trip report, we went on this vacation under a great deal of stress. 8 days before we were to leave my elderly mother (91) took sick and had to be hospitalized. At that point our trip was in jeopardy and we had to do a lot of soul searching and speaking with medical professionals, however, once we knew that she was stable and knew basically what to expect, we decided to go and she was left in good hands with our daughter. She would consult with us daily and carry out any instructions or decisions we would have to make (we are Powers of Attorney) so reliable communication was really important to us. There was the possibility we would have to come home if things took a surprise turn for the worse, so daily communication was a must. On with the trip report....

This was our 18th trip to St. Martin in as many years, obviously we are hooked. From here on I will categorize as daily activities are now a blur. It also make it easier to skip to different sections of interest.

Flights

JetBlue - Buffalo to JFK (3 hour layover where we me up with Jim and Carmen) and then on to SXM. All flights on time. Both aircraft were about 70% full. Our first experience with JetBlue and they were great!

Return on USAir - SXM - Charlotte - Buffalo. Again all flights were on time but the aircraft were full on both legs of the trip. Older Aircraft than JetBlue. Although we have no complaints about USAir, next time we will book strictly JetBlue. New aircraft and excellent service by the crew who have a very relaxed attitude. They seem to be the equivalent of the Canadian Airline WestJet.

We travelled with carry-on only so waiting for luggage was not a problem.

Car Rental

We have used Triple A for the last 12 years or so and have never had a problem. As I exited the airport I saw Myra coming across the parking lot. She called me by name and explained they had three other groups to transfer. When I told her we had 4 people in our group, she said OK, handed me the keys and said take the car and you can come to the office tomorrow—or the day after that—to do the paper work. The car was a Nissan “Whatever” and had half a tank of gas. During the 10 days we filled up (at Cadisco) twice at $24 each time and returned the car with three quarters of a tank. We used the car pretty much every day. Again, great service by AAA.

The Weather

Perfect!...sunny warm days with the usual Orient breeze blowing. It did rain a few times but mostly at night and not for very long. One of the best trips for weather we have ever had!

Where We Stayed

This year was shear decadence as we stayed at “La Villa” at Club Orient along with Bill and Linda courtesy of Jim and Carmen. To see what “La Villa” looks like, I suggest going to Club Orient’s web site. When we viewed the villa the year before, we thought that the dipping pool would not be used that much, but as it turns out, it was the centre of activity during our stay. It was really nice to return from the beach and sit in the dipping pool and cool off and have a couple of drinks...or three...or four...
This was our 7th stay at Club O. This year the improvements were noticeable. The front office staff were even more friendly and accommodating than in previous years (not that they were bad in the past). Orientique seemed to have quite a few trainees learning to cash people out, but who is in a hurry anyway!!!
Papagayo was also much improved but I will talk about that under “Where We Ate”.
The road into Club O is awesome, but I am a creature of habit and still took the road slow. I think I was waiting for some crevice to open up and swallow my Nissan “Whatever”!

Where We Ate Dinner (“Foodies” can skip this)

The Rib Shack Lolos - we find that most of the lolos food is comparable and gave this one a try. Can’t remember what we had (probably chicken and ribs) but the bill came to a whopping $20!

Talk of the Town Too - my favourite lolos so we ate there twice, again didn’t break the bank (less than $30) and had the usual fare of chicken, ribs, shrimp kabob, rice and peas and of course a couple of beers. $ is at par at all the lolos.

Brasseries des Iles - another of our favourite restaurants and we know enough to split orders here. Split a chicken caesar and tagliatelle carbonnara. Like I said, their portions are huge here! A couple of drinks, can’t remember what the bill was but I think it was around $40. Exchange rate charged was 1:1.3, good value given the actual rate of 1:1.4 at the time. A group of about 20 gendarmes came in as is usual in this restaurant, however, “herladyship” was most disappointed as they were in civilian clothes and not wearing their “shorts”!

Blue Martini - again, one of our favourites and we went their on our last night. Split an order again and had chicken caesar and pizza...which had an egg in the centre. 3 Leffe beers (one of my favourites) and a can of Coke (3 Euros for a coke). I tried the spicy oil they put on the table to put on the pizza and it was great! Adds some spice to the pizza...which may account for the 3 beers. Total bill was $48. Again exchange rate was 1:1.3

Papagayo - We ate at Papagayo on 3 different evenings. The first night we were there, “herladyship” and I along with Jim and Carmen met up with Carol and Eric for dinner. We were impressed with the service and the food had taken a decided upswing since our previous visits, in fact it was the first time we had eaten there in a few years largely due to poor service. Club O is charging 1:1.45 which makes it a little on the pricey side, however, we did not have to drive anywhere. We had dinner on 2 other occasions and also enjoyed the entertainment and dancing which is always a hoot at Club O! We saw more people enjoying Papagayo in the evening this year than the previous few years...I think they are finally on track. Now if the Euro would take a tumble....

