MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[E@syPe@zy]

Well, I made a big boo-boo. I was uploading pics to my smugmug folder for St Maarten and went to delete a picture that didn't belong there. For some reason this time it asked me if I wanted to delete it FOREVER...never to be returned. Before it just deleted and I didn't bother to wonder why it was asking me this.

 

NOW I know...it deleted the ENTIRE FOLDER!! All of my St Maarten pictures that I have already posted in this review. Every.last.one.of.them! UGH!

 

So, now I have requested a "Super Hero" to help me with seeing if it can be recovered. But, with it being so late, it might not happen. I know it has to be done within a certain amount of time...just don't remember the time frame. Hopefully my hero will email me back by tomorrow and be able to restore the entire folder. Fingers crossed.

 

This isn't the first time I have done something wrong and created a blooper...and I'm sure it won't be the last.

 

So now we wait. I have to put this review on hold until I see if they can recover my pictures.

 

If you can't see any of the pictures for St Maarten, now you'll know why. I can still see them on my end, but I don't know if it's because they are still in my cache.

 

What a night. :mad:

I can see the photos just fine. Hope you are able to retrieve the file. So very frustrating when things like this happen!?!:eek:

[Kiwifromkiev]

I'm going to St Maarten in January, so very interested in any suggestions from you and Kia. Thank you!

 

 

 

What ship/sailing are you on?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[lazydayz]

Wow. The destruction on St. Martin is depressing. Hope you are able to recover your photos, but I definitely get the idea.

 

Thanks for the review. My guess is Royal didn’t wow you. I will stay tuned to see.

[Cafedumonde]

I have found if I delete a photo folder sometimes I can still find it in "downloads."

[blarko]

I am still able to see the St. Maarten photos in the review.

[Thrilled2012]

OH NO KIM! I'm so sorry about your pics. Were you able to retrieve them?

 

I am getting another tear in my eye looking at these St. Maarten pics. Just awful. That pic of the Pink Iguana really hurts my heart. It will be missed! And of course the pics of Pelican Key and my friends' restarant (Bon Apetit...that appears like it may need to be rebuilt if it ever to reopen). Pelican Resort will not reopen for quite some time (2019-2020) and even then, will not be the same.

I could have sworn that when we were in Simpson Bay, I told you that we were at Karakter (we parked in the Karakter parking lot because I knew you wanted to see the place). I thought you just didn't want down to get a better look because the kids and hubs were in the car. Oops :(

Regarding Baie Rouge (my favorite beach on the island), Chez Raymond's was always a bit of a shack. That's part of its charm. It is missing that overhang and tables and chairs now but I would think that will easily be rebuilt. The major change to that beach is just the debris everywhere and of course the missing foliage which provided beauty and natural shade. I still think its a lovely beach though and worth a visit for those visiting St. Maarten.

 

Since it's a weekend, I can follow along the review if you have questions about where we were or anything :P

[Thrilled2012]

Ugh, I almost forgot about the Muster Drill. Thanks for reminding me. :mad::mad::loudcry:

 

-F-:mad:

 

I'm with you guys on that muster drill. By far the worst and most ridiculous muster I've ever experienced. I kept thinking, why can't you just scan our Seapass cards like other ships instead of incessantly taking verbal role call for each and every cabin, and then yelling at small children for talking when you are keeping them in the heat, packed in like sardines FOREVER when all they want to do is swim or eat or play. I know it is necessary but there are better ways to do it. Ugh, I thought it would never end. But its a small price to pay for a wonderful vacation.

[Thrilled2012]

Kim...it was so very heart breaking to see your photos of the Island destruction. I am surprised that more hasn't been done to renew it back to the way it was. I have been there so many times and enjoyed how lovely the Island had been.

 

Actually they've done quite a lot of work since the hurricane in September. The island was just so devasated that it will take a very long time for the island to come back. The Dutch government gave the Dutch side at least $650 million soon after the hurricane and is continuing to assist but the island doesn't have the same resources as we do and things take longer. It's much improved from September however and they are working as hard as they can to bring the island back. I have several friends who lost everything (homes, jobs, businesses, etc) and have moved back to Holland and other places and do not expect to be able to return to live on the island for a couple of years.

[mitsugirly]

Wow, it really is incredibly sad to see the devastation from the hurricane. Terrible to think about what those that lost so much (if not all) are are doing to get back on their feet again.

