TRIP REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 24 DECEMBER 11, 2004


TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS


Continental from Newark to SXM provided their usual service with minor delays down and none for the return home.

ACCOMMODATIONS

We broke down our stay to three properties:

Divi Little Bay heck in and check out and the unit assigned was all satisfactory. The resort is currently under renovation with Building D currently being worked on. Work is expected to be completed by mid December. As a result of this ongoing work, units on the Great Bay side are not in as good shape as the ones on Little Bay side. It is recommended that you ask for a unit facing Little Bay if not already assigned to you. During our stay the Sunset Pool, a/k/a the Infinity pool was under maintenance. Our unit faced the Sunset pool and garden waterfall.

Princess Port De Plaisance Another property under renovation we were assigned a completely renovated unit facing a garden and the Yacht Club Marina and Lagoon.
The resort is very large and spread out; the units are on a small island in the lagoon and have the appearance of being in a tropical jungle. There is a swimming pool on the third level, a bar/snack bar on the forth level above the pool and an observation deck on level five above the bar snack bar. A second pool, way too far to walk to is over by the tennis courts on the far side of the casino. It is a wonderful resort but does require some amount of walking to get to the car park from the units.

Towers at Mullet Bay, here we were assigned unit 706 facing the pool and lagoon best views of the three stays. The building is in tiptop shape; the only negative to us as guests was the closing of the pool Wednesday evening for maintenance.

NEWS AROUND TOWN

Simpson Bay traffic has reached a low point, many days it was backed up all the way to the airport not caused by the drawbridge just over crowded conditions. The lowlands road is still the best on the island to get to Marigot and points north quickly from Cupecoy/Simpson Bay areas, smooth surface, well lighted and very little traffic.

Nettle Bay Beach Club has been sold to private investors planning on selling the units as condominiums.

La Belle Creole has been sold to the Trump Group with plans on making a condominium and hotel resort with casino. Apparently they have the needed approvals of the French Government to build three casinos on the their side, one in Nettle Bay, one in Marigot and one at some unnamed location over the next two years. They plan on retaining some of original structure and incorporate it into the new one.

BEACHES

Little Bay
Orient
Friars
Mullet

RESTAURANTS

Breakfast

Chesterfields
Divi
La Croissanterie
Turtle Pier
Zee Best
Ric s

Supper

Divi (2)
Baywatch (TTOL) and (Private Party)
La California
Le Piccolo @ Zee Best
Les Buccaneer (A New restaurant in Nettle Bay opposite Tatoo)
La Petite Auberge
Los Gauchos
Bavaria
Le Bec Fin
La Gondola
Philly Pizza
La Vista
Rapture du Pirate
Rancho

NOTES

Very nice Thanksgiving buffet at Divi with Ray & Vlasta Mann
Very nice dinner at La California with Keith & Carol
Equally nice dinners at La Petite Auberge, Pirate and Le Bec Fin with all of our TTOL friends.

The new restaurant in Nettle Bay is French Creole.

Rancho hosted the Boat Show party on December 10th.

All of the other restaurants were excellent except for Los Gauchos, a major disappointment, inedible steaks containing 30 to 40 % fat. Because of this we decided on Rancho later on in our stay Rancho claims to have the best steaks on the Island and the certainly live up to that boast.

Our thanks to all of our TTOL friends for the great times, you note we had two dinners at Baywatch, a place usually not open for dinner, our thanks to this fine establishment for providing us their locale and thanks to Sugarae and John for providing the Maine lobsters.

Thanks to the Mann s for providing us food and drink at their townhouse celebration of Susan s (and a surprise, Bob s) birthdays.

I am sure I left out a ton of stuff, if so please forgive me

END SHORT AND SWEET