Bernard's Tour St Maarten

[gtaylor]

We just did the tour this past Wednesday. We had the "Mailman" as our guide. He delivered as promised. I would highly recommend this tour.

 

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk HD

 

Great tour, Great info, but Bernard told me that some on the tour sometimes mishear the driver's name as the 'Milk Man', who also delivers. :)

 

gary

[wallie5446]

Seriously considering booking Bernards. But we did a sea and land tour last year with Disney that wasn't all that great. My husband is concerned it will be the same thing. What makes Bernards unique?

 

Our guide ask us as he made each stop if we wanted more time there or to move to the next place, he was flexible. 2 diff groups of us 4 in ours, 6 in the other. A very good tour, we are in our late 50'ties.

[finiansbay]

This will be our first time to St. Martin. After reading all the positive comments here about Bernard's, I booked a tour yesterday. Bernard sent a confirmation right away. We will be there on 11/20/13, with an estimated 19,466 fellow cruisers! I certainly hope that they don't run out of rum (or those tiny little paper umbrellas)!

[wallie5446]

This will be our first time to St. Martin. After reading all the positive comments here about Bernard's, I booked a tour yesterday. Bernard sent a confirmation right away. We will be there on 11/20/13, with an estimated 19,466 fellow cruisers! I certainly hope that they don't run out of rum (or those tiny little paper umbrellas)!

We are 4 of the other 19,466:eek: in on the 20th. Bernard's guides will not run out of rum:D they are a wonderful tour for a first time in. See you in the throng on the pier!

[mcmoore]

Great tour, Great info, but Bernard told me that some on the tour sometimes mishear the driver's name as the 'Milk Man', who also delivers. :)

 

gary

 

He told us that the "Milkman" was his dad.:-)

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk HD

[theporterhouse]

We had the private tour with Bernards last week. Had a great time with Gizmo/Guiermo as our guide for the 19 of us! Iguanas were fun...sea urchins..didn't need to see them. Beach was fabulous...should have stayed longer....Serafinas was so so...the Air France landing was an experience...but alas...we did run out of rum punch, but we had lots of other liquid refreshments. HAD A GREAT TIME! Would definitely recommend Bernards Tours!:)

[NCTribeFan]

This will be our first time to St. Martin. After reading all the positive comments here about Bernard's, I booked a tour yesterday. Bernard sent a confirmation right away. We will be there on 11/20/13, with an estimated 19,466 fellow cruisers! I certainly hope that they don't run out of rum (or those tiny little paper umbrellas)!

 

I'll be there the day before you (with only 12,000 others). I'll try to not drink all the rum! :p

[davenew]

More like punch rum! haha

More rum than punch....Bernard's was excellent!

We can vouch for that :D

[MariVellLogan12]

How far out in advance can you book with Bernard? Also did anyone do the butteryfly farm? I will be traveling with a 3 and 6 year old and would love to know what spots the kids would love to see.

 

We are about to go on the oasis on Aug 10th with our soon to be 2 year old. I was planning on going to butterfly farm also. Not sure if you went on your cruise yet...but if you did I'd love an info on how the kids liked it & what you chose to do. :)

[cruisecritiquer]

I just submitted a reservation for Nov. 12, 2013 and paid the deposit. Any idea how long it takes to get a confirmation. The only confirmation I received so far was from paypal so I'm assuming their confirmation is not automated and that they send something manually.

 

Also being the conservative American mother of an 11 year old that I am, how much nudity is there on Orient Beach. Bernard's FAQ says:

 

What is your policy for children? Is the tour children-friendly? What about Orient Beach?

A. Children under three years of age tour for free! If you are traveling with children, Le Galion (nearby Orient) may be an option. Orient Beach has full nudity on the Club Orient part of the beach. Partial nudity MAY occur on the rest of the beach.

Edited August 4, 2013 by cruisecritiquer

[cruisecritiquer]

I just submitted a reservation for Nov. 12, 2013 and paid the deposit. Any idea how long it takes to get a confirmation. The only confirmation I received so far was from paypal so I'm assuming their confirmation is not automated and that they send something manually.

 

Also being the conservative American mother of an 11 year old that I am, how much nudity is there on Orient Beach. Bernard's FAQ says:

 

What is your policy for children? Is the tour children-friendly? What about Orient Beach?

A. Children under three years of age tour for free! If you are traveling with children, Le Galion (nearby Orient) may be an option. Orient Beach has full nudity on the Club Orient part of the beach. Partial nudity MAY occur on the rest of the beach.

 

Nevermind...answered my own questions (concerning the nudity) by reading other threads.

[wallie5446]

We saw more topless ladies at Maho in 30 minutes than we did in 3 hours at Orient.

[gtaylor]

It must be location, location, location.

 

We've seen more topless (and nude) women on Orient Beach in one afternoon than we've noticed on every other island beach combined over the last 30+ years.

 

gary

[NCTribeFan]

I sent a reservation on Wednesday (for 11/19) and did not check the PayPal option and it let me go ahead and submit it. I've received absolutely nothing.

