Going on Oasis on the 13th Feb!

[waterdave]

I just joined this forum, after buying a room last minute on Oasis of the Seas.

I live in St Maarten doing commercial property management, and it was a big deal when Oasis started coming to port, with extra traffic cops to keep vehicles out of front street etc. The Oasis comes to St Maarten on wednesdays, which is the heaviest cruise ship day with 4-5 ships in port.

 

So it will be fun to go on my honeymoon which has been delayed almost 2 years, by going on this ship...

[mgg42]

Oooh! Are you going to do any excursions the day you're in St Maarten?:D

[waterdave]

Ive never been on the 12 meter americas cup challenge sailboat excursion- those trips are supposed to be the best excursion, and they only cater to cruise ships, or big company outings. I have friends that work on those racing sail boats, and they say that especially when there is lots of wind its a crazy race, and lots of fun.

 

Also will go to my office quickly so I can say that didnt take the whole week off, and drop of some dirty clothes/souveniers at my apt, and maybe go to maho beach and get a good hamburger at sunset beach bar, which is a great bar, and for people who went there a long time ago, it now has a waitress service table area, and even uses real plates now.:)

[jmlipari]

Hey Waterdave!

 

We will be on the same sailing! I have been stressing over over our plans when we are in St. Maarten. I would love to pick your brain and get some advice from a local.

 

First off, I have heard the ship stays on Miami time, but the times listed on the itinerary are island local time which is one hour later. Which means, when they say we will be there from 7-5. That is 6-4 ships time, with an all aboard at 3:30. Plus I hear there will be 6 ships in port that day=lots of people= lots of traffic.

 

So this is our plan: We want to spend a few hours a Orient Beach in the morning and then head to Maho in the afternoon to see the planes.

 

Now my questions:

 

Should we just grab taxis to get from one location to the other (are they always plentiful, even on busy days) or should we try to rent one for the full day?

 

How long should it take to get from Ship to Orient, Orient to Maho and Maho to ship, with traffic?

 

What is the best secion in Orient (nice chair rentals and near a water trampoline, they do have them, right?)?

 

And finally, the most important qustion, what time should we leave Maho to make it back to the ship on time? If the all aboard is 3:30 ships time, 4:30 local time, should we leave by 2:00 (ship time) 3:00(local)? What is the traffic like around that hour?

 

I hope I am not being too annoying with all these questions! I appreciate any advice you can give me!

 

Thanks,

Joanna

[nolimits]

Well be on this sailing also . I think its funny you will be stoping home for day on your cruise . Enjoy I know we will

[ahornb]

I just joined this forum, after buying a room last minute on Oasis of the Seas.

I live in St Maarten doing commercial property management, and it was a big deal when Oasis started coming to port, with extra traffic cops to keep vehicles out of front street etc. The Oasis comes to St Maarten on wednesdays, which is the heaviest cruise ship day with 4-5 ships in port.

 

So it will be fun to go on my honeymoon which has been delayed almost 2 years, by going on this ship...

 

Waterdave, can you tell me if you can walk from Mullet Bay Beach to Maho Beach, and if so, how long it would take?

[jimmyatc]

For anyone going on the 2/13/10 cruise we have a President's Week 2/13/10 Oasis roll call thread at this address : http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=812973&page=1

 

(I hope it works)....

 

Please come and join us there :)

[Hobiecat01]

Hey Waterdave!

 

We will be on the same sailing! I have been stressing over over our plans when we are in St. Maarten. I would love to pick your brain and get some advice from a local.

 

First off, I have heard the ship stays on Miami time, but the times listed on the itinerary are island local time which is one hour later. Which means, when they say we will be there from 7-5. That is 6-4 ships time, with an all aboard at 3:30. Plus I hear there will be 6 ships in port that day=lots of people= lots of traffic.

 

So this is our plan: We want to spend a few hours a Orient Beach in the morning and then head to Maho in the afternoon to see the planes.

 

Now my questions:

 

Should we just grab taxis to get from one location to the other (are they always plentiful, even on busy days) or should we try to rent one for the full day?

 

How long should it take to get from Ship to Orient, Orient to Maho and Maho to ship, with traffic?

 

What is the best secion in Orient (nice chair rentals and near a water trampoline, they do have them, right?)?

 

And finally, the most important qustion, what time should we leave Maho to make it back to the ship on time? If the all aboard is 3:30 ships time, 4:30 local time, should we leave by 2:00 (ship time) 3:00(local)? What is the traffic like around that hour?

 

I hope I am not being too annoying with all these questions! I appreciate any advice you can give me!

