I feel like I have to inform all you cruisers that when booking a day trip to the most exciting beach on the island of St. Martin at Maho beach!!! What they don't tell you, that they drop you off at Maho beach on the Dutch side of the island with NO chairs or umbrellas. Leaving you to stand all day, no bathrooms either!!! SMH!!! See for yourself. This is the camera way above Tortuga restaurant (amazing food, great views too!!) over looking Maho beach and PJIA . On busy days when there is more than a few ships in, this beach is wall to wall crowded!!! Pay the extra money, take the Orient beach day trip!! There you will find chairs umbrellas and beach food/drink service!!! You'll thank me!!!
David--sorry, a lot of what you say is not true. You see chairs and umbrellas in the first screen shot. There is food available at Driftwood and Sunset. As far as bathrooms are concerned, they do have bathrooms at Sunset BB. The bathroom they have at Driftwood is for TRUE emergencies only. As far as wall to wall people, now THAT is true. I really don't have any idea what they charge to go to Maho, but as far as I know, it's billed as just transportation.
Maho versus Orient is a whole different experience. There is no reason to book a ship shore excursion to Orient. Just walk to the row of taxis and take one to Orient. Then check out the various restaurants once you get there and decide where you want to park yourself for the day. We were on SXM on a ship in November. We got a private taxi, just for the two of us. Can't remember how much it was, but it wasn't much. We had a lovely long lunch on the beach, which is exactly what we wanted. We did arrange a time in advance for him to pick us up. Easy peasy. BUT you don't have the experience of planes landing over your head.
