St Maarten and St Thomas

[livingitup]

Going on Freedom Of The Seas in Dec can anyone give me tips/advice on managing these ports on a scooter. I will be traveling with my dear friend which will be using a scooter as well. We will be on a limited budget so we are looking for budget friendly activities to do close to port. We have never visited these ports before are they nicely appointed? My friend has never cruised and even though we will have limited mobility I still want to show her an amazing time. Please help with all info possible. :eek:

[caribsun]

In St. Thomas if you dock at the WICO pier you will have the Havensight Mall for shopping and there is a few bars also if you care for a tropical drink. At the end of the pier there is a Butterfly Farm.

 

St. Maarten there is also a mall area and Sharkey's Bar. Sidewalks on both islands could be a challenge if you want to go downtown which will take you around 15 min. via scooter.

[raindropsalways]

We will be stopping in St. Maarten in November. I did find that they have a zoo that is within scooting distance from the ships. I did write to the zoo and they advised me that the facility is wheelchair accessible. Since we have not yet been there, I cannot say just how easy or hard the trip may be. We plan on going there first and then come back through the town on our return to the ship. Here is the link to the zoo: http://www.stmaartenzoo.com/

 

I did put together an itinerary and map for our trip. If you email me (bettysworldnow@yahoo.com), I would gladly send it to you. There is also two of us traveling together on scooters.

 

 

Betty

[livingitup]

We will be stopping in St. Maarten in November. I did find that they have a zoo that is within scooting distance from the ships. I did write to the zoo and they advised me that the facility is wheelchair accessible. Since we have not yet been there, I cannot say just how easy or hard the trip may be. We plan on going there first and then come back through the town on our return to the ship. Here is the link to the zoo: http://www.stmaartenzoo.com/

 

I did put together an itinerary and map for our trip. If you email me (bettysworldnow@yahoo.com), I would gladly send it to you. There is also two of us traveling together on scooters.

 

 

Betty

Thanks Betty for all the great info. I will send you an email soon. Have a great weekend!!!

[livingitup]

In St. Thomas if you dock at the WICO pier you will have the Havensight Mall for shopping and there is a few bars also if you care for a tropical drink. At the end of the pier there is a Butterfly Farm.

 

St. Maarten there is also a mall area and Sharkey's Bar. Sidewalks on both islands could be a challenge if you want to go downtown which will take you around 15 min. via scooter.

Caribsun, thank you as well for your assistance. So looking forward to upcoming cruise!! Have a good weekend!

[vickila]

In St. Maarten you go to the pier, around Little Switzerland into exit of parking lot. Make left and follow sidewalk path abput 12 minutes walking go to a cutout to the left that says to the beach. This is where water taxi would have taken you, but not accessible. Beach is right there, boardwalk, hut stores and eating places. Easy. If while on boardwalk you go down alleyway to the right one block, there are lots of stores and sidewalks, not perfect but ok. Nice day and path is very safe.

 

Main attraction though is the beach at Maho Bay, French side where around 2:30 pm the big jets fly so low you can read the nubers on the tires. It is on French side and costly to get there.

 

St. Thomas. A new Sr. Frogs in parking lot. Butterfly museum, not large but unique also in parking lot. Shopping at Havensight accessible. Downtown you can take scooter on open tram but down sidewalks are skinny.

 

Also there is a new ice museum, $20 butba taxi ride. Inquire on ship for accessibility ...sometimes though they are just scenic. Enjoy. Vicki

[rbrugler]

I was just in St Martin. There is a nice new shopping area at the end of the pier. I also went downtown, but construction made it very difficult. The sidewalk you are forced to use is very narrow. Hundreds of people going back and forth, and they do not get out of the way. But, that is the way to the beach and shopping area. The water taxi told my wife that they would lift my scooter on board. Had I seen them do this for someone else, I might have let them do it. However, once on the main shopping stretch, there were very few accessible stores. Not worth going there considering the hassle. I wish I had known about the zoo.

