We just returned Monday from Club Orient. Here is our trip report. We also have some pictures from this trip on our travel web page.


St. Martin – Club Orient – 23 March – 1 April 2007


We returned to St. Martin and Club Orient for another wonderful vacation in paradise. This year we saw several improvements over past years and also had a few disappointments. Overall we had a great time even though several things were less than ideal.


First the trip to St Martin. We live in the Midwest. There does not seen to be a good way to get to St. Martin from the Midwest. Our flight was from St. Louis to Chicago to San Juan to St. Martin. Our first flight was at 6:10 AM which meant we needed to be at the airport around 4:30 AM. We live about an hour from the airport and needed to get up an hour before to get ready. So, our day started a little after 2:00 AM! All went smooth until San Juan where the AA prop plane had a flat and we were delayed by almost two hours. We arrived at the brand new Julianna airport and we are happy to say it is a terrific improvement! We finally made it to Club Orient around 8:30 PM. The office is now open till 9 on weeknights so we had a normal check in. We were assigned room 153….each year we get further way from our requested unit of 141. We headed straight to Papaguyos for dinner before the kitchen closed. A quick bite and then off to bed. Big mistake ordering the chicken cordon bleu!


Club Orient has made several changes since our visit last year. First, a new General Manager, Dennis Pairault, who started the end of November 2006. Denny is very pleasant and a hands on manager. Denny was always at breakfast in the morning and also at Papaguyos most evenings for dinner. You would also see him at the office and around the resort. I think he has done a good job of raising the moral of employees which helps translate to happier guests. Also, the parking has changed. There are now designated parking areas and except for loading/unloading you are not allowed to park at your unit. This does give Club Orient and little tidier feel. One of the mini-suites, 158, had an electrical fire this past December. It was badly damaged; we have a picture of it with the rest of our vacation pictures. The unit was unoccupied at the time. At least this was the least desired unit, the one across from security. The beach was in good shape most of the week. Papaguyos was pretty consistent from past visits. Breakfast and lunch were great; dinner seemed a little more hit or miss. Nancy and Fabiana continue to be wonderful as always. Our hair dryer bit the dust our first day. Luckily, you can check out a hair dryer from the office.


We had a couple of somewhat spoilers for the week. First and foremost, Cathy was sick most of the week. She got feeling bad about our second day. We kind of think she caught a bug either at the airport or on one of the planes. Anyway, several trips to the pharmacy trying to find something to kick her cough, headache, aching, etc. We even planned to go to the Doctor in Grand Case one morning, but she felt too bad to go to the Doctor. I think she needed to get better before she died….at least I think that is how she felt. Speaking of dying, we were told that around a half dozen guest had died while at the resort this past year. Anyway, her illness put a damper on our vacation and somewhat did in her taster, so her food critiques were a little tougher than mine. The other spoiler was the weather.


Saturday we had lunch at Baywatch. We brought Andy a new license plate to replace our old rusted one. By the way, they have a decent margarita.


We rented a car from Alaine Arnell at triple AAA. He always does a great job for us and this trip was no exception. He delivered the car to our unit Sunday morning.


Sunday evening we had dinner at Poulet d’orleans in the French quarter with our travel agents Jim and Mary Ruos. It was my best meal of the week and was $40. They are normally closed on Sundays but opened just for us.


We went to the Butterfly Farm Monday morning and bought souvenirs and took some pictures. We had lunch at Talk of the town in Grand case. We attended the managers wine and cheese party and as usual it was very well attended. We had dinner at sole Luna in the cull de sac…it was our most expensive meal but it was excellent. The restaurant is very beautiful.


Tuesday we awoke to rain that continued all day. We went to the Lotterie Farm for lunch. This was the first time we have been to the Lotterie Farm. It is really a neat setting. We were surprised at how many people were there. I found lunch to be very enjoyable. We both had a seafood sampler which included crab cakes. The food was a bit spicy with jalapeño peppers in the crab cakes! I like hot food but Cathy does not. After lunch we walked around a bit and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. On the way back to Club Orient, my lunch made me a little sick. Not sure it this was just a fluke, but we talked to someone else who had the same reaction. We had dinner at Le Taitu in the cull de sac.


It rained a good part of the day on Wednesday but it did clear up for us to have dinner at Le California in Grand case.


Thursday it rained off and on all day again. We had lunch at Papaguyos to escape the showers. The cheeseburger was wonderful! We had dinner at Il Nettuno in Grand case.


Friday produced winds strong enough to sandblast your face off so the beach was empty. We attended the manager’s coffee and tea by the sea for breakfast. It was poorly attended….but a great idea that I think will catch on. Once again we had lunch at Papaguyos. We also had dinner at Papaguyos. Cathy was beginning to get her taster back and was craving spaghetti and they did not disappoint her.


Once again the winds were horrible on Saturday. We had breakfast and lunch at papaguyos. We had dinner at Laberge Gourmand in Grand case. We wanted to eat on the water side but the restaurants all had the awnings down because of the terrible winds. We had eaten at Laberge Gourmand years ago so thought we would try it again. It was terrible, by far the worst service and food we experienced all week.


We got up Sunday morning to a beautiful blue sky. It was windy but better than it had been. We had our final breakfast at Papaguyos and had a couple of hours of beach time. We checked out at 11. Everything is computerized now so you only have to check out at the office.

We went to Baywatch for lunch, said our goodbyes and headed for the airport.


We went a week earlier this year than normal due to Easter falling on 8 April. We still saw several people we knew from previous trips. It is always great to see familiar faces and talk to old friends.


Our trip home was a little less eventful. We flew from St. Martin to Miami. From Miami, we had a 10:00 PM flight that got us back in St. Louis around 12:10 AM Monday morning. By the time we got home it was almost 2:00 AM. Then we both went to work…..yuck! I think we need a vacation.