TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Royal Caribbean cruise SXM port May 1 taxi question

Hi. This is my first post so I hope I'm doing it right. I am cruising on Saturday from Florida and am very excited that one of our port of calls is St Martin. My husband and I are traveling with 4 family members who have never been to SXM. My question is.... we plan to go to El Zafiro to use beach and have lunch and also visit Sunset Beach bar ... will it be difficult for us to find a cab to take 8 people ? I don't really want to book an excursion thru the cruise line.
Love ❤️SXM. Spent a week there this past November

Many of the taxis are full size customized vans so finding something for 8 people will not be a problem. There should be a line of taxis at the pier. Find a driver and vehicle and tell them what you want to do, negotiate a price and you should be set. Agree on specific times and ask about making payment and tip when you are returned to the ship, this way you are assured the same driver will work with you the entire trip.

u shud be able to rent a van from a car rental and they cud probably met u as u get off the boat

Unless it has changed after the storm, there is a circle at the exit of the pier with signs saying Maho or Orient and others. You would get in the “Maho” line. There were many Econoline full size fans that easily take 8. There are also many Toyota vans, bigger than a Sienna here at home, that crammed 8. Shouldnt be a problem. Worst case two smaller cabs. Tell them when you want to be back to the ship and they should offer to bring you back. We did a Maho/Mullet beach roundtrip and didnt pay til the return at the end but it was a long afternoon not a whole day.

They will take US dollars.

Do the cabs on SXM take credit cards anybody?

Thank you for the replies! I was also concerned with traffic and how bad the traffic is with road work, etc... Paying with US dollars is how we would prefer to pay.
Is there any way to find out how many cruise ships will be in port on May 1st? The ship we are sailing on - Adventure of the Seas is pretty big

Regarding how many ships in port, scroll UP this page and there is a link to the cruise schedule.

As far as traffic, best bet is to take advice from your cabbie as to when you need to head back. They are best able to know current traffic conditions.

How about using the spell check feature. Just a suggestion.

You know Scubaman, I have seen you make a few typos in the past, so not sure you're the best one to be making that statement.

Regardless, I use Edge as a browser and it AUTOMATICALLY underlines a word if it is misspelled on TTOL. It doesn't help if you type in the total wrong word, but it is a very useful feature. Try it. You might like it.

Yep. I have made a few typos but when I catch them I try to edit them. Sometimes my posts are from my phone or tablet and the auto correct feature changes words before I hit send. But bizzottom's post is way off the charts.

OK

I also use Edge. It catches misspells, but not grammar & wrong words (your instead of you're, to instead of too, dingy instead of dinghy, for example). "Just a suggestion".

Ditto to all the above info. The price-per-person should drop based on the occupancy of the taxi. Presently, for two people the price from the port to Maho Beach is $25. Eight people in one taxi might be a stretch, but they do exist. Might be easier to take two taxis with four people each. It is wise to pay close attention to when your ship leaves the port at Philipsburg and allow ample time to get back. If memory serves me correctly, Royal Caribbean ships typically dock at 8:00 a.m. and head out at 5:00 p.m. Traffic back to the port from the Maho Beach area is one of the worst on the island, so play it smart and make sure you grab your taxi(s) around 3:00 p.m. and no later. Trust me ... been there and done that!

There are many full sized taxi vans that will accommodate 12 or more passengers. There would be no need for 2 vehicles if the party secured a van and with one vehicle it should be less $$ than taking two. According to the port schedule one can access from TTOL, the Adventure of the Seas docks at approx. 7:15am. Departure is listed as 18:00/6:00pm. I would think one could be off the ship no later than 8:00am so they would have a full day, if desired, to do what they want to do.

PORT SCHEDULE

Thanks for the info on cruises in port Carol Hill! It appears our ship is one of three in port that day. Yikes!! And harmony of the seas is one of them. Do you think there are enough taxis or should we look to book excursion thru cruise. I really don't have a sense as to how plentiful taxis are on the Island as we've rented a car the three times I've been to SXM.

You will be fine getting a taxi van on your own, especially if you are off the ship fairly early. Taxis are very plentiful.

Thanks!!

I would suggest taking a tour from the ship excursions. It might be a bit more expensive, but if there are any problems encountered during your tour, the ship will wait for you. If you choose to do your own tour, you are on your own and if you do not get back in time for any reason , the ship will sail without you. Then it becomes very expensive as you have to fly on your own dime to catch the ship at the next port. I have been on the ship many times and while sailing away I have seen people running to get to the ship only to realize it was away from the dock and on its way!

Elizabeth--I would agree with you if she was talking about going to Anguilla or St Barts, etc. However, to go to Simpson Bay, absolutely no reason to book a ship excursion, especially for that many people, with the comparable cost.

That said!!! To the original poster, I don't think I would plan to go to El Zafiro because they do ship excursions there, with around 100 people with the big ships. The experience will NOT be what you are expecting. The beach will be JAM packed with people. I would go to Mary's Boon instead. The chairs will be much further apart and the food and service should be better than El Zafiro, frankly on most any day, but especially on a day when there is a cruise ship excursion there. OR head to Mullet or somewhere on the French side.

I know people who missed the boat coming back from Orient Beach so it does happen. Taxi showed up late for their return and they got caught in traffic. Just saying it could be risky but they have to be willing to take that chance.

Get real lighten up Scubaman ,no one is writing an official paper

Chill, people! Relax. Enjoy. Try not to get tense about ‘stuff’ that really doesn’t matter all that much. Perhaps not grammatically correct, but we mostly all got the idea........

Elizabeth--we've been on over 30 cruises and know the drill. Years ago, we were on the last tender back to the ship numerous times. Of course that shows you how long ago it was, that I'm even talking about a tender! Regardless, unless something catastrophic happens, no one should be afraid to use a taxi in SXM. Just don't cut it too close. If a person does only cruise ship excursions, you miss out on 95% of what the island is. Again, years ago, we got off the Norway (again, got to be YEARS ago!!) and took the White Squall to St. Barts for the day. No way I would do that now, but we were much younger and braver. To stay on SXM? Take a cab. Cost will be half, the experience will be double.

Digging this up as I finally got an answer to this particular question.

I just now spoke with a taxi driver friend and asked about this. He said some taxis at the port are set up to handle credit card transactions but not the majority of them. As far as your average taxi not working the port or the less "high tech" drivers, it will likely be cash.

Carol

Just a heads up. Last Feb. We went to Mary's Boon after we went to Karacters ( zilch seating at Karacters) MB had zero beach chairs available too. And all were on top of each other. There was a separate area with loungers for MB patrons but that was for MB patrons only. Anyhow we left and went to Mullet.

Wendell

Wendell--thanks for the note. Surprised to hear that regarding MB. It must have been a really big ship day, that day.