 

When I was in St Thomas, a local man walked in front of me, asked what I wanted to do, and he showed me where the cutouts were. They are few and far between. He took me to several different places, stopped traffic for me, and told me many stories. He spent 2 hrs with me, and I had no problems. I gave him $20 and would do so again.

[gtaylor]

We will be stopping in St. Maarten in November. I did find that they have a zoo that is within scooting distance from the ships.

 

Sorry, but there is NO WAY that the St. Maarten Park (Zoo) is within scooting distance unless you have some sort of Super Scooter that I'm not aware of.

 

It's over two miles away from the main gate of the Cruise Facility, and mostly along rough pavement with no sidewalks.

 

I would love to know where you found your information, so that I could correct the source.

 

gary

[vickila]

I was just in St Martin. There is a nice new shopping area at the end of the pier. I also went downtown, but construction made it very difficult. The sidewalk you are forced to use is very narrow. Hundreds of people going back and forth, and they do not get out of the way. But, that is the way to the beach and shopping area. The water taxi told my wife that they would lift my scooter on board. Had I seen them do this for someone else, I might have let them do it. However, once on the main shopping stretch, there were very few accessible stores. Not worth going there considering the hassle. I wish I had known about the zoo.

 

When I was in St Thomas, a local man walked in front of me, asked what I wanted to do, and he showed me where the cutouts were. They are few and far between. He took me to several different places, stopped traffic for me, and told me many stories. He spent 2 hrs with me, and I had no problems. I gave him $20 and would do so again.

 

Most likely depends on capabilities, power of scooter and one's determination and health. Vicki

[raindropsalways]

Gary – According to Google, it is 4 km (approx (2 ½ miles) to the zoo. The round trip might be a problem for some of us heavy weights. Virtually all the scooter companies suggest their scooters will travel up to 10 miles depending on the weight of the passenger. A fact that I think we all know is a bunch of bull. I am a heavy weight and use a Golden Technology GB-101. Ruth is a feather weight and she uses a Phoenix Drive. Both are small scooters. Ruth could probably make the round trip without any problems. We both carry a spare battery pack and I usually plan six miles for our trips. That does take into consideration use of the second battery pack if required and unknown inclines, however we do not switch batteries unless necessary. Rough roads normally do not make any impact on the battery usage, just our butts. From looking at the maps and what I remember, it appears that it is level ground most of the way, thus we only have the distance to contend with. Instead of putting your scooter on full speed (4 mph), drop it down 2 mph, requires a lot less battery power. Also, we carry our chargers along with us. Nothing wrong with stopping for a cool drink or a bite to eat if the merchant will allow you to plug in. On the Dutch side, they use 110, so you would not have any problems. I guess in our case, with limited access, instead of saying we cannot, we try to figure out how. Result: We have seen a lot of beautiful things that others have missed.

 

 

One of our better accomplishments was making the round trip to Atlantis from the dock and we only took the ferry over. Toured every spot they would allow us in Atlantis, and lost a few dollars at the casino. Did plug in while playing the slots. We came back across Paradise Island Bridge and toured Potters Cay. Even after we made that trip and I posted detailed information, others still said it could not be done.

 

 

Guess it is all up to the individual as to what they are willing to do. But I sure would like to see more handicap enjoying more beautiful sites.

 

 

Betty

[Sarah@Sea]

I am planning on going on the Freedom with my Mom in September, same ports. She needs a scooter for distance, this is her first cruise, if we wanted to get off and take a taxi somewhere, not take the scooter how does that work? Can she park it by the exit of the ship or would she have to walk down from her cabin? Also I've seen golf cart shuttles at ports while on other cruises, do most ships offer that service for people who can't walk the distance of the ship to end of pier?

[raindropsalways]

Sarah – I have a bicycle lock / cable that we use. Usually there is someplace near your transportation where you can secure a scooter. Find some sort of post that you can secure the scooter to. If there are shops there, sometimes a vendor will let you store the scooter, but that can be real ify. Take the key and do not leave anything valuable with the scooter. Once we found kids sitting on them pretending they were riding, but never damage. I just leave the cable with the lock wrapped around the tiller so I have it if I need it.

