Since we got off the ship so early we didn’t have a chance to have breakfast so it would be beach food for us.  However, beach food in St. Maarten isn’t the same as a slice of pizza on the Atlantic City boardwalk, some of this stuff is gourmet.  We decided to order breakfast at the “Sun Beach Clubber”, an order of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and salad for each of us.  The food was delicious and was served on the top deck of the club.  I usually stay away from eating scrambled eggs that I didn’t prepare myself (one of my many hang ups) but the food was prepared very well.  I’ve never eaten a salad for breakfast but everything went together very well. Did I mention it was only 10 dollars each?

After breakfast we settled into our loungers and ordered a couple of drinks.  Throughout the day we’d spend time in and out of the water, talking to our neighbors (who freaked me out by getting topless in the middle of our conversation) and of course took the obligatory walk down to the nude side of Orient.  We always take the “nude walk” and every time I say I am going to strip down to do it but just like every other year I chickened out.  It’s a good think I did because apparently everyone else from the ship decided to take the same walk, I recognized dozens of familiar faces all doing the same thing we were.

Later on in the day we had lunch up on the top deck.  This time I ordered a Camembert cheeseburger and my girlfriend ordered a tuna club, both were delicious.  As a side we were brought out a HUGE bowl of French fries which were cooked to perfection.  In fact, the bowl of fries was so large we couldn’t finish them all.  Like I keep mentioning I am a big foodie and it seems almost sacrilegious to say this but that burger was as good as or better than burgerI have ever eaten here in the United States.

After lunch I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my entire life.  We were down in the water cooling off and I saw a guy walking towards me with a sack of something on his shoulder.  As he got closer I could see that he was tossing whatever was in the sack into the water.  When he passed me I finally saw that it was bread he was scattering which caused him to be followed by a line of fish at least 50 feet in length.  He looked like the pied piper except instead of children he was being followed by thousands and thousands of fish.  It was the perfect visual and a perfect way to end our cruise.

Click here to get free updates to The Intelligent Cruiser

TheIntelligentCruiser.com - Cruise Smart, Cruise Safe and Cruise Often

Related posts:

1. My March Carnival Victory Cruise: Orient Beach The last stop on this whirlwind Cruise was to...
2. My March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Kitts and Cockleshell Beach St. Kitts was one of the islands that I looked...
3. March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Lucia and Reduit Beach What can I say about St. Lucia other than it...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Normally when we arrive at St. Maarten we head over to Marigot, which has great shopping. Afterwards, we have a nice lunch at Enoch’s Place a great little restaurant which is right in the heart of the town. However, this time we decided we wanted to spend as much time at Orient Beach as possible.  We were scheduled to be in port from 7 AM until 5 PM, I was off the ship by 8 AM.   Immediately we caught a taxi headed to the beach.

When we arrived at Orient it was pretty empty which gave us the flexibility to pick any spot along the two-mile stretch of sand, one of the advantages to being decisive and driving early.  We walked for a while and then doubled back because we had spotted a place that appeared to be pretty new. We would later discover that “The Sun Beach Clubber” had indeed opened only six months ago. There were two French guys standing by the sign explaining the cost and what was included.  They were very friendly and  didn’t offer the hard sell that some of the other operators did, which was a definite plus.  To top it off they also offered us a great deal.  Now, I can’t remember how much we paid for two chairs and an umbrella but I do remember it was one of the better deals available and also included a drink.  To me going with “The Sun Beach Clubber” was a no brainer.

Click here to get free updates to The Intelligent Cruiser

TheIntelligentCruiser.com - Cruise Smart, Cruise Safe and Cruise Often

Related posts:

1. My March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Kitts and Cockleshell Beach St. Kitts was one of the islands that I looked...
2. March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Lucia and Reduit Beach What can I say about St. Lucia other than it...
3. March Carnival Victory Cruise: Accra Beach and Just Grillin’ The trip from town to Accra Beach took about 30...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Our arrival time was 8 AM and we were ready to disembark the moment we were docked.  We didn’t have a tour planned so we decided the best course of action would be to do a little shopping and then to find a taxi to take us around the island. We were to finish with a stop at cockleshell beach which seems to be a popular tourist destination.

