Celebrating 10 years since our first trip in 2012 we stayed mostly on the French side from Feb 16 to 23rd. We missed going in 2017 and last year.
We uploaded our vaccine/booster record to EHAS on a Sunday for our Wednesday flight. Got our confirmation in 5 to 50 minutes later even though it was near 6pm St Martin time. I printed the EHAS approval letters.
Tuesday morning when I went to check-in online with American Airlines I was told to add the VeriFly app to my phone. Surprise! You have to upload your Vaccine/booster doc to VeriFly as well as answering a bunch of check box questions and add a picture. They could have told us long before check-in. The toughest part of the app was selecting "Trip to Sint Maarten" since Search would not find "St", "Saint" "Martin" or "Maarten". Scanning the QR codes did not work either. I had to wait for a "Manual" upload and confirmation. That took several hours, then it would allow me to check-in.
When we got to the baggage counter in Detroit they wanted to see the Verifly with green check boxes and we were good to go. It was about a quarter mile walk through Miami Airport between connecting planes. A brisk walk with less than an hour between flights.
It was worth the trouble to walk down the ramp onto the tarmac at SXM in the afternoon sun.
Our flight was ahead of a couple other arrivals so our show the passport and get the EHAS papers stamped was fast. Waited about an hour for the baggage. Drove the rental car to Residence Adam et Eve inside the gates at Orient. TT and VV are new at RAE from St Tropez. They seemed to always be available. Making breakfast or dinner or answering questions in the time between. Alain and Caroline are on the island but occupied with other interests. They keep their cruise boat off Club O beach with a big sign offering cruises.
RAE required our proof of vaccination/booster.
In addition to complying with government regulations we also had some fun times. We were so happy to see friends back on the island from past years. Collective knowledge. Met new people and hope to see them again in the future.
Club O beach is running out of the famous yellow umbrellas. They are getting a little ragged. Another item on order but not going to show up in a hurray. I counted 120 umbrellas. There are now blue umbrellas for those not renting chairs. Six dollars. There are also a lot more people sitting in the free two-thirds of the beach. Many just walk in spend an hour and walk back towards the Village. I estimated about 500 people use the Club O beach each day. North of that was not as crowded as Feb 2020.
A new large black pipe is being laid under the beach starting from the north. It has made it as far as La Playa. I don't know but suspect it is a sewer pipe. The treatment plant is behind the carbets just north of Club O beach. Still nothing happening at the wrecked chalets. Maybe when the utilities arrive something will happen. The new Club Orient will not have their own utilities.
In a lazy stupor, I estimated we could go to a different fine restaurant every day for a month. We come for a week so we never go to all the restaurants we desire.
Our first dinner was at Telegraph. Beach bar by day and fine restaurant at night. I had the triggerfish which was four fillets. OK. Is there a trend away from the beautiful presentations and small amounts of food? At L'Atelier we got the beautiful and long description of the menu that made us want everything. Tough choices. I had the duck. It was very good. They specialize in wagyu beef from Japan, Paraguay, the USA and Australia and you can get pounds of it placed on your table. The lust for beef had been planted and the next night at Le Piment I ordered the grilled sirloin with fois gras. It was about a pound. I ate about a third and finished the rest over breakfast and lunch the next two days.
Moving over from Orient Village to Grand Case, we went to La Villa. The owners also run Orange Fever on Orient Beach. The couple with us had lunch at Orange Fever and then dinner at La Villa. Some of the staff transition to La Villa in the evening. They recognized our friends as repeat customers are treated us warmly. We had to stop the flow of rum while we could still walk. If you have a reservation at La Villa stop your car out front, walk in and hand them your keys. They will park it for you.
The next night we went to Le Bistronome. It is across the street from the public parking lot. It is like a wooden native house. Quaint and romantic. Maybe seats 25. They brought out champagne with a raspberry as we were seating. We sat by the door so we saw our car in the lit lot all the time. The food was French with a touch more Creole. We loved it and when you walk up the steps you pass the kitchen.