 

 

Betty

[mamasylvia]

I just did St. Maarten by scooter last week. (Literally one week ago right now, we were enjoying a sea day on Oasis of the Seas!) The sidewalk from the cruise facility to the Philipsburg shopping area was easily manageable both by my scooter and my walking husband, although there were several dips where it went through drainage culverts. I had no problem with pedestrians. The sidewalk had some rough spots but I steered my scooter through the smoothest areas. There are lots of alleys from the boardwalk to the main street, but not all of them are accessible - I ran into one with steps at one end. There are some shops that are accessible, but they are definitely in the minority.

[xxoocruiser]

I am planning on going on the Freedom with my Mom in September, same ports. She needs a scooter for distance, this is her first cruise, if we wanted to get off and take a taxi somewhere, not take the scooter how does that work? Can she park it by the exit of the ship or would she have to walk down from her cabin? Also I've seen golf cart shuttles at ports while on other cruises, do most ships offer that service for people who can't walk the distance of the ship to end of pier?

 

 

You can't rely on golf carts or shuttles at the pier as there are very few ports that offer this service.

 

Personally if you don't have a heavy duty scooter I wouldn't rely on a bicycle lock. Small portable scooters easily breakdown into several pieces making it difficult to secure with a lock.

 

If your mother owns a scooter that she's planning to bring with it isn't a portable travel scooter than you might consider renting a scooter from Carevacations. www.carevacations.com CareVacations midsize scooter is the Pride GoGo Elite Traveler HD that easily breakdown into a few pieces and can fit into the trunk of a taxi. The arm rest remove and could be left in the cabin making it even easier to fit into a taxi trunk.

 

I personally own one and it's very easy to breakdown . Here's link to a video to show you how it break downs. Forward to the 55 second mark to see

Edited August 10, 2013 by xxoocruiser

[raindropsalways]

Contrary to what some may think, a bicycle cable and lock is very secure. Anybody that is going to dismantle a scooter in a public place to steel a portion of the scooter, will steel it regardless what you do. A few of the places we have left our scooters: Secured to a flag post in the open on a canal in Amsterdam. Secured to a post between the ship's dock and the local boat tour docks in Bora Bora (found kids pretending to ride scooters when we returned). Secured to a building post for the open passage ways in Roatan. Secured only together in the vendor building in Gibraltar. In both Amsterdam and Roatan, there was not anyone in the area where we secured our scooters. And furthermore, we did not have to reveal any private information to secure our scooters.

 

 

Betty

[livingitup]

Thanks all for the advice/suggestions. I don't know what we will encounter when we get there but we are gonna try our best to see whatever we can. I do have some fear that it wont be much but I will do my best to show my friend as good of time as possible. :)

[Sarah@Sea]

You can't rely on golf carts or shuttles at the pier as there are very few ports that offer this service.

 

Personally if you don't have a heavy duty scooter I wouldn't rely on a bicycle lock. Small portable scooters easily breakdown into several pieces making it difficult to secure with a lock.

 

If your mother owns a scooter that she's planning to bring with it isn't a portable travel scooter than you might consider renting a scooter from Carevacations. www.carevacations.com CareVacations midsize scooter is the Pride GoGo Elite Traveler HD that easily breakdown into a few pieces and can fit into the trunk of a taxi. The arm rest remove and could be left in the cabin making it even easier to fit into a taxi trunk.

 

I personally own one and it's very easy to breakdown . Here's link to a video to show you how it break downs. Forward to the 55 second mark to see

 

She is in the process of getting one but not sure it will arrive in two weeks so YES, I was going to get Carevacations rental...with that though...question???? RCCL will provide a wheelchair at the port to help her board, but if the room is not ready where will they wheel her? Will they leave her with the chair until the cabin is ready and she can be wheeled to the the cabin...aft ...waaay aft.... I want to board early then get lunch, maybe pool...until cabin is ready.

