St.Martin...A WASTE OF TIME!!!

[halloween_weirdo]

I hated St.Martin all it was poor areas!!!! It smelled really bad too... I think Disney should get rid of it on the cruise... Who is with me on this one?????

 

[tlt]

We were on the May 18 Eastern and we took a cab to Dawn Beach as recommended by this board. We had heard bad things about St. Martin...but we had a GREAT day at Dawn Beach. The taxi driver was great...the town, from what we saw was poor, but not any dirtier than places I've seen here in the USA. The Beach was gorgeous. We live in Charleston SC...so we are surrounded by beaches. Dawn Beach was a great day for us and we'd do it again. Nice little restaurant right there. The locals were selling things at great prices...which you could even talk down further. Paid $10 for 2 chairs, an umbrella, and 2 rum punches were included. The beach was wonderful...decent snorkeling. Lots of other DCL cruisers were there. The same cab driver picked us back up late that afternoon and we wanted to be dropped off downtown to do shopping for Tropical Night. The sellers did drive us crazy...very pushy, but we were prepared for that and just kept saying "NO" til we found what we wanted. Got some incredible deals on Topical shirts and skirts/dresses. It is a whole different country and that is what makes travelling so much fun for us. We wouldn't chose it as a primary travel spot if we were vacationing, but it is always neat to see a new part of the world for us...Just another opinion.

 

[JLSE50]

We are so blessed. People in other parts of the world have no opportunities like we have. I came home from St. Martin thankful for my blessings and overwhelmed at how much westerners take for granted.

Jan

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by halloween_weirdo
I hated St.Martin all it was poor areas!!!! It smelled really bad too... I think Disney should get rid of it on the cruise... Who is with me on this one?????

We enjoyed St. Maarten. We spent the morning wandering around the Dutch town of Phillipsburg and shopping. We returned to the ship for lunch and did the "See and Sea Island Tour" in the afternoon; the semi-submarine was wonderful; the French capital of Marigot is a lovely island town; and the guide's commentary was interesting as we drove around the island.

The port facility is excellent. The availablity of quick, inexpensive boat service to Phillipsburg made getting into town and back to the ship a pleasure.

For people who want to avoid the towns, DCL offers a a great roster of excursion choices.

St. Maarten is an excellent destination. (By the way, I didn't notice any bad smell.)

 

[MdmMim]

We LOVED St. Martin! The colors, the architecture, the people. We can't wait to go back--maybe for a longer vacation.

 

[prymsu]

my family enjoyed St. Martin, and especially the shopping bargains to be found. We would have no problems in going back there again.

 

[WDWLVR]

I really enjoyed St. Martin. We did the See & Sea tour in the morning which gave us a great taste of the island. There are very poor areas and they are very expensive areas where celebs have bought in to get away from us ordinary people. I really didn't think St. Martin was any different than many of the islands in that respect.

After the tour we walked around town and I ended up getting a beautiful ring at one of the local shops. I think I got a very good deal as someone I work with (who recommended the shop) got a very similar ring at a jewelry show up here and spent over $200 more than I did.

 

[candleonwater]

Gee, it doesn't sound like too many people agree with you!

I LOVED St. Maarten. We did the See and See, and then just collapsed on the beach near the water taxi. My daughter was just asking me when we were going to go back there...

 

[Cruise]

Well, I'll throw in my 2 cents. I didn't enjoy St Martin either. Maybe I was expecting too much since it was our first port, but Phillipsburg just felt like another grimy city to me. The beach closest to downtown also had a slight deisel smell about it the whole time we were there.

If I go again, I'll definitely make more solid plans to get out of the downtown area and to one of the beaches farther out.

Julie

 

[Anita Williams]

If you get back to St. Martin, try going over to the French side of the island. I'll agree that the Dutch side is a little seedy, but the other side is beautiful. We hired a van to take us and another couple on a tour of the island. The town and shopping on the French side were wonderful. We went to some beaches also which were very nice. We'll be on the 9/21 eastern and plan on doing some more exploring on the French side. Anita.

 

[disny4ever]

I enjoyed seeing St. Maarten. The architecture of its buildings, the culture, and the island overall was great.
I'm sorry you did not enjoy this portion of your trip, I hope the remainder was much better.
I'm sure you will find others that will agree with you, even if DCL did change to another location you might find the same feelings from other travelers.
I hope this did not change your view of the DCL, I think they do a fantastic job overall.

 

[mrsltg]

Oh my!!! Well, I can understand that you might not like something that others might. However, what were you expecting? The Virgin Islands (like most of the Caribbean) are part of the "Third World". There is a very obvious distinction between the "haves" and "have nots" because they are on a small island. Generally, people with multi-million dollar homes don't want 4000 tourists parking in their backyards. So, cruise ships drop their passengers on top of the people with the least political clout. Not to mention the fact that these people want the tourists there to buy the stuff that they are selling. As far as a diesel smell in the water, you are bringing in 100,000 ton monster ships... they're not air propelled! No, it's not always pretty, but it's a nice reminder of the fact that you are LUCKY to be able to drop more on a vacation then most of the people on the island make in a year.

JMHO... Erin

 

[Chattyaholic]

We took the "Under Two Flags" tour and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the island, although next time I'd rather do more in-depth traveling around/in it as we just barely touched the surface with the tour. Shopping was fun, and it's interesting to see how other people live. We enjoyed having a drink in an open-air bar before taking the boat back to the ship.

 

[Cruise]

Originally posted by mrsltg
As far as a diesel smell in the water, you are bringing in 100,000 ton monster ships... they're not air propelled!
JMHO... Erin

I did not state that I didn't know *why* it smelled like that... simply that it *did*.... not really that appealing to go into the water when you can practically imagine the oil slick on top of it.

Again, as I said, I would recommend that people visiting St Martin make some kind of definite plans to leave the immediate downtown Phillipsburg area when visiting the island.

Julie

 

[4myguys]

I wasn't that excited about St. Maartin either. We did not go to a beach, though. I will probably do that next time. I do think that if I vacationed on an island exclusively, it would be St. John.