Chasing the Sun # 4: The Split-Personality Island

Thursday morning, we sailed into the picturesque -- make that photogenic -- harbour of the island of Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin.  These pictures were actually taken just after sunset, as we prepared to depart, but nothing much changed in the view during those 11 hours except the sky, which was laden with rain clouds in the morning.

Since we landed in Philipsburg, we were of course in Sint Maarten, the Dutch portion of a unique bipartite island community.  Our ship was one of four docked on two of the major piers of Philipsburg harbour, the main port of entry for commercial goods in large quantities.  St. Martin is such an unproductive, near-desert island, that virtually all food is imported, as well as almost all building supplies, through this container port.

The tour I picked was a long one (five hours) but gave a good overview of the major highlights all around the island, with a number of photo stops.  We followed most of the circular road marked on this map, except on the west side.  From Marigot, another road (not shown here) goes in a loop all around the Grand Etang/Simsonbaai via the Sandy Ground, Les Terres Basses, and the Low Lands to Mullet Bay where we rejoined the marked road.

The island was formally divided between the Netherlands and France by the Treaty of Concordia in 1648.  The actual border line was changed or adjusted a number of times during the years, and some of the local stories about the ever-changing border are hilarious bits of folklore.

This monument commemorates the historic signing of the treaty.

This monument stands right at the border on the east side of the island, adjacent to a long-disused customs post.  This sign appears nearby.

For obvious practical reasons, in so small a community, there are no longer any border controls between the two sides of Sint Maarten (Dutch) and Saint-Martin (French).  Each has its own capital, respectively Philipsburg and Marigot, and each has its own mountains.  Although each side has its own airport, the rugged geography dictates that the airport in Saint-Martin will forever be limited to small commuter aircraft due to its short runway.  Thus, the Dutch Princess Juliana International Airport hosts incoming long-distance flights from both France and Holland, as well as from the USA, Canada, Germany, and other countries.

As well, each side has its own police department, fire department, hospital, school system, currency, telephone system, and on and on we go.  Our gregarious and amusing tour guide/bus driver, Manny, had us in stitches all day with his consistent game at the expense of the "two of everything" line.

For shock effect, nothing could beat his announcement that any telephone call from the French side to France is considered a local call and charged at local rates, but a call across the line to Philipsburg on the other side of the island is long distance (a separate area code) and priced much higher accordingly.  To prove the point, he waved at us his two cellphones -- one French, one Dutch.

Another stop was at the scenic overview above Orient Bay.  At this distance it looks like paradise.

So it was, until Hurricane Irma ripped through St. Martin as a Category 5-Plus storm in the fall of 2017.  The resort hotels on Orient Bay, like many of the resorts on the island, are still closed due to the catastrophic levels of storm damage -- especially from the storm surge which flooded all over this low-lying area.

Unless and until those hotels and the various restaurants reopen, Orient Bay is going to be a pretty quiet, unhappening place.  It used to be a huge tourist attraction due to the "clothing optional" policy there -- although, as Manny pointed out to mixed groans and chuckles, this just meant that you saw all the same people you would see on any normal beach, except that they were letting it all hang out.

We saw enormous amounts of storm damage on our circuit around the east and north sides of the island -- the sides where the hurricane struck directly from the open ocean.  In Grand Case, many of the famous restaurants are reopening under temporary conditions -- Manny told us that, apart from the damaged buildings, Grand Case is an incredible place to sample authentic Caribbean cuisine first-hand.  It's also the host of the longest Carnival season held anywhere in the world.

Coming down the west coast, we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Marigot, the French capital.  

We had an extended shopping stop in Marigot, and I bought precisely nothing.  After years of travelling, I've finally clued in that nine-tenths of the stuff for sale in any holiday destination is geared towards women: women's clothes, women's beachwear, women's jewellery (a huge item in the West Indies at duty-free prices), women's watches, women's tote bags, and on and on.  I'd love to leave some more cash behind me for the benefit of the struggling local economy, but there are limits.

