Day 3 on the ship and St Maarten port day.

So, a little history... 

If you remember in the beginning of my review I posted about thrilled (Kia) and our history. If you don't here it is copied and pasted:

So a little history. From me doing reviews here on cc, I made the most wonderful friend! During one of my St Maarten reviews maybe 2 or so years ago, she messaged me with info because she had actually lived there for 7 years, but had moved back to the US. She told me if I was ever to cruise to St Maarten again and she was there on land vacation, she would show me the sites.

So...guess what? I am taking her up on this offer! Kia had originally said since she goes to St Maarten every year for a land vacation she wasn't getting off the ship at all, but ask me what my plans were. I had originally planned to just to to Simpson Bay to hang out on the beach around the Karakter Beach Bar, but then I remembered her "offer"...go me!

We decided to rent a car and she would drive us around to see all over St Maarten. It sounded like a plan and I started researching the various places in the area to rent a car.

We ended up going with a place called Rodael Car Rental. They said they would be at the port to pick us up and their rental was a decent price compared to others. Total with tax was $103.50. They wanted a 20% down payment to secure the card but it seemed next to impossible to get in touch with them. I had 2 different numbers and they never answered. I finally emailed the owner back and he took a few days to respond. By then I had actually gotten in touch with someone else and he told me to "just show up" and didn't take a deposit. Then owner confirmed that this was ok and they would see us in port. 

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Starting our day... 

My alarm was set for 6:30am as it would be every day this week for ports. We headed to the buffet around 7:30am and once again, there wasn't a crowd at all. Where is everyone???

I got my usual...I love this corned beef hash they make. It was so good! I visited bacon mountain and it was cooked to perfection! So it wasn't a dream? There really wasn't any bacon police! I could get use to this! (I still had not discovered you could get actual hash browns yet).

We were docked by 8am and we headed off the ship to the paparazzi for our pictures.

Our instructions from Rodael said to head out of the port and gates and they would meet us there...only I can't seem to follow instructions and question myself every step of the way.

We stopped to ask (at the taxi stand) where to meet Rodael at and they pointed over across the parking lot to this building that said "Hertz car rental". Ok, Hertz-Rodael, yea that sounds the same and makes sense that 2 competing companies would be located together (but hey, they repeated the name Rodael, so I know they heard me).

We trotted, in the already hot sun at 8:15am in the morning, to the car rental place only to be told, no it's "that way"...which was what I originally thought...outside the port.

Kia and family were not here yet and neither was Rodael. We asked someone outside there and they said "he was here but went down the street and told me to tell you to wait right here". No biggie since we were waiting on the other half of our crew to arrive.

We played keep-out-of-the-sun and used the hill in front of us to block it. We kept having to move and move and before long, there was no staying out of the sun.

Kia and family finally arrived and I'm so glad they didn't give up trying to find us. I don't believe she knew that you were to go outside the port either but decided to give it a shot and found us.

The guy outside decided to call Rodael for us and he arrived around 8:45am. 

He took us back to the rental place, we signed papers, we paid the money and we were headed out.

Our chauffeur for the day.

These streets are tight. They are bumpy. They are sometimes crazy. But we felt comfortable knowing we had an "ex-local" taking us around...until she informed us that her dad is usually the driver when they stay here...and then that she's really not a great driver...then proceeded to tell us about the accidents she's had in the past...and even those recently. From there on out...Sakari would be on her about every little thing. LOL She should have never gave up that information voluntarily.

You will find our complete trip around St Maarten by clicking on the following tab. Within that review you will also see all the places/beaches we visited as well.

We were passing the cruise port at 3:52pm and I was happy that the traffic was not really that bad. Well, either traffic was not back or Kia was driving like Jeff Gordan.

We made it to the car rental place and he immediately looked at the bumper. Ohhhhh gosh. He looked at me. He looked at the bumper. I said "well it fell down when driving. Someone has messed it up to begin with because they have a zip tie on it! But, I'm sure you already know that" and he nodded that he did. Whew!

We got back into the car and he took us to the port to be dropped off. Oops, we didn't fill up the tank. Kia and I had made the executive decision to just pay the inflated price for the gas because we would rather make it back to the port in time than have to locate a gas station and stop to put gas in it. He said "just give me $20 for the gas" and I did just that. It was definitely worth it to me and I thought that wasn't a bad price. Hey, we drove the ENTIRE island that day!

