St Maarten on DCL

[I❤MICKEY]

Can anyone tell me if there is a DCL excursion that takes you to Maho Beach? I'm thinking my son and Husband would LOVE to be able to see that in person!!!

I am pretty sure there is. If you go to DCL site you can search excursions by destination. You can go even further and filter by age, length, etched.

 

[gcoolie]

It's very easy to just catch a taxi off the boat and go straight there. There are taxis at the beachside bar at Maho too. After doing the tour and Orient Beach, Maho is the only thing we would get off the boat for on St. Maarten. My kids and husband loved it! Very unique.

 

[Dizpinfriend]

I quickly browsed through the excursion offerings from DCL, and didn't see Maho mentioned in any of them. My family and I are not "beachy" people, so i'm thinking we will just cab it, stay a while to see a few planes fly over then head back to the ship.

We had seen this beach featured on a travel show a few years back, and never really took note of where it was - My husband and I are so thrilled that we will actually get to visit.

I showed my son a few youtube videos, and he is super excited now!!!

 

[gcoolie]

I quickly browsed through the excursion offerings from DCL, and didn't see Maho mentioned in any of them. My family and I are not "beachy" people, so i'm thinking we will just cab it, stay a while to see a few planes fly over then head back to the ship.

We had seen this beach featured on a travel show a few years back, and never really took note of where it was - My husband and I are so thrilled that we will actually get to visit.

I showed my son a few youtube videos, and he is super excited now!!!

It's the perfect excursion for boys! We ate at the bar and hung out on the beach to watch planes. Try to find out somewhere about arrival and departure times. It seems like the time we did it, maybe 5 or 6 planes came in between about 11:00 and 1:00 and that was it for most of the day. Not sure if that was an everyday thing or slow time of year. You just want to go at the right time.

 

[MDennis28]

Great suggestion. My DH want a beach day but we don't want to be around nudity. This sounds like it would be fun and would have a low chance of seeing other people's "parts".

 

[Silverfox97]

There is also a Bernard's tour that ONLY goes to Maho Beach if you check his website. After taking the 'regular' tour thru Bernard's in June 2012, we are going to do the Maho Only tour in March 2014, as that was our favorite part.

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[Embraer]

We're doing parasailing with No1SXM and then jumping into a cab to get round to Maho for the big jets. The Sunset Bar has a surfboard displayed outside it with all the arrival times but the 2 biggest aircraft arriving are a KLM 747 and an Air France A340 so just check their websites for the arrival times, that's what we're doing. There are plenty of other arrivals but these are the ones that I want to see and I'm an airline pilot myself!!

 

[Chelley00]

So Orient wasn't that great. We've been debating either doing the tour that includes Orient Beach or leisure morning at hopefully quiet pool and then do the shopping that's a mile away on our own. DS are 3 & 5. Thoughts?

We weren't that thrilled with Orient. It was crowded and dirtier than other places and there were vendors everywhere trying to sell stuff. It was a pretty view and the lunch we had their was good but it was just more commercial than we like. The kids wanted to leave and go back to Maho.

We were okay with it being part nude beach on one end and had talked with our kids beforehand, but we did see a couple of people leave the nudist area and walk the beach (the teens were disappointed to see it was always old and larger people and not the supermodels they wished

 

[Susiesark]

In August, we did the DCL excursion that takes a nice boat ride (fast!) to see both sides of the island, with a little snorkling time on the French side, then to a very quiet beach on the Dutch side. They also stopped briefly in Maho Beach to watch a couple of planes come in/take off. The free rum punch was flowing! My DD 8 enjoyed herself.

 

[ChrisParker]

Has anyone done only or primarily only Maho beach? I don't want to be rushed and I don't mind about the shopping, etc. but I was thinking Maho beach might be worth a few hours. Is it close enough to walk to anything from there?

I'm also wondering if anyone has rented a car or jeep or whatever and done the island themselves? We will have 4 kids and 2 adults. I'd like to for sure relax on the beach and maybe take in Yoda Man.

Thanks

 

[Silverfox97]

We weren't that thrilled with Orient. It was crowded and dirtier than other places and there were vendors everywhere trying to sell stuff. It was a pretty view and the lunch we had their was good but it was just more commercial than we like. The kids wanted to leave and go back to Maho.

We were okay with it being part nude beach on one end and had talked with our kids beforehand, but we did see a couple of people leave the nudist area and walk the beach (the teens were disappointed to see it was always old and larger people and not the supermodels they wished

This is how we felt too. We took Bernard's Tour last June and felt 'meh' about Orient and don't care to go back.

We are taking our next Eastern in March and plan on taking the Maho Only option on Bernard's website. It's only $25 pp and goes from 11-2, which I think is just perfect.

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[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We did a coastal beach hike up in the 'mountains' around Guana Bay that was pretty neat and I can honestly say I hadn't done anything like that before. It also ended up in a gorgeous beach that we kinda walked through and waded in. We spent the rest of the day in town and the public beach was SOO public that I spent the majority of the time under an umbrella at a nice restaurant petting the restaurant's cat named Andy. (I like a big stocky laid back male cat! He was getting fries off of just about every body. If I hadn't done the hike, I would probably not be too excited about St Maarten but it was a great way to see the islands and get away from the crowds (as least for a few minutes). Restuarant had great nachos too...

 

[ludari]

I too did a hike in St Maarten and enjoyed it. After the hike I wanted to make it over to Maho Bay to watch the planes land but the taxi driver said I wouldn't make it back in time to catch the ship. Glad to know they where looking out for me and not trying to make a buck. So instead I visited one of the beaches near the port, did some shopping and got my haircut.

 

[Manders77]

My husband is a pilot and he loves maho beach. Everytime he flew there he hung out at that beach. In 2009 on our cruise we stopped there. Rented a motorcycle and spent couple hours on maho then toured the island. When we go back we ate definitely taking the kids there

 

[jmccarthy80]

Just wondering why your DH said No Maho Beach?? We were planning on going there on our November cruise but might have to reconsider. Any info would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Huntley_Fam]

We booked a tour through Soualiga Destinations. Captain Bob was AMAZING. Would book through them again in a heartbeat. We were able to see a little of everything!! Best way to tour the island!

 

[KristiMc]

We booked a tour through Soualiga Destinations. Captain Bob was AMAZING. Would book through them again in a heartbeat. We were able to see a little of everything!! Best way to tour the island!

We just booked this tour for our 12/28/13 cruise. It looks great.

 

[Huntley_Fam]

We just booked this tour for our 12/28/13 cruise. It looks great.

We still talk about it! Hope you enjoy

 

[mikayla73]

In August, we did the DCL excursion that takes a nice boat ride (fast!) to see both sides of the island, with a little snorkling time on the French side, then to a very quiet beach on the Dutch side. They also stopped briefly in Maho Beach to watch a couple of planes come in/take off. The free rum punch was flowing! My DD 8 enjoyed herself.

I know this is an older thread, but does anyone know what excursion this was?