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Dec 15th, 2024
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Posts: 4,417
Joined: March 2004
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Best cheeseburger..
Manpot
5 hours ago
I'll start of by saying I am very fussy about burgers and pizza..I only want the best when I have them occasionally. That said...I just had a cheeseburger and fries for lunch at "Gene's" at Manuel Reef Marina, Sea Cow's Bay and it was outstanding. Lets hear votes for other favorites..
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Random questions
taraavo
6 hours ago
Although we've been going a few years now, I always have questions...so here we go, for those willing to entertain me. It's always appreciated.
For a mid March trip, how early are you booking restaurants and specific beach days? We've never been in March. Last year we did January for the first time and were woefully unprepared in the reservation department. We typically have gone late April or later.
Where are the lolos in Marigot? I thought I read some months back that they were all closed for rebuilding, but I saw a YouTube video stating that they were relocated (but no description of where that might be). Where do you park?
What is your favorite restaurant on the marina in Marigot that is open for lunch? Again - is parking obvious / easy? We have spent very little time in Marigot but hope to change that this year. We don't mind a walk, but just curious on where to go/ be.
What's your favorite spa experience? Not looking for the lady who comes to you to do massages, but an actual spa. So far I've tried L'Esplanade and La Playa and both, while very different, were nice. I'm interested to know where else to try.
Thank you!
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Very bad booking experience with Super.com
Carol_Hill
6 hours ago
If something is too good to be true, it probably is. We recently had to book a last-minute trip to Indiana. We knew we wanted to stay in Richmond, Indiana, where there are several hotels. I looked on Trivago and saw a link there to a listing on SUPER.COM, which listed the Comfort Suites at a pretty amazing $60 per night (versus over $110 for other sites). It made me nervous booking it, but since it was literally the day before our flight, we decided to go for it.
We arrived at the hotel and ATTEMPTED to check in. They said they didn’t have the reservation and wanted to see our printed confirmation. The confirmation was correct, as far as day, hotel, etc. So, after having some difficulty finding a phone number to call Super.com, I called and was on hold for at least 10 minutes before talking to a person. After waiting a combined time of almost an hour and receiving two calls back from Super.com, they called back again to say they were ‘sorry’ but my reservation, instead of being made at the Comfort Suites
our stay been booked at the Cozy Garden Inn
which literally backs up to the parking lot of the Comfort Suites.
I informed the person on the phone that I had a printed confirmation for the Comfort Suites and that there was no way in H*ll that I would stay at the Cozy Garden Inn. The Cozy Garden Inn regular cost is apparently $48 per night. The person said they were “very sorry”, but there wasn’t anything they could do. After another 10 minutes wasted out of my life, they said they would cancel the reservation and refund our credit card. They wanted to give me $28 for ‘my trouble’, if I gave them my Paypal info. I said no thank you. They did issue a refund to our credit card that day. They said they didn’t understand how the screwup was made.
Even now, if you go to Trivago and look for hotels in Richmond, Indiana, Super.com is listing the hotel for a STANDARD King room (which they do NOT have, since all rooms there are suites) for $58 a night. I would assume that anyone who attempts to book it for that price right now will get the same treatment as we did.
Be VERY careful if you book something through Super.com and the price is too good to be true, as it probably is.
The final resolution of our saga is that we ended up staying at the Comfort Suites in Richmond after all and it was an absolutely wonderful stay, despite the circumstances of our trip, including a snow storm. The manager was very kind to us and gave us quite a discount. I am sending the manager an email to inform her that Super.com is still posting a wacky bad listing for them.
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January 2025 Trip Report - #2
lhbsurf
9 hours ago
We were up early on Wednesday and headed to get groceries, grab a chocolate almond croissant (my favorite at Zee Best by the airport .... sadly it tasted over done and not as much filling as usual.... I REALLY hope I just hit them on a bad day...I will be disappointed if it's a permanent change!), then checked with Dany at Cupecoy to see if there were chairs on the beach…. there were not - surf was too rough, so only a couple on the rocks. We decided to head to Baie Rouge. It was lovely and had more people than I’ve ever seen there (I never saw it pre-Irma), so we felt safe. The waves were pretty large (big enough to knock down a woman standing on the beach) so we didn’t go in, but had a nice day with beach chairs and umbrella. I have tried several times to get the rotisserie chicken I’ve read about at the Cadisco, but never found them open. We dropped by in the morning and grabbed a chicken for lunch. I guess what I didn’t read was the price…. It was $20 for one chicken, which is a lot more than home, but it was big enough for at least a couple of meals, so not a bad deal overall. And it was quite good.
We decided to head in fairly early so we didn’t get sunburned on our first day. Then went to Dany’s for my favorite rum punch on the island and to watch the sunset. It was lovely. We picked up a take-out pizza (meat lovers) at Roma and watched a basketball game at the villa. We could never get through on the phone, so just dropped by and placed a to go order and had a marvelous cosmo while we were waiting. Oddly, they had reserved almost all of the bar stools for a large party... the hostess said we couldn't sit there, but the bar tender said to sit until they arrived....they never did....I don't really understand that concept...they were missing a lot of $$ of people that would have bought drinks at the bar. We were there over 30 minutes....I'm not really a big pizza fan, but it was pretty good... we ate the whole thing.
On Thursday, the seas calmed down and we got chairs at Baby Beach in Cupecoy (so happy to see John back after his medical ordeal!) and split a rib lunch from Dany, which we always find very good. Dinner was at Jax Steakhouse and was good as always. We were having such a good evening, I forgot to take any food pictures, which I suppose is a good thing! My food reports are boring because we’ve pretty much found what we like and go there…adding a couple of new spots later in the trip, so we’ll see.