[xxoocruiser]

She is in the process of getting one but not sure it will arrive in two weeks so YES, I was going to get Carevacations rental...with that though...question???? RCCL will provide a wheelchair at the port to help her board, but if the room is not ready where will they wheel her? Will they leave her with the chair until the cabin is ready and she can be wheeled to the the cabin...aft ...waaay aft.... I want to board early then get lunch, maybe pool...until cabin is ready.

 

RCCL will provide wheelchair assistance when embarking as well as on debarkation day. However there are only a limited numbers of wheelchairs available when checking in at the Port. Therefore RCCL will not leave the wheelchair with her nor will they wheel her to the stateroom when ready.

 

Suggest you have her wheeled directly to the Windjammer where she can sit and wait for someone in your group go check her cabin to see if Carevacations has delivered the item you ordered at which time you can take it up to her. You might get some resistance to enter the hallway and or cabin prior to the ready time but I have found that if I politely explain the circumstances it will be allowed or a crew member will check for me.

Edited August 25, 2013 by xxoocruiser

[Sarah@Sea]

RCCL will provide wheelchair assistance when embarking as well as on debarkation day. However there are only a limited numbers of wheelchairs available when checking in at the Port. Therefore RCCL will not leave the wheelchair with her nor will they wheel her to the stateroom when ready.

 

Suggest you have her wheeled directly to the Windjammer where she can sit and wait for someone in your group go check her cabin to see if Carevacations has delivered the item you ordered at which time you can take it up to her. You might get some resistance to enter the hallway and or cabin prior to the ready time but I have found that if I politely explain the circumstances it will be allowed or a crew member will check for me.

 

Thanks! That is helpful to know for planning. I'll be the only person with her and oddly enough I've NEVER driven a scooter, golf cart, go-kart...but I DRIVE quite well, so I'll either go fetch it for her, or she will make that one time journey, plans are to take her walker/seat which will be helpful for that short period esp if the scooter isn't delivered yet...although on past cruise I usually pick a spot and wait verse trying to go around the crowds entering.

[xxoocruiser]

Thanks! That is helpful to know for planning. I'll be the only person with her and oddly enough I've NEVER driven a scooter, golf cart, go-kart...but I DRIVE quite well, so I'll either go fetch it for her, or she will make that one time journey, plans are to take her walker/seat which will be helpful for that short period esp if the scooter isn't delivered yet...although on past cruise I usually pick a spot and wait verse trying to go around the crowds entering.

 

 

The next time you're in a grocery store try operating one of the mobility scooters provide. Though I will be larger than the rental if you can operate that one you should be able to operate the rental.

 

TIP: when using the scooter from Carevacation just make certain the speed control knob is set on the Turtle Icon for slow.

[Momofcandk]

In St. Maarten you go to the pier, around Little Switzerland into exit of parking lot. Make left and follow sidewalk path abput 12 minutes walking go to a cutout to the left that says to the beach. This is where water taxi would have taken you, but not accessible. Beach is right there, boardwalk, hut stores and eating places. Easy. If while on boardwalk you go down alleyway to the right one block, there are lots of stores and sidewalks, not perfect but ok. Nice day and path is very safe.

 

Main attraction though is the beach at Maho Bay, French side where around 2:30 pm the big jets fly so low you can read the nubers on the tires. It is on French side and costly to get there.

 

St. Thomas. A new Sr. Frogs in parking lot. Butterfly museum, not large but unique also in parking lot. Shopping at Havensight accessible. Downtown you can take scooter on open tram but down sidewalks are skinny.

