TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Another Awesome Trip

Well we made it home Friday March 31/23. It was so nice to be back on the island after a couple of years. Even though our first night was a bit of a panic, with our room not being avail at Azure, it ended up to be yet again, another great vacation.
After we were finally settled into our 2 bedroom at Royal Palm by second afternoon, it was all up hill from there. I will say that the Royal Palm is very nicely re-done. Very clean, and bright. My only thoughts on the rooms were they could have bought better beds, they were very hard and uncomfortable, lol The other issue was not being able to control the A/c,,,it was a bit warm by times, but I am sure that is centrally controlled for people who want to keep windows and doors open and run A/C continually, I get that.

The Yacht Club is certainly a go to for us......wonderful breakfasts, drinks, and nice viewing of the yachts and smaller boats coming and going. Always treated well there and the Caesars are pretty good too. Its right across the street, so very handy.
Favourite meals while on the island: (sorry Carol, not great with pics, and I know how much people like to see them)
The Palms: again, never disappoints
Moulin Fou was fabulous,,,didn't make it there on last visit, but will not miss it again.- hopped over to HOle in wall after, but it was too loud to even think, let alone talk,,we did have a few drinks out back on the patio.
Greenhouse - Simpson Bay - probably the best fish and chips I have had on the island to date!
Pineapple Petes never disappoints either.....all 6 of us enjoyed our time there. Then stopped at Toppers for ice cream treats on walk back to Royal Palm
Tap n Grill - I have to say that the hamburger and fresh cut fries have to be the best of that type of food on the island. We did not make it to Krave, but all 6 of us could not believe how good the hamburg was!! And, it was the only place we visited that actually had yummy fresh cut fries. We stayed on and it was a very fun night. Steve the bartender there is a great guy!!


We did try the new Astra Steak House, everyone except me said their meal was great. My only problem was my steak was rare when I asked for medium well.....no biggee
Cafe Rembrandt - we really enjoyed out time there, but that was because we got to hear Ronnie's band. I was expected a better selection for food. Really only sausage and the Dutch sauerkraut mixed with taters, or kale mixed with taters. I had viewed the menu online, but it was obviously outdated, lol Was really looking forward to Shepherd's pie there. Oh well, it is a very neat little spot and will definitely visit again.

We took a boat tour with Eagles out of Bobbies marina. Coy and James were very friendly and sure knew what they were doing. It was a 6 hour tour, snorkeling, etc. We were served a very good ham and cheese sandwich, then to our surprise he stopped back in Simpson Bay by Kim Sha Beach and we were served, chicken, ribs, potatoe salad, caesar salad - all very good. This is where my hubby got a ride in a dinghy to the dock by Royal Palm,,,he was feeling a bit sea sick, lol and we still had more snorkeling by Little Bay, etc. But for 119.00 u.s. per person, we thought it was a very good deal!!

Phillipsburg trip - it was soooooo hot that hubby and I found a seat at Blue Bitch Bar, and waited for the newbies to take a tour around and buy some t shirts, etc. Man it was crowded and just too hot for me. The drinks were cold, so I was very happy to sit and people watch, till all in our group made it back to grab lunch with us. Maybe its just me, but I found that the sun was so intense compared to other times we have been on island. But, then again, we usually go to island in January or Feb so maybe that had something to do with it.

Airport return trip. - Wow,,,it was so crowded and we stood in lines for almost 2 hours. We met Lesley at airport to return van at 2pm,,,our flight was to leave at 4:55pm.....we barely had time to grab a hamburg before finally getting to loading gate. Tons of people. Then when we boarded and there was some kind of labour dispute or slow down?? not sure but we sat on plane for approx 45 mintues before taking off. Not too bad, but it was sure hot on flight home.

Kenny's. - Again, without fail, such excellent service....just cant beat it.

We finally found Dany's at Cupecoy - I know weird that we never made it there before on all of our trips - but, there just was zero beach except for one small area and all beach chairs were gone....so will def try again on our next visit. It truly is beautiful along the cliffs there.

Just wanted to say thanks to all you ttol'ers for answering any questions prior to our trip. This is a great forum and so helpful. Hope you all have safe n happy travels......until next year, take care.

Thanks for the report. Surprised you can't control the thermostat anymore at Royal Palm. I would not like that either.

I tell you, I rarely go to P'burg anymore, as I always find it way hot!!

I'm not sure it would be the reason why your plane was late leaving, but there is some kind of a police go-slow action going on, on the island.

