LIVE FROM Summit - August 21, 2021

[Host Anne]

PRE-CRUISE ARRIVAL DAY

We booked this cruise the day Celebrity opened bookings for St. Maarten.  Serious cruise withdrawal had set in, and we wanted to support Celebrity and the cruise industry.  We are now a day away from sailing and very excited.  While some of our experience (like arrival and testing requirements) won’t be relevant because this is the last sailing from St. Maarten, I’ll share them anyway. 

 

We arrived in St. Maarten yesterday (two days prior to ship embarkation). We always travel to a ship embarkation port city in advance after we almost missed a ship early in our cruising history because of weather.  We like St. Maarten and thought it would be nice to spend two days here and support them as they suffered from both hurricane Irma a few years back and no cruise passengers for more than a year.

 

As time went on, our decision to come early found us in need of two Covid tests.  One to meet the requirements for entering St. Maarten (72 hours prior) and the other to meet the requirements for Celebrity (also 72 hours prior).  That wasn’t necessarily an easy thing to do.  It was made easier by getting confirmation from Celebrity that they would accept the Walgreens ID NOW test if it was performed by a pharmacist (not a home self-test).  That meant we’d have results in 24 hours of testing and we could have that done before we left home rather than getting a test on St. Maarten (which could cost money).  My ID NOW results were back in 30 minutes.  There has been a lot of confusion over testing, but Celebrity has now posted on their website that they will accept the ID NOW test from Walgreens.  That makes things much easier!

 

With all our paperwork ready and packed suitcases, we left for St. Maarten yesterday at 6:00 AM.  I met several Cruise Critic members on our flight from Atlanta to St. Maarten. It’s always great to meet members and start chatting cruising!

 

Flights were uneventful…just the way we like them.  I’d say our flight to St. Maarten was fairly full, maybe 70-75% (that’s a guess).  We disembarked the plane about 20 minutes before scheduled arrival and we walked down the old-fashioned stairs at the door of the plane instead of a jetway (it’s the same way in St. Thomas).  Airport staff directed us into the terminal where there was a REALLY long line of people in front of us.  A Delta flight from JFK arrived just before us.  The first line ran the length of the terminal building and back again.  While it was long, it moved fairly quickly, and the terminal was air conditioned so we weren’t out in the heat (it was hot!).

 

While we were in this line, an airport employee came along and reviewed our pre-approval paperwork to enter St. Maarten along with our negative covid test papers.  She stamped both and said it would save a little time in the main terminal.  This allowed us to skip the “health inspection” stations that were set up and go right into the immigration line.  This line was pretty long as well but it moved fairly well, too.  An immigration agent again quickly looked at our stamped paperwork, stamped our passports and we were gone.

 

Luggage had long been delivered and was placed in nice rows.  We found our luggage easily and headed out to meet the car service I arranged.  It was right at one hour from the time we left the plane to the time we were in our taxi.

 

Since we hadn’t flown into St. Maarten before (and I didn’t have time to do research before leaving home), I decided on our flight to book a taxi service to pick us up.  I made an inquiry at 6:30 AM with Best Price Taxi and within minutes, I had a response from Andy, the owner.  I was pretty surprised!  I asked for a price and then checked other taxi prices.  By the time we added the cost for additional passengers and luggage to the posted taxi fares, Andy was about the same cost.  When we left the airport terminal, Andy and his van was waiting for us.  I forgot that it’s a little bit of a drive into Phillipsburg, but we were at our hotel right about 3:00 PM.  That was about as good as we could have hoped for.

 

We booked the Holland House for our two-night stay based on a recommendation from a friend who lives on island.  I knew the minute we walked up the steps that we were going to like it here. The first thing you saw was a beautiful, angled bar overlooking the beach and bay.  It gives you the instant feeling of “Ah, we have arrived!” 

 

Check in was quick and easy.  We dropped luggage in our rooms (our daughter and son-in-law are traveling with us) and headed back down to grab a bite to eat as there were no meals served on the flight.  NOTE ON FOOD:  The Atlanta airport has limited food available.  We tried to get something to take on the plane but the lines at the limited number of places opened were extremely long.  The McDonalds in terminal E only had one cashier working.  You can envision the lengthy line.  At 3:00 PM the hotel was only serving bar bites so we sat at the bar, had our first drink and enjoyed delicious “snacks” of wings, chicken satay and Bitterballen (what I called a Dutch mofongo).

 

Our rooms were wonderful.  We chose a beach front room that had a wonderful view of three Royal Caribbean ships and a Carnival ship docked at the pier.  None of them are sailing but it was great to see them, especially at night when they are lite up! 