The circle tour around the Grand Etang/Simsonbaai took us past more closed hotels.  It's obvious that the tourist industry is struggling along largely on cruise ship passengers for the time being.

And so we came to the most famous sight on the island, the one almost everyone has heard of, seen videos of, or shaken their heads over: Maho Beach.  What makes this beach so special?

This:
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Internet photo

Trust me, this picture from the internet is not photoshopped!  Even with Princess Juliana Airport's now-lengthened runway, a large overseas aircraft like this Boeing 747 has to touch down at the earliest possible moment before slamming on the brakes and reverse thrust ASAP.

Our tour bus stopped there for almost an hour, but we didn't see anything that spectacular.  Story of my life, other people go to Maho Beach and see 747s or giant Airbus airliners; all I get is this:

The bigger planes were taking off away from the beach, which brings on the other hilarious sport of standing behind the plane and trying to hold on to the fence when the jet blast hits.

That is, it's a hilarious sport until someone gets hurt -- easy enough to do when each engine is generating anything up to 75,000 pounds of jet thrust.  In fact, one woman actually died of brain injuries in 2017 after the jet thrust hurled her backwards into a concrete wall.  When you get right down to it, Maho Beach is also a good place to photograph candidates for the Darwin Awards.

The beach is a lot narrower and steeper than it used to be.  After the 2017 hurricane, it had completely disappeared with most of the sand washed up onto the airport runway.  That sand has been moved back by now, but inevitably the dynamics of water and waves have changed in other ways which only time will tell.

There was one spectacular takeoff by a larger jet which soared into the air right above our bus as we pulled away, but by that time my camera had finally died for the day.  RIP -- my bad, I forgot to charge the battery the night before.  I missed some more pretty amazing views as a result.  Sigh.

I guess this means that I will have to come back to Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin again.  Right?

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A Footnote

We're now well into the second of two sea days on the way back to Fort Lauderdale, so this will be the last blog post for this trip.  Sea days are often curiously unmemorable.  You can do everything, and the list of daily activities in the Princess Patter newsletter is enormous.  Or you can do nothing.  Combine ingredients in proportions to suit your own taste.

I will just mention, though, that Regal Princess is a real winner of a ship.  The cabin and its balcony are both a bit tighter than on the older Princess ships on which I have sailed (Caribbean, Ruby, and Crown), but still both adequate and comfortable.  There is much more space to put things away than on those older ships -- more drawers, more shelves, more everything.  The other thing that impresses me about this ship is the much greater space allocated to such public areas as restaurants, the buffet serving areas and seating areas, the Piazza (atrium), and the open seating decks around the pools.

The odd result is that this ship, which holds 600-700 more passengers than the other vessels named, actually feels less crowded.

I've also been really taken by the quality of the service in all departments.  My last two cruises were a bit lacklustre in that respect, but the entire team on the Regal is friendly, prompt, helpful, and accurate.  Only on Day 5 did I finally hit a glitch, and it was promptly and quickly remedied.  I'd be more than happy to sail again on such a beautiful ship with such an awesome crew.

Chasing the Sun # 3: Virgin Visitor Time

Our ship has now docked at Charlotte Amalie, the capital city and port town on the island of St. Thomas in the U. S. Virgin Islands.

Right away, let's dispense with the burning questions on everyone's mind:  who was Charlotte Amalie and what makes the islands "Virgin"?  

Charlotte Amalie was the Queen Consort of King Christian V of Denmark and Norway.  Her name on this capital is a relic of the time when the Virgin Islands were ruled by Denmark.  Indeed, most of the historic fortifications on the islands are also relics of Danish rule.  The islands passed to the USA by purchase in 1917. 

As for the name of the islands, that is a relic of Christopher Columbus who named the archipelago in honour of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins (in Spanish: Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes).  I would hazard a guess that he thought of the name because of the large numbers of tiny little rocks, cays, and the like surrounding the larger islands of the group.

This picture, taken from the ship as we sailed into St. Thomas in the morning, shows a handful of the islands of varying sizes.

