We were up as usual at 7.30am, and we went out onto our balcony to see that the Queen Elizabeth was already docked in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten. Sint Maarten/Saint Martin is an unusual island in that it is a nation “under two flags”, half-Dutch and half-French. We had only ever been to the Dutch side, and today was no exception. This was our fourth visit to the island. 🙂
We love Sint Maarten. It is such a lively, colourful place with fabulous beaches and as much or as little as you want to do. We knew what we wanted to do – take a taxi or a bus out to the famous Maho Beach. We had last visited 10 years ago, but this place is just so unique and so exciting that we knew we had to do it again. 🙂
The capital of Sint Maarten, Philipsburg, is served by Princess Juliana Airport. The interesting thing about the airport is that the end of its main runway goes practically right onto the beach, only the main road and a double perimeter fence separating the sandy beach from the tarmac! This allows anyone on the beach to get fantastic views of the low-flying aircraft coming in to land from right underneath the plane! As such, the beach is visited by plane spotters and aircraft enthusiasts from around the world.
After enjoying an al fresco breakfast at the Pavilion Wellness Café, we returned to 8025 and gathered together what we would need for today: factor 30 sun cream, plenty of currency, shipboard passes, fully charged phones for photographs (of course!) and other bits and pieces. Then we made our way down to Deck A and disembarked the ship.
Despite it not being long after 9.00am, the weather was already hot and sultry, with a tantalising little sea breeze. We walked along through the colourful streets beyond the small cruise terminal, the little souvenir shops temptingly displaying their wares outside. We spotted a bar called “Port of Happy Hour” – that looked like somewhere to go for some rum punch later on. 🙂
Soon we came to an area where there were taxi and minibus drivers walking around, asking anyone and everyone if they needed a taxi. We asked one guy how much it would cost to take us to Maho Beach, which we knew would be a very popular destination. We had heard that the beach gets extremely crowded during the afternoon, so now was probably the best time to go.
The taxi driver quoted us $18.00 each return, which we thought was excellent value considering it had cost us $16.00 return ten years ago! Trevor used his credit card to pay for the tickets, whilst a lady attached a wrist band each for us, with the words “Maho Beach” printed on them; this would show the minibus driver we had paid. We joined a small queue and soon a 12-seater minibus arrived, and we all stepped aboard for the 40-minute journey to the beach.
We enjoyed the journey. We had good views of the sparkling Caribbean sea as well as the rugged mountains and palm-fringed golden sandy beaches. There was quite a lot of traffic but it kept moving, that was until we came to a swing bridge, before which was a set of red traffic lights. A yacht with a tall mast was approaching, and we had to wait for the swing bridge to open and let it through. Once we watched the yacht continue on its way, we waited while the swing bridge closed again, and the traffic light turned to green.
Soon we saw the signs for the airport, and saw an aeroplane on his final approach coming in to land. Our minibus joined the stream of traffic that went past the beach and the end of the runway; at 10 o’clock the beach was still fairly quiet, and there was lots of space.
The coach pulled up at the drop-off / pickup place and the driver told us that a minibus was available every 15 minutes until 3.00pm, to take us back into the town. We alighted and walked excitedly towards the beach. On the way, we stopped off at the famous Sunset Bar (pictured above, right) to purchase a “bucket of beer”, that is, six bottles of beer for the price of five. 🙂
We carried the ice-filled bucket down to the beach, picking a good vantage point on the low wall which separated the beach from the road. From here, it would give us a good view of the aircraft both landing and taking off. We had already seen a big JetBlue aircraft coming in, and now we were in position to see (and photograph) some more.
As I sat there, I covered my face, arms and legs liberally in factor 30 as we dived into the first bottle of beer each. The water looked lovely, and part of me wished I had brought my cossie. We looked around, breathing in the fresh sea air and enjoying the breeze which made the heat bearable, and I felt so glad to be alive and to be here.
Just then, we noticed a speck in the distance; an aeroplane lining himself up with the runway ready to come in to land. It was only a small aircraft, a turbo-prop, but it soared in overhead, its propellors whirring madly.
This was really exciting! We enjoyed our beer and waited for the next aircraft. They seemed to come in fairly regularly, mainly small planes from the other Caribbean islands but every now and then a larger one from further afield, such as the USA.
