We tried to do more in St. Martin – we really did. We wanted to book an excursion to Maho Beach to see the airplanes fly over the beach, but they didn’t have any excursions that went there. So then we discussed getting a taxi and going there on our own. We were fine with the idea of getting a taxi from port, but how easy would it be to get a taxi back?
Then we talked to the guy from the shore excursion desk and he told us there really weren’t many planes going there right now. One of the big ones had already stopped and then with covid…it just wouldn’t be as exciting as we wanted it to be. He recommended a nearby beach day excursion. We looked at it and thought about it and decided to book it.
The tickets arrived in our room and then a day later we were informed it had been cancelled.
We decided that none of it was meant to be. It was our first time in St. Maarten so we decided to just get the water taxi into Phillipsburg and walk around town.
We had a leisurely breakfast then headed down the pier to find the water taxi.
Two Royal Caribbean ships were docked in port with us and a Carnival ship at anchor off shore, but they were all out of service. They were all older ships anyway.
After disembarking the ship, we headed over to the booth for the water taxi and purchased our tickets.
Tickets for the water taxi were $7 for all day tickets. That meant we could have come back to the ship for lunch and to cool off if we had wanted and then gone back out.
We headed down to the pier for the taxi. One was just returning as we got there so they let off their passengers. We got our seats and hung out for a few minutes before we got going. Man was it hot in those masks! St. Maarten also required masks – I think. Most of the locals weren’t wearing them so we ended up taking them off except for when we stepped into a couple of shops.
The water taxi was probably a 5 minute ride across the water and then it dropped us off on one end of the town. Before we got off, they told us we could catch it either in the same place or at the pier in the middle of town. It was nice that we didn’t necessarily have to retrace our steps.
We just walked around town. At first we walked down the beach, which was pretty (except for the guy washing his hair in the ocean, that was weird). There were plenty of places you could rent beach chairs for the day. We were not dressed for that. I think next time that will be our plan because it looked so peaceful and so easy.
There were salespeople hanging around and calling out, but they mostly let it go when you told them they weren’t interested.
We didn’t go to any jewelry store. We didn’t buy any liquor or cigars. We got some gelato and got back on the ship and had some already paid for lunch in the air conditioning and then got in our bathing suits and went to the pool for the afternoon.
I know, I know. Not a very exciting time in St. Maarten. But it was our first time to the port, we did legit try to book an excursion. And it was very hot.
After coming back to the ship, we cooled down in our room for a few minutes then hit the buffet and the pool. The pool was pretty empty since we were still in port so we enjoyed our time in the pool.
We left when it was close to time for us to leave and I hung out on our balcony waiting for the ship to leave. The departure time came and went. The employee parking lot had mostly cleared out and we were still waiting. Finally, at least an hour after we were supposed to leave, a white car came speeding up to a gate, was let in and drove down towards the gangway area of the ship. Our balcony was on the back of the ship so I couldn’t see what happened next, but a couple of minutes later the car reversed the process and sped away.
At the time I assumed we were waiting on some people to leave. Since we have returned a video has surfaced of people getting off the ship and into the white car. I have no idea what happened. All I know is that after the car came and left, so did we. Finally!
