Posted By: jomarc
We Are in SXM! - 10/05/2020 11:15 AM
I'm thrilled to report that we are on island!
We spend the night at The Logan Hilton. It was a ghost town as compared to when we stayed there in October 2018. Woke up at 4 am and left the hotel at 5:00 to walk to the airport.
The American Airlines flight to Miami was FULL, but left on time. No upgrades to first class, but our flight attendant, Jerry, was one of the nicest people Marc has encountered in his many years of flying. He kept bringing drinks back to us and checking to see that all was well. Excellent service from American Airlines.
We had about an hour layover in Miami and everything worked perfectly. All our paperwork was in order and the check-in line moved quickly. The flight to St. Maarten was only about half full. Marc got upgraded to first class and I sat in the bulkhead - Row 8. There were only two of us in the row of six seats. We landed in SXM at approximately 1:33 pm, the only jet at the terminal. We took the stairs down to the tarmac and walked to the airport building. A table was setup (before immigration) to review paperwork. Immigration was a breeze. She really wasn't interested in reviewing the immigration card - only our passports and covid-19 paperwork. We met our representative from Empress Car Rental and were taken on a short drive to their office. The car rental is a cute blue "Honda City". After a short application process, we were on our way to our villa by 2:09 pm.
Arrived at Baywatch in Beacon Hill and were warmly greeted by Bob. We unpacked and headed out to buy groceries. There is little to NO traffic on the island. We drove to Super U in Marigot, but it was closed. I believe it's closed for repairs. Major bummer for me. We picked up a few essential groceries in Cole Bay and headed back to the house. I was starving, so we stopped at Beirut for a plate of chicken shawarma. It was delicious and the plate was plenty big to share.
We usually drop by The Palms in Simpson Bay on our first day to say hello to Greg and Jo, but a sign said they're closed on Sunday and Monday. We'll be there on Tuesday, for sure.
Back at the villa, Bob joined us on our back patio, overlooking the pool and the ocean. It was nice catching up. He has done a lot of work to the house and the pool. We love staying here. Once Bob left we enjoyed a nice relaxing swim in the pool.
A couple of hours later we left to get pizza at The Driftwood. It was pretty busy, so the pizza was takeout and eaten on the back patio.
This morning we're enjoying coffee on patio and it's lightly raining. We received the emails from SXM Govt. to take our temperature each morning. That's done and now we're chilling and settling in to vacation mode. Hoping to go to the beach later this morning,
I want to thank all of the members who provided information on the Covid-19 requirements. I was a little stressed out about the whole process, but the extra hassle was SOOO
worth it. We've been visitors to SXM since 1993, and are still so very happy when we're here.
We spend the night at The Logan Hilton. It was a ghost town as compared to when we stayed there in October 2018. Woke up at 4 am and left the hotel at 5:00 to walk to the airport.
The American Airlines flight to Miami was FULL, but left on time. No upgrades to first class, but our flight attendant, Jerry, was one of the nicest people Marc has encountered in his many years of flying. He kept bringing drinks back to us and checking to see that all was well. Excellent service from American Airlines.
We had about an hour layover in Miami and everything worked perfectly. All our paperwork was in order and the check-in line moved quickly. The flight to St. Maarten was only about half full. Marc got upgraded to first class and I sat in the bulkhead - Row 8. There were only two of us in the row of six seats. We landed in SXM at approximately 1:33 pm, the only jet at the terminal. We took the stairs down to the tarmac and walked to the airport building. A table was setup (before immigration) to review paperwork. Immigration was a breeze. She really wasn't interested in reviewing the immigration card - only our passports and covid-19 paperwork. We met our representative from Empress Car Rental and were taken on a short drive to their office. The car rental is a cute blue "Honda City". After a short application process, we were on our way to our villa by 2:09 pm.
Arrived at Baywatch in Beacon Hill and were warmly greeted by Bob. We unpacked and headed out to buy groceries. There is little to NO traffic on the island. We drove to Super U in Marigot, but it was closed. I believe it's closed for repairs. Major bummer for me. We picked up a few essential groceries in Cole Bay and headed back to the house. I was starving, so we stopped at Beirut for a plate of chicken shawarma. It was delicious and the plate was plenty big to share.
We usually drop by The Palms in Simpson Bay on our first day to say hello to Greg and Jo, but a sign said they're closed on Sunday and Monday. We'll be there on Tuesday, for sure.
Back at the villa, Bob joined us on our back patio, overlooking the pool and the ocean. It was nice catching up. He has done a lot of work to the house and the pool. We love staying here. Once Bob left we enjoyed a nice relaxing swim in the pool.
A couple of hours later we left to get pizza at The Driftwood. It was pretty busy, so the pizza was takeout and eaten on the back patio.
This morning we're enjoying coffee on patio and it's lightly raining. We received the emails from SXM Govt. to take our temperature each morning. That's done and now we're chilling and settling in to vacation mode. Hoping to go to the beach later this morning,
I want to thank all of the members who provided information on the Covid-19 requirements. I was a little stressed out about the whole process, but the extra hassle was SOOO
worth it. We've been visitors to SXM since 1993, and are still so very happy when we're here.
