Posted By: cruzer
Trip report Tues-Sat - 05/08/2022 06:24 PM
Our flight was non-eventful from DFW to SXM via MIA, except for a very nice breakfast on the MIA leg consisting of smoked salmon on a bagel, and a fairly wide variety of fruit in the fruit salad.
Thinking that perhaps AA was upgrading their front cabin meal selection, I was disappointed that the old boring turkey wrap and minimalist lettuce dish was the choice on the SXM leg.
Never mind, though as we're going to Grand Case Beach Club for 22 nights, and there's plenty of good eating ahead of us. Clearing immigration was a breeze--no longer than 5 minutes, but it took around 30 more minutes to get our bags, and another 60 minutes to get the car and get to GCBC.
We had contracted to buy a studio at GCBC in June of last year, closed in November, and are now ready to move into our own unit. OOPS! Our reservation went poof. Long story short, we're here in a garden studio, not an ocean front, but are enjoying our selves nonetheless. A little disappointed, yes, but not enough to upset our enjoyment of the trip. We may have our unit for the last week, but no guarantees. One of our fellow owners mentioned that this is their new owner hazing process. Chuckle.
One thing we noticed during the pandemic is that our eating patterns changed, where we would only eat one main meal a day. The caloric intake didn't change, but the meal planning became much simpler. This carries over to this trip, where we can only do one main meal a day,
GCBC seems to attract a lot of cat fans and we are no exception. The cat population is down to 3, with the death earlier this year of Lunes, who showed up in 2010 (I believe), and spent hurricane Gonzalo in our room. Another resident cat, Picasso, who came in 2011 as a feral, and is still feral, is Mrs. Cruzer's favorite. As we parked the car, she came wandering up to me, I mentioned to MRS Cruzer(hereinafter referred to as MC) that Picasso was here, MC called Picasso in her usual lilty call, and the cat went darting to greet her. No touching, thank you, happy to see you, now where's my food and milk dammit.
I think the water is brisk, even though it's 82 degrees in the shallows of GC beach. Perfect once you get in. I try to get in at least 2 hours of water a day, but haven't succeeded yet, even though we've done very little. We've been to Marigot to get some wines, check out Le Comptoir des Fromages to ask about the wine and cheese tastings. They serve 10 ish cheeses and 4 different wines, for 2-4 people after store hours for 79 Euros. We plan to try them one evening, as it's something totally different for us. Made the obligatory trip to Ma Dou Dou to pick up some Banana Vanilla--being cvonsumed as I type--and Cafe, and splurged on a painted shot glass so as to drink in style. Bought some basics in Super U, and lots of cat food. Oh, Presidente is virtually absent on this island, so anyone you see drinking one probably has special connections. Me, I'm not drinking Presidente, but amazingly enough, Super U has Nerga Modelo, which comes from the other side of the Caribbean, so is totally acceptable, if not superior.
Tha bakery in town, around the corner from Bistrot Caraibes, apparently was a victim of the pandemic. So, there went our daily walk and exercise regimen. Still, the Bounty has and even larger selection, so our breakfasts are secure. They are mostly a baguette, and croissant, slathered in demi-sel butter.
Oh, we had to take temperatures the first 4 days. Forgot a thermometer, so used my super duper ThermoPen. It works. Even though I can be a nerd, I kept the measurement in whole degrees.
I've been meaning to do a report for many days now, but some other form of nothing always got in the way. I'm typing this into Notepad first, which has no Spellcheck, and my eyes are getting a little blurry from from some enjoyable partaking of my Ma Dou Dou. So apologies for that.
Today is raining on and off, and was planned to be a down day, so I've actually accomplished way more that anticipated. I had an extra palmier for breakfast so wasn't hungry for our planned lunch at Nice in town, but we've moved that to dinner. We still have 17 nights in paradise and are enjoying every minute of it.
While we will be eating out less, we have still eaten well. Best meal so far was lunch at Tropicana. MC asked about their black truffle sandwich, a smallish sandwich with truffle butter and shaven truffles on nicely dressed salad bed. A little pricey at 32 Euros, but oh, so good. We also split a plate of homemade smoked salmon, and a beef tartar dish, with 3 glasses of Mont Redon Cote du Rhone, which we also bought at La Gout du Vin, as well as it's more esteemed neighbor from across the road, distinguished by the Chateau Neuf du Pape moniker.
