Unrest closes French side of St. Maarten 03-10-16

Onboard Freedom today. There is a strike going on over on the French side of the island and no travel is permitted into that side. All excursions that required driving to the French side ( like Orient Beach), have been cancelled.

All guests were strongly advised by the captain to avoid trying to get there on their own.

As a result, the beach on the Boardwalk in Phillipsburg is an absolute zoo.

Evidently, the protests started yesterday and the roads are actually blocked by the protesters to prevent travel.

Thanks for the update.

Yeah I bet if Orient and Marigot are not an option Philipsburg would be busy.......:(

Feel badly for all the passengers on the 4 ships in port right now - that will certainly make of mess of excursions (and for the tour operators).

Wonder what the strike is all about anyway....we're going to be there in about another month...and might start thinking about changing our plans to go tot he French side...

Onboard Freedom today. There is a strike going on over on the French side of the island and no travel is permitted into that side. All excursions that required driving to the French side ( like Orient Beach), have been cancelled.

 

All guests were strongly advised by the captain to avoid trying to get there on their own.

 

As a result, the beach on the Boardwalk in Phillipsburg is an absolute zoo.

 

Evidently, the protests started yesterday and the roads are actually blocked by the protesters to prevent travel.

Sounds like the French. I have been caught in transportation strikes in France several times. The whole country grinds to a halt.

Hope it's over by early next month! We had no plans on going to the French side, but we thought about just hanging out at that beach at the boardwalk.

Thanks for the update.

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Feel badly for all the passengers on the 4 ships in port right now - that will certainly make of mess of excursions (and for the tour operators).

 

Wonder what the strike is all about anyway....we're going to be there in about another month...and might start thinking about changing our plans to go tot he French side...

There is a little bit about this in the ports of call forum. we have been following the issue for months and seen this coming, but didn't know it would result in this. I'm off to check the Club orient webcam :)

There is a little bit about this in the ports of call forum. we have been following the issue for months and seen this coming, but didn't know it would result in this. I'm off to check the Club orient webcam :)

Yeah...have been checking a webcam as well...

Hopefully will all be done with by next Thursday.

From the camera angle, it does not zooee.

There are a few people on Orient beach, but they may be guests staying at Club Orient that are already there.

Yikes. My parents just got back from a land-based trip at a resort on Orient Beach (NOT the nudist resort! :eek:). They go every year and haven't had a problem, but we have been caught in similar strikes in France. Hope things are resolved quickly for everyone.

Feel badly for all the passengers on the 4 ships in port right now - that will certainly make of mess of excursions (and for the tour operators).

 

Wonder what the strike is all about anyway....we're going to be there in about another month...and might start thinking about changing our plans to go tot he French side...

Reading local news and it began yesterday with 4 restaurants owners protesting the high rents charged and some other issues not specified. Locals supporting the restaurants are involved in blocking the roads.

Hopefully will all be done with by next Thursday.

Agree. On a side note, the beach shot doesn't look any busier than normal.

Oh No! I'm going to keep an eye on this. We're going to St. Marten in a few weeks and had planned to go around the island in a Jeep. Will need to cancel the reservation if things aren't better by then.

............besides the inability to travel over the roads how can you tell people are on strike?:confused:

Reading local news and it began yesterday with 4 restaurants owners protesting the high rents charged and some other issues not specified. Locals supporting the restaurants are involved in blocking the roads.

How ironic. It is people supporting the restaurants that are preventing the restaurants from making money on the tourists. That support I wouldn't need.

sigh....its so Cliche that its the French protesting about something

According to the captain, there was a new tax imposed and the merchants (not just restaurants) are refusing to pay it and went on strike. Captain said that the road between the Dutch and French sides is being slowed to a crawl, and that even if you managed to get over there, there was no guarantee that anyone would bring you back.

Reading local news and it began yesterday with 4 restaurants owners protesting the high rents charged and some other issues not specified. Locals supporting the restaurants are involved in blocking the roads.

Considering a major portion of island revenue comes from tourism...you'd think that the approach to restrict access or using their services would be a pretty foolish idea.

While it's an inconvenience or disappointment for tourists, they'll just spend their money elsewhere - and then the striking merchants (and/or transportation to and from them) are the only ones who lose out.

Welp, we're booked on Bernard's tour for the 15th.Hopefully they'll switch up the itinerary if need be.

It's ironic that I was just going to ask for suggestions on excursions to the French side as we will overnite in St. Marten next Feb. We have never been to the French side so I am open to suggestions for tours there.

Onboard Freedom today. There is a strike going on over on the French side of the island and no travel is permitted into that side. All excursions that required driving to the French side ( like Orient Beach), have been cancelled.

 

All guests were strongly advised by the captain to avoid trying to get there on their own.

 

As a result, the beach on the Boardwalk in Phillipsburg is an absolute zoo.

 

Evidently, the protests started yesterday and the roads are actually blocked by the protesters to prevent travel.

My that would make the Dutch side a mad house.

Sounds like the way it was for us in October last year.....problem was, we didn't find out about any issues until we were already at Orient and ready to leave. This was around 2:30 in the afternoon after spending a lovely day there. We encountered many road blocks in a taxi, trying to get back to the ship. We finally had to get out of taxi, walk, following our taxi driver around the road block, and walk down the road. Finally, another taxi came from opposite direction, picked us up and brought us back to port. The usual 20 minute taxi ride ended up being very nerve wracking hour and a half in two taxis and walking through the protesters around the road block.

Those who tried getting to French side after 8:30 AM were told no taxis would take them, and all tours were cancelled. We had left slightly before the "big announcement".

I went back to Orient Beach in January......no problem.

We are currently on navigator and had an excursion to Simpson Bay. It took over an hour to get there this morning. We had a shorter ride back.