 

That said, I am loving your review Kim. Keep it coming...

 

It was very sad to see. People just don't realize what these people have endured until they see if for themselves.

 

 

So sad to see Mary’s Boon so destroyed. We were scheduled to go to St Maarten two weeks after Irma hit. Needless to say we didn’t go. Irma came ashore just south of my city, Naples, and it’s amazing all of these months later, the devastation you still see. My heart just breaks. Karakter is up and running, according to their Facebook page, and is one of my favorite spots on the island. I love your reviews. I cannot believe how big Sakari is getting. It seems such a short time ago that you were just graduating from nursing school and she was a little tiny thing. She is an amazing artist. Keep up the great reviews. It keeps me going between vacations.

 

Yea, I had heard that Karakter was up and running too but it just looked deserted. We did arrive fairly early and it was our first stop so maybe people just weren't there yet.

 

 

Thanks so much for all of your kind comments. I appreciate it.

 

Me again, we were at Karakter in February and they are open. The bus is mostly covered with wood now and there are new restrooms. When we were there the owner was in the process of building a new kitchen and said, for them, the hurricane was a blessing because it was allowing them to make long overdue changes. It was different than our last visit but menu and bar were the same.

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

Well that's good new that the bus was saved and it actually got him to a position to renew things. It sounds like he has a positive outlook on things.

 

Thanks for your review! I'm way late to the party and still have a lot of catching up to do, so I'm not sure if anyone has commented regarding NCL's internet yet, but I was just on the Pearl last month and you could absolutely knock the other device off the internet when you log on. It would pop up with a screen that said another device was logged on and did you want to log them off so you could log on? It was hugely helpful. Maybe this was a recent update as I know they've only recently made a lot of changes to their internet packages.

 

Thank you for that. No, there hasn't been anyone that has mentioned this yet. I'm glad it's finally like that now!

 

 

So I guess that place truly is a topless bar now then.

 

hee hee....yep,

 

 

 

 

I'm going to St Maarten in January, so very interested in any suggestions from you and Kia. Thank you!

 

What kind of things do you like to do? Are you a water person? Do you like tours? Have you ever been there before and if so, what did you do already?

 

How sad! The devastation breaks my heart

 

Very sad! There wasn't a place on the island we went that wasn't destroyed!

 

 

Kim...it was so very heart breaking to see your photos of the Island destruction. I am surprised that more hasn't been done to renew it back to the way it was. I have been there so many times and enjoyed how lovely the Island had been.

 

It was so sad to see but when I compare pictures, they have done a lot of clean up for sure.

 

Hi all!

 

mitsugirly ~ all caught up on this amazing as usual review!Wish I had found it before page 21!!

The ship looks lovely & reminds me of Serenade of the Seas that I was on a couple of years ago. It even had that same red rose settee.

Yikes, that's so sad to see the destruction of St Maarten.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. You visited some different ports.

 

~ Jo ~

 

Thank you so much for the comment.

 

 

We did visit 3 new ports this time around.

 

So awful seeing all that destruction despite how much time has time passed. I'll be going on the Fascination in a few weeks and your reviews have been so helpful!

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise on the Fascination. We loved her and the ship was so easy to navigate and the perfect size.

 

I can see the photos just fine. Hope you are able to retrieve the file. So very frustrating when things like this happen!?!

 

Good, I'm glad they didn't disappear.

 

 

Very frustrating but since it's happened before and I was able to get them back, I wasn't "too" worried. It just put a halt on my review when I was on a roll last night.

 

Wow. The destruction on St. Martin is depressing. Hope you are able to recover your photos, but I definitely get the idea.

 

Thanks for the review. My guess is Royal didn’t wow you. I will stay tuned to see.

 

It's very depressing to see the condition that St. Maarten is still in.

 

 

Why do you say that Royal didn't wow me?

 

I have found if I delete a photo folder sometimes I can still find it in "downloads."

 

On Smugmug? Where is "downloads"?

 

I am still able to see the St. Maarten photos in the review.

 

Good. I'm glad it didn't wipe those out.

 

OH NO KIM! I'm so sorry about your pics. Were you able to retrieve them?