[cruisecritiquer]

I sent a reservation on Wednesday (for 11/19) and did not check the PayPal option and it let me go ahead and submit it. I've received absolutely nothing.

 

We used paypal because you can use a credit card to pay through paypal. IMO, that's better than giving some unknown vendor your information right from the start. Maybe you should email him because he usually responds quickly. I received mine same day (but paid the $5/pp deposit).

 

His email address is Bernard Augustin <bernard1332002@yahoo.com>

[wallie5446]

I sent a reservation on Wednesday (for 11/19) and did not check the PayPal option and it let me go ahead and submit it. I've received absolutely nothing.

Looks like we are part of the 15,000 other cruisers in the same day:eek:

[NCTribeFan]

Yeah, I think that's a fairly "light" passenger load for St. Maarten, from what I've read.

 

DD's friend, who is currently working on Epic, is flying home a week before we're there. It would've been kind of neat to meet up with someone from home, but since she won't be on board, and I've never been to St Maarten, I decided an island tour was the thing to do. I'm solo on the cruise, but I think there are others from my Roll Call who have reservations, too.

 

I'll send him an email and see if I need to re-do the res.

[wallie5446]

Yeah, I think that's a fairly "light" passenger load for St. Maarten, from what I've read.

 

I'll send him an email and see if I need to re-do the res.

 

Last Nov when we were in, there were only 2 ships! Made for a very nice day to roam around. See ya on the dock!:D

[NCTribeFan]

Got an email back from Bernard saying he didn't receive the first res and to please re-send.

 

So I went back to his webpage, re-entered everything, clicked the "PayPal" button this time and hit the send. I was expecting something to pop up so I could enter my payment info, but nothing happened, so I'm still confused.

 

Guess I'll email him back and ask what I need to do to be sure I have a seat in someone/anyone's van!

[cruisecritiquer]

Got an email back from Bernard saying he didn't receive the first res and to please re-send.

 

So I went back to his webpage, re-entered everything, clicked the "PayPal" button this time and hit the send. I was expecting something to pop up so I could enter my payment info, but nothing happened, so I'm still confused.

 

Guess I'll email him back and ask what I need to do to be sure I have a seat in someone/anyone's van!

 

Weird...something should have popped up with payment info. It did for me...or at least it took you to paypal to enter your payment. That didn't happen for you?

[pampaul]

Thinking of booking a cruise next July with St. Maarten as one of the stops. If we do, I'd LOVE to book the private island tour with Bernards. It says on the website that we can pretty much design our own tour. Whether it be beaches, sightseeing, lunch, etc.

 

I think I'd rather leave the beach time for the private island and maybe Bermuda but anyhow, last year while in Bermuda we took a private tour where the driver took us all around the island with a stop at a beach for a couple hours. During the tour, he didn't really stop anywhere (we couldn't really suggest anywhere since we didn't know what to look for) so I was wondering if Bernards is more of a just drive around and look type of tour or do you stop at different places to check them out and take pictures? I'm a big picture taker and would love to take as many as possible.

 

What would you suggest to see/do on a private tour that doesn't include swimming time. I don't mind stopping at a beach to sightsee for a few minutes to get some great photos but just don't want swim time. We will be stopping at Maho Beach though to check out the planes. That looks cool. I'd also like to check out the Iquana Farm and the place where you're able to hold the sealife (can someone give me the name of that)

 

As of right now it'll be our family of 4 (Dh, me and two boys 17 & 18) It could also include another family or two (depending if they decide to book the cruise with us) In that case it would be 6 adults ages 38-43 and 6 kids ages 4-18.

[Shiny137]

This will be our first time to St. Martin. After reading all the positive comments here about Bernard's, I booked a tour yesterday. Bernard sent a confirmation right away. We will be there on 11/20/13, with an estimated 19,466 fellow cruisers! I certainly hope that they don't run out of rum (or those tiny little paper umbrellas)!

 

I'm a first time cruiser and I keep seeing everyone talk about how many ships are in port on the day they are there. Where do you find this information?

 

Now that I think about it...I'll be there 11/20/13 as well. I'm seriously considering booking a tour with Benards after reading this thread.

[jacjacc]

hi, if my cruise (freedom of the sea) departs in 10 days (August 25, 2013) Is it too late if i book Bernard's tours now?

[cruisecritiquer]

hi, if my cruise (freedom of the sea) departs in 10 days (August 25, 2013) Is it too late if i book Bernard's tours now?

 

Try to book it on his website and see if it lets you. I imagine if he still has the space/time, you can book. If he's full that day, he'll let you know.

[NCTribeFan]

I ended up receiving a confirmation email from the FIRST submission. So I emailed him again and said, OK, I just re-sent it. I don't want you to have me double-booked and take away a spot you could sell to someone else.

 

Anyway, I think we have it straight now and I have one seat and will just pay it all at the pier!

 

Personally, I hope the driver doesn't modify the tour very much. It sounds good just the way it is. As a first-timer, I'd rather they stick to the schedule. I don't want to end up hanging around one place longer than scheduled and then have another stop shortened.

 

Just stay on schedule! If people want more time somewhere, then let them do a different tour or take a taxi to wherever it is they want to spend their time!