Part of the island cluster is controlled by the United States, while another part is ruled by the United Kingdom and usually referred to as the British Virgin Islands.  As for St. Ursula, I'll leave it up to you if you want to Google the highly romanticized legends surrounding her.

Today, St Thomas is a major centre of the Caribbean cruise trade, and indeed the busiest cruise port in the region outside of the U. S. mainland.  As a regular routine, during the tourist peak season, the city's population is pretty much doubled, with many of the visitors departing each night to be replaced the next morning by a new influx.  Today there were only four ships in port, but three of them were in the 3000-passenger range.  Add in the 6000-passenger Symphony of the Seas from Royal Caribbean -- you get the idea.

The first and nuttiest fact about life in the U S. Virgin Islands is the bizarre business of driving on the left side of the road -- in vehicles designed and built for the U.S. market, with their steering wheels on the left side.  Yes, that means that you are driving the vehicle from the side closest to the curb.  This came about because the islands were already using the left side of the road when the U.S.A. acquired them from Denmark -- which now itself drives on the right side.  Try to wrap your brain around that one.  Take all the time you need.

Since it was tropically hot and humid, and since my tour didn't begin until 1:00 pm, I simply enjoyed my morning lounging by and in the pool on the top deck, in brilliant sunshine.

After lunch, I headed ashore and joined my tour bus -- the most unusual vehicle I've ever travelled in since riding in "le truck" in Bora Bora almost 4 years ago.

While there are a few air-conditioned mini-buses on the roads, there are no big coaches on this island, and as soon as you hit the roads, you find out why.  Charlotte Amalie's downtown by the harbour isn't too bad, but as soon as you start uphill, you start encountering steep grades, hairpin turns, and narrow bits where even two of these truck-bus things passing each other becomes a scary manoeuvre.

The 2-hour tour basically consisted of two scenic highlights, one on each side of the mountain ridge which forms the spine of the island.  The first is the world-famous Mountaintop, said to be the birthplace of the banana daiquiri.  The parking area was jammed with truck-buses, and the huge souvenir store was full of visitors.  You have to walk all the way through the store, past the huge bar which dishes out daiquiris by the dozen, and out the far end to reach the lookout platform with its splendid view of Magen's Bay and the other islands to the east.

Magen's Bay is said to be one of the ten finest beaches in the world, and it's a go-to destination for cruise passengers on a daily basis -- so it was a little surprising to look down from the mountain and see that the beach still appeared relatively uncrowded.

Of the three major islands in this picture, the one farthest to the right is St. John's, the smallest and least populated of the U. S. Virgin Islands, with nearly half of the island being a national park.  The other two are Tortola (centre) and Jost van Dyke (left) in the British Virgin Islands.

After oohing and aahing at the gorgeous view, and touring the contents of the store (mostly women's clothes and jewellery), I still had 25 minutes of the 40-minute stop to kill -- my usual problem whenever a tour stops at a store.

The other stop was at a lookout point above Charlotte Amalie, and here it was an easy matter to take a string of 3 pictures comprising the entire panorama from the left (our ship and a Carnival vessel) to the centre (Castle Island and its fortifications) and then to the right (Celebrity cruise ship and the Symphony of the Seas in the distance).

In due course we snaked our way back down to the harbour, and got dropped off on the far end of the huge shopping centre between the road and the dock.  By the time I walked through the shopping centre and down the dock to the ship, I was sweating so hard that there was only one thing to do -- make a beeline for the pool again!

We're not sailing until 9:30 tonight because it's a relatively short hop to our next stop at Sint Maarten/St Martin.  Indeed, this famous dual-nation island is just the other side of the British Virgins.

A final note on St. Thomas: many tourists seem reluctant to come this way because of the damage wrought on these islands by the hurricanes of 2017, Jose and Maria.  Although there were still some broken buildings and roofs in some of the poorer areas of town, there was little sign of visible damage remaining elsewhere.

Chasing the Sun # 2: To Beach or Not to Beach?

The morning after we sailed from Fort Lauderdale, we anchored offshore from the cruise line's own private beach resort, Princess Cays.

