TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Travel report

Been here since March 27, leaving April 10. The first week weather was very windy. Staying at Divi.Property was beautiful and it was great to see many longtime staff. Gizmo's cafe was very good as always how the food at Pure Ocean leaves much to be desired. Overpriced ( they actually charged us $3 dollars for a bottle of water at the Easter Bruch which was $35 each) and the food it self was mediocre at best. Pasta station featured box pasta. Of course they roped my wife into the resort update where we were basically threatened that if we didn't buy into the points club they were going to raise our maintenance fees (which they have done since 1991 anyway)The new pool complex is great. The beach is probably the best on the island for those of us who don't get naked.
As always many good meals. Chesterfields was great: food, service and view. Pineapple Petes ribs were out of this world, very busy. Tried Lagoonies and it was good food and very reasonably priced drinks in Cole Bay Marina. Avantika rocked with some of the best Thai food I have ever had. Moulin Foo is still the best on the island. We tried Emilios which is next to the new Nature reserve park(zip line,chair lift tube slide) and it was excellent. It is in a historic building where the slaves used to boil sugar cane. The food was as good as the ambiance.The Palms was great, the owners make you feel like your are eating in their kitchen, the food was excellent. My wife had surf and turf and her filet was as good as the one I had at Moulon Foo. And the deserts were outrageous. We also were one of the first to try out their new credit card machine. Went to Orient and they are rebuilding.The village looked busy. Went to Le String and saw our old friend John. We used to call him Michael Jordan because he wore Jordan jersey. He had on a SF 49ers shirt so now do we call him Jerry Rice? The food was amazing and very reasonable. Free chairs with lunch. So good to be back

Thanks for the report. Sounds great!

I have never had a problem with Divi's food. Will be there in 39 days ! Glad to hear about the staff. Looking forward to seeing Marisol.

I will be going to Divi for three weeks in June and am sorry to hear about the food. With the new manager (I guess not so new now), I was hoping that would improve. I usually try dinner at Divi once per trip to see if things have changed; they never do. Unlike Don above, I think the food is the least attractive thing about Divi. Love it in all other respects. I personally prefer the Infinity Pool since my unit is steps from that pool but agree the new one is beyond gorgeous; very well done.

Thanks for your report.

We’ve been going to Divi since 2014 and only eaten at pureocean once. We were not impressed. Gizmo’s, The Shack, and Seabreeze always deliver good food. But if fancy food is your thing, eating at Divi will disappoint.

Ate there once for their touted Caribbean buffet. Was not impressed.

Sea breeze was always good but closed during our visit.supposed to be opening up soon. Gizmos is also very good for bar food. We had so many great meals on the island it is sad that Pure Ocean can’t step up their game. Very overpriced for a very small selection of items. We would certainly eat there if the food was better.Another restaurant we tried was Isola. Wow some of the best Italian food we have ever had and we have eaten all over Italy and done Italian in some of the best restaurants in NYC. Had dinner at LePiment in Orient Village and it was its usual delicious dinner with great service. Had lunch at the yacht club, best Bloody Mary on the island and service by Monique was excellent as usual. Airport was not too bad an experience although our direct flight was turned into a 14 hour two flight fiasco by American Airlines.
As far as COVID we were vaccinated and tested so not too worried. About have the wait staff were protecting their chins instead of nose and mouth. Incidence of COVID is very low so not an issue. All us tourists were tested so felt very safe

caribfan--sorry to hear about your flight. What happened?

We usually go to JFK because the flights are cheaper and they always have direct flights even though we live outside Philadelphia. This year there was a direct flight from Philadelphia for a good price so we booked it. A few weeks before we flew they changed the returning flight to a stop in Miami before returning to Philly. So a 3 1/2 hour flight to Miami, which is about how long it is to Philly from SXM. Then 2 1/2 hours from Miami to Philly with a 3 hour layover in between. add the 3 hour Julianna airport experience and you get, as I call it, the "vacation relaxation cancellation".

Ah, ok. I wondered if the flight was cancelled on that day or something. With current flight loads, most airlines are consolidating flights.

I feel your pain. We had a similar situation with a Jet Blue Trip a year or two back. We had a late departure scheduled from SXM so we checked in allowing for that. Check-in was quick and then we waited. And waited. And waited some more until they announced there was a change in plans and our plane would arrive soon but instead of the n/s to JFK we had been rerouted through PR and at that point they had no clue when we would finally arrive in Ny.

As it turned out, PR was not prepared to handle our flight for C&I and in the end, instead of getting to JFK for a 7:30 arrival we finally got there at 2 a.m. but JB did compensate us for the inconvenience - a whopping big $100.00 credit to our travel banks.

Sadly. This stuff can and does happen often and to all the airlines so I guess it’s just a small part of the emotional investment we pay to travel these days.