TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Belated Trip Report - Jan. 14-28, 2023

Travel:
Had to spend a night in Atlanta on the way down because a 40-minute connection there seemed too tight to risk. Miss the nonstops from MSP on Delta or Sun Country.
Traveled with carry-on only, but didn’t save any time on arrival because of the long lines through immigration. Departure was much quicker – from front door to waiting area in about 15 minutes – because we checked in online and went directly to security.

Accommodations:
Traded our off-season unit for these two weeks at Divi, and were lucky to stay in the same unit for both weeks. Resort is looking good.

Meals:
As always, enjoyed some wonderful meals on the island:
New to us – Be Kool, Pirate’s Hideout (Orient), and Rosemary’s (Marigot) for lunch and dinners at Beirut and LaRosa.
Favorites we revisited: The Palms, Le Moulin Fou, La Villa, Chesterfields, St. Martin Yacht Club, The French Touch (Old Street, Philipsburg), Mark’s Place (take out our first night) and Reveil Matin.
Divi: Gizmos, Pure Ocean and Mix bar
Disappointed in Da Waterhole (Mullet) – slow, unfriendly and disorganized service and so/so food for our lunch.
We had intended to try more new places, but didn’t want to miss some favorites.

Misc.
Since we’ve visited often, we had a low-key trip and spent much of our time just relaxing on the Divi beach, which had no sargassum issue. Was surprised at how much cooler the air and water temperatures felt in January, compared to March, when we have usually traveled.

Spent only one day at Orient because of the sargassum. Nice day at Mullet, but agree with others’ comments about how over-packed the chair set up has become.

Checked out Lucky, the new store by the hospital. Large selection of cosmetics and decent assortment of food. No other customers when we were there mid-afternoon, so it felt a bit odd. Were able to find Neutrogena sunscreen, which we hadn’t been able to locate at other shops.

Enjoyed discovering Oh My Gauze shop in Old Street and my daughter and I bought several items of their comfortable clothing. Lovely owners and nicely made clothing. Also found some nice items at the Marigot market on this visit – island art prints, jewelry and a beach coverup.

Picked up relatives spending a day on the island from a country-western-themed cruise. A little tricky to meet them, because there weren’t convenient places to park by their exit and they aren’t able to walk far. Did a round-the-island drive to show these first timers the sites. Their boat was docked until 11 p.m., which allowed that evening’s entertainment to fly in to SXM, perform their show, and fly out again, without having to travel on the boat. Apparently, many of the back-up and lesser-known performers stay on the cruise, but they have late departures from Florida, SXM and Puerto Rico, so the big names can drop in only for an evening performance.

Nice. Curious who the big name entertainers were.

I'm not a country fan, so don't really know how big a deal the “big names” were but here's a link that lists them. Our relatives said they did enjoy many of the less famous performers too. They only did two stops on the weeklong cruise, so had lots of time to go to performances throughout the day and evening.

https://themusicuniverse.com/country-music-cruise-2023-lineup-detailed/

Thanks for the report.

I can't say I was very impressed with the Waterhole either. Hopefully others have had better experiences.

The few times we have been to The Waterhole we have always been pleased. We didn't eat there this last May but went three times the year before.

The one and only time we went, the service was terrible and the food was meh! It's nice to have a real toilet, but I'd much prefer eating Rosie's ribs at my beach chair, or my own 'buffet' from home.

I was at the Waterhole last week. They wanted $30 for chairs and umbrella and $6 for a beer. We went to Rosie's next door, $3 for beers and $20 for chairs and umbrella.

This last time we had ribs at Rosie's they were dry and meatless. This last May I opted for a burger. The mystery meat wasn't like any burger I've had anywhere. Not as good as they've been in past years. I'll either go to Waterhole or pack my own food.

Don't ever go to Rosie's and get a burger. They were never good there. Get ribs or chicken.

As I said last time I got ribs at Rosies they were dry and meatless. Never tried their chicken but at this point I might never.