Although we are not big ticket shoppers (expensive jewelry and such), I did enjoy walking around town checking out souvenirs and knickknacks.  Although most of the items were the same as you find all over the Caribbean, they did have some unique items which I had not seen anywhere else. We bought a few things, after we were done shopping it was time to find a taxi. This task wasn’t hard; all that was needed was a short walk back towards the cruise ship and within minutes we had secured the driver for the day.

While driving around the perimeter of the island the view was incredible. St. Kitts has some of the prettiest water you will find in the Caribbean. Also the view of Nevis seems as if it was something that came out of the imagination of a great artist rather than real-life.  Our taxi driver was very knowledgeable on the island and filled us in on history and the culture of the island.

One of the things that were more evident on this island and then most of the others I visited the level of poverty. Once you get out and start seeing the real St. Kitts you become very aware of how poor the island is. Our driver explained to us how the island is in a transitional period in regards to the economy. St. Kitts has been in the sugarcane business for hundreds of years and is now transitioning to a more tourism-based economy, there’s still much work to do. The roads are in terrible shape and the way it was explained to us they won’t get better anytime soon (they were just redone a couple of years ago). With this in mind I encourage all visitors to do what they can to help the people of St. Kitts (don’t haggle them to the point of bleeding them dry if you can help it).

Once our tour was done we were dropped off at cockleshell beach which is a popular tourist destination. There are two main areas where tourists are dropped one being the Reggae Beach bar and the other being Lion’s restaurant. We chose to be dropped at Lions Rock beach bar which gets its name from the owner who actually resembles a lion with his long gray beard and gray Rastafarian dreadlocks.  I was told they had the best barbecued ribs in the Caribbean.  Although I am a sucker for ribs the seafood in the Caribbean is so good I never want to pass up an opportunity to have some.  The Chicken that my girlfriend ordered was also very good. The beach itself was not nearly as picturesque as what I had imagined. There was sea grass everywhere and it was a bit rocky so I would recommend water shoes. I didn’t do any snorkeling but was told it wasn’t bad. After a couple of hours on cockleshell we headed back to the ship.  Finding a taxi was no problem, all we did was walk towards the parking area and there were quite a few coming back to pick up groups.

Click here to get free updates to The Intelligent Cruiser

TheIntelligentCruiser.com - Cruise Smart, Cruise Safe and Cruise Often

Related posts:

1. March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Lucia and Reduit Beach What can I say about St. Lucia other than it...
2. March Carnival Victory Cruise: Accra Beach and Just Grillin’ The trip from town to Accra Beach took about 30...
3. March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Thomas March 15th The first stop on our March Carnival Victory cruise was...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Reduit beach doesn’t have the turquoise blue waters we all love to see, the water isn’t teaming with thousands of brightly colored fish, the sand isn’t snow white or soft as talcum powder, but who cares Reduit beach just feels right.  The combination of aesthetic beauty and local flavor for some reason makes me feel extremely comfortable here. In fact if I were to make a top 10 list of my favorite beaches Reduit would most certainly find a home there.

Maybe I’m just lucky but in my opinion St. Lucia has the most polite vendors I have ever met. Over the course of five or six hours I was approached probably a dozen times but every single vendor immediately took no as an answer, thanked me for my time and went on their way.  The only vendors who repeatedly solicited us were those selling cold beers for two dollars a bottle, a service that was greatly appreciated.

For lunch we went over to Spinnaker’s Beach bar which lies at one end of the beach.  Just like many other Caribbean beach restaurants this is an open air establishment. What this usually means is occasionally you have visitors. This time I had the pleasure of having lunch with a stray kitty cat that happened to be sleeping underneath a table. Normally something like this would probably freak me out but in the Caribbean it is just par for the course, not to mention pretty darn cute.

Another custom in the Caribbean is slow service, and Spinnaker’s was definitely on island time.  I ordered the stuffed sole and she ordered fried shrimp. Both of our meals tasted great but the time between us ordering and receiving our food was a bit too much for my liking.  However, I will say the taste of the dishes made me not mind the slow service, it was very good.  After we ate I quickly asked for the bill because the place was filling up fast and I didn’t want to get lost in the shuffle.  I don’t remember the exact total we spent but I can say that the most expensive thing on the lunch menu was about 16 dollars (45 EC dollars) and mixed drinks were about 7 dollars each (18 EC dollars).

