Day Nine ~ St. Martin

We had set the alarm for 7 this morning, but woke up just after 6. We dozed off and on until 7 when Doug got up to get pastries. I made coffee and went out to the balcony to do some journaling. It is a beautiful morning! We enjoyed room service breakfast one more morning. It was so much less stressful having room service breakfast on port days.

We sat there while we sailed in to St. Martin. The Independence of the Seas and the MSC Divina is in port with us today. This is the only port where there were other ships, too.

Today's plan is to grab a taxi to Orient Beach. I was still tired, but I was also looking forward to the beach. Last night we invited Susan & Dan to join us, but we weren't sure if they were going to or not. The ship was cleared early, but we didn't want to head out until we touched base with them. So we went to the Centrum on Deck 4 to watch for them. Their cabin was close to there. Dan came out and found us, said they were joining us and they'd be right back. We were ready to walk off the ship at 9:45!

We walked over to the taxi stand and there was a couple from the Independence also going to Orient Beach, so we all shared a cab. It's about a 30 minute taxi ride to the beach. We asked our driver to return for us at 1:30.

We walked down the beach a ways and decided to settle in at Kontiki. Two chairs and the umbrells was $20. We were right close to the water. The bathrooms here are SO CLEAN! I wish I would have taken a picture of them. There was also a nice seating area near the bar with couches and low tables.
We settled in on our loungers, everybody got changed, and Doug took my picture in the water. At that point I realized the surf was rough for me, and I wasn't going to go into the ocean this day. Ahhh....we'll be back next year!!

 There are quite a few vendors that walk up and down the beach trying to sell their things. I did buy a swimsuit cover up. I love it.

 Doug, me, Susan & Dan enjoying Paradise!!

Enjoying the comfy seating area by the bar!

Doug went out to swim for a good while. Dan went out for a bit and came back. Susan went out to chat with Doug. They were out there about 90 minutes just drifting along. I kept waiting for the bar server to come by and take my order, and he never did. So I went up and ordered myself a drink and asked for a lunch menu, although we decided to not eat lunch here but wait until we got back to the ship. Kontiki also offers free WiFi. It was not a strong connection. I couldn't connect at all on the beach. I could connect, somewhat, while sitting by the bar. But it wasn't a strong connection. I could comment on Facebook statuses, but it took 10 minutes to upload a picture. I wasn't impressed. I wasn't impressed with anything other than the bathrooms at this beach bar. Next year we'll have the driver take us on down to Palm Beach at the far end of the beach. It's LOVELY there.

A bit after 1 we changed into dry clothes and went out back to wait for our driver. And that is when we saw Oliver. Oliver was the taxi driver we had on St. Martin 2 years ago. He is a great guy and offered an island tour when we visit again, and gave us a card. I lost that card! And what a small world that we ran into him. I now have his card and will guard it with my life haha. So we talked to Oliver for a bit, and then our driver was there and we were off to town to shop. The driver dropped us on Front Street but Susan & Dan went back to the ship.

We went to the Guavaberry Emporium for rum and BBQ sauce and samples! I had many samples and also a guavaberry colada. So I had the daiquiri at the beach, all of the samples and the colada and no food since 7:30 that morning and it was after 2. By the time we got to the port shopping area, I was feeling the alcohol. I did some shopping while Doug sat in the shade, then back to the ship.

We came up to the cabin and Doug quickly called room service for lunch. I was in desperate need of food!! But of course, I also went to the Schooner Bar for drinks to have with lunch on the balcony. It was all good after I carbed up and drank plenty of water. So we ate, showered, and napped. But the sun and heat took it out of me, and I didn't feel like dressing for dinner, so we went all casual and had dinner in the Windjammer.

We watched sail away from our balcony before we went to dinner. It's so pretty!

We also had pictures taken on the way to dinner.

I love WJ dinner night. I adore potatoes....a lot. The night we have dinner in the WJ, I have ALL of the different potatoes and rolls and dessert and that's it. Although this year there was a gorgeous anti-pasta bar, so I had some delicious cheeses and olives, too. I had cake and ice cream for dessert, but it was just OK, so after a couple of bites I stopped eating it. My goal was to only eat things that were truly worth it. Jim & Tracy also ate in the WJ this night, and we sat with them just as they were finishing up.

After dinner we lost money in the casino and went to the R Bar and listened to The Real Time Band while waiting for the Battle of the Sexes game show, which started at 10. We had OK seats on the outskirts of the lounge, and if people wouldn't have come and STOOD IN FRONT OF US, we would have had a nice view of the game. But mostly we just listened. It was funny.

Also, this is election day. There were a group of ladies sitting in the lounge while we were waiting for the game, and they were huddled around an iPad watching CNN like a bunch of guys watching the Super Bowl. It was kind of funny. We checked a bit of the news after going back to the room, but wouldn't know the results until morning.

It was a LOVELY beach day and a fun evening. It's hard to believe that we are 3/4 of the way through our trip and there are no more port days. BUT, we have 3 lovely sea days while we head back to Baltimore.