We were walking down the dock to the ship by 4:07pm.

Obviously the hubs and Kia and family were in no hurry to get back on the ship.

However, I heard a loud noise ahead and I needed to investigate.

The Equinox was in port with us and they brought along some interesting things with them...

Check out this video of what was waiting to get back on their ship.

I sent a video to my daughter after getting back on the ship and her and her fiancé and all their bike riding friends just got super excited and now want to find out about taking their bikes with them on vacation.

I can only imagine how fun that would be to just ride all over the island at each port.

We were back on the ship and we all headed straight up to the pool area to hang out for awhile.

Sakari pulled out her collection of shells from the day.

Now take a close look at the weird looking blue-green item that is now curled up. Anyone want to try to guess what it is???

I'll give a hint...remember the hubby commenting on those fish with teeth?

Although Sakari wanted to go to the pool, we decided we would head to the "munchkin pool" because heaven forbid you called it a "baby pool" because she would refuse to go saying "I'm not a baby and I'm turning 10!"

Notice the lifeguard here at the pool? They were at EVERY pool, even the adult pool. I thought it was interesting since there have been so many drownings, especially with kids, over the years and the talk has always been that they would never have lifeguards on any of the cruise ships (except Disney) because that would then increase the chance of being sued if anything ever happened, not to mention parents watching their kids even less because they feel the need to let the lifeguards do it.

But...here they are. I personally think it's a good thing. An extra set of eyes on the swimmers is always a good thing. I will find myself watching other kids when I'm sitting by a pool. It's just the right thing to do no matter if the parents are there or not. It doesn't release the parents of their duties, but decreases the risks of drowning. I know this is a very controversial issue with cruisers, but if there's a chance to save a life, why not contribute? Just my personal opinion of course. Maybe it's the nurse in me.

Sakari decides to try out the slide.

These slides remind me of some of NCL's older slides...very slow and hard to move.

I decided to take this opportunity to get a few more pictures. 

Here's the climbing wall in the daylight.

When I seen these containers, I couldn't help but think of all the pictures that were posted online after the hurricane of the containers everywhere in this area. It was sad.

Kia and Xander going down the slide (because they wouldn't let Sakari take him down and said it had to be a parent).

I took this video of Kia and Xander coming down the slide and Sakari couldn't understand what I was doing. But, I was silently laughing because I could hear Kia screaming on the way down. LOL It was pretty loud in the area with the kids and hard to hear on the video, but it still amused me.

Another thing that amused me was this sign! RC has humor! Now remember...no catapulting, pole vaulting or teleportation in the pool area!

I told Sakari how Mermazing she looks and I needed a picture of her. She HATES wearing a shirt but she got a little red the day before at Buck Island and I made her wear her shirt all day. She just doesn't believe that mermaids should ever wear a shirt and it covers up her bathing suit and .....blah blah blah. It's a never ending argument with her when swimming. I told her mermaids also don't look good in red...unless it's their hair or bathing suit!

The munchkin area closed at 6pm and we all headed to the pool to hang out a bit more.

Then back to the room to shower and change for dinner. I decided I wanted to go to the MDR tonight.

The elevators reminded us of what day it was:

They sat us with a waiter named Aleksandr and his assistant was Marcos. Both were VERY attentive...but I had no idea just how much.

Our menus for the night

I was real happy to see they had cheesecake.

Sakari's menu:

Now let's just talk about my pop addiction again for a moment. Anyhow, whoever has read any of my reviews knows...this is truly an addiction and I hate water. Any ship we have ever been on, they immediately came over and tried to pour us water and we immediately told them "no water" and present our soda card. We always get the strangest looks and honestly, sometimes it feels uncomfortable. I mean we can't be the only people out there that drink pop with our meal. I've had people on here agree with me after all.

Tonight, they ask us what we wanted to drink instead and I showed them our cards. They were very pleasant about it and actually ask us if we wanted water. Usually it takes FOREVER to return with pop on other ships and I feel like they must have to run up to the pool deck bar to get it. So, this time I changed things up and said "yes to the water" just in case it took awhile.