Our last night on the island was dinner at Ocean 82. Our reservation on wifi calling was made thru the USA number.
We arrived just after sunset. I don't think there is a bad seat in the house, even the bar. A beautiful view of the twinkling lights of Anguilla, the bobbing sailboats in Grand Case harbor and people walking the beach at night. The beach is lit. I wouldn't walk any other beach on the island after dark.
Had the lobster bisque. It was plentiful and good.
So much food, so little time. We like long beach walks to work off the calories. We also climbed Pic Paradis from Lottery Farm. Two years ago we had lunch around the swimming pool after our climb. This year the restaurant seating is the old bar on the second floor. Every time we go there it is different. Now the pool has a privacy fence and there is a big new children's play area. The zip-lining thru the jungle is still an attraction.
"Watch out for that tree!"
My wife hadn't scuba dived for two years. Most of the dive boats on the island now have irregular schedules. At Aquamania at Simpson Bay Resort they dive every morning and offer beginner and recertification in the afternoon. Got 3 tanks in over an afternoon and the next morning.
We were required to prove Covid negative with an antigen test the day before returning to the US. Our resort arranged for a nurse to do the testing. Simple. $40 each. A certificate all in French but boldly saying "Negatif". The nurse sent a separate email with the certificates in PDF format which made uploading to the Verifly app easier.
American Airlines required the Verifly app on my phone to board. You have to delete your "Trip to Sint Maarten" and add "Trip to USA". Also I had to manually upload our Negatif certificates and answer several other forms mostly with just sliders for "Yes". The next morning I awoke to find Verify was all green check-marks.
Farewell to Paradise!
At SXM Airport a long line at 1 pm to drop off luggage at AA and get boarding passes. AA had 6 agents. Soon after getting in line we were asked for Verifly, showed our green check-marks and were sent past a sea of people filling out forms on each others backs. We waited a long time for a group of divers or fishermen to check a number of enormous industrial sized bags. Took a half-hour.
Then Passport Control. Then TSA scan. All told about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This was the non-busy day of Wednesday. Unfortunately my boarding pass had the dreaded SSSS on the lower corner. My wife drew that last trip. This time my turn. A thorough frisking and search thru my carry-on bag at the gate while boarding.
In spite of a few annoyances a marvelous trip to St Martin was ending with memories of warm sunshine and warm friendships. Can't wait to return.
Now it gets ugly.
We landed in Miami with a little over 2 hours between flights. We had a quarter mile sprint to get to Passport Control where I waited in line for an hour. There is no longer filling out the form on the plane or at kiosks when you land. The immigration officers are fast and friendly but there are not enough. They take your picture. Problem was there were about 3/4 of the lanes open. My wife and I applied for Global Entry last November. She had her interview just after Christmas. Mine is in May. Even though my wife breezed thru Immigration with Global Entry she was still forced to wait for our checked bag, declare and go thru TSA again to get to our connection. I waited 45 minutes for TSA. Yes, other people were getting pretty testy.
I got to the gate just in time to be told "Your flight has been canceled. Go to the Rebook area." We probably would have waited in line for three hours to talk to somebody. I had gotten a revised trip on my AA app. Fly out of MIA in 26 hours, land in CLT after midnite on Friday and take off for Detroit before 6 am. I had an all-nighter at CLT before and wasn't going to do that again. A whole day in Miami Beach would have been OK but my wife had a critical patient to see Friday morning. With no seating and my phone going dead I booked a flight on another airline for Thursday afternoon and a cheap motel in Miami for the nite. The next morning we made two calls to AA without much of an explanation. Waiting time for their callbacks was 2 and 2 1/2 hours.
We feel we reduced the grief by just stepping back from a bad situation and handling it ourselves. Six hundred bucks worth.
The US government and American Airlines have a lot of work to make travel better.
We got back to Detroit Thursday afternoon before a snow storm and our AA checked baggage had got to Detroit before us.