St Martin Tours

[chefjacque2]

We just received our documents for our May 15th Centruy trip.. So far, I think we have the ship to ourselves, we have not found any Cruise Critic members who are going... We would love to find some of you who are booked on that date.

 

For those of you who have sailed the Eastern trip, will we have time to do the St Martin Island Tour at 9:00 till 12:00, and then go to Oreint Beach for lunch and some time at the beach?How long is the taxi ride? If anyone has gone on the Island tour we would be interested in your opinion.

 

We are looking forward to the Century, we have only been on the M Class ships.. Thanks to the high praise of Lois R, we could not resist booking Century. As long as we are sailing, we will be happy.

 

Thanks for any information you can give us.

 

Bob and Jacque

[teedee]

You will love the Century, she's such a great ship. I don't know if I would try to do both the Island Tour and make it over to Orient Beach if the ISland Tour brings you back to the ship. It's been a couple of years since I did the Eastern route, but I think it took about 20 - 30 minutes to get to Orient Beach each way. Traffic can be a little iffy at times. That doesn't give you much time to eat and get some beach time in. I would just go to Everyting's Cool and eat and go to the beach there. It's close to where the ship is docked.

 

Terri

 

Skyward - 1989

Carnivale - 1991

Holiday - 1994

Fantasy - 1998

Century - 2002

Century - 2003

Inspiration - 7/04

Century - 9/04

Coral Princess 3/05

[janineo]

dear bob and jacque, Hi we sail two weeks before you. Try the roll call board to connect with others whoare sailing with you. Also try the port of call board-St. Martin to see about time to go to orient. I'm wondering the same thing as we are doing the america's cup in am and my husband wants to go to orient beach after..(imagine that . I'm nervous about the time due to the early sailaway time. The port of call posts said a taxi to orient is 20" and 20 bucks one way. I wonder if traffic has any effect? Good luck Janine

 

Century 5/1/04 DESTINY 4/03

[wvufan]

Good morning,

 

Hi Bob and Jacque!

 

Well, don't know what your time schedule is, but we were in St. Martin couple months ago. We did the America's Cup excursion in the morning (it was fantastic), had a quick lunch on the ship, and went to Orient Beach for the afternoon. It was an absolutely wonderful day and we plan on doing the same thing again when we are there this fall. Janineo-you'll love it. The America's cup folks pick you up at the ship.

 

The cost of the taxi ride to Orient varies according to how many are in the taxi. Rates are posted at the taxi area. I think it is something like $6/person for four people. There are plenty of taxis going and coming. There are lots of areas to rent beach chairs, umbrellas when you get there. It is a wide beach, and one area is supposedly designated totally nude with the rest top optional, but occasionally there are nudes walking down the beach in all areas. We asked the driver to let us off near that section but not in it, as we didn't quite know what to expect, and will go to the same area again.

 

Have fun!

 

OOOEEE Bob and Phyllis

[nealberk]

We did the land and sea tour (bus tour on land, semi submergible water tour) and had plenty of time to walk around before boarding the ship. If I recall, at one point the tour operator asked if anyone wanted to be dropped off at one of the beaches, although I am not sure about this. If he had, the implication is that there is enough time to at least get a quick dip in.

 

Have a great trip!

[chefjacque2]

Thanks to all of you for your replys.. I think we have decided that we just would not have enough time to do both of them, so may spend most of our time at the beach and then do some shopping. I am sure that whatever we do, it will be wonderful just being in such a pretty place.

 

Hay WVFan... Have you gone on the Summit yet?? It was two years ago now that we were in a panic because our trip had been shortened.. I will never forget the tape you sent and your wonderful song.... It would be good to sail with you sometime.

 

Bob and Jacque

[Shirley and Les]

DO NOT take the "wreck" snorkel trip if you plan to do anything else on St Maartens.

On disembarking the Horizon in Jan. 2004, there was a one-man band playing 'Elvis' songs at the end of the pier. Should have bought his CD.

Caught the snorkel tour at the end of the cruise ship dock. After 1-1/2 hours of snorkeling, and about 1-1/2 hours of rum punch and an island boat tour, we were back at the cruise ship dock somewhere around noon. The 'Elvis" songman was gone.

We went back on the ship for lunch and then the rum punch convinced us to take a looooong nap. We woke up during sailaway. Oh well, the shopping budget was back in good shape!

Les