Orient Bay and children

[adamsclan]

I have read that Orient Bay has one end that is totally nude and the other that is top optional. When the cruise ships are in, would you take children there? (My thinking is that Disney cruisers will likely leave tops on.)

 

[kcashner]

If Orient Bay is the same thing as Orient Beach, one end is "swimsuit optional" and the other is family friendly.

 

[TXDCLfan]

I have read that Orient Bay has one end that is totally nude and the other that is top optional. When the cruise ships are in, would you take children there? (My thinking is that Disney cruisers will likely leave tops on.)

We have been there twice with DD when she was 7 and then 9. She is now 17 and we will not go there. Even when we stayed down at the "top optional" end there were a few times that someone walked past with their birthday suite on

 

[Sinderelly]

You can see the people on the clothing optional side from the entrance. There was an older gentleman walking through the parking lot with nothing on but his birthday suit, I saw things that day that I wish I hadn't seen.

 

[stevenpensacola]

My wife and I walked down through the nude beach (we had on our suits) and as others have indicated, there really are things you don't need to see!

Trust me...seeing "nana and pawpaw" strut by in all of their wrinkly, sagging, jiggling glory is traumatic!

 

[HallsofVA]

We've gone there twice (specifically to Waikiki Beach) on DCL excursions, and never had any issues or problems. Don't know if we even saw any naked or topless people, maybe just one topless if we did (can't really keep the beaches straight) but our kids never noticed it or paid any attention to it if they even saw anything.

 

[kcashner]

The above replies make it sound like your expectations were the same as mine--topless women. That's not what we saw at all; in fact we didn't see any in that state. What we saw were, in my teen daughter's words, "fat old men."

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

would you take children there?

in a word: NO!

 

[adamsclan]

Yes, Orient Beach. (My book calls it bay.) I was afraid of that...not sure what our plan for St. Martin would be otherwise. I wasn't considering the "old man junk", more the cleavage and my preteen sons.

 

[lmhall2000]

Yes, Orient Beach. (My book calls it bay.) I was afraid of that...not sure what our plan for St. Martin would be otherwise. I wasn't considering the "old man junk", more the cleavage and my preteen sons.

Go to Maho Beach and watch the planes fly in..the big ones fly in around 1-2pm..there is a great place to eat and watch them, think it's called Sunset?

I think you can take a taxi to Maho Beach and then walk over to Medano where the planes take off?

 

[kcashner]

Little Bay (also referred to as Divi Little Bay) is a beautiful, family friendly beach.

 

[jjgarv]

We've done the Orient Beach excursion several times. The last time we were there with children, they were busy splashing in the ocean and playing in the sand, and didn't even notice the one wrinkly old man that walked up the beach. We had planned to go back next year, but perhaps we should re-think that if so many more clothing-optional folks are walking the beach...especially now that the kids are a bit older. Hmmm...

 

[Totoro]

We did the Orient Beach DCL excursion to Waikiki Beach. We took at 5 year old. I was concerned but honestly in the general area there was no one without tops/bathing suits. If you walked away from the general area, we saw one or two women bathing topless. They looked like tourists because they seemed more embarrassed and tried to act discrete.

The DCL Excursion Guide did a good job warning us but it was no big deal. My 5 year old didn't even notice.

 

[Nesser480]

I have seen mixed reviews about orient beach! Maho sounds really cool with the airplanes!

 

[Chelley00]

Little Bay (also referred to as Divi Little Bay) is a beautiful, family friendly beach.

Little Divi Bay is also a topless beach (all of St Maarten/Sint Martin is topless allowed), just not as many people practice it there as do at Orient.


Maho is a GREAT beach. Our youngest DS cried when we left they were having such a good time watching the planes, swimming and building sand castles.

A plane going overhead

My 2 oldest sons and I at Maho

When we did breeze by Orient (just to say we'd been there) they said Maho was nicer, not as crowded, not as dirty and didn't have as many waves. We weren't too close to the clothing optional, but we did see a couple (in their 50s) completely nude walking by. We just gently distracted our 2 youngest children until they went by.

Youngest DS at Orient

We also saw a couple of topless women, but they were so not the 20 something models my teenagers were hoping for

 

[Namsupak]

We just came back from St. Martin/St. Maarten on the WBTA, last week. We have been to Orient Bay/beach twice and not seen any nude people, just about 10 people offering to braid our hair. Unfortunately that beach at Maho is not there any more. I am not sure if the tide was covering it or if the recent hurricanes have just taken all the sand out. You could still go in the water with the planes above you but there is barely any beach left, just a rocky shore line. It is still worth a visit, but check with someone before planning a whole beach day there. Book a private car and driver to drive you around. We did this and the nice thing was we could alter our plan throughout the day if we needed more time for sightseeing, shopping, or eating.

 

[podsnel]

We were on Maho in August- very fun to watch those planes come in!! But I agree with PP- there was barely any beach to sit on. There are a bunch of cement blocks and rocks where you can put your stuff so it doesn't get wet, but really there is no where to sit on that beach.

I did not want to go to Orient because our sons are 12 & 14, and if there were topless women walking around, I doubt there would be ANY way to distract our boys until they passed!

 

[Chelley00]

We were on Maho in August- very fun to watch those planes come in!! But I agree with PP- there was barely any beach to sit on. :

That's crazy! We were just there the end of August and there was tons of sand!

 

[stevenpensacola]

I did not want to go to Orient because our sons are 12 & 14, and if there were topless women walking around, I doubt there would be ANY way to distract our boys until they passed!

Take 'em...would be a good lesson in how things really are...hard to photoshop or airbrush real life.

 

[ikeymakes3]

In my research I have discovered that La Gallion (sp?) is also a wonderful family (who choose to keep clothed) friendly beach. I guess you can always take percautions, but it is a European island. As for our American conservative ways...blame it on our Peritan forefathers
Hope others will chime in. Great thread!