This morning, we were going to head to Orient since there are no cruise ships in port today, but it’s raining at the moment, so we will see! We have thus far avoided most traffic, but the furthest we have ventured from the villa in Terres Basses is the Cole Bay Carre Four for groceries early in the morning. One of many reasons we love this place is the ability to get most places we want to go without sitting in major traffic.
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30 days to go! What's new, how's the traffic? Orient?
the captain
20 hours ago
It's been a busy year with lots of planning & trips to Rome, Montreal (twice along with a stop at Reveil Matin!) and Denmark.
So we are so looking forward to a week of chilling back at SXM.
We've never hung out at Orient but did have a brief walk last year after dining at Hercule to get ideas for this year. I recall walking past a place called... Caribbean Treasures which had ice cream and there were painted lobster tails with butter. Looked so succulent. Was near Piment and Bouchon. Any recommendations for good local food up in Orient? (My initial impression of corner restaurants are higher price but not as good food.). Is there recommended beach bar like....Friars Bay, where one pays for seats for the day?
Also, has traffic gotten any better? I couldn't believe how CRAZY rush hour was coming from Marigot to Maho via baie nettle...I recall seeing motorcycles cut across the golf course!
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Fishing Spots
MonVis
Yesterday at 05:37 PM
We are heading there next week and my husband loves to fish. Are there any good spots to do some shore fishing? He will be bringing his gear. We will also have a rental car so we can go anywhere on the island.
Thanks for your help!
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Special Extra Trip
Todd
Yesterday at 05:10 PM
SXM short trip –
We don’t make trips to SXM for only a week with as far as we have to travel but we were in Ft Lauderdale over New Years with friends and when looking at flight to go back to Portland Oregon they were really expensive for big seats. Looked at what the cost was from SXM home about a week later and we would save over $500 per person to instead fly back from SXM over any of the Miami area airports. So being the math genius I am we purchased tickets to SXM from MIA, and then the SXM to PDX a week later. Less money than just flying home and we got a week on SXM!
OK, anybody that goes there between say Dec 25th until Jan 7th knows that this is prime time, not just high season but prime high season. Places to rent are at their highest point, we had not experienced this time of year since our first trip in 2002 arriving New Years Eve. Oh well, there goes all that savings and a few grand, we rented this time from Fred of mysxmvacation.com at the Blue Mall. Fred is a great guy and we have known him a bit over the years at Dany’s, and his place was fantastic. Great view from the deck over Porto Cupecoy and clear view across the lagoon. We like having the secure parking below the building and really like the location. He really has done a great job with this unit.
When we go for three weeks or a month we seem to do very little, with our only one week we packed it in. We spent three days at Friars Bay Beach Café, our favorite beach restaurant on the island. The vibe, staff and food are great. As I noted on another post this will be their 30th year. Everything we had there was good but an extra shout out on the mussels, very different than what Baywatch used to have but the best I have had since those days of Mussels ala Andy.
The Palms and Lal’s were great as they are every trip. Ribs and chicken at Dany’s is still a must for us each trip. La Chingona has become a favorite of ours and I repeat my statement that they just keep getting better and better, adding new menu items and even their always happy demeanor keeps getting brighter.
New places for us –
Rendez Vous Lounge (Porto Cupecoy) – Went there for dinner, loved the company but would give the place a B+. Good but not inspiring, not a place that is drawing me to go back.
SAO (Orient Village) – Excellent, we had great service and the food was all excellent. Very high marks, I can see why people would drive that over from the Dutch side to have what they refer to as Asian Cuisine which has influences from multiple countries. We shared Korean Chicken, Shrimp Tempura, Edamame (spicy) along with Pad Thai and don’t recall what else. All at the suggestion of the Princess we dined with. Complete winner and the cost are very reasonable.
Closing moment – We have done preseason Lemon Drop many times but have always missed season. This trip we were honored to be there for the start of Lemon Drop season with Paul and Diane’s arrival. The morning after the opening night of Lemon Drop Paul passed away, MJ and I feel honored to have known him and got to hear him tell people leaving to “GTFO” as he has historically stated. The family goes beyond blood lines and with Paul it is one heck of a great family that was there for the first “gathering of friends” with out Paul, not a dry eye there. (no dry eyes typing this either)
“The best friends are, St Maarten friends” RIP Paul
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NFL playoffs - on island viewing
cathym
Yesterday at 04:23 PM
Hi All - We are on island and looking for a good location to watch NFL playoff game (specifically Saturday night). Does anyone on island have suggestions?
Thanks…Cathy.
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Thinking about a Greek Islands Charter
tmsxmsails
Yesterday at 04:02 PM
I know this is a BVI sub but clearly it's also a de facto "Chartering in General" sub so I hope you'll indulge my questions.
Life long sailor with ten-ish charters in BVI's and St. Martin. I'm thinking about trying the Greek Islands but I have some questions/reservations taking this next step. Here are some of my concerns (in no particular order).
Certification - Seems like I've read that you need some kind of certification but I'm unclear on the details
Med Mooring - I've watched the YouTube examples but I've never done it. Seems like it's easy in the calm and a potential disaster in cross winds.
Provider - For better or worse, I'm just more comfortable with using The Moorings but I think I read that they outsource their service to others in Greece. What's the scoop on providers?
Logistics - How much of a hassle is it getting to and from the charter area and what are the best places to go?
Language - I sadly only speak English - how much of an issue is that?
I'm really on the fence on this. I like the idea of exploring a new, exotic area but I'm not sure I want to deal with the extra effort of getting there and dealing with the extra stress. Interested to hear your thoughts, experiences and any other words of wisdom you might have to help me decide.
Thanks!
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