St Maarten and St Thomas

[ddusterr]

I fell and injured my leg on a Carnival Cruise a few years ago. I spent the rest of the cruise in a folding wheelchair. My husband and I shopped at the mall across from the dock in St. Thomas without any problems. Some of the shop isles were a little narrow, though.

[Mikeyto]

I am goint to St. Thomas and St. Marteen Nov '14 and want to visit Maho Beach (i'm an aviation geek). What is the best way for someone who uses a manual wheelchair to get over there? Are there any private tour guides you can recommend?

 

Thanks!

[QuickieGlenn]

I am goint to St. Thomas and St. Marteen Nov '14 and want to visit Maho Beach (i'm an aviation geek). What is the best way for someone who uses a manual wheelchair to get over there? Are there any private tour guides you can recommend?

 

Thanks!

 

If you can transfer to a car or suv you can ask for a large car or SUV to take you where yhou need to go. My chair is a rigid and we disassembled it and went to Coral World and the cabbie introduced us to another guy at Coral World who arranged for us to be picked up. It went well and was able to see the island ( being my 5 th time there and had to see more than just the stores)

Have fun

[shelly222]

On 8/5/2013 at 3:50 PM, raindropsalways said:

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

 

 

 

I know you might not see this as your comment is years old, but Betty, that is so awesome!! My daughter who is in a custom manual wheelchair (I push her) and I are just starting to cruise and I have been researching hours and hours on ports for our second cruise with determination to do as much sightseeing as possible. Your determination sounds like mine as I want my daughter to see as much as possible. I want to see too.. 🙂Our first cruise was a bit of a disappointment due to obstacles we encountered, but also not knowing what to expect etc. I did research the port a lot but just didn't still know. I took a lot of notes from that cruise to apply it to our second one and am already excited about some of the things I have found we will be able to do and see. I am trying to choose an itinerary for our third one which Ive hit a lot of people saying, "oh, none of our sites are accessible outside of the ship port but you can do this or that at or near the port". I have found over the years what most think are not accessible actually still are to us. We do a lot and people have a hard time believing I actually did this with my daughter or that, but yes, there are ways and it may not be easy, but its worth the work to make it an experience you will never forget. Happy Cruising and keep it up!!!! 

[Benthayer Gonbak]

On 11/1/2013 at 9:59 PM, gtaylor said:

 

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

 

 

Gary, when I had a walker, and before the last hurricane we drove down the street that leads to the old downtown.  What I noticed were grassy areas on curbed sections and small foot paths in the grass.  We both agreed that wasn’t going to be the best idea for even the walker which I had regularly taken in grass cobblestone and the like.  We saw places we thought we’d be forced to the street which had blind curves and decided not to try it!  I was recently back with a scooter but was leaving the ship due to a family emergency so we didn’t venture out too much except to catch a cab to the airport.  It didn’t look like much had changed on that area, the grass was still there and the bramble overgrown in places!

[Benthayer Gonbak]

On 1/22/2019 at 11:22 PM, shelly222 said:

I know you might not see this as your comment is years old, but Betty, that is so awesome!! My daughter who is in a custom manual wheelchair (I push her) and I are just starting to cruise and I have been researching hours and hours on ports for our second cruise with determination to do as much sightseeing as possible. Your determination sounds like mine as I want my daughter to see as much as possible. I want to see too.. 🙂Our first cruise was a bit of a disappointment due to obstacles we encountered, but also not knowing what to expect etc. I did research the port a lot but just didn't still know. I took a lot of notes from that cruise to apply it to our second one and am already excited about some of the things I have found we will be able to do and see. I am trying to choose an itinerary for our third one which Ive hit a lot of people saying, "oh, none of our sites are accessible outside of the ship port but you can do this or that at or near the port". I have found over the years what most think are not accessible actually still are to us. We do a lot and people have a hard time believing I actually did this with my daughter or that, but yes, there are ways and it may not be easy, but its worth the work to make it an experience you will never forget. Happy Cruising and keep it up!!!! 

 

I agree about others deciding about what you can do.  I’ve come to believe that many have seen couples who cannot help each other.  My husband carried my walker down the steps at the Ft in San Juan.  The guide walked in front of me fearful I would fall and making it difficult for me to recover if I’d tripped.   Coming back up hubby had a different attitude about carrying the walker.  While he is certainly able, because of the high area where the drug the cannons and the narrow stairway he had to lift the walker where his hand was shoulder height in order to clear the barrier!   Fortunately, I hadn’t talked him into it he’d said if I wanted to go he was willing to carry the walker!  

[gtaylor]

On 7/20/2019 at 3:05 PM, Benthayer Gonbak said:

 

 

Gary, when I had a walker, and before the last hurricane we drove down the street that leads to the old downtown.  What I noticed were grassy areas on curbed sections and small foot paths in the grass.  We both agreed that wasn’t going to be the best idea for even the walker which I had regularly taken in grass cobblestone and the like.  We saw places we thought we’d be forced to the street which had blind curves and decided not to try it!  I was recently back with a scooter but was leaving the ship due to a family emergency so we didn’t venture out too much except to catch a cab to the airport.  It didn’t look like much had changed on that area, the grass was still there and the bramble overgrown in places!

I'm not sure what to reference here with a quote from a 6 year old post, and not sure what your concern or whatever is.

 

First, I believe that the Zoo has closed.

 

My point was/is that there are many areas on such a walk that are basically unsafe for any person, much less with a walker or a scooter. 

 

This same concern covers vast areas of the island. It is NOT pedestrian friendly in the least outside of the MAJOR tourist areas.

 

gary

[Benthayer Gonbak]

15 minutes ago, gtaylor said:

I'm not sure what to reference here with a quote from a 6 year old post, and not sure what your concern or whatever is.

 

First, I believe that the Zoo has closed.

 

My point was/is that there are many areas on such a walk that are basically unsafe for any person, much less with a walker or a scooter. 

 

This same concern covers vast areas of the island. It is NOT pedestrian friendly in the least outside of the MAJOR tourist areas.

 

gary

 

Gary I was agreeing, I thought. 

 

I’m pretty adventurous where I used to attempt with a walker, but that was because I knew to check for safety too!  I also was pretty much able to use the rollator as a weapon!   There are a lot of places I don’t wander in the US, why wouldn’t I use the same caution abroad, a vacation isn’t the time to throw caution to the wind, no matter how much they are calling you. 

 

And yes, I saw that this was an old thread but I thought a zoo might be interesting if I progressed with caution.  There are several vendors in St Maarten that I like to stop by and talk to, so I checked in with them quickly on how the island was doing.  I’d certainly have asked, had I not seen the road, them about whether they’d walk the street or avoid at at almost all costs. 

 

If you haven’t seen how the airport works now, while they are rebuilding, it’s a challenge for sure. 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Benthayer Gonbak