Activities before noon excursion on St. Martin?

[leahlefler]

We will be in St. Martin in February and have a ship excursion scheduled for 12:30. We dock at 8 am - will there be time to do anything in the morning before the excursion, or should we just hang out on the ship until it is time to go? This is our first cruise so I am not sure if there is anything we "should" do before our excursion (a catamaran snorkeling excursion). Any recommendations?

[Karysa]

We will be in St. Martin in February and have a ship excursion scheduled for 12:30. We dock at 8 am - will there be time to do anything in the morning before the excursion, or should we just hang out on the ship until it is time to go? This is our first cruise so I am not sure if there is anything we "should" do before our excursion (a catamaran snorkeling excursion). Any recommendations?

 

 

I would walk to town and enjoy the boardwalk and shopping on Front Street. It's an easy 15 minute walk, just follow the crowd.

[leahlefler]

Thanks! We'll probably do that with the kids. I am getting excited to go!

 

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[SnorkelAway]

If you wanted to do it, and get off ship as soon as reasonably possible, I think you easily have time to grab a taxi to a beach - maybe Divi Little Bay - spend two hours at the beach -get a taxi back to ship - have lunch on ship - then report for the excursion. Use a planned one hour for lunch as flexible as margin for error with regard to getting to excursion. That might be more fun for your family group that shopping/walking in Philipsburg.

[leahlefler]

A beach would be more appreciated by my boys than shopping - if there is time we will definitely do that! Thanks for the suggestion!

[Karysa]

If you wanted to do it, and get off ship as soon as reasonably possible, I think you easily have time to grab a taxi to a beach - maybe Divi Little Bay - spend two hours at the beach -get a taxi back to ship - have lunch on ship - then report for the excursion. Use a planned one hour for lunch as flexible as margin for error with regard to getting to excursion. That might be more fun for your family group that shopping/walking in Philipsburg.

 

Little Bay is a good choice if you want a beach that is near the port and one in which the water consistently passes water pollution tests. The town beach is one that we have avoided swimming in for over a decade now due to pollution concerns.

[leahlefler]

We'll head to Little Bay, I think. I don't want to swim in polluted water!

 

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[willcruiseanythyme]

We swam in the most beautiful, nonpolluted water of Great Bay when we were there! Rented chairs and an umbrella and had the chairs for the day! Even when we left to go shopping right behind us! Doing it again in March!

 

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[Karysa]

We swam in the most beautiful, nonpolluted water of Great Bay when we were there! Rented chairs and an umbrella and had the chairs for the day! Even when we left to go shopping right behind us! Doing it again in March!

 

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There are several threads on the subject of Great Bay and the sewage overflow after rain occurs. Great Bay What's the Pollution like now! is the thread with pictures and special maps describing why this happens there. The current thought is to drain the water farther out but there has been no news on this plan for a while now and Gary keeps up with the daily St. Maarten newspaper so I would think that he would have read about any news on the subject and posted an update if there was one.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Karysa