ADVENTURE/ABC's Aug 20-27,2016 REVIEW w/lots of photos

Enjoying your review and all the photos! We'll be in 1692 in 3 weeks. It's good to know that the connecting door will not present potential noise problems. Had we been on your cruise, we would have been neighbors!

Ha! Small world :D

Yep, but be aware the only noise I had for a little bit was from above in the Windjammer in the wee hours of the morning a couple of nights.

What I had assumed would happened, happened. Walking through the pier area at about 9:15am I thought we were in a ghost town! There was nobody!!! welll... a few people.... just a smattering of cruisers getting off the ship. Very very weird. I'm used to seeing St Marten just loaded with people. This was the theme of the day as you will see in the pictures to come.

I've done Maho 3 times, shopped Phillipsburg every time, did the Soualiga Boat tour (rated #1 on Tripadvisor) and also did an RCL tour the first time (bus to Marigot for 30min only, a few scenic stops, etc). I have never been to Orient! So this one would be the trip I would finally go there. Also, hardly any tours spend any time at all in Marigot, with only a handful allowing for a 30-45min stop for walking around a bit at the open market. I wanted at least a couple of hours in Marigot at my own pace with a trip up to fort St Louis. So the plan was:

Orient Bay: until about 11:30-noon

Marigot: noon - 2:30

Phillipsburg shopping/site seeing: 3-4:30

We grabbed a cab right at the port which I had never done... I've always taken the ferry across and then grabbed the bus on Back street to Maho. There is no direct bus into Orient Bay unless you walk 7-8 blocks from the main road through the complex which can be done. We shared a cab for $8 per person and we were dropped off at the turn-around for vehicles at the entrance to Bikini Beach.

I was really looking forward to this! So walking by the shack/restaurant area and directly past the initial loungers right to the sand, I looked around in all directions... I felt like Tom Hanks in Castaway! lol! "WILSON!!!!"...

A couple of miles of almost empty beach in both directions and not a single person in any of the loungers. Lucky us.

This was a glorious morning and a great part of the trip. We took a walk up and down the entire stretch of beach, first heading towards the famous Pedro's Beach Bar and the start of the Nude Beach area. Mind you, along the way there were a few topless women during the non-nude area, but I guess with hardly anyone anyone no-one really cared.

Looking back from where we started, standing at the cliff area of Pedro's Bar

Turning around and continuing away from Pedro's is the smaller nude area

We didn't bother going much farther, heading back to where we started to check our stuff and walk through the waves and sand...

We past our stuff and continued to the other side of the beach. There were plenty of resorts/bars that had sales during low season such as 50% of lunch, free lunch with 2 chairs purchased, and other variations. Here's just one example. I can tell you that those offering a "deal" of some sort actually ended up having a few people by the time we left... those that had no signage and no deal were bare empty, totally zero people on the loungers and we saw a staff member or two just sitting around watching us walk by without a care.

We got back to our spot where we set up camp and needed to get into the water with the heat of the day creeping up on us. The water was perfect and we swam and played in there for a while.

Aaaaaaaah, this is the life

By the time we came out of the water there were definitely more people around, but by no means was the beach getting full at all. Google search some pictures of this beach during high season and you'll see it might be a problem even finding a lounger!

What an amazing morning!... sun, sand, great views, relaxation.

But the mid-day heat was really starting to gear up. We did packed up a little later than we planned right at noon and made our way back to the taxi area. Nobody at all was coming in or going... there was one driver chilling out in the shade noticed us approaching, and we hopped in for our ride to Marigot.

The taxi driver (I even remember his name = Donald) was great! We conversed about several things about the island, he told us a bit about Grand Case as we drove through, and also offered to take us up to the Fort Louis parking lot rather than drop us off below in town. It was about a 20min taxi ride and $18 if I remember correctly ($9 each if you want to look at it the same way as Orient is charged). And there we were.... a place I really wanted to see several times when visiting St Marten but didn't make it happen until now: Fort Louis!

