TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Last 2 days

Day 6

I had a bad tummy so did not go far today. Lunch in the room. Hung out at the pool. We were supposed to go to D's for their Thanksgiving Buffet. Cancelled. Dinner at Roma for pizza. Split a Ceasar salad and had a great pizza. Gambled a bit after & lost what I was ahead. Oh Well. A lot of great entertainment at no cost.

Day 7- The road home.

Breakfast @ Zee Best. Not the best we have ever had there. Slow service and food not as ordered. Off to airport. Spirit 101 as scheduled. Check in kiosk froze as we were trying to get our bags checked. The attendant took us though it & we wandered on to security. Short lines and off we go. Kill a couple of hours before boarding. Flight arrived early into FLL. Didn't matter as it was a cluster F@#$. Had to get bags 1st. No info as to baggage belt. Unusual as immigration used to be 1st & then baggage & customs. Hotel shuttle was a long wait as we had a park, sleep, fly. It was about 40 minutes from my call to pickup. Home safe & sound @ 11 p.m.

Conclusions

Spirit was an OK deal. Big Front Seat package was a good thing. Great seats, lots of room, & free snacks. Plus any drink you wanted including alcohol. $1400 for 2 compared to Economy+ on AA @ $2000. Will probably do MIA in the future as it is just a smoother in & out situation. Much better park, sleep, fly option. Price drives choice so I would not rule out a repeat of this itinerary but it will not be my 1st choice. I was hestitant about Spirit but they delivered. FLL not so much. It's really little difference for us in travel to the airport. Either straight in off Alligator Alley to FLL or a slight turn south to MIA.

Royal Palm was great. Beautiful restored accomodations. Only had lunch 1 day & it was OK. We are spoiled by the much bigger pool at LaPlage and the easy access to grocery items, shopping, and restaurants.

BTW - The smoking lounge is not yet open at the airport. Same old place but a bit smaller as it looks from the concourse. Big orange gate blocking the entrance.

Are you saying access to groceries, shopping and restaurants weren't very good at Royal Palm? Am surprised by that.

Thanks for taking us along for the journey!!! Glad you had a great time! Up-down at the casino, us too!! "RP" sounds really nice, we stayed there once for a few days (10-2016) , rented privately, GREAT location, never used the car, easy to everything shopping too!! Home safe and sound, that's always a good thing!! Until next time!!

More restaurant choices within a short walk of LaPlage than there are at RP. Maho Market is a larger grocery store with more fresh food selection across the street from La Plage. You can even take a grocery cart from the store to move your purchases back to your lodging @ La Plage or La Terrasse. Just return when done. Not to mention the number of shops that line the Maho area. I didn't say that access from RP was poor. There's just more available @ Maho. All a short stroll from the lobby.