TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin 2025 trip so far

Day 1 - Saturday – Left Miami on AA2440. Flight landed early. About 1 hour from the plane door to the airport exit. Immigration took about 20 minutes. The rest of the time was waiting for our checked bags. Lesley and his wife Shirley were waiting with our car & we were off to Royal Palm. 4 p.m. is supposed to be check in time but our room was not ready. Finally got into the room about 5:30 p.m. Dinner @ La Patrona – marvelous. Back to the room and early to bed as we were tired from a long travel day.

Day 2 - Sunday – Still worn out from travel. Obviously not as resilient as we were 10-15 trips ago. We are in our 70"s. Cancelled plans for the day. Had wanted to go to the Jazz afternoon @ Puerto Cupecoy. Decided on a pool day, groceries @ Market Garden, and then dinner out. Skipjacks across the road did not disappoint. Early to bed.

Day 3 - Monday – More energy today. Spent a few hours @ D’s Beach Bar. $10 for an umbrella and chairs were free. We were the only ones on the beach from 10 am to 1 pm. A few guests in the restaurant. Beautiful. Stayed for lunch and the management waived the umbrella fee. Service was quite attentive but a bit slow. Giant hamburger for me & fish for Cindy. Spent the rest of a rainy afternoon @ RP pool. Roma for dinner. Pappardelle Bolognese for me and Gorgonzola Gnocci for Cindy. A little unsuccessful gambling @ Casino Royale.

Day 4 – Tuesday – Shopping in Phillipsburg. Visited Kay’s to buy a small gift for our cat sitter. She will not take cash so we’ll try some bling instead. Wound up getting a gold bracelet for my wife Cindy as an early anniversary present. Tried to shop @ Gulmohar’s but they were closed. We were told they had a death in the family & closed up for a few days. Lunch @ RP pool bar. Dinner @ Sal e Pepe. Marvelous as always. Short trip to Hollywood casino. Profitable evening!! Up $400.

Day 5 – Wednesday – Laundry. Poor facilities here @ RP. 4 washers & 4 dryers. Free. 2 dryers not working. Took 3.5 hours to do 2 loads as I had to wait for a dryer. I’d rather pay & have working equipment. Lunch in the room. Tried Catch 21 @ Port de Plaisance. Good choice. New place for us. Created by Roma, Jax, etc. I had a pizza and Cindy had lobster mac & cheese. Both were excellent. Casino was empty and not user friendly. Will probably never go back except to eat.

Day 6 – Thursday – RP pool closed for at least the next 4 days. Bummer. Leftovers lunch in the room. Shuttle to Flamingo to use their pool. 2 for 1 drinks until 3 p.m. Dinner @ Bovin. Wife had steak & scallops & I had just a steak. Excellent. Sad that we have walked by this place for years & did not take advantage. Only complaint was that the mashed potatoes could have been hotter. Back to Hollywood. I lost a bit but Cindy won $100 playing Blackjack. She started with $10. We are still on the plus side. LOL

I see what you ate at Catch 21 but am wondering what the menu is like? Are there full entrees or is the menu more casual?

Glad you liked D's sailor beach bar!!! It's our go to place next to BSV!!! We have Bovin on our list as well as Catch 21. We love Marco, so it's got to be good!! We love Roma/chow!! We stayed once through a friend at "RP", now it looks even better so I'm wondering about the pool??? The swim up bar was really cool, did they bring that back??? Sorry they closed it on you!! Enjoy!!!

Catch 21 Menu

Menu - link

Jerry--thanks for the report. We had an extraordinarily long wait for bags also. How was the food at the RP pool bar? Their restaurants had been awful for years, but I hear they are better now? You have to tell me how your wife starts out at blackjack with $10 and lasts more than two hands, let alone win $100!

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

There's a bit of everything. Sandwiches, hand helds, salads, pasta, pizza, burgers. The full menu is on their website. https://catch21sxm.com/menus

She won about 15 hands in a row!!! Then up & down a bit. I was like a rollercoaster LOL. $10 per hand. RP pool bar food was good. I had one of the best hotdogs & fries ever. Cindy had a wrap of some sort. Both were excellent. Have not tried the regular menu but it all comes from the same kitchen.

Jerry--sometimes Eric gets on a streak like that! Good while it lasts!! Glad to hear that the food at RP is better.

Did you ever ask and find out what needed fixing of the pool? Keep in mind that your parking pass at R is good at Flamingo so you don't need the shuttle.

Official story was an emergency cleaning. We got a note hung on our door Friday afternoon. Maintenance workers kept talking about the pumps. Who knows? Still inconvenient.

Day 7 – Friday – Bad tummy today. Not sure of reason. Lunch @ D’s again. Decided to try Pineapple Pete for Dinner. Great music. Have not been there for years. Stuffed shrimp for me w/rice & peas. Side salad. Fish & chips for Cindy. Food was good and served quicker than I remember. Back to Hollywood. Cindy did it again. Turned $60 into $180. I did OK and made $250. Lots of fun. Back to the room.

Day 8 – Saturday - Homeward Bound. Packed & out the door @ 10. Express check out & key drop. Gassed up the car & met Lesley at the airport. No issues other than the airport does have a food problem. Too few places to eat and SLOW. People were waiting an hour for Wendy’s. Plane left early & landed in MIA early. Took longer to get to immigration than it did to get passport checked. One hour wait for Embassy Suites shuttle. Arrived home at 11 p.m. Another great trip.

I have always liked Pineapple Pete. Good food, good service. Sounds like you had a good gambling trip for both of you.

The trip to immigration in Miami is almost a mile, according to the gal who helped with my wheelchair this trip. I can walk, but not a mile, and THEN wait in line for however long.

I hope you complain to corporate about that shuttle wait. That would drive me absolutely CRAZY. One of the many things I love about The Parking Spot (formerly Park N Fly), is that the shuttle is always fast. I think in June we waited maybe 5 minutes for it.

Hmmm. Brings back shades of that movie that when they drained the pool it was a Baby Ruth instead of a tu*d.

There were other issues with the park/fly/stay as well. Our reservation was screwed up & I had to pay extra for our parking. We would have been better off paying a bit more for EB Hotel. Good restaurant, excellent bar. Lightning shuttle. Never wait more than 20 min. In the end it would have been cheaper. And it is only a couple of years old. Just a better experience. Should have not thought with my wallet. LOL

Jerry--yes, sometimes it is just better to spend the money to get a reliable good experience.