The Best Place Ever - was the two dinners we had at the villa prepared by Bill (Bill_S). Bill brought a frozen leg of lamb and frozen beef tenderloin all the way from Maryland. One night we had the lamb, which was nothing short of fantastic and had 12 people for dinner (very large table in the villa). Bill cooked this on one of those small hibachis! Two nights later we had the beef tenderloin again cooked by Bill on the small hibachi. This time there we 13 for dinner....and there were even leftovers for steak and eggs for breakfast the next day. You are truly a magician with a BBQ Bill!!!

Lunch
We went to Baywatch (3 times). I think everything that can be said about Baywatch has been said and we are true fans. On our first visit Cheryl was not there but Adrian told us she would be in on Wednesday. We went on Wednesday and of course it was hugs and kisses all around...not to mention Carib souvenirs! Definitely our favourite place and the food was right up to their usual standard.

The Perch- Ate lunch at the Perch once. We found it a little pricey due to the high exchange rate. Two cheeseburgers and 2 beers came to $29 US. Good burgers though, and it’s hard to beat the ambiance!

Papagayo - we decided to go to Papagayo for lunch one day as we had not done this in a few years. We ordered two BLTs and a couple of cokes. I think the bill was less that $20 so it is possible to “cheap out”. Again the service was very efficient. We had stopped having lunch there a few years ago after waiting 45 minutes for our cheque, like I said, things have greatly improved.

Cell Phone

I brought my laptop with me and found the Wifi at Club O very slow and during peak hours would grind to a halt (Club O is rectifying this in the near future). I found I could not send messages from my home IP and only receive. We resorted to yahoo mail to keep in touch with our daughter but “herladyship” was still stressed. I asked her if she would feel more comfortable calling home. I e-mailed Sharon Queen of SXM and she said she had phones available for walk-ins and I could come and pick one up. We paid $15 for the rental and purchased time to call Canada at $48 cents per minute. The whole thing came to $33 for 8 days which I thought was very reasonable. OK...here’s a tip...wherever you stay, READ THE BROCHURES in the room. Two days after renting the phone we all discovered that phone calls to the US and Canada from La Villa are FREE. If something is too good to be true, it usually is. In this case we checked with the Club O office (a couple of times) and yes, calls to the US and Canada are free. However we did use the time on the cell phone which was well worth it. The stress level was reduced considerably.

Side Trips

Lambada - for my birthday in March “Herladyship” purchased a trip to Prickly Pear aboard the Lambada because she knows I really like snorkeling and it was something different. The Lambada leaves from Pelican Marina and we allowed plenty of time to get there (traffic fears). It is a 2 hour sail to Prickly Pear which is an uninhabited island about 10 miles from Anguilla. There were about 40 people on the trip. Once at Prickly Pear you can snorkel on the reef, which is the best snorkelling I have seen so far, and then lunch is served by the crew at a pavilion just off the beach, we had a huge lunch of chicken, ribs, 2 salads, potatoes. Drinks are free on the Lambada but once on the beach there is a guy with a small bar that sells beer and other assorted drinks and also rents chairs and umbrellas. About an hour after lunch everyone swims back to the boat for the 2 hour ride back to Pelican. One the way back everyone rests for the first hour and then the loud music starts and the drinks at the bar flow even more freely...including shots! I had the unworthy though “Tip Time”. That’s exactly what it was! We enjoyed the Lambada cruise but unless you really enjoy being on the water the 4 hour round trip can be a bit wearing. The actual cost of the trip was around $84 pp. Then add $12 each entry fee for Anguilla (which Prickly Pear belongs to, you must show your passport before boarding in the morning and pay the fee). Drinks on Prickly Pear (we spent $12) and then $10 for beach chairs, also tip for crew. We did enjoy the trip as it was “different” but probably would not go again. A good one-time experience!

