TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report 10.26-11.6.18 Part 2

We began to get into Lazy Mode by Sunday. Hanging around the villa, swimming, napping. Grabbed some groceries at Market Garden after a late breakfast at Zee Best. Brought home a rotisserie chicken and salad fixings.

Monday 10/29 was breakfast at the yacht club. Drunken pancakes with rum sauce, and eggs benedict.
Along with the requisite mimosa’s!







Tried to go to Friar’s Bay Beach Café’ but they were not open on a Monday. And after that bumpy ride down the road to reach Friar’s Bay!

Stopped in Grand Case to check on Captain Frenchy’s, as we knew Rainbow would not be opening until the 10th. No luck. A couple of chairs were out, but dead, dead, dead. Limited bar service from a container, but no food.

So….we continued our trek and landed at Bikini on Orient Beach. Chairs were free and we ate a fabulous lunch there, along with a “blue bottle”. This was a good choice.

Seafood cassoulet, and a steak. Hubby raved about the "Bikini Fish Pot"..jumbo shrimp, mahi & red snapper in a lobster sauce.








After a filling meal at lunchtime we just stopped for take-out at the Spaghetti House in Jordan Village. Two gnocchi Bolognese to go, and we ate at home, adding a small side salad.



Tuesday 10/30

Very lazy morning…we just walked down the beach sans shoes to have breakfast at El Zafiro. They are now brining in cruisers with the SST Company (St Maarten Sightseeing Tours). There were buses and 4 wheelers in the parking lot. They had a singer, a lunch, and unlimited rum punches for those with pink wristbands from the cruise. To say that it was noisy and chaotic would be an understatement. You haven’t seen anything until you see people attempting to drink their fill of free rum punches at 11:00 am while you are attempting to eat breakfast and stare at the beach. Thankfully we had a table before they descended upon the chairs near the bar for their lunch







The singer they had at El Zafiro cracked me up! He was from Venezuela, and when singing Coldplay’s song Yellow, it came out “It was all Jell-O”. I will never, ever hear that song again without smiling at this memory.

After breakfast we headed over to the Towers. I posted about that visit here:
http://www.traveltalkonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/173228/2.html


Found some more pictures since then, and here are samples of the new outdoor lounge furniture and the inside furnishings. Not a fan of the items for the living rooms chosen by management. (Towers people, if you are reading this, please do not copy or link my post to any other site. Thank you.)








After this depressing visit we went to Zee Best Bakery on Airport Road and got Cubano paninis to-go. Back to the pool. Picture says it all!




As always, stay tuned for more!

Another wonderful report - thank you! Hoping to make my own memories in FOUR days.

What is so great about the "drunken pancakes" at SMYC? They look pretty ordinary.

I can see what you mean about the inside furniture. Velvet doesn't exactly scream "beach." LOL

Agreed, so what is the deal with drunken pancakes? What's in them?? And the mimosa looked very short on OJ.. And Linda is right, velvet in the Caribbean??? Really?? Bikini looks great though!!!

The pancakes themselves are pretty ordinary. It's that coconutty, rummy syrup! lol

Dang straight they are short on o.j....aren't they supposed to be? ha ha

Linda, only kitty I interacted with this trip was the ratter they have at Dinghy Dock and Seth feeds to keep around. We did however get a dog for the week. She will appear in a later report. I wonder if she's abandoned, cuz we were almost ready to bring her home.

And Clarence thinks leather couches will be a good idea. WHAT?!

That fiber board crap will not stand up....feet kicking it, suitcases against the edge, mops, vacuums. It will be nicked in a month.

When I had those drunken pancakes they were very heavy and reminded me of a giant coconut macaroon with syrup. Would never order them again. Very heavy, chewy and overpowered with coconut.

Great reports, enjoying them and trying to imagine just being there and getting hungry looking at the photos! We also have been bombarded while on a nice quiet beach and suddenly invaded by cruisers. It's unreal to watch them trying to get their monies worth with the so called "free drinks". Then they throw their garbage all over, use the rest room and take off back to the ship. I have seen this happen many times in the BVI. They seem to have no respect for the islands they visit. After all, they are on vacation.

Seen that happen at Rainbow in Grand Case. Some of those excursions are just a big drunk fest.

Probably the best trip report I have ever read. Thank you for the pictures and detail.
Jim

Thanks for a very nice report.

Thanks for the pics. We ate breakfast at elZafiro everyday, but usual finished by 9, BEFORE the "boat" people came. In our beach front chairs when they arrived and never looked back.

Norm--just realized that you just got back from SXM! Hope it was a great trip. Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Great report! About the singer....I have a friend from Argentina and there the “ll” is also pronounced with a “ja” sound. Think “tortijas” for “tortillas”. It does take some getting used to!

QUOTE: "The singer they had at El Zafiro cracked me up! He was from Venezuela, and when singing Coldplay’s song Yellow, it came out “It was all Jell-O”. I will never, ever hear that song again without smiling at this memory."

Great trip report and pictures! TFS.

I personally loved the coconut pancakes when we were there. But then I love anything coconut.

And agree that furniture at the Towers is dang ugly!

"And agree that furniture at the Towers is dang ugly! "
Yes they are and I'm praying that when Diamond finishes Royal Palm and Flamingo they don't use the same interior decorator Towers did.

I never cared for the last re-do that Diamond did anyway. It was kind of ugly and plain and could have been anywhere in the world.. No indication that it was anywhere in the Caribbean.

Yes. Hopefully it will be a lot better.

I think the quality of breakfast food has slipped a bit at SMYC. Don't get me wrong still love the location but eggs Benedict haven't been the same. They were good this trip and trip before but they use to be excellent. I ate the drunken pancakes and they were ok, rum sauce was very thick and sausage were very average supermarket type links. Bloody Mary's elevated the breakfast experience.

Yep. Those bloody mary's are in a class all their own.

Absolutely! A mimosa only needs enough oj to give the champagne a light tinge of orange. Any more is too much!

Huh, OK. I like mine heavy on OJ. I usually do 1 to 1 when I'm making them at home--or more likely, in SXM! I am so happy I discovered those mini prosecco bottles on SXM, as they are GREAT for mimosas! Of course most bars use disgusting STUFF instead of real OJ anyway.

I love your photos!!!!

We are busy packing for our trip home tomorrow and
The sun is shining again! Oh no, the bathing suits are on the bottom
of the suitcase. 😂


We have had a wonderful 15 days here, even with the downpours.
Now we need a vacation to recover from all the fun.

Now we get to see our grandchildren and hope we have no
surprises from all the rain at home.