TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Another day in paradise

The ladies wanted to shop for new suits at endless summer. They were successful and found me a couple too. After a long day poolside we BBQed prime New York steaks we brought on our deck and played a little low stake cards. Life is good on da island.

Sounds good! Enjoy!

Off to Anse Marcel for today. Reserved a cabana for lunch.

Oh, NOW I'm jealous!! Enjoy!

I'm jealous too!
Hopefully Next trip...... need Pictures!!!

Can you post pictures of the new suits?

hope water isn't off at that end? Tuesday French side? Hope you have a great day!!

I was concerned at first about the water being off but Whatsapped them yesterday and they said they have own water tank. Day was great and lunch was excellent as expected. Will be going again next week.

What is the secret to getting steaks to the island? What to do and what not to do.

Water is off in Orient Village but all restaurants have back up cisterns. Just left Bikini. You cannot beat those ocean side tables.
carib cheers,
doctorj

Check a cooler as luggage. No dry ice, just regular ice. We've taken a polar bear cooler for years with never a problem. Taking leftovers home is another story, so consume everything you take. We go for 8 weeks, so we always take a cooler with meat that's hard to find, or very expensive on island. Still buy most of our stuff, so still contributing to the economy.

Bring your own from home. That's what we do. Polar Bear cooler all the way from west coast. Vacuum sealed. Before we go to airport cooler is loaded and put in freezer 2 days ahead. Taken out before on way to airport. Never a problem.

So, thats two votes in the thread for the polar bear cooler. Other than insulating, they must be good at no leakage in the cargo hold/handling, etc. Is your ice 100% frozen on arrival or some melt?


Looked them up since I wrote above and see they are just that.

Do you guys have “12 can,24 can, or 48 can” or other size cooler. Soft sided? And you both check the meat as baggage?

Well here’s another vote for Polar Bear. We don’t vacuum seal our steaks but we do deep freeze them, packing the cooler as the last thing we do the morning of our flight and then we pack the cooler solid so there is little or no airspace around the cooler items. Coming from the East coast we don’t travel as far as Scuba but the cooler bag is still in transit at least twelve to fourteen hours minimum and things are always still solidly frozen upon arrival. We haven’t brought frozen items for the past year or two because we’ve been able to find quality items on island but we used to travel as a family of four to six adults and it was well worth the effort.

Never had any leakage of any type and we always tagged and shipped the cooler bag.

I love my Polar Bear! 😊😊

We don't put ice in cooler. As pat said we pack it really tight and put in freezer a couple days before we travel.

AO Coolers are very good as well. Very similar to polar bear but usually a bit cheaper.

I am confused, why are people bringing food with them. Is it special stuff, unavailable on the island?

I used to bring food for many reasons - availability on island back thirty or so years ago of things we would enjoy; the convenience of not wanting to have to ‘shop’ while on vacation; the cost of feeding four to six people three meals a day for two weeks.....but today, for just two of us I couldn’t be bothered unless it’s something special that I really question being able to get on the island. But we all have our reasons for doing whatever. Some people hate to cook, shop or whatever and hard as it is to believe some of us don’t enjoy having to eat every meal out and would rather reach into our freezer and haul out meatballs and sauce from home for an easy dinner. 😊😊

That's why we do it. Better steaks, wild caught Alaska salmon and game meats to cook for us along with giving to island friends and some special cuts not available here.

Forgive if I sounded condescending, it was my intention, and I see what your saying Pat. I understand both the 'not wanting to cook' and the desire have something unavailable on the island but for me I hate carrying any more than I have to, especially a beach vacation, so to heft a cooler AND luggage around is not something I will ever do. However I challenge Scubaman to check out what Carrefour has to offer. I bought wild-caught salmon twice and the juiciest, tastiest ribeye I have had in a long time.

Challenge not needed. Have been shopping at carefore for years and Grand Marche long before Carefore. I pride myself on the salmon I catch and prepare. Would never order it in a restaurant or a market for any reason. As for lugging a cooler, I slip mine in a checked duffle with shoes and other stuff. We usually fly FC for that great a distance and are allowed 2 checked bags each at 70lbs each.

Not condescending at all. I’m often curious as to what motivates people to do things that are absolutely in opposition to what I might do. And believe me, some of the really strange things I do leave people scratching their heads, too. I’m one of the few people I know who travels with my own night lights - need I say more? 😊😊

And on another note, like Scuba, traveling in First or Business gives you those extra free bags to ship as opposed to $30.00 plus per bag if you have to pay to ship them. Our last trip we shipped two carry-on bags each as opposed to one normal sized bag each. DH was still recouping from surgery and couldn’t lift the heavier bags and neither could I, so like most things when it comes to vacationing preferences. WHATEVER WORKS, RIGHT? 😉😉

Like Scuba, check the polar bear cooler as a piece of luggage (we do add ice packs, but we spend the night in a hotel the night before our flight), so it's about 30 hours from packing to unpacking. Everything still frozen solid. Like Scuba, we usually spring for first class tickets, so no extra expense. Now, if we were going for 2 x weeks, no. But for 8 weeks, definitely worth it. JMO.

Speaking of Polar Bear Coolers, I got an email yesterday with their 2 for 1 offer that usually comes around Christmas. It's a little different in that you have to get two of the same kind if I am reading it correctly. Their is a different discount code for each cooler. I.e. If you order the 24 pack soft sided cooler the discount code is 24PACK to get another free.

I'm with you!! The less to carry the better!
Plus right now the island needs our business.

We do not cook much, so that makes a big difference . To those who love to BBQ etc. bringing their favorites is different.
A sandwich, eggs or soup is no problem for nights we stay in.

It's about what YOU are comfortable with. No right or wrong. We always carry a mini cooler onboard with us, one that would fit INSIDE a carry-on bag, so not a huge amount of stuff. .

Exactly...I thought that is what I said--lol

Lots of fun, but a tad pricey. Went there last week.

And what are you referring to? If it's Anse Marcel it's all about the ambiance.