It's a decent climb to get up, I think the driver quoted 88 steps. There is definitely no way for a mobility challenged person to get up here unfortunately, and the terrain at the top is also rugged.

Here's the entrance to the fort at the very top of this raw and beautiful place

Entrance is free... there's no fan fare, not many placards/signs explaining things, no tour guides, no concession stands.... but I knew I would see something special by the view I began to have at this entrance as we approached

It's gorgeous up here with no formal pathways, no concrete, and several areas of pieces of the fort just sitting there broken up

And the views!!!!.... this is looking back away from Marigot and Simpson's Bay... I'm saving the best for last in the next post

Here's an excellent and short synopsis of Fort Louis:

http://www.stmartinisland.org/even-more-st-martin-island/st-martin-focus-of-the-month/93-specials/370-fort-louis.html

There's a few signs here and there explaining a couple of things, I would say maybe a total of 10 max plus also the large sign at the parking lot I posted. Here's an example

The view up here is totally spectacular!!

Is that not totally gorgeous! I spent a good 10 minutes sitting up there just enjoying the spectacular view as there was no pressure of hundreds of other tourists behind me. The exact spot I took that photo from is here...

Its a little precarious up there! And I was being very careful with my balance as one small move could mean a world of hurt. We began to make our way down and out of the fort as we were getting extremely hungry for some lunch, but not before snapping this shot from where I was just sitting... no railings or much of a ledge up there if you happen to slip!

You can see in the last photo above that the flag is extended in the breeze. Also if your sound is up on the video you can hear the wind gusting... made for an interesting 10 minutes on that small perch as I twisted around for photos and video :p

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And here's the money shot... one of my favorite photos of the entire vacation and one of my favorite memories:

I could not believe how easy it was to figure out how to get down into the town. Coming up the street, the taxi driver pointed where the stairs to get down into town were as we drove by. So here we go starting at the top and working your way down... if you start at the bottom, then simply start at the bottom photo of this post and scroll your way up!

Simply walk down the side stairs from the parking lot

Here's where you end up. This is what you see looking back up where the parking area is

Walk down the street about 200 feet until you reach these stairs (there is no signage whatsoever). They are the only stairs on that side of the street.

This is what you see looking back up the street those 200 feet you just walked... the entrance to Fort Louis is where that pole is on the right

Walk all the way down the stairs until you get to the town

Yes, it's that simple. coming down the stairs, you will see this building across the street. So if are in Marigot trying to find the stairs, just walk towards the hill along the main road where the restaurants are until you see the building and steps on this corner corner. Voila!!

We were famished! By walking directly ahead from the photo above (along the front the red building) you reach several restaurants right at the main intersection and immediately across the street from the taxi/bus turn-around and flee market plaza for those of you who know the area. It was here we decided to enjoy lunch at this place.... great service and fun lady with, of course, her french accent.

Mixed grilled seafood skewers... Uhm ya... looks good, right? Yes it was!

Great food, great atmosphere, and an excellent view of Fort Louis

But this was the "piece de résistance" of this meal.... home made french crepes!!!!! Behind is the strawberry & creme, but in front is the CLEAR winner by a kilometer (sorry my american friends, we're in Europe here and I'm Canadian to boot, eh? lol) is the crepe closest to the camera -- banana & nutella! Mon dieu... magnifique!!!

Interesting... the bill came in both Euro and American $, and I've heard several stores and/or vendors out on the streets only accept Euro's. Which brings me to the next photo... do you see any stores open? It was a Sunday and in low season, the town was shut down which is a shame. I will definitely have to come back in high season on another cruise. This town has gorgeous architecture` and several blocks of shops and interesting streets to explore

Instead, we walked over to the boardwalk by the ocean and enjoyed a walk through the flee market area to see if there was anything interesating

We continued our walk through the flee market area, but it too was only half populated with very very few tourists/shoppers around at all. The first time I was here in a high season, there were excellent one-of-a-kind artists selling fabulous art, sculptures, other things... this was more like walking through the straw market in Nassau with every booth having the exact same junk over and over again. Disinterested, we walked through very quickly and made our way up the street to the taxi stands in order to get back to Phillipsburg.