Tiko Tiko - This was our 10th trip on the Tiko Tiko so we are obviously fans. We thought we would try the Thursday PicNik Cruise. There were 16 on board (some had to drop out because of illness). We did all the regular things Tiko Tiko is noted for except for the gourmet lunch. Around noon Philippe and Lilly come ashore with submarine sandwiches and chips for each person. The subs are on French stick bread and are huge and made fresh on board. They consist of ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce, etc. and of course there is the standard “bottomless cooler”. We had just as good a time as we did on the gourmet cruises in the past (and a little less $hit-faced...no wine, cognac, etc.). As with most of the trips, it is the people on the cruise that really make it a success and this year was no exception. Some we already knew like John, Diane, Katie, Elise and Matt, others we had “cruised” with in previous years and others we got to know. More people, less outlay, and cheaper price. I think Philippe may be on to a good idea here, apparently there is increasing competition. The Tiko is one of our favourite things and I hope Philippe can continue to be successful!

Police Stops
After reading other trip reports about police stops I am feeling rather slighted! In our 10 days on island we never saw one or heard of one. In fact, we did not notice a large police presence (French side), Brasseries des Iles notwithstanding. The only two uniformed gendarmes we saw were near the road that leads to the Grand Case Airport. They were on motorcycles and standing by the side of the road. Not to say that the police were not out in force, we just didn’t see them.

Shopping

Shopping was limited this trip to groceries at Grand Marche, where on one occasion there was an accident in the rotary and we were stuck in the parking lot exit, our only option was to travel over to Cole Bay and through Marigot and back to Club O.

“Herladyship” had a ring that was purchased at DK Gems and required repairs so a trip to Philipsburg was necessary. As we all know, parking in Philipsburg can be a real bear. The closest parking was near Rimas where we intended to go on the way out anyway to pick up gifts for the grandchildren. I thought the walk would do us all good after a couple of day of overindulgence. Once inside DK the salesman said the ring would be repaired and could be picked up the next day. Also he said “we have a bracelet to match this”, “Already have one” I replied. “Earrings” he said, “Already have them” I replied. Not to be deterred he suggested “Necklace”! “Already have one” I replied (at this point I was becoming very smug). “How about upgrading the ring”! He had me and I began to gable...”But, but, it has already been upgraded twice” I think my mutterings were becoming unintelligible as I backed towards the door. I was convinced the security guard was there to keep me in and not the bad guys out! “Herladyship” then jumped in and said “No thanks, we will just go with the repair this time”. I was saved.
On the way back to the car we stopped and purchased small gifts for the grandchildren, which could not be large as we were travelling with carry-on...my kind of shopping.

On the return to pick up the ring two days later I had a rare good idea. I suggested rather than trying to find a parking place and walking a great distance, I could drive down Front Street, drop her off at DK to pick up the ring and then drive around a couple of blocks and back down Front Street and pick her up again in front of the store...no parking required and then back to Club O for extra beach time. It worked like charm and the guy honking his horn behind me when I stopped really helped. I now call this “Drive By Shopping”.

In all seriousness, we have dealt with DK for years and they have always stood behind what they sell. Anything we have had appraised has come in at about 1/3 more than what we paid. The salespeople are also low pressure...all they need to do us pull out “The Tray”! Because we did not purchase anything this year, I think I am in big trouble next year (40th Anniversary approaching).

Traffic

We did not go to the Dutch side as much as usual due to the traffic problems. I know they have to do construction at some point and low season is the most logical. When we did go we found it hit and miss, sometimes clear sailing and other times going along at a crawl. Rather than going through Cole Bay, we travelled the French side through the Marigot waterfront and the lowlands to get to the Dutch side (airport)...a much longer drive but less frustrating than sitting in traffic! No traffic problems encountered on the French side except for one evening when they block the road near the new roundabout at Cul de Sac and we had to pick our way through an industrial parking lot...in the dark!

Let me add here that the “suicycles” were worse this year than any other year we can remember. I don’t know if it is because of the congestion. Some of these riders are completely ridiculous and even pass in single lane construction zones. If they have no regard for their own life, at least they should consider the people they hit!

Things We Missed

Ric’s for burgers
Peg Leg Pub
Walking though the waterfront in Marigot
The MaDoudou Factory (this has been a pilgrimage of mine for years but just didn’t make it this year)
Although it has been a few years, I still miss “Bulldog in the Morning”

The Best Parts
The best part, as always, are the friends you meet both old and new.
Our “roomies” Jim and Carmen, Bill and Linda and their lovely daughters Kristen and Katie
Fellow Club O people John and Diane, Matt and Elise.
You all helped us through a very stressful time with your understanding and letting us “bend your ear”.
We even hooked up with Rex and Carrie (who “Herladyship” married on Tintamarre last year - another story).

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John and Toddy - aka “Herladyship” <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Umbrella.gif" alt="" />