Just returned from trip #23... why is it the week in SXM speeds by but work weeks crawl? Guess it must be that time warp thing that happens when you go thru the triangle...
Anyway, great trip, as always.
Stayed at our timeshare at PDP. Check-in is not until 4pm, but we're always able to get in when we arrive. It seems the "guest" in our unit had not yet vacated when we arrived at 1:30 p.m., so we decided to go over to Peg Leg's for some lunch. We had the lunch special tilapia with a lemon sauce, rice and salad for $8.95. Great meal and we were able to unwind. With a couple drinks our bill came to about $32.We went back to the front desk around 3:30 p.m. only to find out the guest was still in the room. Turns out it was the chef from the new restaurant La Dolce Vita and he didn't know he had to check out. At this point, I was satisfied to just get a room, so we ended up 2 doors down. Some people we met later in the week told us we should have asked for "something" for the inconvenience, but I didn't...
Anyway, got checked in and unpacked and sat out on our balcony and read a bit and relaxed. We were up at 4 a.m that day. We decided to stay on site for dinner, so around 8 p.m. headed down to La Guinguette for dinner. We both had sole muniere, which was not as good as I've had there previously. George had a greek salad, and crepe suzette for dessert (YUM). The sole was a bit mushy and the service was not as friendly as it had been last year. We typically go to dinner there at least 2x during our stay. Bill was around $95, including 4 glasses of wine and 20% tip. Scale of 1-10; I’d give it a 7.
Saturday, we headed off to Friar’s – after taking our 2 mile walk around the resort. We decided before leaving that we were going to try and walk every day and pretty much stuck by our plan.
Friar’s (Kali’s) was $16 for 2 chairs and an umbrella which also includes 2 fruit punches.

There was a wedding at Friar’s Bay Beach Club this day. It was weird – first we saw all these people dressed in white walking down the beach, and then the bride and groom showed up all dressed in RED! It was funny because my niece is thinking of getting married in St Maarten next year and wants to wear red. I’ll have to let her know her idea is not all that unique.

That night we decided to try The French Touch for dinner and I made a reservation for their best table. They seated us right by the water. It was really beautiful. I ordered Dover Sole and George had mahi mahi, which was off the pre fixe menu. My sole was around $38 and the pre fixe menu was around $29. With 4 glasses of wine the bill came to around $94, which didn’t include the tip. I gave them $120 and kept waiting for the change. I typically leave a 20% tip, but 27% was a bit much. I finally asked for the change and he brought it back. The food was only so-so. I split George’s salad with him and he had dessert. All I had was the fish with some small sides. The fish was filleted at the table, but still had several bones in it. On a scale of 1-10; I’d give it a 6. The view I’d definitely give a 10.

On Sunday, we had our usual walk, then decided to stick by the pool that day. I think we figured the beaches would be pretty crowded because it was Mothers’ Day. We had lunch at PLP, which was very good.

That evening for dinner, we decided to go to Halsey’s. We were able to find a spot across the street and walked over. Dinner was filet mignon for George, and I had a stuffed chicken, which was very tasty. I ordered the cream of broccoli soup and George had shrimp cocktail. I also, for some strange reason, ordered this olive appetizer, which was supposed to come with an assortment of olives, artichoke hearts and pepperocini (2 things I absolutely love). Well, all I got was a dish of olives, no artichokes and no pepperocini. When I asked our server where they were; she said that’s the way it comes. For $6.95 for a dish of olives (albeit, good ones) I thought that was a bit high. Can’t recall what the cost on this one was, but out of score of 10; I’d give it an 8. * would’ve been higher if I’d gotten my artichokes and pepperocini <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> We stopped on the way back at Piece of Cake and got some dessert to take back. Good, not fabulous. When we left Halsey’s; there was a guy standing near our car. We stayed back and were waiting for him to leave and he finally walked off down the road. I don’t know if he was trying to get people into the restaurants or what, but it seemed a little strange to me.

