This was our 3rd trip to SXM to stay in timeshares -- the last 2 times we only stayed a week – this time with flight prices so high, we decided to stay 11 nts (5/15 to 5/26).
We had an early AA flight on Tuesday, 5/15 from Nashville (BNA) to MIA, with a few hours wait for the SXM 11:10 AM flight. We tried desparately to pack light because we knew we were going to Orient Beach each day, but ended up with 2 carryons & 1 checked hardside (in order to bring back some liquor)!!
When will they ever finish the Miami Airport? Back in 2004 we flew AA to SXM and had to “walk the rat maze” getting from gate to gate!! We were sure that MIA must be all done by now, but alas it is not!!!
We were both amazed by the nice new airport in SXM – quite a pleasure!! Got through immigration quickly although I again picked the slowest line, but hey it's time to get on "island time"; then we found our 1 checked suitcase awaiting us. Also the driver from Unity Car Rental was waiting for us & we quickly got things transferred into the Corolla – Michael’s 2 pieces of wisdom & advice were “Don’t leave ANYTHING in the car” & “Don’t EVER lock the doors”!!!
Drove over to Atrium for 4 nights through RCI Nightly Stays & had a nice 1 bedroom unit on 3rd floor overlooking pool – actually the ONLY connection we had with the pool the whole 4 days. Not once during those 4 days did any timeshare sales people approach us nor did we get the usual “come talk to us & get a gift” invitation!! How pleasant that was!
Drove up hill to check out the Pelican construction (what a mess), make reservation at Hideaway (chef away on vacation) and go to Peli-Deli for some basic provisions like beer, bread, bacon, ham, cheese, eggs, juice, water, fruit, salad. Not too much food since we were moving on Sat. 5/19 to Towers at Mullet Bay which we got through regular RCI exchange. We drove over to Towers Tuesday afternoon to ask for early check-in on Sat. and a unit on high floor, both of which we got!!! We tried to get late checkout at Atrium but they were NOT accommodating!
Wed, Thurs & Fri. after I cooked us a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit, toast, juice, we drove over to Orient Beach at CO to spend the day either on yellow beach chairs or in turquoise blue sea. Enjoyed Perch Happy Hours – most days Mike got in line twice each hour -- 1st frozen strawberry dacquiris, 2nd frozen mango drink!!! We got A LOT of sun those 3 days, as we had not pre-tanned at home except for arms & legs from playing golf, so we had several “white spots” to fill in! Each day we drove back to Atrium after 5 PM; each night we slept like babies.
Saturday morning was moving day from Atrium to Towers and a good day for us to stay out of sun!! We walked through Maho shops mid-afternoon & bought me topaz & diamond earrings & pendant & necklace at Riviera. We also found a few souvenirs and then stocked up on more groceries at Gourmet Marche -- nice selection of food there!!
Sunday through to Friday was same routine – my famous BIG breakfast, drive over to Club O to spend day either on yellow beach chairs or in turquoise blue sea, with 12:30 break for Perch Happy Hour and 2:30 lunches at Baywatch, Papagayo, Pirates, Perch and KokoMarina. We left the beach each day after 5:30 in order to miss the bridge traffic at Sandy Ground. The drive ran about ½ hour and we used the road through markets, shops & marina in Marigot, which is soooo pretty and so much better than any other route! The construction sites at Cupecoy did not cause any problems for us & rarely got behind a slow-moving vehicle. The crazy scooter/motorcycle drivers were our biggest problem, as they would dart between oncoming lanes of traffic & one nearly took off the outside rearview mirror!!
Before the trip I read all the restaurant recommendations & had several pages of notes that others of you had written – we intended to eat out each night BUT after eating late leisurely lunches on Orient Beach, we weren’t all that hungry & didn’t really have the energy to get dressed to go out. So we’d end up having ham sandwiches, apizza, a casserole or other simple meal in our unit. We ate at Bavaria which we enjoyed & took leftovers with us. We ate at Sopranos & were very disappointed. One night was the Towers cocktail party. We met 2 couples at Orient Beach that were also staying at Towers and the 6 of us ended up eating together twice -- Ken from New Orleans was sensational cooking with shrimp & mahi mahi!!! I have read all these other reviews where the writer lists all the different restaurants & meals they had -- I just don’t know how you all fit so much food into a day!!!
We were able to use our Verizon phone & made/received several calls to Tennessee on “roaming”. We also loaned our phone to our friends to make calls to their families in Utah, Louisiana – probably a dozen calls and the bill ended up being only $39 – I had estimated those calls at about 30 minutes!! However I don’t know the exact per-minute charge. After our 1st call was made to our son, we received the call from some local vendor to say we needed to use his code make a call to US – we totally ignored that call & figured he’d be more expensive that regular Verizon roaming!
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