Adventure June 4 Review - LOTS of port pics

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

"Mechanical problems" means American is condensing people from unsold-out flights into one plane for a full load. Sorry it happened to you so much.

 

Also, not sure where "DanDan" went, but on the June 11 sailing the Cruise Director was "HelloChloe". She seemed nice.

[bobmacliberty]

Sorry for the delay in posting. As I said earlier, I got a last minute opportunity to attend the US Open golf tournament. If you're a golfer and someone asks you if you want to go to the US Open, you say yes...especially at historic Oakmont. Before I get back to my cruise pictures, I need to tease you with a few US Open pictures:

 

Dustin Johnson finishing Round 3 on the 18th hole

 

Looking up the 3rd fairway with the famous "Church Pews" bunker on the left

 

Johnny Miller offering some golf tips in the USGA Members tent

 

Oakmont is an incredible place with greens that will have even the best golfer scratching his (or her) head. Those of you who are golfers may now be drooling. Those of you who aren't golfers won't know anything about these pictures and will want me to get to talking about San Juan. Since this isn't Golf Critic, I'll switch back to cruise pictures.

[bobmacliberty]

Your photos are great. What camera are you using?

 

The vast majority of pictures were from a Canon 7D with an 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens. For the really low light pictures (like the tunnels), I can crank up my ISO to 3200 and still get reasonable picture quality. I also brought my 70-200mm f/2.8 and my "nifty fifty", but I never changed lenses. There may be a few iPhone 6+ pics in there was well.

[bobmacliberty]

Last I talked about cruising, we had boarded and suffered through the muster drill. Sailaway was at 8:30pm. We had never done a night time sailaway. It was great seeing OSJ lit up, but there didn't seem to be the typical amount of excitement on deck. I don't know if that was due to the evening departure, the passengers on that particular cruise, or some other reason. I was able to get a good picture spot at a railing so that I could brace my camera for night time shots:

 

Looking at Old San Juan from the ship

 

The band was giving it their best effort

 

The Sheraton Old San Juan

 

El Capitolio

 

Coast Guard Cutters all lit up in different colors

 

La Fortaleza, the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico

[dachshunddoglover]

Following - We will be doing this exact itinerary on July 16th. Thanks for the detailed review.

[mlmbar]

I will never fly American Airlines again myself for the same reasons!! Notorious for constant changes in flights, and not worth the cheaper cost! Sorry it added so much stress to an exciting time.

 

Also following; love how your doing the review and love LOTS of pictures. We are doing same itinerary on the same ship soon!!! Gets us excited :)

 

Once again American changed my flight and seats . Hate them!

[KMagz]

 

Dustin Johnson finishing Round 3 on the 18th hole

 

 

WOW! The mini-golf on Adventure is waaaaaaay bigger than I recall.... :)

[queenschick9b]

The vast majority of pictures were from a Canon 7D with an 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens. For the really low light pictures (like the tunnels), I can crank up my ISO to 3200 and still get reasonable picture quality. I also brought my 70-200mm f/2.8 and my "nifty fifty", but I never changed lenses. There may be a few iPhone 6+ pics in there was well.

 

 

Thanks for the information regarding cameras! And i agree about the open, I am not a huge golf watcher but my dad and I have gotten to go to the US open when it was in NY a few times and it is a great time.

[bobmacliberty]

 

Day 2, Port of Call: Philipsburg, St, Maarten

Arrives 8:00am, Departs 5:00pm

 

We were at St. Maarten almost exactly a year ago on Freedom and did a Bernard's Island Tour. We really enjoyed it and listed St. Maarten as one of our favorite ports. We ran out of time on our tour last year and had to skip being dropped off in Philipsburg and instead went straight back to the ship. This time, we had only 2 goals for the day:

1. Shop for jewelry. DW typically buys something as a trip memento and DD18 was looking for a high school graduation gift.

2. Go to Maho Beach and check out the planes.

 

The plan was to take the water taxi to Front Street for some shopping and some lunch, and then take a taxi to Maho Beach for the bigger planes in the afternoon.

 

Boarding the Water Taxi at the pier

 

If you look closely at the sign in the picture above, you will notice a couple of things. First, we bought round trip tickets for $7 each rather than one-way tickets for $5, thinking that we would take the Water Taxi back. As you will soon see, we could have saved ourselves $8 by only getting one-way tickets. Oh well, that's not even the cost of one drink on board. Second, you can sort of see the Diamonds International logo under the pricing. DI was everywhere. They were handing out scratch off tickets to everyone who boarded the water taxi. They had golf carts available to shuttle people from the docks. Based on advanced research, we avoided DI.