We headed back to Phillipsburg, and along the way we passed through the Dutch/French border which I have never seen before, so the driver pulled over for us so that I can take a few photos

The route on our way back connected to the same stretch of highway that takes tourists to Maho Beach. We stopped at the lookout pint heading up the hill looking back onto Simpsons Bay and took several pics of the Adventure as we made our way down the hill into Phillipsburg

We entered the town and the driver dropped us off dead center by the court house. This is what we saw as we started walking through town

Unreal!... ghost town. I checked my watch just to make sure we weren't missing the ship! Even famous Old Street was totally empty with only about 3 stores open along the way. Turns out there were a couple of people still buying a few things (us) so good for them for being open.

Having had a little visit in sleepy Phillipsburg, we were within an hour of all-aboard so we made our way back to the ship. We headed for the ferry at the pier and it was $5 one way per person ($7 return). A 3 min taxi was $6 for both so we turned around and grabbed one of the 10+ taxis sitting there doing nothing for a quick ride back to the port area.

And take a look at this picture walking through the port area... zero people! I never thought I'd ever see this, so very strange

And as we got to the ship there were a few more late afternoon stragglers returning like us

Dropping our stuff off in our room and freshening up a little bit, I wanted to do at least one sail away on the helipad on this trip, so having the ship facing forward to the pier this is the one port that made sense to do. We headed up front to the Helipad and enjoyed the view as she backed out and spun around in order to sail off.

Having turned and left the bay, we hadn't visited deck 4 yet so we made our way around the entire ship for a little walk before we got ready for dinner

Here's a couple of interesting pics for you.... where were these taken from?

Here's where I took them... at the back of the ship deck 4. I stuck my arm over the back as far as I could and did my best to frame the photo.... not bad huh??!!

It was time to get back to our cabin, have a little quiet time on the balcony before dinner and enjoy the final moments of sailaway as St Marten slips away in the distance

We leave in 26 days but with a different itinerary. Cant wait to see your review!!

We are on this cruise also, can't wait. Just hoping not to have a storm brewing.

Marlene

This evening we had Giovanni's booked again with my D+ BOGO... but they again offered a 2 for 1 to anyone. The venue at 6:30pm was surprisingly quite empty but by the time late seating came up the place was full. We were seated with the same waiter as the night before and we almost asked to be seated elsewhere, but we shrugged our shoulders and went with the flow.... much better energy tonight from the waiter so all was good. We went with a seafood theme, and everything was excellent again, especially the crab ravioli (YUM!) and both sole & shrimp entrees.

Tonight was also the captain's reception in the Promenade, but our dinner went to almost 8:30 so we didn't make it. Instead we went straight to the theatre and scored front row seats for Invitation to Dance

Great show as always, and the professional dancers on board this ship, Amanda & Sebastian from Australia, are excellent (and they're great teachers at dance classes too).

Battle of the Sexes Game Show was on tonight and guess who won... the women of course. And then it was a night of dancing with Son Machine and DJ Blades, as we scooted back and forth from the Imperial Lounge to Jesters depending if Son machine was on a break.

What a great day! W were looking forward to sleeping in a bit and enjoying a sea day tomorrow.

Phillipsburg looks to strange with so few people!

Fabulous review! Love the pictures and the details of the travel. Thank you for sharing.

Phillipsburg looks to strange with so few people!

Yep, beyond strange. And same thing in the next ports of call as well, especially considering I did venture out and away from the ports, so barely saw any other RCL cruisers around whatsoever (ie. blue towels). It was truly weird especially later in the day getting closer to all aboard time and we were one of the few heading back, not seeing anyone else until we got very close to the ship.

Fabulous review! Love the pictures and the details of the travel. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you very much. You're welcome :)

I know from previous reviews that many people tail off looking at the ports as the initial ship tour/photos was of most importance, but I hope many who are doing this itinerary (or considering it) hang on as I reach the ABC's... I think I did some extremely cool things and I have some great photos to share. I've had many CC'ers email me months after a cruise review to ask questions, so I know this type of review helps even though it's not everyone's cup of tea.

