A Saint Maarten question

Would anyone know the progress for rebuilding Orient Beach and Airport Beach? I read that the Oasis recently made a stop there.

I understand that there's a lot more to be done with rebuilding on the French and Dutch sides. There hasn't been video coverage since before her devastating hurricane last year.

Thanks to those who reply,

Someone posted a review earlier about the Jewel and spoke about St Maarten and Orient beach. The pictures showed it is completely destroyed as far as beach bars go, which is really unfortunate because they JUST remodeled it and built it up about two years ago. I’m sure the actual beach and water are “open,” but not much benefit to going there right now. They also said the Dutch side is recovering faster than the French side.

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There have been a number of posts about this subject in the St. Maarten board. You might find your answer there.

Would anyone know the progress for rebuilding Orient Beach and Airport Beach? I read that the Oasis recently made a stop there.

I understand that there's a lot more to be done with rebuilding on the French and Dutch sides. There hasn't been video coverage since before her devastating hurricane last year.

Thanks to those who reply,

If your a Facebook member, there are several businesses/organizations that have Facebook pages that get updated regularly. The Sunset Beach Bar (At Maho/airport) has been posting regularly and they look pretty much back to normal. Club Orient has been posting as well as a few other groups. Search SXM to find a list.

Orient Beach

uTube video 2 days ago

There have been a number of posts about this subject in the St. Maarten board. You might find your answer there.

Yep! I just got a few questions answered over there. Very helpful board right now.

List, I haven't used a Board (St.Martin) Board before in trying to do anything, can anyone post the steps to how it's done, please.

Thank you,

List, I haven't used a Board (St.Martin) Board before in trying to do anything, can anyone post the steps to how it's done, please.

 

Thank you,

If you’re using the Cruise Critic app, go to the top of the page and click on “Browse,” (browse is along the same menu as “Subscribed,” where you likely click to shortcut your way to the Royal Caribbean board and any posts you’ve replied to)

Then scroll down to “Ports of Call,” then “Caribbean,” then “St. Maarten.

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We were there yesterday on Oasis. While Orient has always been our go-to destination, we passed this time since they told us it would basically be a lay your towel on the beach, don't expect any amenities type of day. So we opted to just go into Philipsburg. There were shops and restaurants open and plenty of chairs on the beach. We got lunch at one place where the restaurant on the first floor was open, but the top of the building was wrecked. There were also lots of open air market type setups with people selling souvenirs. The people were as friendly as ever, and so glad to have us there.

Maho is also open, but we passed since it is such a small beach and the taxi dispatcher said lots of people headed there for the day.

We're in San Juan today, and Old Town is open for business. Saw some stumps from uprooted trees, but that looked like the extent of the damage.

Colorado Gurl, I'm not using the App, just straight ahead on the computer. So back to square one ?

Thank you Mil76 for the sad news on Orient Beach. Even with the you tube video I saw taken recently there's no sign of the Government or anyone else for that matter to undertake any type of a clean up...yet. Club Orient..well RIP it's going to take a long long time for that place to get rebuilt. If Orient Beach is like Aruba after their storms two years ago the sand was washed out into the deeper ocean leaving sea weed streaming up that was buried for years and creating sulfur gases with coral and rocks to step over. Not a good thing to have to do even with water shoes. Maho Beach never a place we'd go to for swimming, just once on a tour to say we saw it. From different posts people have said there's a limited amount of beaches on the Dutch side to go to but from previous experience those were rocky and couldn't compare to Orient beach.

Would anyone know if the stores beyond the docks where you'd grab the taxies were back open?

On the left was always a "must do" stop for a cold Amstel Brite, "Sharkey's", has anyone noticed if they rebuilt ?

We'll be on the Grandeur on March 24th and would like to have a little more idea on a few stop offs we USED to enjoy on that island.

Thanks in advance to those who reply.

Orient Beach

 

uTube video 2 days ago

 

Thanks for sharing that video.

Colorado Gurl, I'm not using the App, just straight ahead on the computer. So back to square one ?

Top of the page, click Boards Home

Then scroll down to Ports of Call, click Caribbean

Then scroll down to St. Martin/St. Maarten, click that link and you are there.

Thank you Mil76 for the sad news on Orient Beach. Even with the you tube video I saw taken recently there's no sign of the Government or anyone else for that matter to undertake any type of a clean up...yet. Club Orient..well RIP it's going to take a long long time for that place to get rebuilt. If Orient Beach is like Aruba after their storms two years ago the sand was washed out into the deeper ocean leaving sea weed streaming up that was buried for years and creating sulfur gases with coral and rocks to step over. Not a good thing to have to do even with water shoes. Maho Beach never a place we'd go to for swimming, just once on a tour to say we saw it. From different posts people have said there's a limited amount of beaches on the Dutch side to go to but from previous experience those were rocky and couldn't compare to Orient beach.

 

Would anyone know if the stores beyond the docks where you'd grab the taxies were back open?

On the left was always a "must do" stop for a cold Amstel Brite, "Sharkey's", has anyone noticed if they rebuilt ?

We'll be on the Grandeur on March 24th and would like to have a little more idea on a few stop offs we USED to enjoy on that island.

Thanks in advance to those who reply.

Don't know about Sharkey's, but all of the shops on the right side of the port area looked open to me. There are two new buildings on the left side as you walk into port from the ship, one had Diamonds International. Behind that (directly behind the ship) is an open space with just hurricane debris but I don't remember if anything was there before or not. The taxi area was a bit sad since they didn't have all the signs for the different beaches, you just had one dispatcher in the middle. I can also confirm that Amstel Bright was in plentiful supply.

Thank you Mil76 for the sad news on Orient Beach. Even with the you tube video I saw taken recently there's no sign of the Government or anyone else for that matter to undertake any type of a clean up...yet. Club Orient..well RIP it's going to take a long long time for that place to get rebuilt. If Orient Beach is like Aruba after their storms two years ago the sand was washed out into the deeper ocean leaving sea weed streaming up that was buried for years and creating sulfur gases with coral and rocks to step over. Not a good thing to have to do even with water shoes. Maho Beach never a place we'd go to for swimming, just once on a tour to say we saw it. From different posts people have said there's a limited amount of beaches on the Dutch side to go to but from previous experience those were rocky and couldn't compare to Orient beach.

 

Would anyone know if the stores beyond the docks where you'd grab the taxies were back open?

On the left was always a "must do" stop for a cold Amstel Brite, "Sharkey's", has anyone noticed if they rebuilt ?

We'll be on the Grandeur on March 24th and would like to have a little more idea on a few stop offs we USED to enjoy on that island.

Thanks in advance to those who reply.

This is exactly what I want to know ! We always stopped at Sharkeys ! I wonder if that little shack is still there. Please come back on here after your March Cruise and let me (us) know. I will be going there in May.