This resort is on the west shore of the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, just above the island's southern tip.  Eleuthera is a quintessential Bahamian island: 180 kilometres long, much of it less than 2 kilometres wide, it forms the eastern edge of a shallow area of sea known as the Great Bahama Bank. The entire low-lying island is a mix of sand dune beaches and low coral stone hills.

Princess Cays is in effect a single large beach, broken into sections by artificial rocky points and by areas of greenery.  It's separated by a shallow lagoon from the main island of Eleuthera.  Here's a map from the cruise line's brochure.

The scenery is easy to describe and easy on the eyes.  Ground, flat, or nearly so -- from the ship's higher decks you can see clear across the low ridge of Eleuthera itself to the open ocean on the other side.  Vegetation, green.  Water, brilliant blue.  Sun, shining.

Princess promotes this port of call as a tropical paradise, but let's have a reality check.  Even with a fleet of four double-decked tenders deployed, each one carrying 200 or more people, how long does it take to move up to 3560 people from the ship to a shoreside pier that can accommodate only two tenders at a time?

The answer lies in the "tender ticket" system.  Anyone who wishes to go ashore is directed to the Symphony Dining Room, and there given a number.  When your number is called, you are then directed to proceed to the embarkation port on Deck 4 to board your tender.  The tender ticket system remained in place for people heading ashore from 9:00 am until almost 1:00 pm -- quite a thought, when the last tender back to the ship would leave the shoreside at 4:30 pm.  This is an obvious case where earlier is better, especially because the weather, in true tropical fashion, was already clouding up by 1:00 pm.

Then, once ashore, there are no freebies except the food you eat, the chunk of sand you pull up to sit on and the water you splash in.  Everything -- and I do mean everything else -- has its price.

Here are some of the prices for six-hour rentals (American dollars):

Then there's the bigger recreational gear which is priced by the hour:

(for those not familiar, SUP is an acronym for "Stand-Up Paddle."

I just learned that myself a few months ago)

Or you can go all in as a family with a 4-person package:  $64.95 for lockers, snorkeling gear, and a paddle boat for 4.

(If you are thinking of bringing your own gear, practise ahead of time with trying to cram the above items into a standard suitcase along with your clothes.  I wish you luck.)

And what's a day on the beach without a tall cool drink or two -- or more -- at hand? More money, just like every time you shout up any drink other than plain coffee, tea, lemonade, or water on board the ship.

Should you wish a little privacy among the swarming crowds, this perfectly natural desire too can be accommodated.  There are small shoreside bungalows with air-conditioning -- which contain a few chairs, a table, and a shower, as well as loungers and a small patio outside.

That's 50-65% more than I was paying for a semi-oceanview 4-star hotel room about four times the size, with all the creature comforts and breakfast included, right on Fort Lauderdale beach.  It's no wonder the cruisebiz is so spectacularly profitable.

All these delights are sold in advance on a non-refundable basis.  You can still purchase any of these amenities once you're ashore, unless they are sold out.

I'll pass lightly over the impact of 3000-plus people all descending on the same beach at the same time.  In fact, I did.  I went ashore in the morning for a glass-bottom boat cruise (that's one entertainment I can never resist) and got to be on the first tender along with all the other people who had purchased organized tours.  But I didn't stay long.

When we landed on the island, we were informed that the snorkelling, glass-bottom boat, and scuba expeditions were all cancelled because the recent windy weather had stirred up so much silt that visibility underwater was nearly non-existent.  That's always a risk with these kinds of activities.

Once I found that out, I went for a walk through the resort area, snapping a few pictures here and there as I went.  There's a small (40-steps) observation tower, and I climbed that.  North, towards the bungalows, was a narrow stretch of the property where you could see the open ocean (left) and the sheltered lagoon (right) at once.

That enclosed lagoon would be a great place to practice your SUP skills or learn to handle a kayak.  The open ocean was still churning energetically.

The tower also gave a good view of the brilliantly coloured roofs of the various shelters, kiosks, shops, and the grill buffet.

