Recommendations: To stay on boat in St. Maarten or St. Thomas- yes or no?

[tvguy]

St. Thomas is our sleep in and wander off the ship briefly port.

 

[toywaltz]

If I had to choose I would stay on the ship at St. Maarten before I would give up St. Thomas. We just really loved our excursion there on the Bones Schooner.

Agree completely...and the key is getting Bones. Of all the cruises...vacations...world traveling...the day on Bones is in our top five. Kids still talk about that day and we'll book it for sure the next time we head east. St. Maarten....Maho beach is interesting if you like planes. Otherwise we've seen everything we care to see...and plenty of things we didn't care to see.

 

[thegales]

Agree completely...and the key is getting Bones. Of all the cruises...vacations...world traveling...the day on Bones is in our top five. Kids still talk about that day and we'll book it for sure the next time we head east. St. Maarten....Maho beach is interesting if you like planes. Otherwise we've seen everything we care to see...and plenty of things we didn't care to see.

We are another family that gives Bones high marks. We had this schooner back in Dec 2010. We booked the DCL excursion again for our June 2012 cruise, and we're so excited that we got Bones again. There is some luck as to your vessel, as we have heard sometimes Bones is the first group getting off the ship, and other times it is the last. But as much as we like Bones, there are others who say they really like the catamarans over the schooners.

 

[disneyxperts]

Not much of a fan of St. Thomas...we make that port another Sea Day for us and enjoy the quiet ship and sleep in.

If anyone in your family is a plane or airline buff you can take a taxi to Maho Beach. The airport is there and you can watch the planes land and if you're daring and willing to ignore the warnings - stand under the flight path and feel the breeze from the planes landing. The taxi was not really expensive and he offered to come back in a few hours to get us. We wrote our postcards, had a soft drink and took some really cool pictures. Great Christmas for us!!

Plus the best chocolates are at The Belgian Chocolate Shop in Philipsburg on Old Street. Awesome authentic chocolate candies!!

Here are couple of picture to give you an idea of what you'd see. We took these on Christmas Day in 2009 at the bar there on the beach.