St. Maarten/St Thomas--first trip back for DCL

[Melissa_T]

Hi--

We were on the Fantasy this past week for the first return to the (modified) eastern Caribbean itinerary--including St. Maarten (in place of Tortola) and St. Thomas.

The staff and crew were very good about managing expectations for the hurricane-impacted islands. They reinforced how important it was to the islands for cruises to return, but that we would still see damage and problems.

For anyone going on this itinerary, I thought it would be useful to report a few things, at least as I saw them, in case it helps. Everything was safe...and there were a few eye-opening pieces of damage still to be seen. In general I thought we came back to St Maarten a bit too soon, but to St Thomas at a better time.

On St. Maarten, expect to see lots of building damage. Even in the immediate port area of Phillipsburg, with newer buildings/structure, a piece of dock was missing, light poles were gone and there was roof and building damage. In Phillipsburg itself, it was worse. There were a lot of buildings with missing or destroyed roofs and other structural damage. I would estimate that half of the shops/restaurants in the Phillipsburg area were shuttered up. There were plenty open, don't get me wrong, but it was less open for business than I expected. Many places appeared to be running on generator too.

Also in St Maarten, there were a few problems with port adventures. The hurricane took out most of the buses (used to transport people on excursions, of course) and there was some miscommunication with the ship about how many people to book. We were left stranded at the bus stop because there were more people booked than there were buses. Don't expect things to run smoothly quite yet.

Though the trees are growing back in Phillipsburg, it is definitely not as lush as it once was. That will change with time. A bigger problem is that because port adventures are limited (and three ships were in), many people took the water taxi to Phillipsburg and the beaches, making them quite crowded. But it appears only one water taxi survived the hurricane. That one boat was quite overworked and as all aboard time approached, the queues for returning to the ship got quite long as the crowded beaches emptied.

wjs3

Did you happen to notice if there were jetski rentals up and running in the Phillipsburg beach area? I can't seem to find out...

 

[Phantomzkb]

Has anyone been able to go to Sunset Bar at Maho Beach? one of my favorite hang outs in St. Maarten,

 

[phinz]

Has anyone been able to go to Sunset Bar at Maho Beach? one of my favorite hang outs in St. Maarten,

They're up and running full tilt. Their FB page has videos from as early as Christmas (and possibly even before then).

 

[FigmentSpark]

Is MAho Beach back to being a beach again? I heard it was washed out.

 

[phinz]

Is MAho Beach back to being a beach again? I heard it was washed out.

Yes. There is sand on Maho again.

https://www.sxmstrong.com/2017/12/07/sand-back-maho-beach-yay-driftwood-boat-bar-full-swing/

 

[FigmentSpark]

I was hoping for an excursion to Simpson Bay Beach (SM63), but it's not available for the March 10 Eastern. So it (pleasantly) surprised me when you said Maho Beach was ready for action, as it's in the same area of the island.

 

[crichardson11]

but did take a taxi to Sapphire Beach

And how was sapphire beach? Would you recommend going there given it's current state?

 

[Beth D]

bump - hoping more recent cruisers can update this. Thanks in advance!

 

[kenthanson]

bump - hoping more recent cruisers can update this. Thanks in advance!

Just got off the boat yesterday. St Marteen-getting off the boat the near shops were looking not bad, most of them seemed to be fixed up. We took the water taxi over to the beach, there were two of the newer water taxis running and one older one, they used the older one for the guests with excursions and the newer ones for those who paid just for the taxi. In philipsburg there is still major damage to the buildings but they fixed the dock and main building on the pier. Some of the shops right on the beach were still shuttered and many are still missing sections of roof as well as windows and doors. You could see into many of the rooms and it will take close to a year I would guess to be able to gut the buildings and re-build them. There was lots of exterior stone and stucco work being performed.

St Thomas-we went to Magen's bay and the drive over was gorgeous but the damage is evident but less so here but we spent most of the time in the bay which might have been not as hard hit. There were plenty of trees down and the snack shack was out of a temporary building.

 

[Beth D]

Just got off the boat yesterday. St Marteen-getting off the boat the near shops were looking not bad, most of them seemed to be fixed up. We took the water taxi over to the beach, there were two of the newer water taxis running and one older one, they used the older one for the guests with excursions and the newer ones for those who paid just for the taxi. In philipsburg there is still major damage to the buildings but they fixed the dock and main building on the pier. Some of the shops right on the beach were still shuttered and many are still missing sections of roof as well as windows and doors. You could see into many of the rooms and it will take close to a year I would guess to be able to gut the buildings and re-build them. There was lots of exterior stone and stucco work being performed.

St Thomas-we went to Magen's bay and the drive over was gorgeous but the damage is evident but less so here but we spent most of the time in the bay which might have been not as hard hit. There were plenty of trees down and the snack shack was out of a temporary building.

Thanks!

What beach on St. Maarten did you go to? Were many restaurants open?

 

[Lori74]

It sounds silly, but since the hurricane I have wondered how the mcdonalds in phillipsburg fared in the storm. my daughter and I stopped in there and had a funny encounter with a crew member, and I just wonder so much about her. I tried looking it up but cant find anything.

 

[Bsmitty]

Anyone know how Magens Bay fared in St. Thomas? Also Simpson Bay in St. Maarten?

