Entries about sint maartin

Monday 24 January 2011

Headland across the harbor

This was our third visit to Sint Maartin. The first time we took two ship tours, and last time we took the shuttle over to Phillipsburg and rented a car. I had wanted to rent a car again and go out to Grand Case and sample some of the French food there, but car rental is very expensive. Last time with the car there was so much construction that we never did get to the French side of the island. Since I can't take the wheelchair off anymore, we decided that we didn't need to get off this time

Dock area

They have redone the docks and now there are TWO docks and instead of the water taxi leaving from right by the entrance it is way over on another dock.

New ferry dock from the ship

We went up to lunch

Lunch in the Lido

and then after a suitable interval, I went for a swim. They were painting the retractable roof over the solarium.

We are across the dock from Explorer of the Seas

Returning to Explorer of the Seas

and across from us on the other dock is Ventura

Ventura

which is a P&O Cruises ship. She has multiple balconies

Multiple balconies

Man with a tattoo on the phone

and about 9 satellite antennas.

Antennas

Tug and barge

Our room steward doesn't get to our room in the morning until late in the day. Since I don't usually come back to the room right away after dinner, I don't know when he does the room then. He does always fill the ice bucket.

We've finally gotten to new menus that are not a repeat of the previous cruise.

English cheddar cheese sticks

Baby shrimp salad

Mustard crusted roast beef

Poached peaches

It was extremely loud in the Centrum when I was working in the computer area after dinner. After I finished it was so loud that I could not hear the elevator when it came.

Leaving St Maartin

Lights of Phillipsburg

Our towel animal was a somewhat unsuccessful alligator.

Towel animal

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Caribbean islands

We arrived in Tortola fairly early - not surprising since we had a very short distance to go. When we went up to breakfast at about 7:45 we could see that there was another ship next to us - this proved to be the Caribbean Princess.

Tortola from the ship

I found out why some of the dining room chairs are armless when a very fat man came to sit at our table at breakfast. He would not have fit in between the arms of a regular chair. He and his wife were from Bel Air.

Passengers walking in to town

Moorings marina - charter sailboats

Sailboats

Commercial docks

Ferry

We had to pass two Caribbean Princess gangways on the way to the end of the pier which made the walk much longer for us.

Dock between the ships

There were a couple of places I would have liked to go in Tortola, but it was hot and I didn't really have the energy to do it, so we got a cab to Sunny Caribbee. On our first trip to the Virgin Islands, I bought some nice gifts on Tortola. I like to buy things that are made locally, or at least not in Taiwan (unless I'm in Taiwan). Sunny Caribbee is one place to do this.

Sunny Caribbee

History of the Sunny Caribbee building

Inside of shop 1997

Paintings on the plate rail

The first room had various spices and other food type items -- spices, sweets, recipes, herbs, and the like, and also cosmetics and other such items.

Inside Sunny Caribbee

In the second room were various types of art and craft items - at least made in the Caribbean if not in the BVI.I got a birthday present for our son and had it mailed to him. On a previous visit, I bought a picture to give to my daughter-in-law.

Art - Gift

The artist lives and works on Antigua. Some craft items include metal sculptures, pottery and ceramics, hand woven baskets, and wood carvings. There are also original paintings, art prints, pottery, West Indian maps, and jewelry.

The rest of the things I bought I had sent to our address.

People leaving Sunny Caribbee

We managed to flag a cab back to the dock - the price was $4.00 each for each trip.

We got back on the ship and I looked up our son's address and I realized I had mis-remembered his area code for his zip code, so I got out my phone, and called to correct it. First time I've used it all trip. Unfortunately Sunny Caribbe screwed up the orders and sent the package I meant to go to our son to us and vice versa