I'm hoping other CC'ers can look at this and say "I can do that"... then they do it easier/better than me and post their own review so we can all learn more for the next time we go back!! :D

I have never been to St Martin with no other ships. Great info and pics of the ship, can't wait to hear about and see pics of the ABC's

Aaaaaaah.... a day of R & R.... er.... well mostly R&R. We kept busy.

Obviously sleeping in, hanging out on our balcony, and grabbing machiatto's from the CL and bringing them back to the balcony was of top priority this morning. But soon enough breakfast was in order, so we opted for a simple breaky up in the DL this time with a 2nd machiatto, smoked salmon bagel, fruit and muesli... breakfast of champions ( ~~~ FORESHADOWING!! ~~~) :D

I did have my camera with me but did not take many photos at all for this sea day. First order of business was a cha-cha-cha dance class down in Jester's with the professional dancers... excellent class and very well attended (minimum 50 people). The rest of the day we wanted to chill at pool deck and enjoy the various activities and music.

The pool deck was packed! But we pulled the single avail lounger that we found anywhere over to a spot under the shade for my gf, while I got some rays. Of course soon after it was announced the Internationl Belly-Flop competition was going to start in 15 minutes and I was being dared to enter, which I might add I am a former champion, so of course the gf was putting on the pressure to see me actually do it! Well, how can I not take on a dare? lol

Remember the "foreshadowing" I mentioned above? :p

So off I go as the 8 men signed up are summoned to the pool deck to perform, of course about 5-6 not bad shaped guys and 3 bigger men who should drain half the pool. Well folks, the guys before me didn't play the crowd too much, and the dives weren't that great, so as CD Dan Dan read the scores being displayed by fingers from all the cruisers around the pool deck, they were all around the 3's and 4's.

It was my turn. thankfully the crowd was on my side as I shook my booty a bit, and I counted down with them for the dive... 3-2-1 and I went....

BANG!!!! I totally nailed it. I came up to surface with my hand up first signifying a "5", and as my head popped up to cheering, I saw a whole lot of other 5's from the crowd lol. But YIKES, did my chest hurt!!! And as I got out of the pool, it was beet red. Lo and behold, the big men after me failed to take over top spot and I became the International Belly-Flop Champion... hilarious!

Unbeknownst to me, the 1st prize was waaaay better than anything I have seen on any other ship. Normally a medal, shirt, hat, you know... that sort of thing. This time I got the standard gold medal & RCL bingo shirt, but better yet also a gift certificate to Del-Sol in Aruba for a pair of any of their sun glasses! That was awesome... I can tell you I did go get them no problem and they were $50. So this was a great prize.

Unfortunately gf thought she was videoing the entire competition right through to the medals, but realized after we checked that she must've hit "stop" within 2 seconds of starting the video! lol. Fun memories.

Pool Volleyball was next and then it was time for both of us to get out of the sun for a bit, so off we went to our room to freshen up and walk around the ship for a bit before the dinner hour.

We chilled out a bit on our balcony, freshened up, then took a short leisurely walk around the ship to see what was going on. I had missed taking some photos of the venues in the Promenade, so I snapped a few of the artwork and Gravity Sports Bar as we passed. I believe Gravity is gone at drydock and will become Izumi's in this space (according to the deck plans at least), very different from the other Voyager Class ships who's Izumi is located up in the Viking Crown.

I also came across this plaque between Cafe Promenade and the elevator bank, showing some of the initial statistics of Adventure when she was born. Blowing up this photo will reveal the following stats:

Length 1020' Gross Tonnage 137,300

Beam at waterline 126' Passenger capacity 3,138 lower bed

Beam max 155' 3,807 total

Draft 29' Crew 1,213

Air Draft 207'

Tonight was our first meal at MTD.... no line up when we showed up but at least 20 couples in line when we left. In fact there were lines every night as it seemed that 8:30-8 time slot was very popular. Had a fabulous pair of waiters, Aila & Koomang. Aila has been with RCL for 13 years bless her soul. Totally on point with superb service, we really enjoyed both of them throughout and they privided excellent service every time. We ended up with a table right beside one of the waiter stations which we didn't like right off the bat, but so be it, it was totally fine and had that table the other times we attended MTD.

