St Martin on very busy cruise day

[stevet2607]

We will be in Philipsburg, St Martin on Sunday 22nd April. There are 4 cruise ship in on that day.

We had planned to shop and then go to Great or Little Bay, for the remainder of the day.

Will it being a Sunday effect the shopping? Will so many people in shops and nearby beaches spoli the day as we had planned?

Maybe we should go further afield to a beach or maybe Marigot, and leave our shopping for Barbados a few days later.

Any views welcomed - thanks

[dancing bear]

There were 6 ships there last month when we were there. Fortunately, we had booked a tour with Bernard's and got out of the port area quickly. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We got beach chairs at Orient, enjoyed a stroll through the shops at Phillipsburg and then finished up at Maho for the jet arrivals. Maho was crowded, but we were able to get close to the flyovers. Along with others, I highly recommend Bernard's Tours, and you'll get to see both the Dutch and French side of the island.

[TheFenz]

We will be in Philipsburg, St Martin on Sunday 22nd April. There are 4 cruise ship in on that day.

We had planned to shop and then go to Great or Little Bay, for the remainder of the day.

Will it being a Sunday effect the shopping? Will so many people in shops and nearby beaches spoli the day as we had planned?

Maybe we should go further afield to a beach or maybe Marigot, and leave our shopping for Barbados a few days later.

Any views welcomed - thanks

 

Was just at St Martin this past week and I believe there were us and three or four other ships in port. Here is my recommendation based on personnel experience. Take the water taxi from the port and get off at the shopping area. You will see a bunch of people with signs for tours, taxis, etc. Once you are done shopping, talk to one of those people and ask for a driver named Sheldon. He drives a very nice, very clean red Hyundai (Elantra I think). You can do a tour with him or just go to a beach. We paid $20 and had him take us to Maho beach (watched people get blown off the beach by the planes). He stopped a couple times to let us take photos and give us a little history about the island. Very nice and very professional. The best part about him is he his honest. How do I know this you ask? Well, after he dropped us off at Maho and drove off, I realized my camera had dropped out of my pocket in the back of his car. We enjoyed the beach, hoping to see him come back. After a few hours we decided to head back and got in another taxi. As we were telling the driver our camera story, we saw what appeared to be Sheldon's car. The driver said he knew Sheldon and was positive it wasn't. We got back to the shopping area and started looking for Sheldon. Thankfully we found him and he was holding my camera. He said he had just got back form the beach (guess we really did see him) and had been looking for us.

 

Long story short it was a great experience and couldn't have been better.

[gtaylor]

There were 6 ships there last month when we were there. Fortunately, we had booked a tour with Bernard's and got out of the port area quickly. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We got beach chairs at Orient, enjoyed a stroll through the shops at Phillipsburg and then finished up at Maho for the jet arrivals. Maho was crowded, but we were able to get close to the flyovers. Along with others, I highly recommend Bernard's Tours, and you'll get to see both the Dutch and French side of the island.

 

Did you really do Orient -> Philipsburg -> Maho?

 

That doesn't sound right.

 

gary

[TheFenz]

Did you really do Orient -> Philipsburg -> Maho?

 

That doesn't sound right.

 

gary

 

If I remember the webiste for Bernard's correctly, you go to all three but can decide as a group to skip one, or two and spend all your time at the other one.

[sail7seas]

St. Martin can definitely handle four ships on the same day. They are very used to it.

[Caribbophile]

There will be 6 ships in St Martin the day I'm there (April 19). I'm trying to look at the bright side, the more people in port, the easier & faster to fill up vans to the beach. Full vans charge less pp. I want to go to Orient and I was told if the van is full you pay $6 pp, otherwise it costs more.

[SCOOP]

We had 7 there a few weeks back. We got off the Oasis by 820am, hit a taxi that held 12 people for $6 a piece. The driver dropped us off right by Orange Fever at Orient beach. Everything went smooth. Orient got crowded later but it was fun people watching. the guys at Orange fever are great!