 

 

We decided we needed a bottle of wine for the room, so we walked to our favorite liquor store, Gulmohars (http://www.gulmoharsxm.com).  We’ve been coming here for years and the owners are wonderful people.  Over the years, Vinita has secured wonderful on-island dinner reservations for us when we were on a cruise that overnighted here and she recommended Holland House.  We love shopping with them because they carry a wide variety of things we cannot get at home.  It was SO good to see them again.  It had been over two years because of Covid and we were so happy to see that the are doing well and thriving.  Many of the stores along Front St were shuttered up.  We’ll see what it’s like today.

 

Vinita recommended Chesterfield’s for dinner, a restaurant close to the cruise pier.  We had a leisurely walk there and had a great table overlooking the water.  Great sunset spot except that clouds rolled in and we weren’t able to catch a sunset last night. Food was good and very reasonably priced.  It was a perfect place to enjoy our first relaxing dinner.

 

We were all exhausted after dinner so we called it an early night as it was a long day (waking up at 3:15 am). 

 

More to come!

[aring75]

This is so great!! I love the information about Holland House. We’ve never traveled (by plane) to St. Maarten either so I’m really enjoying all the detail. Thanks for doing this. 😊

 

Oh! And have a WONDERFUL cruise!

[Silkroad]

After reading your initial post, I want to fly to St. Maarten and Holland House immediately😊  We’re sailing to St. Maarten for the first time in October and your descriptions are lovely. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I hope you have a wonderful voyage!

[TeeRick]

Anne have a wonderful cruise!  Give my best to dh.

[Stem to Stern]

@Host AnneLoooking forward to following you on this voyage.  Summit was my first Celebrity experience.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for posting your trip report.     I"m looking forward to following along.   Have a wonderful cruise.

[DUTRAVEL]

Hi Anne,

 

Sorry that we didn't get to meet you on our (now canceled) Reflection Transatlantic cruise. Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise. Have a great time!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Can’t wait to board tomorrow!
 

[Host Anne]

13 hours ago, aring75 said:

This is so great!! I love the information about Holland House. We’ve never traveled (by plane) to St. Maarten either so I’m really enjoying all the detail. Thanks for doing this. 😊

 

Oh! And have a WONDERFUL cruise!

thanks so very much....I've loved following along on your Equinox cruise this week.  Great posts from you. I could tell you had a great time!!!  We'd definitely come back and stay at Holland House again.

[hcat]

Bon Voyage!

 Thanks for keeping  us informed.

Have fun

[TeaBag]

Have a great cruise, Anne.  Your Holland house stay sounds wonderful.  I would never fly in the day of a cruise because it is so enjoyable to stay somewhere nice precruise and then be relaxed when you board.   I know there are reasons why people can't arrive ahead but it's wonderful if you can.  Bon Voyage.

[Host Anne]

Thanks for all the kind wishes, everyone.  Our ship HAS come in!!!  WOO HOO!

 

[Host Anne]

PRE-CRUISE DAY 2

 

Today was kind of a funky day.  Woke up at 4:00 AM (I hope I do that tomorrow so I can watch Summit sail into St. Maarten) but couldn’t fall back to sleep.  So I started working on this review and watched the morning come to life.  About 6:00 AM sleep seemed like a good idea again and I took a nap for a few hours.  By 8:00 we were up and ready to start the day.

 

We headed down to breakfast in the lovely outdoor restaurant here at Holland House.  They are not currently serving their normal buffet but rather provided a menu where you could check off 7 items that were included complimentary (we chose the breakfast included rate).  They offered eggs, omelets, fruit, cereal, pancakes, eggs benedict, bacon, sausage, yogurt, pastries, several kinds of toast, coffee, tea, milk, juices and more that I can’t recall.  I ordered over easy eggs, bacon, wheat toast, a mini chocolate croissant (this IS the start of vacation) and coffee.  It’s going to sound crazy as it was a pretty simple breakfast but the food was delicious.  The wheat toast was more of a multigrain bread and the mini croissant was the perfect size to fill that sweet craving.  The eggs were cooked perfectly, and the bacon was really good, too. 

 

After that we had an important work conference call we needed to be on so that took up most of the rest of the morning (we have to do these things so we can pay for our cruises!).  Around noon we headed back to Gulmohars to make our liquor purchases.  It as a very successful visit with selecting things we couldn’t get back home.  We did stop across the street to purchase a new large suitcase as the large one we brought along had two wheels break on the way down (it was probably at least ten years old).  Vinita recommended the Dutch Blond for lunch and it was great, too.  Upstairs on the boardwalk (which is made of cement pavers) just a five-minute walk from the hotel.  The staff was terrific…friendly, smiling and fun. 

 

 

Our food choices included a cheeseburger with sweet potato fries; shrimp taco; chicken nachos; and a hot dog.  All were very good … ok…my daughter said “it’s a hot dog” when I asked her how it was! The frozen piña coladas were wonderful and my husband enjoyed the local Dutch Blonde beer. 