 

I am getting another tear in my eye looking at these St. Maarten pics. Just awful. That pic of the Pink Iguana really hurts my heart. It will be missed! And of course the pics of Pelican Key and my friends' restarant (Bon Apetit...that appears like it may need to be rebuilt if it ever to reopen). Pelican Resort will not reopen for quite some time (2019-2020) and even then, will not be the same.

I could have sworn that when we were in Simpson Bay, I told you that we were at Karakter (we parked in the Karakter parking lot because I knew you wanted to see the place). I thought you just didn't want down to get a better look because the kids and hubs were in the car. Oops

Regarding Baie Rouge (my favorite beach on the island), Chez Raymond's was always a bit of a shack. That's part of its charm. It is missing that overhang and tables and chairs now but I would think that will easily be rebuilt. The major change to that beach is just the debris everywhere and of course the missing foliage which provided beauty and natural shade. I still think its a lovely beach though and worth a visit for those visiting St. Maarten.

 

Since it's a weekend, I can follow along the review if you have questions about where we were or anything :P

 

 

You probably did tell me that we were at Karakter at the moment but we went so many places that it's hard to remember. I had originally thought we were at Karakter, but I took a picture in the parking lot, right before the first picture of the beach, and the sign said "Mary Boon's Parking only", so I thought...well, maybe that's were we were instead. It did seem like we were closer to Boon than Karakter, because Karakter was way down at the end and I had to zoom in on my computer screen to see what it was. You had mentioned to me yesterday that someone came out and ask if we wanted chairs or if we were staying, but I believe that was when we were at Chez Raymond because we came down the steps right at his place. But, I could still be getting things mixed up. It was quite a day.

 

 

Please let me know if I have anything wrong about where we were at in the review. I'm trying to figure things out as I go along.

 

I'm with you guys on that muster drill. By far the worst and most ridiculous muster I've ever experienced. I kept thinking, why can't you just scan our Seapass cards like other ships instead of incessantly taking verbal role call for each and every cabin, and then yelling at small children for talking when you are keeping them in the heat, packed in like sardines FOREVER when all they want to do is swim or eat or play. I know it is necessary but there are better ways to do it. Ugh, I thought it would never end. But its a small price to pay for a wonderful vacation.

 

It sounds like you guys were in the wrong area. LOL Everyone in our area checked in as they went by to stand in line and they had maybe a list of 10 people that didn't that they called their names out. Most were there and maybe 2 were not. We were there for maybe 20-25 minutes. I have definitely been at longer drills before.

 

Actually they've done quite a lot of work since the hurricane in September. The island was just so devasated that it will take a very long time for the island to come back. The Dutch government gave the Dutch side at least $650 million soon after the hurricane and is continuing to assist but the island doesn't have the same resources as we do and things take longer. It's much improved from September however and they are working as hard as they can to bring the island back. I have several friends who lost everything (homes, jobs, businesses, etc) and have moved back to Holland and other places and do not expect to be able to return to live on the island for a couple of years.

 

I also read last night that 95% of the island was affected by the hurricane and 60% of the homes/buildings were uninhabitable.

[mitsugirly]

Well my hero came and saved me late last night and was able to get my pictures back...so I'm back at it again! :D

[mitsugirly]

We pulled out of Chez Raymond and headed down the street for a look at more devastation.

 

 

Headed down Rue de Sandy Ground to the Sandy Ground area at Nettle Bay.

 

Here is the Le Flamboyant Hotel and Resort condos.

 

 

 

Continuing on down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Coming across the Lady Liberty statue in the Agrement roundabout in Marigot. This statue represents emancipation and created by Theodore Bonev and was placed in 2007. It marked the 159th anniversary of the 1848 Emancipation from slavery.

 

 

We were headed to a place that Kia had talked about years ago and it was a very unknown area were the water was very shallow and you would find tons of starfish. We knew it was quite a drive from the area we were coming from, but I started to see water ahead.

 

 

Unlike a man, Kia stopped to make sure we were going in the right direction and everyone decided it was time for some drinkage. We stopped at this gas station.

 

 

 

Off we went again...

 

 

Getting closer to the water.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Here is Ta Ta the Bus Driver at the Beledere roundabout and located on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. He was known for transporting students to and from school while keeping discipline on the bus. Another statue there is Alec the Butcher, who had 42 children and was known for farming and selling fresh meat. The third person is Lalie and known for providing fresh breads and pastries to those in need. She also provided shelter during disasters, such as, hurricanes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

No matter the devastation, the water still made it beautiful.