Sounds like another lovely trip!

I'm surprised too as the AC at Flamingo is individually controlled in each room. Same ownership.

God knows we tried....I am always hot,,,so it was a bit much for me....whenever we tried to set to lower temp,,,it just went right back to pre-set.....I had everyone in the group try, as let's face it, I am not great at stuff like that, lol....but it was a no go.
and ya,,,the pilot said,,,there are 10 more passengers to be cleared prior to take off, and due to a labour slow down protest type of thing, it is taking a long time......anyways,,,we made er home.

I would have asked someone at the front desk about the thermostat. Perhaps it was defective.

So, they put most of the passengers on the plane, when there were still a lot of people standing in line to clear out of SXM? That's kinda odd. The immigration officers in SXM could be part of the slowdown, yes. If so, I am surprised that more people haven't complained about lines entering the country.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a great time.

There is a cut off for the AC if the sliding or main door is open but sounds like a call to front desk was in order.

Hi Carol
What happened, is that all of the passengers were on board. We got the usual announcement about ready to take off in 10 minutes, jokes about the take off, weather in Toronto, etc. Then we waited...and waited....and then the pilot made an announcement that all passengers on plane, need to be cleared prior to take off.....then he said they were on a slow down or something, and he thought there were approx 10 passengers on list that they were working on. The pilot himself said it was because of some labour slow movement, that should take like 5 minutes, but he would keep us posted.....so all passengers were on the plain approx 45 minutes and then he said...finally done, we are ready for take off. Not sure I understand why, but that is basically what happened. We were flying Sunwing, and I was pretty apprehensive using them because of all the negative in the news....but I have to say.....it was a good price direct from Toronto - 625.00 pp return, plus baggage of course, etc. The flights were good both going and coming home, and bonus.....our luggage did not get left behind!!! LOL

in hindsight, we should have done that....we did have some doors open just to have air movement as it was real stuffy....next time....but to be honest, we had nothing but mix ups with front desk, so were really hesitant to even call them. We were there 3 days when they called our room, asked when I was checking into my "other" two units booked thru RCI???? What??? They argued with me when I said I certainly did NOT have two more reservations....They said I had to call RCI or I would be charged. I couldnt believe my ears. So, of course I called RCI,,,they had NOT contacted resort and did not have two other rooms booked. They sent a print out of all my stuff from them and I had to go and spend another half hour of my precious time with the manager. Ya,,,the front desk really needs some serious work at Royal Palm,,,so we just avoided them at all costs......we only had a week and after the first night and second day mess up with them, we carried on.....lol

OK, the situation with your reservations, at both places, seemed very out of sorts.

But it sounds like the issue with the a/c was leaving the door open. If you had gone to the front desk, you might have found that out. I read today that cruise lines are doing that kind of thing, and shutting off all lights, etc, when people not in room. I hadn't heard of hotels doing that, but I guess they do.

Years ago when we were traveling through Italy the AC whould shut off when we opened the door or windows and came back on after closing them. I remenber something about the lights too but it's been too long to recall.

Lesson learned re doors open and A/c units......makes sense.
We have a year to think about whether we will go back to Royal Palm. I love love the location, so handy to everything, but I am sure we can look at other options, even just for a more comfortable bed, lol
I never even thought about the a/c being controlled by open or shut doors. Oh well,,,everyday a person learns something new. All Good.

I find the beds very comfortable. Should be same at both sister resorts.

Shepherds Pie in a Dutch cafe? Sorry you were disappointed, but they only serve Dutch snacks as I think I mentioned when it was first discussed.

Sounds like staff at RP haven't changed, but glad you blew it off and had a fun time!

Thanks very much for the kind words and an excellent report.

Meg,

Happy that when all was said and done, you were able to have another enjoyable visit. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

Sorry for your troubles, but all in all sounds like you had a great time. We were on island 3/31 but wasn't aware of any "slow-downs" could it have been just at the airport? We flew home 4/1

Hi there....we flew out Thursday April 6th.....we got there early.....was a lot of people in line for Sunwing flights and others......we expected it.......it was just once we got on the plane when pilot made announcement that we knew anything of it.
And yes, we did have a great time. Kinda frustrating when we first arrived, to say the least, but hey! we were back on our favourite island. I can tell ya, we were not long grabbing an ice cold drink, tee hee.......

My pleasure! I swear next time I will try to get some pics and upload of some of our meals. Moulin Fou was outstanding and presented so well.......even with a few upsets, the good times far outweigh any minor troubles.