We were also on this same cruise as the OP. And we did Magen’s Bay as our replacement excursion for ours that got cancelled due to “hazardous conditions”. (We we’re going to do the Jeep & beach tour.) Magen’s was definitely devastated & in repairing mode still, but we still had a great time. But don’t expect a pristine conditioned set of surroundings or structures. It still felt very much in construction mode, including the “kitchen” area to get food & drinks from. But if you sit on the chair at the beach & just look out at the sea, it’s fabulous.

Our cruise is in March. If you were doing it again, would you choose something on the French or Dutch side, given what you saw?

 

[Bsmitty]

One thing I'll note about Soualiga right now is that apparently they are doing cold lunches on the boat right now and may not yet be doing hot lunches depending on your dates and the progress. The area where they used to do lunch was pretty destroyed. Bob has not been disclosing this to people until they arrive, per Cruise Critic.

We were on the same NYE cruise as the OP & we did captain bob’s soualiga tour & it was our very favorite day of our cruise. It was awesome. But I can confirm first hand that you get cold lunch out of a cooler. The restaurant noted in the booking info was not open, nor did bob even tell us this when we checked in. They served cold sandwiches & all the cold drinks & beer you wanted. They didn’t have anything else, no chips or cookie or anything. That was very disappointing. And half of the sandwiches were tuna, which most people didn’t like, but got stuck with. Luckily we had packed a bunch of chips & snacks from the boat for fear my toddler wouldn’t eat the lunch. We all ended up eating my toddlers chips & snacks with our lunch. This should tell you how great the excursion was...the fact that this horrible lunch experience didn’t even bother me, because normally that would have been so maddening & it wasn’t. I just wish he would’ve told us so we could come more prepared with our own food.

 

[FigmentSpark]

We were also on this same cruise as the OP. And we did Magen’s Bay as our replacement excursion for ours that got cancelled due to “hazardous conditions”. (We we’re going to do the Jeep & beach tour.) Magen’s was definitely devastated & in repairing mode still, but we still had a great time. But don’t expect a pristine conditioned set of surroundings or structures. It still felt very much in construction mode, including the “kitchen” area to get food & drinks from. But if you sit on the chair at the beach & just look out at the sea, it’s fabulous.

Our cruise is in March. If you were doing it again, would you choose something on the French or Dutch side, given what you saw?

Were there at least bathrooms at Magen's Bay? What about change rooms?

 

[Tiguron]

Were there at least bathrooms at Magen's Bay? What about change rooms?

Just got off the repo cruise that stopped at St.Thomas. We did Magen’s Bay on our own, not as an excursion. Damage is noticeable but beach is great. The bathrooms and change rooms are there and better than I remember them from 2016. The bar was also up and running.

I will try to upload some photos in a day or two. The damage to the trees is obvious, but they have planted a lot of new trees near the water. The beach has also been restored.

 

[SuJo]

We were on the same NYE cruise as the OP & we did captain bob’s soualiga tour & it was our very favorite day of our cruise. It was awesome. But I can confirm first hand that you get cold lunch out of a cooler. The restaurant noted in the booking info was not open, nor did bob even tell us this when we checked in. They served cold sandwiches & all the cold drinks & beer you wanted. They didn’t have anything else, no chips or cookie or anything. That was very disappointing. And half of the sandwiches were tuna, which most people didn’t like, but got stuck with. Luckily we had packed a bunch of chips & snacks from the boat for fear my toddler wouldn’t eat the lunch. We all ended up eating my toddlers chips & snacks with our lunch. This should tell you how great the excursion was...the fact that this horrible lunch experience didn’t even bother me, because normally that would have been so maddening & it wasn’t. I just wish he would’ve told us so we could come more prepared with our own food.

We did the same excursion in June on our cruise, I had the same feeling about the lunch, was very disappointed but the trip was so amazing that even that didn't bother me.

 

[Tiguron]

Just got off the repo cruise that stopped at St.Thomas. We did Magen’s Bay on our own, not as an excursion. Damage is noticeable but beach is great. The bathrooms and change rooms are there and better than I remember them from 2016. The bar was also up and running.

I will try to upload some photos in a day or two. The damage to the trees is obvious, but they have planted a lot of new trees near the water. The beach has also been restored.

Just got off the repo cruise that stopped at St.Thomas. We did Magen’s Bay on our own, not as an excursion. Damage is noticeable but beach is great. The bathrooms and change rooms are there and better than I remember them from 2016. The bar was also up and running.

I will try to upload some photos in a day or two. The damage to the trees is obvious, but they have planted a lot of new trees near the water. The beach has also been restored.

Here are some photos. You can see the beach is in good shape, but the trees more inland are damaged or gone. It was still a very good day and the beach was very quiet. The locals have put a lot of work into getting Magen's Bay ready for people.

 

[Beth D]

Thanks for the updates! Any pics from St. Maarten?

 

[DC to Poly]

It sounds silly, but since the hurricane I have wondered how the mcdonalds in phillipsburg fared in the storm. my daughter and I stopped in there and had a funny encounter with a crew member, and I just wonder so much about her. I tried looking it up but cant find anything.

we just got off the Fantasy on 2/17. it's closed and missing most of the letters in the sign. but, they were working on it (i think).

we took the water taxi and walked around a bit. a lot of the stores were still closed. even the flagship DI was getting its facade repaired.
But, Gulmohar's Whiskey was open (76 front street). talked to owners for about 15 mins. it's been rough, but they're slowly coming back. their shop is undamaged and worth a visit if you like liquor and/or chocolate. or just want to talk to some great people

 

[Tiguron]

Thanks for the updates! Any pics from St. Maarten?

Glad to help. No, our cruise didn't stop at St. Maarten.