As our plane turned for final approach into St. Maarten, I had to pinch myself that it was actually happening. Work commitments and having to help my Mom though some difficult health issues had kept us from booking a trip to our favourite island. But finally, a small window of opportunity appeared, and we were able to book a last-minute trip.

I was looking forward to seeing the new developments at the airport. I had spent an hour and a half trying to fill out the Entry form, fiddling with the dates that didn’t work (thanks for the heads up TTOLers) but when we got to the machine only half of our forms had downloaded into their system. Ugh. They really need to get their Entry Form website functional and working. But then it took so long to get the airport (sort of) fixed, I guess we shouldn’t expect too much too soon, right? No judgement here...just glad things are starting to get better at the airport.

Soon we were off in a taxi headed for Royal Islander Le Plage. Beachside Villas were fully booked, and Mary’s Boon didn’t have the room we wanted so we rented through the Royal Islander’s Timeshare group. Richard March was excellent to deal with and we managed to secure a two-bedroom unit on the fifth floor with amazing views of the pool and ocean. We were home!

Our first night was spent at Driftwood doing a lot of people watching and having fun with all the excited people that were as happy to be on the island as we were. After a long travel day, we opted for a take-out pizza and a nice glass of French Rose on our balcony staring at the new moon and the twinkling lights on the ocean. It was a perfect start to our much-needed vacation!