The artificial beach ended at the last rock pile, and a more natural beach fronted the stretch where the private bungalows were located under the trees.

And all the lifeguards were in place, on some of the most unusual lifeguard stands I've ever seen, just waiting for the daily mob to descend on the beach.

By the time I got back to the beach closest to the boat, a few of the hundreds of lounger chairs were taken.  But far more people were still stuck on the ship, waiting for their turn to board a tender.

From these pictures, you can tell that I was ahead of nearly everyone in getting so far north of the boat dock.  But I'm not really a beach person.  Diabetics have to be cautious around sharp objects that might cut the feet, like stones, corals, or shells.  And sitting for hours on end on a lounge chair isn't my thing either.  After a few minutes, I'm ready to get up and go again.

So, after my stroll, I returned to the ship and passed a couple of hours in the civilized and quiet regions around (and in) the retreat pool.  A nice day, to be sure, but how much more frustrating if I hadn't bought that tour and ended up waiting for who-knows-how-long in that dining room before finally being allowed to board one of the tenders?

Chasing the Sun # 1: Off to the South Again

It won't come as any surprise to my regular readers that with the shorter days and fouler weather of winter upon us, my thoughts will turn to sun and warmer air.

Usually I take my big winter holiday after Christmas, but if someone makes me an offer I can't refuse then it may happen earlier.

That's the case here: Princess Cruises, my go-to ocean cruise line, made me a great offer for a cabin on a 7-night cruise to the eastern Caribbean -- so I cancelled my January holiday plans and I'm on my way.  The ship is one of the line's current largest class of ships, the Royal Class, and is called Regal Princess.

And here's a map showing the route of the cruise.

I'd planned to take this exact cruise on the same ship back in January, and then cancelled because of the extensive hurricane damage in St. Thomas and Sint Maarten in 2017.  I guess a lot of people are still leery of going that way, because this cruise was substantially cheaper than a comparable 7-night voyage in the western part of the Caribbean (that's where I ended up going last winter).  It's still bargain season in the eastern Caribbean by comparison -- although, according to my sources, both of these islands are well on their way back to "business as usual."

Since the cruise began in Fort Lauderdale, I went there ahead of sailing date for a few days of R&R in my favourite hotel, the Doubletree Bahia Mar Resort.  I passed that time the same way I did last winter, with plenty of walking, trips on the Water Taxi, meals in the great nearby restaurants, and lounging by -- and in -- the pool.

More on the resort:  Farther Into the Everglades

And for other things-to-do in Fort Lauderdale:  Life's a Boat in Fort Lauderdale

I also rented a car for one day, Saturday, when I wanted to do some shopping.  In sprawling, spread-out Florida you definitely need a car if you want to bounce off more than one shopping stop.  Not to mention that I wanted to go for a waterfront walk and lunch in another old favourite place, Deerfield Beach, just up the coast.

Then, on Sunday, I checked out from the hotel to join the ship.  Before leaving, I had to take a picture of the ship from my room (sorry, it's a bit on the grainy side).

I then had to return the favour when I got to my cabin by taking a picture of the hotel from the ship (it's the white tower just to the left of centre).

Time to set sail once again!  Regal Princess is undoubtedly the biggest ship I have ever set foot upon, at least by tonnage (142,229 tons and 3,560 passengers), although nowhere near the same size league as the current champions of the cruise trade.  That's fine with me.  Even this ship is bigger than I would ideally like.

There's also much less flash and dash than on some of the larger competing vessels. Princess Cruises has always maintained a more genteel, less party-like-crazy atmosphere than some cruise lines -- a "classic cruise" type of experience -- and Regal Princess definitely runs true to type.

But this vessel does have some intriguing touches, and here's one of them. It certainly intrigues me that there are people who would willingly hop on the slide rides and the like on other ships but simply cannot, will not, step out on the SeaWalk. I know that they won't -- I heard a couple of them saying so. Others can be seen shuffling nervously along the railing, averting their eyes from those see-through panels.