 

Back to the hotel for one final business call before heading out to do a little more shopping.  Nothing we really needed but I do like supporting the local business.  Covid hit the island hard and many shops/restaurants haven’t reopened.  Hopefully once cruise traffic steadily returns things will open back up.  We spent the rest of the afternoon on the outdoor deck at the hotel enjoying a few drinks, laughing and chatting with other guests (some who were sailing with us tomorrow). 

 

 

Then it was time to head to dinner.  We walked (maybe ten minutes) to the Pink Pearl, an Asian restaurant that gets great reviews on-line.  Our daughter and son-in-law both battle some food allergies and Asian food is great for them because they use little dairy or wheat.  We walked in and found ourselves to be the only patrons.  We had our pick of tables, ordered drinks and checked out the menu. 

 

Our waitress, Crystal was wonderful.  We ordered appetizers to share – pork pot sticker and pork spare ribs - and individual entrees of pepper steak, Szechuan chicken and sweet and sour chicken. Again, basic items but all were great.  Better than an average Asian restaurant.

 

After a short walk back to our hotel we enjoyed a night cap on our balcony, looking at the Royal ships and listening to the music from the restaurant below.

 

All in all, a great relaxing day in St. Maarten.  Did I mention it is “Shippy Eve,” an endearing term we created when we first started cruising with our daughter when she was six.  Some sayings just stick with you! 

 

 

 

[Host Anne]

I can see an "X"  No other words needed!!!!

 

 

[Provence55always]

Following along Anne I was so looking forward to meeting you on the October Transatlantic…. but it wasn’t to be😢. Needless to say I will be with you in spirit on this one…..have a wonderful cruise with your family.

 

Noreen

[CruisinMama2003]

Sounds like you had a perfect pre-cruise day! Enjoying this review & pix 👍

 

Cheers 🍹🏖

[NCHPcruiser]

Following along and enjoying your trip!

 

[Jim_Iain]

Looking forward to your blog posts.     I will have to take a look at that hotel.   Looks like a nice place to overnight.

 

[davekathy]

4 hours ago, Host Anne said:

I can see an "X"  No other words needed!!!!

Bon Voyage. 🥂

[Denny01]

Although not going Summit, love tracking and reading this - need this for a cruise-fix! Not just great info, but just fun to escape….with you!

 

Thank you,

 

den

[txtechmk]

Love your post and looking forward to seeing more.  Have a great cruise! 

[Host Anne]

Internet is very slow so my reports will be slower than I like.  

 

I have to share my "quote of the day" from yesterday attributed to my husband:

 

"They should never put a scale in a bathroom on a ship unless it's broken or lies to you!"

 

More later on embarkation and our first night on board (warning:  It was wonderful!!!!)

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

7 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

 

 

"They should never put a scale in a bathroom on a ship unless it's broken or lies to you!"

 

 

I've always just pretended those weren't there.  😁

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

I've always just pretended those weren't there.  😁

Luckily the staterooms we book don't have weight scales.  

[Host Anne]

CRUISE DAY 1

 

We enjoyed breakfast at Holland House before packing up and heading to the ship.  Our boarding time was noon so we had the hotel arrange a taxi for 11:30.  By 11:35, everything was in the taxi and we were on our way to the ship.  It was a short trip (less than ten minutes) when we were dropped off at the port at approximately 11:45.  Porters were waiting to take our bags and we were directed to a table for suite guest check in.  After that, we were escorted inside a tent (I didn’t recall St. Maarten having a terminal before and I remembered correctly.

 

Inside we were taken to an area that had couches soft drinks/water set up for us.  We had a staff member review our negative test paperwork and take a photo of our vaccination cards. We were then escorted outside the tent where extended golf carts drove us to the ship.  As we went to go through security and they scanned the bar code on our boarding passes, it came up as record not found!  That was strange since it worked inside the check in tent!

 

It took them a few minutes to figure that out but we were allowed to go through security!  Then off to our cabin, Sky Suite 6118.  A multitude of crew were waiting for us when we exited the elevator to direct us to our cabin.  When we arrived there, our cabin attendant and our Retreat host greeted us and gave us a quick rundown of our cabin.  Nice cabin and extra long veranda.  The bathroom is on the smaller side compared to the S-class ships but that didn’t matter to us. 

 

We were on early enough to enjoy lunch in Luminae, followed by unpacking, trivia, drinks and dinner in Luminae.  During the show the first evening, Capt. Matt informed us we were sailing with only 270 guests.  WOW!  It will be interesting to see what the rest of the cruise is like.

 

I’ve been having difficulties logging on to the internet from the ship, so I will be keeping these reports shorter and not including photos now to save time.  I’d call Day 1 on the ship a complete success!  So happy to be back on board!!!!