WASHED OUT IN ST MAARTEN!

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Regal Princess

St. Maarten

77F, rainy

We were not in a hurry to leave the ship this morning since we had no major shopping or touring plans.  In Philipsville, St. Maarten, there is a shore side shopping area (built by cruise lines) right off the ship, but to get to downtown, one takes a short water taxi ride($7pp/roundtrip).  Lizards of varying sizes greeted us just before we boarded the water taxi!

Guess how many lizards are in this photo!

This is an enlargement of the biggest lizard

They were actually still in the same area when we returned from downtown

In the downtown area on the boardwalk, TK spotted a coffee shop, so we stopped for a coffee. At that point the rain started, about 10 a.m. At first it wasn’t too bad, so we continued walking in and out of shops along the way. One of the shop owners mentioned that it was unusual to have 4 large cruise ships (Regal Princess, Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, and Costa Favolosa—about 15,000 people) in port and hardly anyone in the shops.

L to R: Regal, Favolosa, and Adventure of the Seas

The Oasis arrived about an hour later

TK took this photo of the two Royal Caribbean ships, the Oasis on the left

Oasis: about 1200 ft. long, 198 ft. wide, and holds up to 6780 passengers max +crew

Regal: 1083 ft.long, 126 ft. wide, holds up to 3560 passengers max + 1346 crew

St. Maarten is beautiful despite the rain

Sea, beach, lounge chairs and umbrellas, then a large boardwalk/sidewalk, 

then hotels, restaurants, and bars

The main street is parallel to the boardwalk behind the hotels, etc. (I hope I explained this well)

We finished picking up a couple things for friends and family about noon (between raindrops). Instead of having lunch at the Green House, our favorite restaurant in both St. Thomas and St. Maarten, we decided to take the water taxi back to the ship area. By the time we motored back to the port area, it was pouring rain. Because TK is such a good weather predictor, we did have our umbrellas. I felt bad on several levels—for those people planning a beach or tour day, and those who did not have umbrellas in the hard rain. [the water taxis were covered]

The Regal Princess was in port from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and it rained from 10 a.m. to 5:10 p.m., when the glorious sun returned.  In all our cruising (about 60), we have never experienced rain for the whole day like we did today.  Last year when we were in St. Maarten, we visited both the Dutch and the French sides of the island. We also visited the airport beach where the planes fly over the beach (because the airport is basically right by the beach).

After dinner we watched Will Smith in Gemini Man “under the stars,” with lots of wind.  The movie was predictable but full of action. The stars were out!!

TK’s Takes: He saw more dogs than he ever saw on any island before.  Rainy day. He wished he had recorded the horn blowing as we left port. On a Princess ship the song played is always the theme from Love Boat.