We rushed down for 70's music trivia which our team came in 2nd... so we missed out on the incredible 1st place ... pens lol! It was awesome as the activity staff was really great at allowing everyone to sing through the song and making jokes along the way.

STEPHANIE PARKER - headliner. If you ever see her on one of your sailings GO SEE HER! What is she doing singing on cruise ships? Seriously? One of the best headliners I have seen in my RCL history, should be recording professionally on a label signed by some record producer. I wonder what her story is but wow, just awesome and a full-on standing O at the end.

https://www.instagram.com/lasvegasdivaoftheseas/

And then the always fun 70's night with the festivities held in the Promenade. All the typical flashing rings being thrown during the music medley, big crowd and many people dancing. Really well done and funny as heck. We were a bit tired that night, and although planned to attend ther 70's after party we headed for bed so we can get up early for our arrival to Bonaire the next day.

We found this from our stateroom attendant, Kennibeth, waiting for us.

This was it for the day, a really great easy day of fun, relaxation mixed in, and superb entertainment. Great day on the Adventure!

Thx for following :D

A word of advice (for you and everyone I guess....)

The ABC's are not ports to get off, walk around port within 2 blocks for an hour to shop at Diamond's International, and then get back on to the ship to complain that the port is boring and there's nothing to do. As you will see in this review, the islands are INCREDIBLE!!! But you have to leave the port, you have to be adventurous and put some effort into the day you are there as much as you can possibly do. :)

I am a scuba diver, so I'm sure any time I spend in any of the ABC islands will be spent under water. I have been longing to go diving there for years, especially Bonaire. I am looking for our next cruise to book, and I think I've waited long enough to get to those ABC islands!

We were just in St Maarten this past June and also were the only ship in port. We were on Freedom, so a bigger ship, but still have similar pictures with no people in them. We may try your Orient Beach, Marigot, Phillipsburg itinerary next time we are in St Maarten, looked like a good plan to me.

I enjoyed your tour of Adventure as we have not sailed her yet. Not sure I like all of the "improvements" scheduled for her drydock, tough. Guess we will have to wait and see how she comes out. At least, not having sailed her currentconfiguration, we won't know what we're missng.

I am enjoying your review and will defnitely be following you to the end. :D Thank you for doing it.

Every time we visit St. Maarten, there seems to be 4-7 ships in port. You were so lucky to be the only ones docked there for your visit. It looks so tranquil.

We have a cruise booked next year to the ABCs, so I am itching for your photos and comments on those three islands. Keep up the excellent review.

Loving your review! We're on the Adventure for this itinerary early next year. Almost no one has reviewed this itinerary, yours is wonderful. Thank you!

I enjoyed your tour of Adventure as we have not sailed her yet. Not sure I like all of the "improvements" scheduled for her drydock, tough. Guess we will have to wait and see how she comes out. At least, not having sailed her current configuration, we won't know what we're missng.

 

I am enjoying your review and will defnitely be following you to the end. :D Thank you for doing it.

Thx for following :)

Truth be told, When on the upgraded Navigator May 2014, Navigator was the first "upgraded" Voyager Class ship. Up to that point, by far and away the Freedom Class ships felt to me much more crowded than any Voyager Class I had been on. However, the new Navigator also seemed very crowded. They added many new staterooms and made less public space, as will happen to the Adventure. While I love the addition of new specialty restaurants and the new sports court, I can only imagine the problems the pool deck will face with that many more passengers on board with all the new cabins and less public space. I would still sail the new Voyager Class over Freedom, I don't hold Freedom Class high on my list of class of ship I like the best, but then again I'm one of the few that think this way as there are many cruisers who absolutely love Freedom Class.

Definitely you will have to try to see for yourself... everyone has their own favorites, likes & dislikes. You might love the new upgrades! :)