After a fair amount of morning rain and getting reports of better weather on Orient, we headed over about 9:15, arriving just before 9:45. A pretty quick trip as traffic was very light, with the exception of some slowdowns. in Marigot as they were preparing for some sort of festival or street fair. I had WhatsApp messaged with Orange Fever for reservations. They did respond and indicated pricing of loungers and open times. I had requested a front row spot ($10/lounger) and we were accommodated. Second and other rows are $5 each. Food is served from 12-4 so we headed to the restaurant about 11:50. It was almost full by shortly after noon.
Food choices were mahi, chicken, pizza, and a lobster roll for our group. All was deemed to be good, and we enjoyed beer, wine, and cocktails. The only negative was the actual waiter could have used a little better attitude. It was obvious he did not want to be there. We headed back to the beach about 1:15 as Cody and Ann wanted to parasail, which they did. The cost was $100 for a double ride and $60 for a single person.
I was in and out of the water several times, took a beach walk and had an enjoyable day. It was somewhat windy but no sand blasting like I have seen in the past.
Knowing what we had already experienced with drink and beer prices at Mullet Bay and on Anguilla, I was surprised to see Orange Fever prices were the same as I remembered from last year. $3/beer or a bucket of 5 for $15, although they would not assort the beers in a bucket. Not sure why and that made no sense. Orange Fever was busy the entire time we were there and seemed to be one of the busier places going all the way to Bikini Beach. I settled our bill for the day, paying cash and adding on a generous "tip" for the beach service and the servers.
We left about 3:15 and made very good time going back. The festival in Marigot was going on, lots of food, drinks and loud music but we passed through without incident. I had a low tire warning come on in the car, so I called Mark from Hardy's and arranged to stop by their office on our way back. They checked all the tires and added air to 2 of them. I have been very satisfied when renting from Hardy's. We are driving a Nissan Murano.
A little time at Royal Palm and walked over to Lee's for HH and an appetizer as II was still satisfied from lunch. Lee's was doing a very brisk business and kept getting busier as the evening went on. The others in the group had reservations at Pineapple Pete so I walked down there when I was finished. They were insanely busy with people waiting for a table and also a birthday group in the pool roo. Pierre was literally running at times. I just had a drink there. Once I got a chance to talk to Pierre, he said it has been like this for 4 weeks now. Very glad to see them busy. All enjoyed their meals there as well with 3 in the group having the lobster Thermidor combo.
Was your waiter a maybe 50ish French gentleman? He was our waiter last time and one of the few times we've ever had mediocre service there. Sundays are big days for locals to go to the beach on the French side, so no surprise that they were full.
No, he was in the 30's or so, dark-skinned, pretty stocky and had zero personality. When asked what was on the veggie pizza (there was no mention of the veggies or options of what one could add), he rudely said "vegetables" and that was it. He was also rude to the 17 year old French girl who was the drink order taker and server. She was very nice but several times he took her aside and appeared to be lecturing her on something.
I asked a couple of people about going on Sunday and was told it is not as bad as it used to be and only one larger ship in so I figured if I could get the troops moving at a reasonable time, we would give it a try. Lots of cars when we left but many of the places were not all that busy.
There were two other men there that meet what you possibly described. One is the owner I believe, and the other an employee. They were both ok but a little of the French attitude.
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Glad you had a good day overall.