TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin First Day

Our car arrived at 3:15 am for our 5:30 departure from DFW to SXM. TSA PreCheck doesn’t open until 5:00 am, so we stood in line for about25 minutes to pass the regular way. Not really a big deal, as the rest of the flight was uneventful other than our bags still being in MIA. Supposedly, they are being delivered to GCBC today.

Having entered the gate to GCBC, we were met by a new person as we parked the car to give us our keys, towels, and other notices--totally bypassing the normal check in procedure. Ah, the privileges of ownership. A tiny gesture like this erased the unpleasantness of delayed bags. We are back and happy.

We ran into Santana and talked with her for a while, located the 3 resident cats to let them know they have a reliable source of food for the next 29 nights. I ordered the obligatory Ti-Punch from the bar while opening up our tab and just checked over the place. Everything seems in order.

It seems they have a new guard/security service as of earlier this month. Inquiring about our old guard buddies I learned Gary is now with them and Noah wasn’t sure about Julio. I hope he’s just on vacation as we’ve become accustomed to plying him with coffee in the mornings and an occasional bowl of bull foot soup.

We had reservations at Le Bistronome for dinner and were anxious to get back as they were closed during our September trip. I’ve decided to try new/different dishes this trip, but started this meal with the usual tuna carpaccio in a Tahitian style, and then Mrs. Cruzer and I ordered the nightly specials of duck confit stuffed with foie gras and mushrooms, in a crispy shell. Excellent. The other dish was essentially a leg of lamb pot pie, with the pie being puff pastry dough. Something completely different for me, and tasty as well. As usual, when we share meals, I had the lions share. A perfect meal to end our first day.

Some pictures are included. The sun sets this time of the year behind a hill, so no chance of a green flash. But, there’s a glow at sunset that illuminates the shore—sort of like Alpenglow in the mountains. Very pretty.

Oh, so excited you are back on island and we can look forward to a bunch more lovely pictures! Enjoy!

Other than the luggage not with the program. Sounds like a great way to start your time on the island!! We've had the breakfast at GCBC! So good!! We stayed once at Doves nest up the block, but never at GCBC, sounds really nice! Looking forward to more food reviews and photos!

Very nice first day report, and gorgeous pictures!

One of the reasons we tried Le Bistronome was based on one of your prior reports. I’ll have to try the carpaccio on the next trip.

A month in SXM sounds glorious. I’m so jealous!

I believe you took a photo of Zanshin anchored right in front of the setting sun!

Gorgeous pics!