TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin 2017 Trip Part 1

Saturday, Aug. 26
Park/Sleep/Fly at the Holiday Inn Airport in Ft. Myers. Room will be at the end of our trip. We arrived here at 3:45 a.m. and were on the shuttle by 4 a.m. Flight at 6:20 a.m. Delta bag check and flights were great. Delta Comfort Seats ROCK!! Lesley of Kenny’s Rental Cars met us at 2:40 or so at the airport & we were off to Royal Palm by 3 p.m. A bit of a mix-up at RP resulted in us not getting into our room until after 4 p.m. Met Craig from Packlight to receive our rental phone for the week. I had asked for it to be preloaded with $10 of calling time but apparently he does not provide that service. It did have some time remaining from a previous user. I was told to buy a “top up” card if I needed more time and to reimburse them for the $5 of time already on the phone if I used it. Since the phone was for emergencies, we just didn’t need to make any calls all week. Beautiful unit #8403 @ RP. Great view. Unpacked & got a few groceries @ Market Garden. Dinner @ Pineapple Pete’s. Both of us had the Bacon Cheeseburger. HUGE!! Barely finished it.

Sunday, Aug. 27
Had a late breakfast at Chesterfield’s. Never disappoints. Groceries at Grand Marche. Noticed some changes due to it now being a Carrefour store. Back to RP for a pool day. Dinner @ Harry’s for roast meat night. I had the lamb and Cindy had beef. Lots of veggies & large servings of meat. Great meal, good service, and a good value. Off to Hollywood Casino for some entertainment.

Monday, Aug. 28
Breakfast in the room. Pool day. Lunch at the poolside bar & restaurant. OK meal but very slow. Took nearly an hour for 2 sandwiches w/fries. They were not busy. I would hate to see it during high season. Dinner @ IZI. Cindy’s salmon & gnocci were excellent. My tortellini with sausage was outstanding. I had leftovers for lunch later in the week. Great service & food. Off to Princess for some entertainment.

Hi. Thanks for the report. Where is Harry's? I assume it is run by the same guy who used to own Uncle Harry's??

Poolside bar and restaurant at Royal Palm has always had terrible service when we have been there, the same as the bar at the Upper View. Diamond needs to figure out how to pay those people enough money to buy them out of their contract to run that bar and the restaurant, as they are terrible!

Harry is next to white swan

The name is familiar, but can't place where White Swan is??

After the bridge going toward airpor direction on your left side. About an eigth a mile past the bridge. After the left its just beyond white swan.

OK, thanks.

Run by Harry's daughter & husband as I understand it. A little out of the way but I thought it was worthwhile. A few local places in the neighborhood as well. Be aware that parking is an issue. Room for 4 or so cars only.

the white swan is the best Chinese on Island. We eat there lots. It is fresh Chinese food. We love it... We go there when on Island... Best of the best... The waitress nadia is a gem. We love her, very professional very helpful. I would highly recommend this chines restaurant, and we know good Chinese food. We lived in New York for many years, If you not good there, you done...

I've honestly never had Chinese food on island, that I remember. Just seems odd to have on island to me..

This is the best fresh food around. We know that as we would not ever eat bad Chinese food... White swan.. Hey you never know. We who love Chinese food know the difference between bad and good... but that's us. We like to think we have had the best of the best living on long Island for many years. Now here in Pa. Stinks. all resturants stink. I have to cook seven days a week. that show bad the food is here... yuk

I felt the same way about German . . . and then I went to Bavaria.

The only time I ever had Chinese on the island was when there was one in the hills at Mullet Bay. That was GOURMET, and had been written up in magazines.

The night I was there, there was a table of 16-18 near us...and the bottles of Dom were flowing! Great Night.