That glass deck doesn't deter me for a second -- because there's a railing.



That's on the ship's starboard side midships, right on the Lido Deck where the main pool is located. On the port side, the simple walkway is replaced by the SeaView Bar. Here you get to enjoy the show-bar style of the bartenders and then enjoy the view of the ocean just behind and below you -- if you sit on the side with the glass floor.



This night picture of the underside of the SeaWalk from the promenade deck shows you how far it projects from the side of the ship.

Those familiar with the cruisebiz will know that cabins right in the midships area are the most expensive on any ship. I had booked a regular balcony cabin in the cheap zone at the stern. About 6 weeks before sailing, I got an upgrade offer by email and called right away. Good thing I did. I got upgraded from that near-the-stern cabin to a larger mini-suite in the midships zone, and my original price plus the upgrade fee was well over $1000 less than the selling rate for that midships mini-suite at the time I accepted the upgrade. And who am I to complain?

Those upgrades, by the way, are offered to members of the Princess Captain's Circle. Sounds pretty damn important -- but actually, anybody who sails on one Princess cruise is automatically enrolled in the Captain's Circle, and as a Gold member, no less! It's the only loyalty programme I've ever encountered where you start at Gold and then work your way up from there. If you keep coming back for more, as I do, you eventually climb up the ladder to Ruby, Platinum, and finally to Elite.

But those upgrade offers only happen if the high-end cabins aren't sold out. As I've noted before, travellers are still showing reluctance to sail to the Eastern Caribbean. Their loss = my gain.

The central pool area has a large and a small pool, joined together by a sizable central raised flat area.



At set times in the evenings, the circular central area spouts numerous fountains, playing in sync with music and flashing coloured lights. Hence the name "Fountain Pool." I'll try to get a picture or video of one of those shows before the cruise ends.

Spectacular and splashy as it is, the Fountain Pool isn't my favourite. That distinction I award to the Retreat Pool, one deck up and farther forward. It's reserved for adults only.



Princess pioneered the large multi-storey atrium lobby way back in 1995 with the Sun Princess. The ships of the Royal Class (including the Regal Princess) have the largest atrium of any Princess ships to date. It's called the "Piazza" and is meant to recapture a bit of the atmosphere of a public square in a European town. The various bars on all three levels certainly contribute to that impression. So does the International Café on the lowest level with its specialty coffees and luscious pastries. The twin fountain pools under the staircases support the European theme too.

Undoubtedly the most intriguing feature of the ship isn't attached to the ship at all -- it's travelling around in the bottom of my pocket.

The OCEAN Medallion is a new hi-tech device being pioneered by Princess Cruises, and the company is using the Regal Princess as the test bed.  Some cabins still are not equipped with the new technology, and the bugs and kinks are still being ironed out.  So a cruise card still has to be carried and used in some settings.

The Medallion transmits an identity code wherever I go on the ship, or even ashore, and hundreds of sensors can pick up the signal.  Servers see my picture on a personal unit and can also see a list of my favourite drinks to order.  The door of my cabin matches my face to the picture in the system and unlocks automatically for me as I approach, but will refuse to open if I lose my Medallion and another person approaches with it.  It can create a custom calendar for me, take bets on virtual casino games (not that this particular function interests me), let me check my schedule or messages on touchscreens around the ship, and so much more.  The Medallion also confirms my identity whenever I leave the ship or return on board.

It came clipped to a lanyard, but I prefer to carry it in my pocket.  I could also buy a wristband which would hold the actual medallion (when taken out of its plastic case) like a wristwatch.

The whole process works hand-in-glove with an app which can be installed on a phone, tablet, or computer.  I'm using the app to track my schedule, my reservations, and my shipboard account.  Best of all, for a blogger like yours truly, the OCEAN Medallion system comes in harness with a whole new bigger, faster, internet system.  For the first time, Princess is offering Medallion users a single flat rate for internet use for the whole voyage -- and the system works just as fast as my high-speed at home.  Anyone who's struggled with glacial cruise ship internet speeds in the past can appreciate that improvement!