Mariner Oct 2-9 Day 5

I'm not responsible for my grammer or spelling on this one!

By the way we had approx 1 hour to 1.5 hours to shop in Marigot!

Our Review - Mariner of the Seas - October 2-9, 2005 – Port Canaveral, Fl – Eastern

Day 5 – St. Martin / St Maarten

Our day started early once again! Off to breakfast and then on to the pier to find our shore excursion “ St Maarten Sensation & Beach Escape”. There were people right off the ship to direct you to your tour director. We stood in line for awhile waiting on the rest of our people to arrive. It was nice and shady between the two ships. The Carnival ship was docked right next to ours, I hadn’t realized just how big the Mariner was until she was this close too another ship. Well it was time to leave and we made a short walk down the pier and through the small shopping area to our awaiting bus! We boarded and were on our way to Marigot for some shopping. On our drive over we had the tour guide pointing out various spots & telling a little history. We shopped at Marigot – same stuff, different name!! They did have a nice straw market here and you could haggle some about prices! We purchased a coffee cup! I found a beach bag I liked but somehow left without buying it! We bought cold drinks from a man that was serving fresh coconuts, He would cut the top off and give you a straw to drink the juice and then he would chop it in half so you could eat the fresh meat from inside. Pretty interesting! I being from Texas didn’t know that coconuts had soft outside around the hard brown fuzzy nut!! I live a sheltered life!! LOL!! We were hot and ready for some a/c so back on the BIG BLUE bus we went. We passed over to the French side of the island and finished the first leg of our tour. We were then dropped off at BOO BOO JAM beach. Nice place. We were welcomed with two tickets and a nice strong!!!!! Rum punch (you could get just fruit punch)! We found a table in the open air restaurant and waiting on lunch! We had a choice of BBQ ribs or chicken. This was a great meal! Besides the chicken & ribs we were served French fries & salad. I got ribs & hubby got chicken and we split both. The ribs were out of this world. I didn’t realize they had change rooms & showers around on the side of the building so I went to change into my swimsuit in the ladies room. This excursion included two beach loungers but we had to pay extra if we wanted an umbrella and cushions. The costs for those items were $5 each. We handed the man $10 and settled into our paradise for the next several hours. This beach is located about 1000 yards from orient beach (nude area) we didn’t walk down there but several did. Speaking of nudity while we were eating lunch I looked up to see an older man walking down beach totally nude, this was the only nudity we saw on our end of the beach. The area where we were at was not crowded at all! In fact I think our group was there by ourselves. The sun was out & the waves were high, what more could we ask! This place was gorgeous. I could have stayed here forever. We played in the waves for awhile and then settled in for a little rest in our loungers. I went off the sleep listening to the waves. After my nap I went and played in the water again before it was time to go, I came back to dry off and hubby went to change into his dry clothes. It started raining and there I was with the beach bag, my camera, two pairs of shoes, two towels and our drinks. I attempt to gather everything up and get it into the dry restaurant. I’m sure somebody got a good laugh if they were watching me! Hubby was still in line to change that is when we found out about the outside changing room. We gather our stuff and head back outside to change in one of these rooms; no one was there so they didn’t know they existed either. We changed (still full of salt/sand) but we weren’t wet! It back on the bus for us and on to the last leg of out great excursion back to the ship. We saw lots of more sights and learned lots of island history! I can’t say enough good things about this excursion. It was pre-booked thru RCCL online and I think it cost $57pp. We had a fantastic time on st maarten/ st martin – the most beautiful place so far. All the roof tops are different Caribbean colors makes for some great photos. I would love to go back to St Maarten in the near future. I would probably just go to the beach and relax all day! Rated an +++AAAA in our book! Back on board we got snacks at the café promenade and started getting the sand out of our swimsuits. We gave up on doing this in the cabin and went straight to the spa showers. I love these showers. They are nice and big! It is here that RCCL splurges on shampoo – it is a great coconut smelling potion. If you like to use a wash cloth carry one from your cabin because all they provide is towels. I washed out my swimsuit and sarong, changed clothes and headed back up to cabin to get ready for dinner! Tonight in the dining room I had the Tiger shrimp – very tasty. I’m not sure which nights but on three different nights the dining staff entertained us with song & dance. We both enjoyed this dining room experience better than all 3 of our others! After dinner we went to the casino and hubby won $100 on the slots and we left. He really only got back $100 of previously lost money but some is better than none! Tonight show was Fred Travalena, He is world renowned impressionist that does many of the us president and 100 of stars. His show was outstanding & funny. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time! My life has been full of lots of sadness in the last few months and it felt good to laugh again. I enjoyed this show and was sad it had to end! We spent a few minute out on deck 4 watching the world go by and being content with where we were at in life! I challenge you all soon to be cruising spend some time reflecting on your life. This is the perfect place with the cares of the world completely off your shoulders for 7 days or so! We walked the promenade and sent off a few emails. The internet lounge was on deck 8 in the middle. Our cabin was on deck 8 so it was very easy for us. We use our C & A coupons for our internet use. There is a box set up in front of the pursers desk for these coupons – just drop them in and they will deduct up to the full amount. I think they were $5.00 each. By the way I left my unused coupons in the vanity desk drawer. Maybe the next lucky occupants could use them. End of another great day at sea!!!

PS By this time I’m trying to come up with some excuse to stay on board but none have worked so far! Looking forward to the next two days at sea! I think we will sleep late tomorrow!

I'm enjoying your detailed reviews. I'm getting more and more excited for our Dec. cruise on the Mariner!

Hi..... just getting impatient for the remainder of your review. I have really been enjoying the reading, and look forward to Day 6 and Day 7.

Thanks for your hard work on writing such detailed reviews.

Peggy

Thanks so much for your great review. We are sailing Mariner in December (Eastern) and have booked the same excursion on St. Maarten!!! I am so glad I found your review of it. It sounds great and has made me even more excited (IF that's even possible!). One question...we have a baby (1 yr old on cruise) and I want to know if you think I will be OK to bring her stroller on the bus. It is an umbrella fold stroller and doesn't take up too much room at all but I don't want to take up more space than I need to if the bus is tiny/no room. Is it a larger air-conditioned tour bus or just a small open air bus?? I could just put her in a carrier for the day but I know I will get tired of carrying her and the stroller would be better for naps. Thanks in advance!

Sara

Sara - the bus we were on was a large tour bus with A/C - thank goodness!! There is a shelf along the top of the seats for carry on items. You should have no problem with the stroller. You will need it because there is some walking involved. She will love the white sand beach. Bring plenty of sunscreen and clothes to protect her from sun. I burned with 48spf on!! The sun is so much stronger!

Knothead,

Thanks so much for responding, that has definitely helped me out. One more question, were there a lot of those umbrellas available on the beach or just a few? This is important to me because my daughter and I are very fair skinned and I think a couple of the umbrellas would really help us out. I have no problem paying for them, I am just hoping we can get a couple. I am looking forward to reading the rest of your reviews! Thanks again!

Sara

Sara,

They only had about 7 or 8 set up. They set them up with 1 umbrella & 2 loungers and cushions. I think if you talked with the guy taking payment for umbrellas he could possible get you another one! I not sure though! Sorry. I'm fair skinned also and I love the sun but it doesn't love me!!!!!!

Hi,

I too have enjoyed your detailed reviews. We will be on Mariner for the Jan. 8 sailing. We are doing the butterfly/Marigot tour for St. Martin. Did you like Marigot? I am wondering if we will have time to go to a beach in the afternoon after the butterfly tour. Did you talk to anyone who did that? Thanks for the great narrative...............makes me all the more anxious for Jan. to get here.................