Back down at the beach I talked to some local kids who were selling coconuts and sugarcane down on the beach.  I didn’t buy any but I did give them a couple of dollars just because the conversation was good and I liked them.  A little bit later while I was down in the water a guy pulled up in a small paddle boat selling fresh fruit.  It was there that I had the best banana the world has ever known.  I’m not sure if I will ever be able to enjoy store-bought fruit again.  While I was eating that banana I had visions of various based mixed drinks running through my head, no wonder all of the drinks are so tasty in the Caribbean.

Although my time at Reduit beach lasted from roughly 9 o’clock in the morning until nearly 4 in the afternoon it really did seem far too short.  There was absolutely nothing exciting about this day but as I mentioned before, it just felt right. If I could bottle that feeling to sell I’d have enough money to own a cruise ship of my own.

Click here to get free updates to The Intelligent Cruiser

TheIntelligentCruiser.com - Cruise Smart, Cruise Safe and Cruise Often

Related posts:

1. March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Thomas March 15th The first stop on our March Carnival Victory cruise was...
2. March Carnival Victory Cruise: Accra Beach and Just Grillin’ The trip from town to Accra Beach took about 30...
3. March Carnival Victory Cruise:Heading to Accra Beach The weather is perfect and I really have a craving...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Just like most of the beaches in the Caribbean, access is free but the chairs cost extra.  We got two chairs and an umbrella for $15 which is about par for the course.  One thing that I had noticed about Accra Beach is that it was not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. This could be because most cruise passengers are steered towards the boatyard (aka the most touristy place in the Caribbean) but whatever the cause I wasn’t complaining.

When I was researching this trip I took note of the fact that Accra Beach had a reputation for having rougher water than most people like.  I’m not sure if this is true since these things can change drastically depending on weather conditions but there definitely were waves. I will be the first to admit I’m not a very good swimmer but I never felt like I was ever in any danger. Also, I noticed that this was one of the few beaches I have been to with actual lifeguard towers, this alone added to increased feeling of safety.

Over the course of the next few hours we spent time playing in the water and relaxing on the beach. After a while we decided to check out the newish boardwalk that was built. They did a really good job in the construction of the boardwalk and you can tell they took a great deal of pride in this project. It was actually quite a bit longer than I had expected but the walk along the coast was a nice one. At a leisurely pace it took about 30 minutes until we reached the end, although it looks like the boardwalk isn’t entirely completed (so it could end up being quite a bit longer). As a side note if you decide to make the trip make sure you look at the rocks lining the water, you’ll see hundreds of little crabs if you look closely. They were interesting little creatures who held my attention for quite a while. At first they are hard to see but once you train your eyes to find a couple you’ll see a bunch more.

When we returned from our walk we decided it was time for lunch (which is a big thing for me). The parking lot houses a bunch of stands which sell food and drink’s but I wasn’t interested in any of those. I had read about a place called Just Grillin’ on the Internet and from the reviews it sounded as if it was worth a visit. Just Grillin’ is not on the grounds of Accra Beach but instead across the street and down the road a bit, maybe a five minute walk. I’m glad I decided to take the walk as it was well worth the very minor inconvenience, the food was delicious and the rum punch had a kick. I had the catch of the day platter and she had the jerk chicken platter. The two of us spent about $35 and it was well worth it, one of my favorite meals this cruise.

Once we were going to lunch we headed back to the beach to relax for a bit longer before returning to the ship. We had made arrangements with our taxi driver to pick us up at three o’clock but he didn’t arrive on time.  We gave him about 10 minutes grace before deciding to go with another taxi driver. The charge for the return trip was the same $15 and that concluded our day at the Accra Beach.

We stopped in the terminal to pick up some of the items that we scouted out earlier in the day. After which we boarded the ship and headed to the room to get ready for dinner.

Click here to get free updates to The Intelligent Cruiser

TheIntelligentCruiser.com - Cruise Smart, Cruise Safe and Cruise Often

Related posts:

1. March Carnival Victory Cruise:Heading to Accra Beach The weather is perfect and I really have a craving...
2. My March Carnival Victory Cruise: Orient Beach, The Sun Beach Clubber The inspiration behind the Sun Beach clubber (as it was...
3. My March Carnival Victory Cruise: St. Kitts and Cockleshell Beach St. Kitts was one of the islands that I looked...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.