Aplmac

looks like this..

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I agree, stay away from the monkey guys at the ship port.

We had something like that happen to us.

A guy walks up to my wife, hands her a monkey to hold and as soon as she takes the monkey, he demands $20.00.

The guy was very loud about her ripping him off, and as we walked away the guy continued mouthing off.

He didn't get any money for his efforts. ===> He's an extortionist!

OSJ

should do something about these extortionist kids before things get worse??

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Aplmac - Your photos are stunning! ===> Thank you.

Especially the wide angle shots.

 

What camera do you use, and what wide angle lens?

http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/member.php?uid=272460

Twice I've been there. Twice I've seen them with the monkeys

and twice I've ignored them and walked straight past

- but then I'm an island person from Barbados

where we have the same silly monkeys

and similar scams and tricks.. ;)

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Holetown Bay!

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Great! I didn't know you drove taxi's !!!

We'd like to book with you! hehe... j/k... couldn't resist.

 

Seriously though, if you did you'd take people to some perfect sites for great photo ops. :)

Maybe some day.

It would be specifically Photo Tours, though

with coaching and pointers -not general island tours..

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St.Maarten on our horizon

A photo taken on the water taxi, heading back to our ship

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APLMAC dude is obviously a Taxi driver of some sort on the island. lol

Thanks for the pictures of the taxi cars

but the real purpose of this post is to apologise for the wrong date I mentioned in my previous post

-it shoulda bin Dec. 8th. (not 9th.)

My motherboard fried two days ago,

and settings like Date and Time were wrong

and I didn't even notice the wrong date.

Not bright,some days. :cool:

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When Caribbean Princess docked Dec. 3rd. alongside the new dock at St.Maarten

deepwater dredging was still going on, even at 0650 hrs. when this photo was taken..

..but the dock itself is largely (if not completely?) ready for action!

with all bollards and safety markings in place..even two brightly-painted huts

presumably used for shelter, adminstration, whatever..

My observant wife remarked that the older dock is noticeably longer than the new dock

although mooring dolphins might yet be put in place

to extend the effective berthing length?

Who knows?

Without mooring dolphins,

the strategy could be to let Oasis use the whole of one side of the older dock

and let smaller ships avail themselves of whatever berthing length remains available.

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As I write this at 5:45 p.m. on Dec. 9th

no doubt Oasis is pulling away from her first docking position at SXM

and the mystery is already solved.

Hopefully, someone will chime in and tell us where she docked

and maybe even post some cool pics for us to see the leviathan in action!

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..from a quickie cruise to St.Maarten

where we were in port with Queen Mary 2

'Our ship 'Caribbean Princess at right..docked at the new pier!

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I figured this would be a great place for everyone to post pictures of their staterooms.

is another great place!

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Alpmac - What is that building with the picnic tables? At Rockley?

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She reads her book...

- he just lolls around..

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aplmac, We are returning to Barbardos in Feb. and what I love most are the green monkeys.

Where would you suggest would be the best place to see them up close?

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..at the quiet Eastern end of Rockley Beach

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All this talk of 'boats'

Boats are little things.

Ships are great big things with cabins -with balconies attached to those cabins, for one thing..

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What's the difference?

You can put a boat on a ship

but it's purty darned difficult to put a ship on a boat! :D

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Seems to me

that American-run cruise lines will splurge the extra 25 cents the cards cost them

to let your retain your memento card..

whereas European cruise companies simply can't aford it, somehow?

Maybe the Euros recycle them, and thereby gain an extra million, per annum?

Hey, you know how it goes with the bean-counters. :D

Next time you're getting off, tell them you're doing a back-to-back cruise

and you'll be seeing them again in 3 or 4 hours

and keep your card!

Customs couldn't care less about you having your card -or not.

Cruise-lines come up with all sorts of silly excuses/reasons to keep your card

the only valid one being that their computer system is down

and they need your physical card to tally everyone off and ashore.

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Exquisite photographs, Mr. Aplmac. (Especially the last two)

 

National Geographic quality. ===> This 10.5 mm. fisheye is insane!

OK since you like coconut palms so much..

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..Coconut Court Beach hotel

Look at all the fish!

Chilling under the coconut trees

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OK -here are two recent finds...

Access to the Bridge?

This is a staff card of some sort -it has zero information on it

other than what you see!

On the reverse is a magnetic stripe, and that's it!

If you don't know what door it fits, it's utterly useless!

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Concierge Club

This one's a bit more useful! :D

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I'm still accepting any donations of cards

from whatever source,

if you'd be so kind as you put any old/spare cards

into an envelope and mail them to me...?

D.Hunt

3, Erdiston Dr.

Pine Gdns, St.Michael

BARBADOS, W.Indies

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I was looking through a box that my mother had given me years ago

and found a very old scrapbook that my aunt had made back in the 50's.

Even though I've had it for a while, I have never really taken the time to go though it until now.

There was an envelope that contained photos of my aunt when she went to Europe in 1955.

One of the photos was taken in a ships cabin.

Then I found her luggage tags from the Queen Elizabeth. She sailed from Cherbourg to NY.

I think that it is so wonderful that I found this piece of my aunts history at this time

since I just took my first cruise last year.

It means even more to me now!

What a treasure trove you have there -belongs in a museum some day!

Bear in mind it's already a half-Century old.

I've got a few luggage tags left over from various(far more recent) cruises...

I collect just about anything flat -including cruise cards.

Hang on to what you have

and please see that the material ends up in a Museum of some sort

and not in a rubbish bin, after you and I pass on,

when younger people will be sorting thru our "rubbish" ..

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A friend of mine just returned from her Carnival VICTORY cruise

with this ship-card in hand!

..so it would seem that the much-desired and revamped 'New Design' Carnival cards

are finally coming onstream! :)

Nice-lookin card!

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