Monday, was off to Mullet. I love this beach! $16 for 2 chairs and an umbrella. The water was great, although as I get older, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to get up the over the hill from the water to the beach. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" />

We decided to give La Guinguette another chance for dinner. I had a beef brochette and George had shrimp & scallops. It was very good. Dessert was crepes suzette and chocolate crepes. YUM! Ok, their score went up to a 9 out of 10. With 4 glasses of wine and 2 desserts; the bill came to a little over $100 (including nice tip).

Once again, to Mullet and the usual. Wednesday was SkipJack’s. I was disappointed as we really like this place. I wasn’t super hungry, so I ordered a bowl of crab/corn chowder and a Caesar salad. The chowder wasn’t nearly as good as I remember. It seemed there was very little crab and a lot of the “fake” crab. The salad was just ok. George ordered a crab crusted tilapia, which he said was ok. We had some butter, which had turned rancid – YUCK! We asked the waiter to replace it and he didn’t seem like he believed us that the butter was bad. Service was only so-so. Neil was leaving this evening with the Celine and the “boat people”. One of the folks going on the boat stopped by our table as we were taking pictures of each other and asked if we wanted our picture taken, which I thought was very nice. We left there and headed back to PLP, to hear the band and have a few drinks. Dinner was somewhere in the high $70 range. Scale of 1-10; I’d give this one a 4. When we got to PLP, the Celine crowd was starting to arrive and the bartender was going crazy. We sat at the bar for awhile and had a few drinks. The band was fun and we had a good time. This place is so convenient for us.Good food and great service. Thanks Valerie and Kaneesha (sp?)

Thursday, we went to Mullet and the waves were so huge, there were guys surfing on surfboards. People were just lined up along the beach watching the waves come in. I’ve never seen it like that before. We decided to head over to Friar’s to see if that was any better, but the waves were pretty rough there too and since George is not a swimmer; we decided not to take a chance. We then headed over to Galion, which was extremely calm, but the seaweed was really prevalent and the chairs were going for $22 with an umbrella. The sky was pretty dark at this point and we had a few sprinkles on our way over, so decided to head back to the pool. Of course, the weather cleared up, but we ended up meeting 2 couples from NJ, who are also owners at PDP. We spent quite a bit of time in the pool. There is a new restaurant at PDP called La Dolce Vita, which is where Le Baccara used to be (in the casino). This was our anniversary, so we wanted to go someplace really nice. The food was great and the service, excellent. They serve a complimentary bruschetta. I had a delicious tri-color salad for my entrée and George had a shrimp cocktail. He had filet mignon and I had veal milanaise, which was served with more tri-color salad. They also provide an assortment of different olive oils and vinegar, which was a nice touch. We both had dessert, tiramisu for George and I can’t remember what I had, but I remember it was very good. Bill came to about $140 for several glasses of wine, appetizer, entrees and dessert and coffee, which I thought was reasonable. Rate this one a 9 out of 10, only because I didn’t care for the view of the casino. Detracted a bit from the romantic atmosphere. So, it’s ok, if the chef decided to stay in our studio and we had to move. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Trip home was very uneventful. Dropped cell phone off at RP and car off at Unity. No problems with check-in, although I did notice they were charging people for overweight luggage and they were really upset (this was Continental). Breezed thru everything leaving SXM and coming into NJ. Only negative was when we got to Newark and had to “hover” for a bit before we could land. If the airlines want to reduce fuel costs; they should really be better prepared for their jets to take off and land. Can only imagine what it costs to have those planes circle and sit on runways. Newark is famous for this, though.
Luggage took forever to come out too, so we were supposed to be into Newark at 5:30 pm and never actually left the airport until 7 pm.

Planning for next year. My niece wants to get married in SXM and I want to help her plan. Trying to find a nice place for a reception - not on the beach and not too expensive, but nice atmosphere and good food.