Next best was at one of our favorite places in town--Villa Royale. I had my standard mahi mahi tartar and MC had the usual curried goat, with the sweet potato fires upgrade option. Also had their conch tempura, in which the conch is precooked as opposed to raw prior to frying. Much as I thought I preferred my conch Bahamian style (minimal heat) the were a lot tenderer. Oh, and celebrated being back with 3 glasses of Kir Royal, between us, of course.
A standard lunch place is Le Taitu, which we might do once a week. They have about 10-15 daily offerings, Frnch and island. I prefer the French offerings, as they are rarer on the island. The prices are up to 17.4 Euros, but with the main, starch, saladf, glass of wine and cup of coffee, it's still a bargain IMO. Oh, if you pay in $ it's $20. I've noticed, for the most part, the placs we visit don't have deals for paying $ in cash. We just use a credit card and have it charged in Euros (I need a damned Euro symbol on my keyboard!).
We've had 2 meals at Sunset Cafe on site at GCBC.The first night I though was meh, but then I was settling down from room displacement. The second time, we ordered off the specials board, and that was much better. "Crispy" Grouper was actually encased in a puff pastry wrapped, whereas I though it would be more schnizel style. Very tasty. Also ordered mussels, left over fron the night before. Full and plump, and from Holland. Dodn't know they had good mussels up there, but I'm willing to learn. Like many places on the island that are still in recovery mode, so I think they will become part of our restaurant selection.
Saturday was the owners meeting, which I found very enlightening and gave me an even warmer feeling about the security of our ownership here. BTW, Julio, one of the guards here, last year when he found out we were buying and had no kids, offered himself up for adoption. He hasn't said anything yet this year, but I'm waiting. Breakfast was provided, so I ordered bacon. OMG!! Hard to believe, out of the 250ish nights we've spent in Grand Case, this was the first time I have had bacon. But not the last.
Today is raining on and off, so I'm sticking to my do nothing plan I created last night. Good thig, because I finally had no conflicts to writing this report. Perhaps I'm too generous with myself and the Ma Dou Dou bottle, but I need nourishment. I've typed this into Notepad, which doesn't have Spellcheck, so I'm blaming Notepad for any unintelligibility. BTW, I see typos, but if I try to correct it'll be days before you see this.
We're down to our last 17 nights and enjoying it immensely.
Thinking that perhaps AA was upgrading their front cabin meal selection, I was disappointed that the old boring turkey wrap and minimalist lettuce dish was the choice on the SXM leg.
Never mind, though as we're going to Grand Case Beach Club for 22 nights, and there's plenty of good eating ahead of us. Clearing immigration was a breeze--no longer than 5 minutes, but it took around 30 more minutes to get our bags, and another 60 minutes to get the car and get to GCBC.
We had contracted to buy a studio at GCBC in June of last year, closed in November, and are now ready to move into our own unit. OOPS! Our reservation went poof. Long story short, we're here in a garden studio, not an ocean front, but are enjoying our selves nonetheless. A little disappointed, yes, but not enough to upset our enjoyment of the trip. We may have our unit for the last week, but no guarantees. One of our fellow owners mentioned that this is their new owner hazing process. Chuckle.
One thing we noticed during the pandemic is that our eating patterns changed, where we would only eat one main meal a day. The caloric intake didn't change, but the meal planning became much simpler. This carries over to this trip, where we can only do one main meal a day,
GCBC seems to attract a lot of cat fans and we are no exception. The cat population is down to 3, with the death earlier this year of Lunes, who showed up in 2010 (I believe), and spent hurricane Gonzalo in our room. Another resident cat, Picasso, who came in 2011 as a feral, and is still feral, is Mrs. Cruzer's favorite. As we parked the car, she came wandering up to me, I mentioned to MRS Cruzer(hereinafter referred to as MC) that Picasso was here, MC called Picasso in her usual lilty call, and the cat went darting to greet her. No touching, thank you, happy to see you, now where's my food and milk dammit.
