!!! DIVINA !!! Eastern Caribbean ^_^ The Ultimate Review and Complete Pictorial Guide

[gambee]

 

It was really hard to maintain focus, while enjoying the experience at the same time. I wish I had more planes, to play with. I can only imagine the results that I had gotten, if I had stayed there for 2 hours.

 

 

 

JUST AMAZING!!!

 

 

 

Pretty much all the cars stop every time an airplane lands!

 

 

Edited September 2, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

 

 

With the runway clear everyone started running towards the fence. Quite honestly, I had made no plans on being on the fence, it was my understanding that it was quite dangerous. But I looked at the Mailman and he waved at us to come, so made a dash and grabbed perfect spots. We noticed everyone grabbing for their dear life. So we did the same, but the thing is that I wanted to get everything on video, so I decided to hold on with one hand and grab the camera on the other hand.

 

Word of advice, just make sure you hold for your dear life on that fence! The winds get very, strong and very it also gets very hot!

 

 

 

 

[Mikesa1721]

Gambee,,it's to bad Bernard couldn't do your tour in reverse and start in Maho. The big planes like KLM's jumbo 747 lands at 11:15am as well as a few like American, Delta and Air France which land early afternoon. We decided this time, to take a taxi to Maho and just plane watch,,,here's just two examples, as to not hijack your thread:

 

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[gambee]

 

 

My uncle ended up putting the camera away before the plane blasted the engines, he feared either him or camera flying away :D

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

So here is one of the few videos I took on this cruise. You have to watch it!!!! If you don't see it, you're not my friend! No, just kidding. But for real, you have to see it!

 

Jetlinner taking off!!!

 

 

 

 

 

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!! LIKE THE MAILMAN SAYS, YOU GET A FREE FACIAL!!! THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED!!!!!

 

This was the highlight of my vacation!

[gambee]

Double post, sorry.

Edited September 2, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

The amount of energy and adrenaline is ridiculous!!!!

 

We picked up mom. She was all worried because we were like 10 minutes late. I don’t blame her.

 

 

Then we got on the bus and headed towards the port. That is when everyone found out that we were out of punch :D whoops!

 

I did take some notes about St. Maarten, so I will share them now. The most ships, the island has held in one day were 11 ships with a total of 52k people. It was a very chaotic day and a lot of people complained, the island now tries to limit the amount of ships in port to 9 ships.

 

There are 3 currencies in the island, the French side uses the euro, the Dutch side uses Gilda and of course dollars are accepted anywhere in the island. St. Maarten depends 100% on tourism. There is no other industry to fall back on. On the radio talk with the politicians, they were talking about how making the off season more stable should be one of their main focus points. I am not sure how one can accomplish that…

 

Everything on the island is imported, and water now comes from 2 desalinization plants. The entire island is duty free, so purchasing diamonds and such might be a nice idea. There is a total of 134 nationalities living on the island. Schools teach 4 languages, Dutch, Spanish, French and English.

 

Tourist wise, the French side is more peaceful, while the Dutch side is more friendly.

 

And last but not least, the Mailman is 60 years old, but looks about 38. He says the secret to that is to have 2 wives, and plenty of rum in your life :D.

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

Then we stopped at our last stop, it was a good place to get some nice pictures of the bay and the ships. Everyone got off and we took a bunch of pictures.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

I think that could be another nice option for a beach when we return.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

We got back on the bus, and the first thing my uncle does is blame us for sitting on the baguette. Guess who sat on it? It was him! :D lol

 

 

We kept on driving towards the docking area. There were elections signs everywhere, most of the pictures got running because of them.

 

 

[gambee]

He dropped us off with a little over an our left before departure. We gave him a tip and thanked him for everything.

 

 

 

We started walking towards the internet store.

 

 

 

[JSnow789]

LOL-That's fun!!!

[gambee]

LOL-That's fun!!!

 

I thought so too :)

[gambee]

 

 

 

We purchased 2, 30 minute plans of Internet. I forgot how much it was. I think $5 each? We sat there. Mom did her thing and I did mine. I had a bunch of emails to go over and check on the blog to make sure that everything was going good. Thankfully everything was running smoothly.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Then we went shopping, well they went shopping. I sat on the floor by the shade and waited for them. I think they bought a few shirts and such.

 

 

 

 

Check out the Disney Shore excursion bus, they go all out!

 

 

 

[gambee]

I lie, I did buy something. My memory card was full by then and I needed to purchase a new one to make sure that I got enough space for the rest of the trip. I have not mentioned this, but throughout the cruise I was petrified that if the memory card failed I would lose absolutely everything. But what could I do? Just pray that no other issues came up.

 

 

I think it was like $36, not super overpriced, but still more expensive than home.

 

 

After that we started walking towards the ship, it was getting close to all aboard, and I wanted to avoid the late rush.

 

 

 

[gambee]

With everyone happy with their purchases we boarded the ship.

 

 

 

 

Divina looks much larger by being backed in.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

He was wearing the same shirt that my uncle bought, it looked really good on him.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Once on board, I noticed that MSC left a birthday card for my aunt. It was nice of them to do that. Inside the card was a letter. I will sum up what the letter said… Come spend money in our specialty restaurants and we will give you a personalized birthday dessert on us…. Ummmmm, Yeah, that is not a birthday gift MSC! No, thank you! It's simply a way to get us to spend money. We could also get that personalized cake in the MDR, I noticed it done on another table.

 

 

 

My uncle tried on his shirt. He was really happy with it. Everyone was having a blast laughing at the shirt :D

 

 

We went to the indoor pool to benefit from the shade in the Jacuzzis.

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

That “caution wet floor” sign works fantastic! :rolleyes:. The lighter color surface is the one that my mom slipped on. But they are both quite slippery.

 

 

It was calling our names!

 

 

This area is really nice, very calm on port days, this could a perfect kid free area.

 

 

[gambee]

After some time we went back to the room to shower and whatnot.

 

You can notice my closet over there taking shape :D

 

 

While we were on the balcony Getaway and Divina left port. We relaxed and took some nice pictures.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

I tried calling out for them, um yeah sure it worked... LoL

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

I went to the room and got ready, we had to head out to go see the show later on. On the way to the theater, I took some pictures of the casino. I think I already spoke about the casino, so I will let the pictures do the talking now.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

The show that night was called witches. Quite honestly, I did not like it one bit, and neither did anyone else in my party. To me, it seems that Alice in Wonderland, Witches and the other cirque style shows are all the same with a change of outfits. There are also no flying acrobats, well at least at the begging of the show. Remember, none of us lasted there long enough to see more than 10 minutes of the show. Shows last about 25-30 minutes, plus the 10-20 nonsense talk from our CD.

 

 

The theater itself is completely gorgeous and the music shows are really good. We enjoyed a couple of them very much. Then again shows are subjective, some people love some and others love the rest. This is no more than the opinion of our group.

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2014 by gambee