They came back with our pop within 2 minutes and would you look at this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got a twofer deal! Well I'm definitely impressed! I heart Royal if not only for this reason! LOL

Our rolls were served and I also noticed that Royal still puts the dining table cloths on their tables (a big debate over at Carnival). I personally could care less if I'm eating on a table or a cloth on the table, but thought I would mention it to those that care. I mean I don't put a table cloth on my table at home when we eat, so it doesn't bother me if they don't have one on the ships. Some people, it does.

I ordered the Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup and my oh my it was yummy! Aleksandr said that it was pretty potent with garlic, but I love garlic and I'm glad I went with that choice.

Sakari is a big soup eater and she got the chicken and noodle soup and was very happy.

My main was the Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli. It was yummy also.

The hubby had the Spaghetti Bolognese and said it was good as well.

Sakari played it safe with pizza (although she's not a big fries eater).

Then on to desert!! Cheesecake but hold the strawberry topping! It was amazing!

(Never mind that child in the background who is licking her banana split sundae...I don't know who she is with such manners. Definitely not any child of mine!)

The hubby ordered the Apple Pie A La Mode and said it was very good. As stuffed as I was...I had to try it and it was amazing!!! The apples were cooked just right!

After dinner, Sakari was off to the kids club to spend time with her own people and we were off to the casino for a bit. I won $32 and called it a night walking out a winner. LOL

We picked up the munchkin and headed back to the room where I wouldn't have homework tonight because I had planned ahead and did my test for the week last night. Go me!

Here was our towel animal.

The hubby would watch a little t.v (I might add that EVERY commercial was in Spanish for some reason) and I wanted to check in with my son...to see if the dog and fish were still alive. You see this pattern of non-trust here?

Our dog, Loki, does not like Kolin for some reason. From the minute we brought him home last year he has never liked Kolin. Kolin has never done anything to him but I can only speculate that he must have been abused by someone that either looked like Kolin or something. (Trust me, there's a story behind me thinking he was abused).

He loves his mini-human though and has a fit when she's out of his site (at least according to my blinds that I've had to replace several times).

Kolin has a hard time with him as far as getting him to come inside from going potty or anything else. He pretty much has to hide for Loki to walk past the door and into the house or go get my neighbor to call him in. It gets frustrating. He's a Husky...so he's a runner too and can not be caught.

But we love him just the same and Sakari would have a fit if anything would ever happen to him. She takes good care of him and she says "He's my brother too". So I guess I actually have 5 kids. :o

So far...Loki was doing just fine.

So after confirming that the animals were still ok, Kolin informed me that although Loki was still alive and well...but, he was refusing to come in and there was tornado sirens going off.

Now remember that 2 days ago it was snowing. Today it was in the high 70's and there was a report of a tornado...about a mile away from my house that touched down.

Loki would not come in. Sakari was so worried that night and this would be her drawing of the night.

Her details included flying furniture, the roof is off the house, and poor Loki is trying to take cover under flying objects.

I packed our beach bags for tomorrow and we hit the bed actually pretty early tonight: 11:30pm

Up tomorrow would be a day in Martinique. A new place for us. 😀

FINAL THOUGHTS ON ST MAARTEN 

I'm sure you can tell that we had an awesome day just driving around and seeing the sites. It was especially helpful to "get to know" my way around. I thought we made excellent time circling the entire island and going back where we started past the port at Simpson Bay. It will now make me less nervous about visiting any of the places on a different day in port in the future as far as time and distance. Sometimes when you look on a map, it looks far away, but now I know it can be done.

If I was to return, I wouldn't think twice about going back to Simpson Bay (and I would probably do just that). It was a beautiful beach and I wouldn't mind trying Karakter out.

I do have to say that I now kinda wished that we would have drove by and checked out Orient (even though I think we briefly discussed it and Kia was trying to show me places I had never seen) and another I had forgotten about (that I have heard mentioned on here) is Happy Bay and Friars Bay. Maybe I'll have to try them in the future. 😁

I won't say much about the devastation of the island and them struggling to get back to normal and on their feet again. I think all of the pictures I shared speaks for itself. It's really hard to see in pictures and even harder to see in person. 😢