TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report..1st Nine Days starting 2/20

Arrived on the Delta nonstop from Minneapolis on Thursday, 2/20. Great arrival, with deplaning via a jetway. There was hardly any wait at the immigration machines and the helpful agents got us through quickly, since we'd preregistered online. Our daughter, son in law and 2 young grandkids got diverted to the in-person line because of the kids, which cleared them even quicker. Only a slight wait for bags. Amazing the difference arriving on a Thursday vs. Saturday.

Signed our car rental forms with Roberto from Phoenix, who met us at the door, and headed out to Divi. Spent 2 nights in hotel rooms before we moved into our 2 1-bedroom units.

Restaurants:
Since it's 7 of us this week, including kids 2 and 5, we're making reservations and usually choosing more casual places with outside tables.

We've enjoyed good meals and service at:
Gingerbread Cafe at Belair. Rack of lamb special on Tuesday night was especially good.

Izy's. New owner gave us a warm welcome and food was excellent. Appreciated their gesture in offering up the kids meals quickly before the rest of the orders so they were engaged. Actually preferred the new owner's style. He was helpful and directed his staff well, without the too intense supervision of the previous guy that was almost uncomfortable to watch.

Chesterfields
Le Moulin Fou
Beirut
Greenhouse in Philipsburg
Rosemary's at Marigot market

Also had several lunches and casual dinners at Divi. Food and service have been OK, just not as good as you get at most off site restaurants.

Oceans restaurant is now a themed buffet every night. Some tried the Asian night and said it was OK but a bit lacking in choice. Mexican meals at The Shack were good, although more along the street taco style than traditional Mexican. Seabreeze cafe is now open 6 nights a week for dinner, but we only tried it for lunch. Gizmos beach bar is as usual OK food and slow service. Kids liked the pizza on the beach from Slice pizza stand.

Marigot market:
Visited the market on Wednesday and managed to find a few gems of venders amidst all the stands of identical beach wear from Rima's. Bought a beautiful batik beach coverup made in Bali and a pair of lovely earrings from a jewelry maker who's focus is recycling metals. There were a couple of other women selling hand made jewelry as well.

Kids Meals. It became a running joke that the only choices for kids meals at restaurants were chicken nuggets and fries or pasta Alfredo....every time! Of course served without any veggies. Luckily at a few places (Beirut, Chesterfields and Greenhouse) adults were able to get some healthy vegetables like steamed broccoli or carrots with our meals that we could share with the little ones.

Safety. Haven't noticed any situations that made us uncomfortable, but we've visited busy restaurants with safe parking and spent most of our days on the beach at Divi

The grandkids and parents head home today and another friend is flying in for our second week. She's owned a restaurant and worked in the food service industry so she's looking forward to experiencing dining on SXM.

Sounds like a very nice family vacation. Had the grandkids been to SXM before?

Enjoy the rest of your stay.

I hope you enjoyed Rosemary's (my namesake). She's a wonderful warm lady. And the food is inexpensive and good.

Yes, enjoyed Rosemary's. We'd eaten there before so knew it would be good.

The granddaughters were here last year, too, but now, at 2, the youngest can enjoy the beach and pool and stay up late enough for a dinner out, so it was fun to see their enthusiasm.

Oops..just realized I forgot to include Pineapple Pete's in our list of restaurants for our first week when I read ruralcarrier's comment about how busy they were. It's not usually on my list of places to go but it's a good choice with kids, especially since they love to get the free frisbee with their kid's meal and enjoy checking out the arcade room. Our food was better than I remembered and service was good. What I noticed was all the tables reserved for larger groups..don't think there was an empty table when we left about 8 pm

I had not eaten at Pineapple Pete's for several years but did so last August. It was good and everyone last night enjoyed their meals. I told Pierre that I was available for hire to help him count his $$$!! They were insanely busy last night.

Divi is such a nice resort. I really wish they could improve the food and service.

Despite all the different staff and formats for the restaurants Divi has tried over the many years we've stayed here, they just can't seem to find the answer to have their food and service match what you find otherwise around the island. There do seem to be people doing the all inclusive option. I guess if you're a newcomer to the island and have vacationed in Mexico or places like Jamaica, you think that's a good option. Others that seemed to be doing AI were larger family groups with multiple generations and teenagers…gave them flexibility to easily meet up and eat together at different places and times without leaving the resort.

I would never do all inclusive in SXM but definitely NOT at Divi.
The last time we were there in December, we went to their Oceans restaurant. Once.
I had chicken piccata that came the green beans. CANNED green beans. Why? Just WHY?

Every once in a while, we try the restaurant hoping for better food. But we were again disappointed. Although, I will say that the service we had was very good! So that is something.

I can't figure out why Divi food is just so-so. In Aruba Divi Ocean was one of the better places we ate at.