I think the water is brisk, even though it's 82 degrees in the shallows of GC beach. Perfect once you get in. I try to get in at least 2 hours of water a day, but haven't succeeded yet, even though we've done very little. We've been to Marigot to get some wines, check out Le Comptoir des Fromages to ask about the wine and cheese tastings. They serve 10 ish cheeses and 4 different wines, for 2-4 people after store hours for 79 Euros. We plan to try them one evening, as it's something totally different for us. Made the obligatory trip to Ma Dou Dou to pick up some Banana Vanilla--being cvonsumed as I type--and Cafe, and splurged on a painted shot glass so as to drink in style. Bought some basics in Super U, and lots of cat food. Oh, Presidente is virtually absent on this island, so anyone you see drinking one probably has special connections. Me, I'm not drinking Presidente, but amazingly enough, Super U has Nerga Modelo, which comes from the other side of the Caribbean, so is totally acceptable, if not superior.
Tha bakery in town, around the corner from Bistrot Caraibes, apparently was a victim of the pandemic. So, there went our daily walk and exercise regimen. Still, the Bounty has and even larger selection, so our breakfasts are secure. They are mostly a baguette, and croissant, slathered in demi-sel butter.
Oh, we had to take temperatures the first 4 days. Forgot a thermometer, so used my super duper ThermoPen. It works. Even though I can be a nerd, I kept the measurement in whole degrees.
I've been meaning to do a report for many days now, but some other form of nothing always got in the way. I'm typing this into Notepad first, which has no Spellcheck, and my eyes are getting a little blurry from from some enjoyable partaking of my Ma Dou Dou. So apologies for that.
Today is raining on and off, and was planned to be a down day, so I've actually accomplished way more that anticipated. I had an extra palmier for breakfast so wasn't hungry for our planned lunch at Nice in town, but we've moved that to dinner. We still have 17 nights in paradise and are enjoying every minute of it.
While we will be eating out less, we have still eaten well. Best meal so far was lunch at Tropicana. MC asked about their black truffle sandwich, a smallish sandwich with truffle butter and shaven truffles on nicely dressed salad bed. A little pricey at 32 Euros, but oh, so good. We also split a plate of homemade smoked salmon, and a beef tartar dish, with 3 glasses of Mont Redon Cote du Rhone, which we also bought at La Gout du Vin, as well as it's more esteemed neighbor from across the road, distinguished by the Chateau Neuf du Pape moniker.
Next best was at one of our favorite places in town--Villa Royale. I had my standard mahi mahi tartar and MC had the usual curried goat, with the sweet potato fires upgrade option. Also had their conch tempura, in which the conch is precooked as opposed to raw prior to frying. Much as I thought I preferred my conch Bahamian style (minimal heat) the were a lot tenderer. Oh, and celebrated being back with 3 glasses of Kir Royal, between us, of course.
A standard lunch place is Le Taitu, which we might do once a week. They have about 10-15 daily offerings, Frnch and island. I prefer the French offerings, as they are rarer on the island. The prices are up to 17.4 Euros, but with the main, starch, saladf, glass of wine and cup of coffee, it's still a bargain IMO. Oh, if you pay in $ it's $20. I've noticed, for the most part, the placs we visit don't have deals for paying $ in cash. We just use a credit card and have it charged in Euros (I need a damned Euro symbol on my keyboard!).
We've had 2 meals at Sunset Cafe on site at GCBC.The first night I though was meh, but then I was settling down from room displacement. The second time, we ordered off the specials board, and that was much better. "Crispy" Grouper was actually encased in a puff pastry wrapped, whereas I though it would be more schnizel style. Very tasty. Also ordered mussels, left over fron the night before. Full and plump, and from Holland. Dodn't know they had good mussels up there, but I'm willing to learn. Like many places on the island that are still in recovery mode, so I think they will become part of our restaurant selection.
Saturday was the owners meeting, which I found very enlightening and gave me an even warmer feeling about the security of our ownership here. BTW, Julio, one of the guards here, last year when he found out we were buying and had no kids, offered himself up for adoption. He hasn't said anything yet this year, but I'm waiting. Breakfast was provided, so I ordered bacon. OMG!! Hard to believe, out of the 250ish nights we've spent in Grand Case, this was the first time I have had bacon. But not the last.
Today is raining on and off, so I'm sticking to my do nothing plan I created last night. Good thig, because I finally had no conflicts to writing this report. Perhaps I'm too generous with myself and the Ma Dou Dou bottle, but I need nourishment. I've typed this into Notepad, which doesn't have Spellcheck, so I'm blaming Notepad for any unintelligibility. BTW, I see typos, but if I try to correct it'll be days before you see this.
We're down to our last 17 nights and enjoying it immensely.
