Cruise: Day 4 (Part 1)

Before I start this entry, I've been getting a lot of questions about what is/isn't included in the basic price of the cruise, so I thought I'd answer that here for anyone else who might be curious. For the most part, all meals and activities are free. The ship had 2 specialty restaurants, a Johnny Rocket's, and a Ben and Jerry's, and all of those cost extra. But all meals in the dining room, all meals in the Windjammer, and all room service meals/snacks were completely included in the price, and like I said before, you could eat as much as you wanted, any time you wanted. On the Promenade, there was a place called Sorrento's that served pizza and beer (pizza was free; beer was not) and another place called Cafe Promenade which was open 24/7. Alcohol (and some certain types of specialty coffees) was extra. And with any alcoholic drink, they automatically tacked on a 15% gratuity. Luckily, we're not big drinkers, and neither one of us even likes normal coffee, so that wasn't an issue for us. As far as activities, they did have some Bingo games and a couple blackjack and poker tournaments that had entry fees. But all the other stuff was free. Hope that all makes sense.

OK, on to the real part of the entry.

Day 4, Tuesday, September 30: Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Part 1)

A little history about the island... St. Martin/St. Maarten is the smallest piece of land in the world governed by 2 separate sovereign powers. Though Columbus claimed it for Spain, Spain ignored the island until Dutch settlers started exporting salt they had mined from the land. Seeing the commercial possiblities of the island, the Spanish drove the Dutch settlers away. But when the war between Spain and the Netherlands in Europe ended, Spain left the island, since they no longer needed it. With Spain's presence gone, both the Dutch and the French claimed the island, and after fighting over it for a while, they eventually agreed to share it. So, St. Martin is the French side (which we didn't visit), and St. Maarten is the Dutch side (which is where we were).

We woke around 8 AM, and when I did my usual peek out the balcony, I called to Tony, "Land ho!" I could see 2 islands in the distance, neither of which was St. Maarten. And again, it was a gorgeous day. (You can't see the islands in this picture, so don't strain your eyes.)



Because we were so close to land, we saw several different sea birds diving for fish while we ate our breakfast on the balcony. We were due to dock at 9 AM, and we got to watch the ship back in to the pier (which you can see in this picture).



I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the coastline.





We took a picture of ourselves with the ship in the background, after seeing someone else do it. Funny enough, we noticed that Royal Caribbean had set up a little photo spot of their own, with their professional photographers, to do the exact same thing. I'm telling you, those photographers were everywhere.



This was a small little marketplace that we saw as soon as we got off the pier, with a tourist info center off to the right. Just ignore those ugly cranes (they're in the middle of building a new pier, so that they can dock more cruise ships at once).



We decided that our first order of business was to call home. We had purchased a phone card back home, but it didn't work in the pay phones near the pier. We asked the lady at the tourist info center where we could use it, and she gave us a map and showed us where to go. So we hopped on the water taxi (the easiest way to get to downtown Philipsburg) and were on our way. (Seriously, look at that water!)



I took more pictures as we rode, because I just could not get over the color of the water.



This is the pier the water taxi landed at. I love the colorful buildings.



When we finally found the spot the lady had directed us to, our phone card didn't work there either. We ended up buying one off some guy on the street, who sat on a bench with a little hand-written sign that said "phone cards." I was a tad suspicious, but we were desperate at this point, and as it turns out, the card worked. We called my mom first--she wasn't home, so we tried her cell, crossing our fingers that she would answer (since we knew it would show up as an unfamiliar or "restricted" number). She answered, and we chatted for a few minutes before she turned the phone over to Ari. Right away, Ari said, "Hi, Mommy." The rest of our conversation was mostly me asking her yes-or-no questions, but it was so good to hear her voice. And yes, I got all choked up. I passed the phone to Tony, and he got a little teary-eyed as well. We also got a glowing report from Mom--that Ari was doing great, sleeping well, etc. It was so reassuring to hear that she was handling it all so beautifully. Tony made a couple more phone calls after that (to Pastor, and then to Wayne, who was watching our dogs), and then we set out shopping.

As I mentioned before, we had purchased a coupon book at the shopping seminar on the ship, so we basically just wandered around collecting freebies--mostly loose gemstones (which of course, they pressured us to upgrade into pendants, earrings, etc.), a tropical music CD, an antique map of St. Maarten, a couple necklaces, etc. Of course, it was fun to ogle all the gorgeous jewelry. Apparently, the Caribbean is THE place to buy precious gemstones, because they are able to sell them wholesale, which makes them much cheaper than in the States.

There was a nice little stretch of shops along the beach, and we came across a local band playing some of that typical Caribbean-sounding music.



Then Tony wanted to take random pictures of me.



I took the camera back and snapped some pictures of the shops and restaurants.





We decided to save ourselves a little cash and eat lunch on the ship. On our way back, we ran into a lady who was offering free samples of rum, so Tony had to try some.



We returned to the ship, inhaled our lunches, and then got back to the island. We got off at a different pier that time, with a cute little bridge nearby.



Basically, this pier was at the other end of the main shopping drag. We checked out some local vendors and picked up a few souvenirs... and, of course, took more pictures.





This isn't the greatest picture (I don't know why I didn't get a better shot), but this is the Guavaberry Emporium. They make their liquers from the locally-grown guavaberry--it is the national liquer of the island, and a big part of their heritage and traditions. In fact, I'm fairly sure that St. Maarten is the only place you can get guavaberries. Anyway, we tried samples of the rum and liquer (wow, very strong, and one tasted just like Cherry NyQuil) and a smoothie made with the rum and a pina colada mix (now THAT was good).



Our next stop was Planet Paradise, where we found "That Yoda Guy." No, seriously, that's what he calls himself. His real name is Nick Maley, and he was one of the special effects artists that helped create Yoda for the original Star Wars films. When we walked into the shop, we saw him sitting at a desk in the back. We started to browse around--the store featured lots of collectible movie memorabilia (from Star Wars as well as other films he worked on), plus Nick Maley's own original artwork. Next thing we knew, he'd jumped out of his seat and was introducing himself to us and shaking our hands. He was such a nice guy, and such a pleasure to chat with--I almost felt bad that we didn't purchase anything. He didn't pressure us to, though--he simply told us what was available and then happily answered all our questions.



OK, I think that's long enough for now. Check back soon for Part 2 of our day in St. Maarten.