 

View from the Water Taxi

 

View of the beach from the Water Taxi

 

Philipsburg (?) Beach

 

This was a nicer beach than I expected. I've seen some people say that this beach can have sewage, and I've seen others say that they love going to Holland House (one of the buildings above...can't remember which) for beach chairs, lunch, drinks, etc. I would definitely consider that for an easy beach day.

 

[bobmacliberty]

Since it was Sunday, a few stores were closed on Front Street. Still, there were plenty of jewelry stores to keep the women in the family happy and entertained. DW had done some research in advance on jewelry stores in Philipsburg and the top one listed somewhere (Trip Advisor maybe??) was called Caribbean Gems. When you get off the water taxi, turn right and it will be a little ways down the street on the left.

 

Caribbean Gems...somewhere down the street on the left

 

For reference, there was what looked like a nice store for electronic stuff in the same general area. I don't recall the name. DD18 was considering a Pandora bracelet in that store (they also sell watches/jewelry) so I wandered around the store while she looked. They had a good selection of camera gear, although I didn't check the prices. Caribbean Gems turned out to be a great recommendation. DW had found a sapphire (her birth stone) ring on their web site that had a bit of an old fashioned/Victorian look/setting that she really liked. It had been marked down significantly, I'm guessing because that old fashioned look might not be too popular right now (Yes...I know that mark ups/mark downs are a common jewelry ploy). Unfortunately, Caribbean Gems has 2 stores and the store with that particular ring in stock was closed on Sunday. They showed DW another sapphire ring with a similar setting that she liked even better.

 

DD18 found a very nice necklace that she really loved. After a little bit of negotiating, we got what I think (who knows) was a good deal on both the ring and the bracelet. This place obviously knows how to treat the guys in the store as they offered me free beer while we looked. I'm sure it's the same strategy that Vegas uses when giving free drinks to gamblers...a little alcohol can increase the amount of money spent. :D

 

Taloula Mango's Caribbean Café

 

We asked the jewelry store for a lunch recommendation. They told us to take the alley across the street to the beach and then pick any restaurant that looked good to us. We chose Taloula Mango's Caribbean Café and were very pleased. The food and drink were really good and we have a nice table in the shade looking at the beach.

 

 

 

 

Since Adventure was the only ship in port, June is considered off season, and probably because it was Sunday, there were very few people around.

[bobmacliberty]

Next stop, Maho Beach. For some reason, I never looked into how much a taxi would cost. We walked to where the taxis were gathered and started asking around. I was told $30 for the 4 of us. I then asked what it would cost for the driver to wait and drive us back, and then realized that he might as well drive us back to the ship rather than dropping us in Philipsburg for us to take the water taxi back (hence the wasted round trip water taxi tickets). There was some confusion as to the total cost but since the rest of my family heard it the same way as the driver, I must have misunderstood. In any case, we essentially bought his services for the rest of the day for $60 plus tip.

 

When we got to Maho Beach, I figured out where all the people were. The Sunset Bar and Grill was packed, and there were many people on the beach.

 

 

Flight schedules are a little different on Sundays so we had missed the bigger planes landing. The KLM 747 had landed a couple of hours earlier and was just getting ready to leave when we arrived. I was going to be able to enjoy the 747 takeoff from the side, out of the jet stream.

 

KLM 747 ready to takeoff

 

 

The effects of the jet engine on the beach

 

Shortly after the 747 left, a private plane was taxiing for takeoff. I decided that, since this was a smaller plane, I would get the full Maho Beach takeoff experience. I forgot that some of these smaller planes still have very powerful engines. I lined up directly behind the plane with my GoPro recording the experience. I didn’t brace myself very well and as soon as the pilot went full throttle, my hat, sunglasses, polarizing filter on my camera over my shoulder (ouch), and body were blown backward. I’ll let the video do the talking:

 

[YOUTUBE]jcFt1jENwrU[/YOUTUBE]

 

Fortunately, I kept my balance as I stumbled backward down the big rocks, and my sunglasses and polarizing filter landed in the sand. No damage to either. My hat was blown all the way into the water and a nice woman fished it out for me while I was collecting the rest of my stuff, and collecting myself. If you’re the person who rescued my hat, and you’re reading this on Cruise Critic…thank you!

[Cruising to Retirement]

Awesome Pics- Very jealous... Loving the Review also..

[Nemomof3]

Do you know what time the bigger planes do land on Sunday's? Great video!

[Clarea]

Do you know what time the bigger planes do land on Sunday's? Great video!

If you look at this link, you can see the schedule a few days in advance:

 

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByAirport.do?airportCode=SXM&airportQueryType=1

 

The larger aircraft will be coming from the US and Europe. The largest is the KLM 747 from Amsterdam (AMS). The Air France A340 from Paris (CDG) is the next largest.

 

Last Sunday (19-Jun), the KLM 747 arrived at 10:38am, almost 20 minutes early, so give yourself some leeway with the time.

