St Maarten - Afternoon Beach Bash Question

[FinelyCruising]

I know most cruisers take their own transportation over to Orient Bay but in reading the details for this ship sponsored excursion, lounge chairs with cushions are provided as well as some rum drinks on this beach.

 

If I go on my own, what facilities/amenities are available on the beach at Orient, and will there be chairs for use.

 

Thanks!

[lschrage]

All the facilities will be available to use. Along Orient Beach there are many "beach clubs" that are essentially bars that provide chair and umbrella service. If you want to rent a chair, they are usually $5/piece. Cushions and umbrellas are usually extra. In that cost, you usually get a ticket for a free drink (usually rum punch) and use of the bathroom facilities.

 

Some recent posts that talked about Orient Beach are below:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=139112&highlight=orient+beach

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=136612&highlight=orient+beach

 

Lynne

[FinelyCruising]

Lynne, Thank you so much for taking the time to post these links. They have been very helpful indeed!

[maxs mom]

We have done the Rendezvous Beach excursion with RCI in the past and it was very nice. Same as the Beach Bash but you get lunch with this one. You will probably go to the same place which is quite near Club Orient. I liked it a lot. It's pricey and I know we could very well do that on our own and cheaper, too, but we had a very good experience when we did it before, so we are doing it again. Everything is taken care of for you. We'll go to other beaches on the other islands on our own, but we are splurging on this one.

[patry]

well in my exprience not in the cruise but in a week in saint marteen is that when you get to orient beach the first 3 or 4 places the chairs are not included and the beers are higher prices the more you walk toward the nude beach the cheaper the prices get and the chairs are for free, so what i learned is not to get the fisrt restaurant but walk a little and the prices get better