Royal Islander Club, St. Maarten

[snowbirds]

Has anyone been to the Royal Islander Club in St. Maarten, Netherlands, Antilles?

If so, what has been your experience with the accommodations (studio), staff, facilities, beach, pool, entertainment, restaurants?

Having never been to St. Maarten, can you tell us a little bit about the island and its activities?

Regarding purchase of food, are there markets nearby? What is the availability and cost of food?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dean]

I haven't been there but do have some info that might help. Both Royal Islander and Royal Palm are rated about the same, low 8ish, on TUG. As such, I think we can assume they will not be up to DVC standards for the resorts themselves. I've read through the reviews for both and they are fairly positve for both. You may want to conside joining TUG to read the reviews and look at the pictures.

 

[Richyams]

The Royal Islander was our first time share sales pitch. The hard sell of the obese, sweaty, frustrated sales person was enough to turn me off to timeshares. That was in '91.

In '92 we visited WDW and joined DVC.

The Royal Islander was a real nice place. From what I remember, the rooms were very good. If the guy hadn't have been so repulsive, we may have bought...I am glad we didn't, but the place was nice.

St Maarten was a very nice experience. I guess its the only place in the world with no border between two sovereign countries, Holland and France. There is gambling on the Dutch side, great food on both side, great beaches and people I found to be friendly.

It was a long time ago, I remeber the island being reasonable as far as most costs. The island is small, but there is a wide variety of areas and stores. Some parts pretty barren, some like a ghetto, some like open street markets, some like very small cities. We have been to the Bahamas, Cozumel and on a cruise that went to a few places. Next time we probably have to repeat a place, St Maarten would be my first choice.