Edited June 22, 2016 by clarea

[slvrbllt]

We were there that same Sunday, the KLM was over an hour late... we were on a tour and didn't end up getting to see it since we went to Maho early :(

[Clarea]

We were there that same Sunday, the KLM was over an hour late... we were on a tour and didn't end up getting to see it since we went to Maho early :(

It has been both late and early for us too. It's coming from Amsterdam, so it's a long flight and the winds aloft can affect the schedule.

[slvrbllt]

After our two and a half hour flight home from Tampa to Dallas took nine hours due to weather (much of that was sitting on the tarmac or at a gate), I'm all about being flexible on times :D

[katidid213]

Following! Look forward to more pictures.

[bobmacliberty]

Continuing on...our taxi driver (who's name was Rory) was waiting for us in the parking lot. Rather than take us back to the ship using the normal route (A.J.C Brouwer Road), he took us over the mountain on a "back" road called Arlet Peters Road (check Google Maps). The views from the top of this road were spectacular.

 

Simpson Bay Lagoon with the airport in the distance

 

Close-up of Simpson Bay Lagoon with a little bit of the Yacht Club on the right

 

Rory did a good job of giving us a bit of a local tour...showing us where the locals did their day to day things. I enjoy seeing a little more than just the port area and the typical tourist stops.

 

He eventually dropped us back at the pier where, of course, we needed to stop in a few more stores before boarding. :rolleyes: I decided to board ahead of the rest of the family and find a nice spot at the Solarium pool.

 

 

Of course, you can't show pictures of St. Maarten without including this:

 

[bobmacliberty]

 

Day 3, Port of Call: Basseterre, St. Kitts

Arrival 8:00am, Departure 5:00pm

 

For St. Kitts, we decided to book an island tour with Grey's Island Tours. We paid a little extra for a private tour. I liked the idea of being able to come and go as we pleased at stops, or even detour if we saw something of interest. In the end, we more or less stayed in sync with all of the other tour buses, although we did tweak things a bit and never had to wait to leave anywhere. We were met promptly by our driver Calvin at the pier. Calvin drove us around Basseterre and provided a pretty in-depth discussion of the town. He then headed east out of town and stopped on a hill with a nice view of the ship.

 

Port Zante welcome building in Basseterre

 

 

We drove for a while, past the Nursing and Veterinary Universities, and through a few local towns, before reaching our first stop...the Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor. I didn't have high expectations, based on what I had read in other reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised. We spent about 20 minutes there, checking out the grounds, watching the demo of the batik process, and of course browsing through the store.

 

370 year old African Saman Tree

 

Creating fabric using the batik process

 

Fabrics drying in the breeze

[bobmacliberty]

There were some nice views from the deck near a little snack bar:

 

 

 

 

 

You can see that DD18 enjoys having her picture taken much more than DD21. :D

[EMED2010]

Enjoying your review. We are staying at the Sheraton in January and I was wondering if you had any hotel pictures, rooms, restaurants, pool?

[bobmacliberty]

Enjoying your review. We are staying at the Sheraton in January and I was wondering if you had any hotel pictures, rooms, restaurants, pool?

 

Unfortunately, no. Sorry. We walked up to the pool to check it out but didn't spend any time there. We were only in the room long enough to dump our luggage when we arrived and sleep at night.

[bobmacliberty]

Next stop on the tour was the Brimstone Hill Fortress. Again, I had somewhat low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. We started to watch the short video on the history of the fort but decided instead to walk around. Great views from the Fort George Citadel at the top of the hill. It was a bit of climb up the steps to get there

 

Looking up at the citadel.

 

 

The island of Sint Eustatius in the distance

 

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

More Brimstone Hill Fortress Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a gift shop, a small restaurant, and bathrooms located here. The bathrooms were OK...maybe. Let's just say that DD18 compared it to a gas station and I did my best not to touch anything. One of the advantages of being a guy. I'll also note that it's a pretty steep road going up/down that is one vehicle wide much of the way, and makes some really sharp turns. I'm impressed with the skill of the drivers getting up there, particularly the larger buses.

 

Quick bit of trivia. The island's formal name is St. Christopher Island. It was supposedly named by Christopher Columbus, but it's not clear if he named it after himself or St. Christopher. St. Kitts is the common name. Who says that cruising isn't educational?

 

After the fort, we headed back south and east toward Basseterre, on our way to South Friar's Bay. At this point I'll say that St. Kitts wasn't impressing us too much. The 2 stops that we had taken were enjoyable, but the island itself looked a little run down. There were lots of abandoned buildings and abandoned cars, and there was garbage on the ground all over the place. I know...poverty. It took away though from what was probably a naturally beautiful island. Fortunately, things improved as we drove past Basseterre to the southern part of the island.