 

 

 

 

We missed a few turns, but the roads we did turn on happened to lead us to the same place.

 

We eventually came to the place that Kia had been wanting to show us for awhile.

 

[blarko]

These St Maarten pictures are heartbreaking. Hopefully they will be able to come back better than ever from the devastation. Thanks so much for sharing.

[mitsugirly]

Now I'm not 100% sure, but pretty close, that we went to a place called Rotary Lookout Point. From trying to research it and finding other similar pictures, I think that's where she took us.

 

We pulled into the dirt with big rocks parking lot...bump, bump, bump...Sakari yells "Hey Kia, you sure you can drive this thing?" Kia tells her she's grounded to the car for the rest of the day and no mermaid activities. Just kidding...but it was a bumpy "parking" situation.

 

We got out and Sakari immediately grabbed her mermaid tail. "Nope, not at this place". The water is VERY rocky and it's not a swimming place and about knee deep in some places.

 

We told Sakari about the tons of Starfish in the area and the excitement came over her as she ran down to the water.

 

 

At first, we were the only one's here with the exception of a few locals hanging out. Then more people started to come, but not many.

 

 

Kia said usually you can walk in ankle deep water all the way to the other little island.

 

 

 

However, the water was a little deeper this time around and the water was moving quite a bit today. It was really hard to maneuver around and you had to be very careful of every step you took.

 

 

 

There were spiny black sea urchins everywhere and with the water moving, it was very hard to see what was under there. I would stick my camera under the water, at any given time when Sakari would point at something, to see what was under there...only to find out it wasn't anything but a weird rock.

 

We searched for awhile, but it really wasn't a good day for this. Sakari only had her flip flops and trying to walk on the rocky bottom of this area, she lost a flip flop a few times. It's not like you can go chasing it as the water quickly moves it down and away from you. I made sure that I stayed on the other side of her ("downstream" is the only way to describe it) just in case she continued to lose it then I would be able to catch it as it floated by me.

 

 

They did have some type of observation deck, but we didn't go up there. There were some ladies sitting under the deck trying to sell goods to everyone that walked by and I didn't want to deal with that so didn't go over there.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We were unsuccessful in finding any starfish that day. Maybe the water was just too rough or maybe they were out further.

 

 

 

Although this was a really neat place, we were unsuccessful in finding anything and it was time to leave.

 

We all piled in the car and was ready to pull out and some cars decided to park beside us AND BEHIND US!!! Hmm, ok. So Kia pulled the car up and back and up and...wait, why are we not going back easily again? She gave it more gas...then thump....kkkkeeerrrr. What was that dragging sound? The ladies at the lookout point was staring and pointing. Oh gosh, what just happened? Are we dragging the bumper?

 

After pulling out from the trapped in area we were in, I noticed this huge bolder buried in the dirt in the parking lot. That must have been what we were stuck on.

 

We hung our heads in shame and burned rubber and sped out of there like our life depended on it...in shame. :eek:

 

 

[mitsugirly]

A little ways down the street, we seen some horses up on the hill.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we seen something in the middle of the street. As we got closer, we seen it was a herd of goats.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It was about noon (11:51am) and it felt like we had been all over the place and was a full day already. But, we still had plenty of time left.

 

There's one place I have always wanted to see, and is suggested to people by people on here when someone has a young child, and that's Le Galion. However, I have never went because...well...Sakari is not your "normal" "child" that requires a lake like shallow setting to swim.

 

Le Galion is a very large, very protected cove area with fairly shallow water that is like a lake. It's a good place to go if you have young children. It is a place that many locals go to.

 

Now after the hurricane, I remember watching a video online from someone that was doing a tour of the area in their car. They were recording as they went down the street and there was debris every place you looked in every direction. Trees were down, houses were all over the place, trash, you name it. At some places in was impassable. They were trying to head to Le Galion, but in the video, they never made it because of the destruction. It was heartbreaking.

 

I had not heard much more about the condition of the roads to get there since then, but know from people on the boards that there wasn't much left at Le Galion. So, I wasn't even sure if we were going to be able to make it all the way .

 

But, the roads were clear the entire way. They really have done a lot of clean up, but the houses along the road...completely destroyed! COMPLETELY!

