TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin And so it begins.....

And so it begins.......

The past two months have been very stressful for my family - all the typical things that can come up and all of them well resolved - but our SXM vacation came very close to a last minute cancellation because of DH’s need for surgery and the uncertainty as to how it would go. Not life threatening surgery but surgery none the less and all surgery becomes major when it’s yours. He had his two week post surgical check-up last week and the doctor saw no reason he couldn’t benefit from recuperating on a warm sunny beach so we were good to go as long as he promised to rest up and take it easy.

We had reserved a unit at BSV at least a year ago and after JB cancelled our original flights we rebooked with AA and were able to get good flights from our regional airport and in First Class no less.

All that stood in our way was wading through the currently required testing protocols and we knew we should be Golden since we had both completed our Covid vaccinations as well as the waiting period for maximum benefit. So we made our appointments for and got our PCR tests done and we thought we were home free.

As instructed by the local hospital lab who did them, I went Monday morning to pick up the hard copies and they had no record of us having been tested and no idea why. My heart dropped into my shoes because we had problems last November with the testing and approvals and this was deja vu. After much ado and a few tears on my part, daughter Kimby to the rescue once again. She found a local lab that would allow us to do walk-in antigen testing that was acceptable to EHAS and would allow us to walk out with the paperwork fifteen minutes later. She even picked us up and drove us there advocating on our behalf every inch of the way. She submitted the paperwork to SXM and we both had our approvals within two hours. There is a God in heaven, for sure.

So here we are, happily ensconced in our favorite BSV unit. No sleep last night since we had early flights and our driver was picking us up at 4 a.m. but all things in consideration, it was worth the tears, stress and added anxiety just to be here. The property looks lovely and even having been here last November I can still see signs of the constant up-grading and improvements the owners make.

We flew AA from White Plains to Charlotte and then into SXM. First Class and Business were full on both flights but the rest of the plane was pretty much empty - I think they said the total flight load was only 55 people. For reasons that aren’t worth going into, I did wheelchair service in Charlotte and SXM. We actually landed about five minutes early and they whisked us off the plane and through the airport including claiming our checked luggage and we were met by Lesley Bruce of Kenny’s Car Rentals and in our rental car in about a half an hour and we were on our way to sixteen days of ilon bliss.

Our unit had already been efficiently stocked by Jeannie of Shopndrop grocery provisioning service. We unpacked our luggage and put everything away and headed out to Mark’s Place for lunch. I had the chicken Caesar salad and John had their yummy steamed mussels which, with a few glasses of iced tea, came to a whopping $40.00. They do NOT include the service as so many places do these days and they DO allow you to include as much of a gratuity as you choose on your charge card.

After lunch we picked up a few items at Carrefour I had forgotten to order and took a short ride before calling it a day. Off to lalaland to hopefully find some of the sleep we misplaced yesterday.

And so it has begun...........

Sounds like you had a few bumps in the road, but it's great you finally made it. Enjoy !!! Sounds like you earned it !!

The important thing is that you made it! What trip or vacation ever goes smoothly without a few 'hitches' along the way? Now you can enjoy the weather and relax for the next two weeks.

Enjoy every minute of your much needed vacation. Hope the ''time bandit'' doesn't rob you of the time spent there. I swear i never had a faster three weeks in my life.

I hope you and your husband have a wonderful, restful and stress free visit!

Thanks for checking in. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures.

Welcome back Pat and John!

I'm so happy to see you are finally there Pat. I'll be thinking of you and John and what a wonderful time you'll be having over the next couple of weeks. Enjoy every minute of it. Looking forward to hearing about your days.

Always great to hear someone has persevered and arrived safely for a fabulous vacation in Paradise - ENJOY! And we can all share vicariously

Welcome home Pat! So happy you made it. Enjoy! We certainly did!

Thank you all for your thoughts and good wishes. I’m sure our time here will be wonderful as it always is. And it’s amazing how a good nights sleep can make all things seem better and better things even better yet, even being in St. Maarten.

As quiet as our trips generally are, I’m thinking this one will be even moreso and I hope you aren’t bored to tears but it will be what it will be.

This morning there is almost no seaweed along the stretch of our beach and I see one working ship and one cruise ship in the near waters. What lovely sights and sounds to awake to. But the mere fact of being here is wonderful.

Hi Pat,

I hope you enjoy a relaxing and zero-stress vacation. We’re heading down next Friday - it’s supposed to snow here today so that makes the upcoming trip that much better.

Glad the seaweed has subsided!

Kind regards,

Cathy

Pat & John have a wonderful vacation. Looking forward to hearing about your trip as you see fit.

Wow Pat! What would you do without Kim?? Rhetorical question, of course....crazy that you had testing problems again! I'm so happy you and John are back in your happy place; give my traveling buddies a big hug from me and "Richard".

Wow, lady, you sure have had more than your fair share of problems with all this testing stuff!!!

16 days???????? How did you talk John into that??

Enjoy!!

Georgia,

Re Kim - I might not be here in SXM for starters, and re your good buds - Will do when I see them.

Carol,

For once I just did it with no discussion first but since he’s still recuperating he hasn’t given me any argument. However, we’ll see what happens around about day ten since that’s about when he usually gets antsy. Funny thing though about this trip - he was actually more determined we make it than I was and that’s a huge switch. 😊😊

Welcome to the island Pat. Hope you and John have as much fun and relaxation as we are having. Maybe our paths will cross.

Pat--no place better on earth to recover than at BSV!!

Glad you were able to negotiate all those hoops. Enjoy your trip.

Welcome back Dear Folks and just enjoy your vacation by just chilling and taking it easy.

Hope you and John relax and have a fabulous "boring" 16 day vacation like we did in March. Love "boring" vacations!!!