 

Thanks,

Joanna

 

Joanna, there was a thread here just a few days ago (I treid to reference it but could not find it...) with a couple who went over to Maho Beach to see the planes. They commented that the traffic coming back was horrendous and it took them over an hour to get back to the ship. They were afraid they would miss the boat! So that said... here is a picture of the daily arrivals at the airport in St. Maartin.

 

I found the original post... http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1135351

 

---------------------------

Sea ya!

Ron and Lee

Canton, Ga

Proud RCCL Platinum Member

 

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom,

in water there is bacteria." – Ben Franklin

 

We are proud Oasis Camel Cruiser – April 17, 2010

The Oasis Camels Website

 

Previous Cruises – 59 Days at Sea!

Carnival Mardis Gras - 3 Day Bahamas - April 1982

Carnival Destiny - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 1998

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - April 1999

Princess Sea Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2000

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2002

RCCL Navigator of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2003

RCCL Mariner of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 2005

RCCL Freedom of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - 6/18 - 6/25/2006

RCCL Liberty of the Seas - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - 7/19 - 7/26/08

Planned Cruises

RCCL Oasis of the Seas – Our Friends Cruise - April 17, 2010

RCCL Allure of the Seas – Our Neighborhood Cruise - 2011

The BIG One - Southeast Asia 14 day – 2012?

Princess Cruises - The Med – 14 day – 2013?

[waterdave]

Hey Waterdave!

 

We will be on the same sailing! I have been stressing over over our plans when we are in St. Maarten. I would love to pick your brain and get some advice from a local.

 

First off, I have heard the ship stays on Miami time, but the times listed on the itinerary are island local time which is one hour later. Which means, when they say we will be there from 7-5. That is 6-4 ships time, with an all aboard at 3:30. Plus I hear there will be 6 ships in port that day=lots of people= lots of traffic.

 

So this is our plan: We want to spend a few hours a Orient Beach in the morning and then head to Maho in the afternoon to see the planes.

 

Now my questions:

 

Should we just grab taxis to get from one location to the other (are they always plentiful, even on busy days) or should we try to rent one for the full day?

 

How long should it take to get from Ship to Orient, Orient to Maho and Maho to ship, with traffic?

 

What is the best secion in Orient (nice chair rentals and near a water trampoline, they do have them, right?)?

 

And finally, the most important qustion, what time should we leave Maho to make it back to the ship on time? If the all aboard is 3:30 ships time, 4:30 local time, should we leave by 2:00 (ship time) 3:00(local)? What is the traffic like around that hour?

 

I hope I am not being too annoying with all these questions! I appreciate any advice you can give me!

 

Thanks,

Joanna

 

Hello, sorry i didnt answer sooner, im not familiar with this forum so the message got lost for a while.-

 

 

speaking on island time:

maho back to ship is very dependant on traffic At 3:30 or later (2:30 ship time) it starts building up, and could take about an hour to get back to the ship the later you leave. I think your right to leave at 3:00- the traffic would make it about 30-45 minutes back to the ship, (but somedays are worse than others...)

 

st maarten is similar to eastern time but without any changes for daylight saving time- so right now, if its 2pm ship time, it is actually 3pm island time.

 

ship to orient is 25 minutes tops, orient to maho is a long drive, but without too much traffic, i would say about 40 minutes.

 

 

I think i would recommend taxis over tour buses, and they are more or less fairly priced- they sometimes have a per head charge- and will be around 20$ for each leg of your trip- and they hang around maho and orient for returning trips. just ask them what the rate is before you get in.

 

i also think the water taxi service is a good thing even if your planning on going straight to a taxi, because you can have the taxi drop you in philipsburg towards the end, and then just take the water taxi back to the ship when your done walking around- the boardwalk in st maarten is a half mile long and is nice to walk up and down, and front street is usually blocked off from traffic on wednesdays so people can walk up and down in the street too...

[waterdave]

i never had any urge to go on a cruise ship, until the oasis came in a few months ago, it was so huge, and they had a delegation of press from st maarten on it, and everyone was talking about it because it absloutely dwarfs all other ships, and the people on the first cruise had a bunch of facebook pictures up... then last month I picked up some friends from boston that were visiting on another ship for a day, so I got did some sightseeing with them and started talking about the idea of going on a crusie sometime,,, but i think think the biggest selling point is having my new 13 month old son, who is going to have so much fun!

[LBumb]

have a great time. i am envious.

[1BDNANA]

Welcome waterdave. I think you are going to have a great time.

[waterdave]

Thanks, I know it will be fun. actually I did go on cruise when i was a kid, I think was about 9 years old (in the 80s) , I remeber only a few things:

It was friday the 13th and a full moon while we were sailing...