 

Here's our sign to turn...

 

Now those were some colorful walls in that place!

 

 

 

Absolutely nothing left.

 

 

 

 

 

[dreadpirate3]

What ship/sailing are you on?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

Adventure 9 day, January 19, 2019.

[mitsugirly]

Ok wait, let me back up. There were pictures I took on the main road, prior to turning on the road that said Le Galion. I'm not sure how they got out of order. So, let me back up. These places were in a little better shape before hitting the places along the road to Le Galion that were completely gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

Ok...now we head down the road where the turn says Le Galion...

 

I believe Kia said there was a farm here. I seen something in the distance that looked like a silo or something, but that was about all that was still there.

 

 

A jet ski buried in the rubble.

 

 

The sign that said Le Galion was there. I'm not sure if someone put it there after the hurricane or if it was an original.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We had arrived and it was quite sad.

 

Nothing left...at all. The palm trees looked so scarce and sad. No vendors. No chairs. No nothing. Not even tops on the ladies that were there. Just saying...

 

 

 

 

This place was a lot bigger than what I had imagined.

 

 

Looking back at the beach area. At one point a 4 wheeler tour showed up for a few minutes and then they were off.

 

 

The water was nasty looking. It was green. It wasn't very appealing at all. It was so sad to see. There was a lot of sea grass in the area too. Which normally, sea grass doesn't bother me "too much" IF the water is clear. You can find some interesting critters in the sea grass, so there are some benefits. However, you couldn't see anything in this water.

 

If you look way in the distance, there was this "spot" of blue water. Then the water was green after that. I'm not sure what that was about. We went out there and hung out for awhile. It was about shoulder deep.

 

I seen someone in a tent as well. Maybe someone who had lost their home in the hurricane that lived in the area?

 

 

I'm pretty sure this mermaid can't see anything.

 

 

 

[Thrilled2012]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You probably did tell me that we were at Karakter at the moment but we went so many places that it's hard to remember. I had originally thought we were at Karakter, but I took a picture in the parking lot, right before the first picture of the beach, and the sign said "Mary Boon's Parking only", so I thought...well, maybe that's were we were instead. It did seem like we were closer to Boon than Karakter, because Karakter was way down at the end and I had to zoom in on my computer screen to see what it was. You had mentioned to me yesterday that someone came out and ask if we wanted chairs or if we were staying, but I believe that was when we were at Chez Raymond because we came down the steps right at his place. But, I could still be getting things mixed up. It was quite a day.

 

 

Please let me know if I have anything wrong about where we were at in the review. I'm trying to figure things out as I go along.

 

 

It sounds like you guys were in the wrong area. LOL Everyone in our area checked in as they went by to stand in line and they had maybe a list of 10 people that didn't that they called their names out. Most were there and maybe 2 were not. We were there for maybe 20-25 minutes. I have definitely been at longer drills before.

 

 

 

I also read last night that 95% of the island was affected by the hurricane and 60% of the homes/buildings were uninhabitable.

 

Teehee, I was thinking "I don't remember saying yesterday that a guy came to ask us about chairs". I just re-read my text and I said "I remember asking you if you wanted to stay" (at Karakter). I saw some employees down there and it looked like they were either opening up or had just opened. They don't serve breakfast so things hadn't gotten going yet when we were there. We were parked in the Karakter parking lot but at the far end of it (so that we could walk right onto the beach). That that is why we were further down from Karakter. To the immediate left was Mary's Boon parking.

 

Yes we were definitely in the wrong spot for muster drill!! lol. no biggie though. I never expect to have a fantastic time at muster anyway :P

[mitsugirly]

 

My little mermaid finally got some water in her system and enjoyed her time here.

 

 

Sakari all of a sudden decided she needed to "do her business". She wouldn't do it around us and decided to go to the other side for some privacy. LOL

 

Sakari over on the other side....

 

 

 

Kia had told us about a salt water Olympic pool that they had created in Le Galion for swimming and diving. It was all gone.

 

Here's a picture I found on the web (not mine of course) of the "pool" they had there. The internet said they used to have a diving platform too there.

 

 

I do know there used to be a platform out in the water that you could also jump from. It was gone. Here's a picture of it from the internet (not my picture).

 

 

And another picture of what Le Galion used to look like with the palm trees, chairs/umbrella rental and even water sports (not my picture).