The sudden whine of a jet engine had us turning around and looking at the fence, where an aircraft was lining itself up on the runway ready to take off. Adjacent to the fence was a large sign warning beach-goers of the dangers of jet blast, but it didn’t stop people going and standing at the outer perimiter fence behind the aircraft.
So the morning continued. We opened the FlightRadar24 app so we could check the Arrivals board for Princess Juliana Airport and see which international flights were due in. As each aircraft arrived, everyone on the beach started to get into position; phones and selfie-sticks held aloft and bikini-clad poses struck as they all vyed for the perfect picture. This was great! 🙂
Aircraft of all shapes and sizes arrived and left at regular intervals. Around 11.40am, the Airbus A320 JetBlue aircraft that we had seen come in started getting ready to take off. It was exciting hearing the whine of its engine increase to a crescendo as it started to move off down the runway, eventually taking to the air and soaring off over the distant mountains.
It was now nearly 12.00 noon and very hot indeed, “mad dogs and Englishmen” and all that. We therefore decided to go and seek refuge in the Sunset bar, and hopefully find a table which would still afford us a great view of the beach and the aircraft. We decided to have another bucket of beer, but because the place was obviously very popular for lunch, they made it clear that if we wanted to sit at a table with a prime view, we would have to buy something to eat as well. This seemed fair enough, and we were quite hungry now anyway, so we ordered a plate of nachos between us.
From here, we still had an excellent view and I took more photos, not only of the aircraft coming in but of the rugged beach and the beautiful turquoise water. Who would ever tire of the Caribbean? Certainly not us! 🙂
Once we’d finished our beer and our nachos and paid the bill, we decided to head back to the minibus stop and return to the main town, as it was now 1.30pm. A minibus pulled up just as we arrived, and we took our places within. Looking back at the beach, we could see how crowded it was now compared to when we had arrived.
It took just over half an hour to get back to our starting point, but we weren’t ready to go back on board yet. We were still on a high, and we wanted to be able to enjoy the ubiquitous rum punch while we looked over our video footage and photos. We therefore returned to the “Port of Happy Hour” that we’d spotted earlier on, and we each perched on a bar stool and placed our order. 🙂
The rum punch was fruity and strong, and we really enjoyed it a lot. What a great day we had had! While this was our fourth visit to Philipsburg, it was only our second visit to Maho Beach; there are actually a lot more things to do here, and I could see why it was a popular holiday destination (not just for cruising). I could easily come and spend a week here!
It was around 3.30pm when we returned to the Queen Elizabeth. We made our way back to 8025 where we decided that a hot-sun-and-cold-beer induced power nap was in order. 🙂
Afterwards, it was time to get washed and changed and ready for dinner at 5.30pm. I appropriately wore a tropical print cotton maxi-dress with a short mesh bolero, along with silver sandals. Just before we left for the Britannia Restaurant, we heard Queen Elizabeth give a loud blast on her foghorn, signifying she was on her way again.
At table #503, both Mervyn and Alice were there tonight, and we all regaled each other with what we had been up to today. We enjoyed the usual splendid four-course meal which I washed down with plenty of cold water and crisp rosé wine. From our window seat we watched as dusk descended over the Caribbean sea, and it was with a little pang that we realised tomorrow would see our last port of call this cruise.
The entertainment in the Royal Court Theatre featured a hilarious comedian called John Joseph who, in his heyday, had performed as the opening act for the likes of Huey Lewis & the News and the Righteous Brothers. His humour involved interacting with members of the audience, and those of in the front row were careful to avoid eye contact in case he picked on us! 🙂
Afterwards, we went along to the Golden Lion as usual. The quiz tonight was called “Blank Spaces” which was, effectively, Blanketty-Blank but without breaching copyright. 🙂 It was great fun and there were some interesting (and amusing) answers. We didn’t win, but enjoyed some of the more inventive answers and innuendo.
We stayed in the Golden Lion for a while afterwards, listening to the saxophone music of Benjamin Ditroi and enjoying a cold pint of Guinness each.
It was around 11.30pm when we returned to the peace and quiet of 8025 and settled down. Tomorrow we were due to visit another favourite port, that of Road Town, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.