I got to shoot a shotgun off the side of the boat -skeet shooting- I dont know how my dad convinced them to let a 9 year old do that-

we would wander around the ship to try to get lost, then find our way back to the room for fun.

They had 3 video game machines in a mini game arcade, and my brother and I would beg my parents for quarters to keep playing.

I went to a straw market at night in Nassau, which was scary, because my sister and I followed a local lady into the way back of the market so she could show us some hats, and my dad didnt know where we are for a minute, and he told me after that we could have gotten kidnapped, which kind of freaked me out.

The day care place on the boat was boring, they were showing never ending tale which seemed like it would never end, and when we wanted to leave they wouldnt let us- so my brother sister and I were about to make a breakout and run, but they went and found our parents somehow, to allow us to leave (before we could escape).

and thats all...

[CanuckMO4]

Hey Waterdave!

 

We will be on the same sailing! I have been stressing over over our plans when we are in St. Maarten. I would love to pick your brain and get some advice from a local.

 

First off, I have heard the ship stays on Miami time, but the times listed on the itinerary are island local time which is one hour later. Which means, when they say we will be there from 7-5. That is 6-4 ships time, with an all aboard at 3:30. Plus I hear there will be 6 ships in port that day=lots of people= lots of traffic.

 

So this is our plan: We want to spend a few hours a Orient Beach in the morning and then head to Maho in the afternoon to see the planes.

 

Now my questions:

 

Should we just grab taxis to get from one location to the other (are they always plentiful, even on busy days) or should we try to rent one for the full day?

 

How long should it take to get from Ship to Orient, Orient to Maho and Maho to ship, with traffic?

 

What is the best secion in Orient (nice chair rentals and near a water trampoline, they do have them, right?)?

 

And finally, the most important qustion, what time should we leave Maho to make it back to the ship on time? If the all aboard is 3:30 ships time, 4:30 local time, should we leave by 2:00 (ship time) 3:00(local)? What is the traffic like around that hour?

 

I hope I am not being too annoying with all these questions! I appreciate any advice you can give me!

 

Thanks,

Joanna

Hi there I just got off the Oasis from the Jan 23rd sailing . They will worn you to keep youre watch on ship time while in port.The ship sails on ship time.And yes we had to be back on board at 330 as we left at 4.

[cruizeblues]

Waterdave, just curious...did you grow up in the States and relocate to St. Maarten? Every time my husband and I spend a day on your island we make plans to move there someday....it seems like many of the tour operators we have encountered have done just that after falling in love with the island. I would love to have the courage to "just do it" someday after the kids grow up & leave home!

[waterdave]

I grew up in the states, but my family bought a timeshar4e type condo there in the 70s, and my dad started a business there when i was a kid and spent most of his time there when i was growing up, and i spent every summer there, when i was 18 i worked as scuba instructor for a year is st maarten, (even for beach safaris, which would do dive and snorkel tours for cruise ship tourists).

 

after college moved down there and stayed the last 10 years, I have my dutch citizenship now there, via naturalization, but still consider myself an american foreigner there just trying to go with the flow, and not make waves-

there are a lot of americans that moved there, either owning business, having second homes, or in service jobs like bartending/waitressing. lots of things to do to have fun. Every sunday im either on a boat, or on a beach...

 

Immigration laws in recent times make it harder to come down and work legally, however the easiest way is to buy and own property which is legal for foreigners, and also to buy someones business license and list yourself as a director of the company, pay for private health isurance and get temporary residency.

 

I have a good local friend in st maarten who started a biodiesel processing plant, and has licenses and everything to make the bidiesel 50 gallons a day, but he couldnt make money doing it. He closed up shop and is looking to sell his license and assets which consist of a 160 gallon processor and bunch of tanks and raw metarial ina shipping container. Making biodiesel doesnt really make a good living- but i was thinking about posting it here because it would be a great project for someone who wanted to move here- who already has experience in recycling/waste oil etc. he even had offers by the cruise ships to buy cheap really good waste vegetable oil from in bulk when they are in port, and has barrels of oil being delivered to him from all the fast food places- anyway, just thought id mention it...

 

a lot of the tour operators for tour related business work with very low margins because the cruise takes a cut, the port "mafia" takes a cut, the bus mafia takes a cut, insurance takes a cut... the only business i know is real estate so i stick to that!

 

it will be awesome to sail into st maarten on the biggest pleasure boat EVER. every weekend Im on a tiny boat in the wake of yachts...

[cruizeblues]

Starting a business sounds too much like work....maybe we'll just come down and buy a condo from you instead! Maybe make a little money tending bar at one of the beaches! Seriously, thanks for the info, looks like I have some research to do before packing up :D Have a great time on the Big O! Post some pix when you get back.