This is my first trip flying down to St Maarten, but the 5th time visiting. We Left CT while it was pouring out. Flight down was great. Arrived on time and waited in a short line and off we were escorted by a man waiting for us to get the rental car at Unity. Picked up the car with no problems and off we went. We stayed at the Divi Resort. I took a wrong turn but finally got there only to wait for a room. I did'nt get the junior suite that I paid for the first night, but they gave me a better room the following day. Knowone knew they were renovating the junior suites. So we did have some noise with the jackhammers. Our room overlooked Great bay and was beautiful. We enjoy watching the ships pull in. <br>We found the food to be very good. My favorite place was the greenhouse. We had a child with us and the menu there was great for her. We also had lunch at everything kool several times and the other favorite was Saratoga's. The food presentation and quality was very good there. Not much on the menu for kids other than the pasta appetizer at $11.00. She enjoyed it too. I found that they don't really have childrens menus like home. Kids are easy to please with pasta and grilled cheese.<br><br>We did shopping in Phillipsburg each morning, go have some lunch and off to the pool or beach for the rest of the day till dinner.<br><br>We met a lot of nice people, but I have to say that spending 8 days in one place was a bit long for us. We wanted to try a vacation like this and were glad we did. But we are going back to cruising as we just love being on the ocean cruising around. We really don't care where either.<br><br>As for this board, I will continue to read and post and thank you all who answered my questions as you were all a big help.[Linked Image]<br><br>I also signed on to the ecc service only never to use it as I never got hooked up which was okay with me since I never needed the phone.<br><br>Unity car rental was wonderful. We had no problems with them at all. I returned the car with no dents or dings but did tell them about my five year old leaving some crayons on the back seat which melted.....ooh, not a pretty sight. I offered to pay for a cleaning and they just said not to worry...I could'nt beleive it. I tried to scrape most of it off and was feeling bad about the next person sitting on the seat.[Linked Image]for Michael at Unity.<br><br>I ordered a birthday cake from The Village Baker and wow what a cake they made. Wish I had a piece now. It was wonderful and I would recommend them highly.<br><br>Our last day we returned the car and we got to the airport an hour ahead with no problems. Everyone says to go 2 hours ahead and maybe it's just the season. We had a great flight back. I just wish SXM would take care of business all at once including the departure fee and stamping. <br><br>In concluding, I will be back in St Maarten this coming November on the Golden Princess and will look forward to spending more time there. It is a great place to visit, but I will have to cruise into the port. I guess I'm a cruisaholic! <br><br>My final thought is that of the Beachside villa's which I thought looked great online. I never did go look for them though. What was very interesting was on the runway we looked out the window and there it was the big sign that said "Beachside Villas". I wonder why the brochure they sent never mentioned a runway in the back. I'm glad I did'nt stay there now as that would not have been so quiet as the divi.<br><br><br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 6/11/01 01:39 PM.</EM></FONT></P>