 

Also there is a new ice museum, $20 butba taxi ride. Inquire on ship for accessibility ...sometimes though they are just scenic. Enjoy. Vicki

 

Vickila-- Maho is not on the French side. It's Dutch side. There is a small airport on French side but commercial planes can't land there. Check out sunset beach bar for more info

[gtaylor]

Gary – According to Google, it is 4 km (approx (2 ½ miles) to the zoo. The round trip might be a problem for some of us heavy weights. Virtually all the scooter companies suggest their scooters will travel up to 10 miles depending on the weight of the passenger. A fact that I think we all know is a bunch of bull. I am a heavy weight and use a Golden Technology GB-101. Ruth is a feather weight and she uses a Phoenix Drive. Both are small scooters. Ruth could probably make the round trip without any problems. We both carry a spare battery pack and I usually plan six miles for our trips. That does take into consideration use of the second battery pack if required and unknown inclines, however we do not switch batteries unless necessary. Rough roads normally do not make any impact on the battery usage, just our butts. From looking at the maps and what I remember, it appears that it is level ground most of the way, thus we only have the distance to contend with. Instead of putting your scooter on full speed (4 mph), drop it down 2 mph, requires a lot less battery power. Also, we carry our chargers along with us. Nothing wrong with stopping for a cool drink or a bite to eat if the merchant will allow you to plug in. On the Dutch side, they use 110, so you would not have any problems. I guess in our case, with limited access, instead of saying we cannot, we try to figure out how. Result: We have seen a lot of beautiful things that others have missed.

 

 

One of our better accomplishments was making the round trip to Atlantis from the dock and we only took the ferry over. Toured every spot they would allow us in Atlantis, and lost a few dollars at the casino. Did plug in while playing the slots. We came back across Paradise Island Bridge and toured Potters Cay. Even after we made that trip and I posted detailed information, others still said it could not be done.

 

 

Guess it is all up to the individual as to what they are willing to do. But I sure would like to see more handicap enjoying more beautiful sites.

 

 

Betty

 

Sorry for the delay in posting a response. I thought I would get some notice that your reply was posted, but didn't.

 

My concern has absolutely nothing to do with distance.

 

There is just no easy path to get there. There are no sidewalks once you get out of downtown Philipsburg, and often not even enough room to walk safely along either side of the road. There are spots where culverts run across/under the road and you would be forced onto the actual roadway with lots of high speed traffic including large trucks.

 

Even though there is someone here on Cruise Critic that says that they walked over there, I would NEVER attempt it, SAFETY, not DISTANCE.

 

I wish I had some photos of what you would encounter, but I guess I've never taken that shot.

 

gary

[gtaylor]

Well, I did find one of my photos that shows something of the conditions.

 

(click)

 

Look at the street that the pickup truck is on -- that would be one of the better sections of road you would have to traverse.

 

Google shows a couple of apparently reasonable choices to get to the Zoo.

 

 

I would note that the choice to the right, basically straight up until Arch Road, is the main road for trucks transporting those huge cargo containers from the Cargo Facility to the French side.

 

Taking the route across Pondfill Island leads you onto the road where all of the dump trucks/garbage trucks/whatever take to get to the Dutch side dump, located on the 'island'.

 

gary

[vickila]

Safety first, even for us darers. Thanks for clarification.

 

In Bermuda, the Underwater Museum told me via email that they were accessible and an easy mile from Hamilton ferry by scooter. No sidewalks however and one scary scooter ride in the street with traffic. However, museum was nice. Would not recommend that one either.

 

Daring is one thing, crazy another! Vicki

[raindropsalways]

There is now a catamaran (water taxi) that is used for mobility accessible. A person is expected to be able to walk on with minimal assistance. Ruth is small and one of the men just carried her on. The workers put our scooters on in a separate location. It goes to the main dock downtown.

 

We just rode from Capt. Hodges Pier (the downtown dock) across Pond Island, made a left turn on Arch Rd and a left turn at the entrance to the Zoo. The road definitely was not perfect, however we took caution and did not experience any serious problems.

 

The large rocks outside the Zoo along Arch Rd are now bright pink or bright yellow. Do not remember which color, only that they are very noticeable.

 

Even though we travel with a spare battery pack, our one set of batteries got us there and back without a need to change. I am not a feather weight.

 

We enjoyed the Zoo. A lot of birds, limited animals and some reptiles. We were able to enter and scoot through one of the bird enclosures. The Zoo entry fee was $10.

 

If you enjoy wildlife, I'd suggest that you make the trip.

 

Betty

Edited November 12, 2013 by raindropsalways