Fourth visit to SXM earlier this month. Spent a full week at Royal Palm. Took my 18 yr old son. It was his second time on the island.
Here are our impressions, both good & bad:
Unity Car Rental met us at the airport and set us up quickly with an upgraded car. Michael is the best. Unity also got us to the airport lickity-split when we dropped off our car the following Saturday. Craig from Packlight came by the hotel the day after we arrived with a couple beach chairs I had ordered before leaving the states.
Royal Palm put us in a recently renovated 3rd floor, 2 bdrm suite, w/ a beautiful big view of Simpson Bay. I was impressed with the new appliances, large showers, etc. I was a bit disappointed the absence of evening social gatherings around the pool and bar that I fondly remembered when I stayed here in the summer of '05. Karaoke night was fun and brought out a good crowd, but they ended it too soon (10 p.m.), much to the disappointment of those in attendance.
The nice gym at the Royal Palm stays pretty busy. It's complimentary to guests at the hotel, but a lot of locals are members and typically comprise at least half of those working out at any time. The gym's hours are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. M-Sat. As you might expect, mornings before 11 a.m. are most crowded, though the dinnertime is also popular. Mondays are the most crowded day, likely because the gym is closed on Sunday. My son and I worked out in the free-weight room most mornings around 10:30 a.m. It was still crowded at that time, but we could usually get to the equipment we wanted.
I believe Royal Palm only has wiFi in the lobby area. Consequently, there are a lot of laptops in use in the lobby area at almost all hours. If you don't want to lug your laptop to SXM (or have people looking over your shoulder), you can pay $4 for 15 mins (or $35/wk unlimited) to use the internet computers just outside the lobby. I did this to check email a couple times. They work fine.
You can wash your clothes at the Royal Palm too. $2/wash, $2/dry, 75-cents for soap. They have a change machine in the laundry room.
Orient Beach was a fun hangout and we did para-sailing for the first time. It was wonderful. I was surprised to find such an array of prices for that activity. The first two booths we stopped at wanted $100 -- cash, no credit cards -- for the two of us, for about 10-12 mins in the air. The third booth we stopped at on Orient, "Water Toys", only wanted $60, and for $15 more, they took photos with their water-resistant camera and gave me the roll of film. And they took credit cards! Ate at Baywatch? on the beach. Great, friendly service. Good chicken Caesar salad and ribs. Fun reading all the things customers have brought in and hung on the walls.
The other beaches we visited were wonderful, as always... Baie Rouge, Pinel Island, Dawn Beach, Le Galion, and Mullet Bay. This is the first time I've been to Dawn Beach since the Westin moved in a few yrs back and changed the landscape. Wow... I would never have recognized it. The Westin's version of Dawn Beach is quite nice, but I'm glad I had a chance to experience the old, smaller (less commercial) Dawn Beach. I miss it.
One evening we went to watch the sunset at Baie Rouge. We arrived a little after 5 p.m. and found the parking lot gate had lowered at 5 p.m. and no cars were allowed into the parking area. (Cars are, however, permitted to leave the parking lot anytime they wish.) The gate attendant suggested we park on the side of the road, within his view, and walk to the beach. We did, and enjoyed the sunset there.
The island was noticeably less crowded than previous summers I had been there ('04, '05, '07), but the traffic on the Dutch side was the worst I've ever seen it. Hard to attribute it to any one thing, but I suspect detours from construction on two new turnabouts were the main culprits. Consequently, it took considerably longer to get back to Simpson Bay from anywhere on the Eastern side of the island.
On a whim we went on the sunset cruise Thursday night, from the Pelican resort area ($30/person). It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable things we did the entire week. Rum punches and snacks were included, but we mainly enjoyed the ambiance and warm conversation with others on the cruise. Seagulls followed the boat much of the time and added some great photos!
Ate at Bamboo Bernie's new location in Maho. I miss the beautiful beach ambiance they had at their old place. The sushi was good and Mai Tai's were not bad, but dining there is a bit expensive for my preferences. I ordered a sate' appetizer for my "meal", my son had mid-priced entre', and we both had one cocktail each. With tip (already included) our bill was $77! Ouch!
We loved eating at Lee's, as always. The dockside open-air ambiance is great, especially at sunset. Half-price drinks during happy hour and other drink specials all night long. We would eat wonderful grill-cooked fresh fish every night (mahi-mahi and snapper), and our bill, with several cocktails, was typically $50 or less, before tip. The fact we could walk to Lee's from the Royal Palm right across the street was another plus. We enjoyed it so much, we ate there 5 of our 7 nights on the island!
We had a mixed experience at Turtle Pier. We showed up Wednesday night for their Lobster special ($18/lb). The waitress was the same one I've had every time I've gone to Turtle Pier in the past. Very nice, personable lady. We arrived shortly after 5 p.m. to take advantage of Happy Hour, which K-Pasa reported that week was 5-7 p.m. When I asked about Happy Hour, I was surprised our waitress told us it only ran until 6 p.m. and that we had to walk up to the bar to order and pay for happy hour drinks.
There was a young 20-ish girl working the bar. I ordered our drinks, paid for them, and took them back to our table. About 5:30 p.m., my son went back up to the bar and ordered another drink (a white Russian this time), from the same young gal. She didn't know how to make the drink so she had to ask someone. She also didn't know how to make one of the drinks we ordered earlier, even though it was on their menu.
My son offered to pay cash for the white russian, but the bartender girl surprisingly said she would just put it on our food bill. As soon as my son returned to the table and told me this, I was suspicious and asked him if she made a note that it was Happy Hour. He didn't know, but assumed she did. It was 5:35 p.m. and we did not order any more cocktails that night. Oddly, we were still about the only patrons in the whole restaurant.
Our lobster arrived about 5:45 p.m. and I asked the waitress to take some photos of us with our meal, which she did. When we finished our meal an hour later, I asked for the check and noticed my son's drink was not listed at the Happy Hour price. Not a big deal, but decided to get it fixed on the check anyway.
Our waitress took the check to another gentleman who looked like Kenan Thompson from Saturday Night Live. He took it back and spoke with the bartender gal, who told him the drink was not ordered during Happy Hour. I told the waitress I was
certain the drink was ordered during Happy Hour, and in fact, the drink was clearly visible in the photo she had taken when our meal arrived at 5:45 p.m.. She again handed the check off to the Kenan Thompson-looking guy who disappeared in the back for a few minutes, then came back to say, the young bartender girl insists the drink was not ordered during Happy Hour so they would not adjust my check.
I was dumbfounded! The bill for our lobster dinner alone was $90, and here they are arguing with a customer about $3 difference in a drink price?! I paid the bill and generously tipped the waitress, but when I handed her the bill back I explained that it's not the money, but the principle. If it had been about the money, I would not have tipped as much as I did. Further I told her that we had planned to come by for breakfast, and possibly a lunch before leaving SXM, but not now. She said she understood, apologized and, shaking her head said "we have new owners, and it's sooooo different now." I suspect the young, unskilled bartender gal may be related to one of the owners.
Other random trip notes...
Almost all bars on SXM have a happy hour every night. Typically it's 5-6 p.m., but there are some that start at 4 p.m., and some that last until 7 p.m., but we seldom ran into those. We usually wrapped up our beach time around 4:30 p.m. so we'd have time to get back to the room, shower up and catch a nearby happy hour before dinner.
Cash improves your ability to barter for souvenirs and merchandise. Many SXM merchants aren't too keen on the fees credit card companies charge so they won't give you as good of a deal if you're paying by credit card. Also, merchants are more likely to give you a $1 = 1 euro rate if you pay with cash.
We did notice the occasional mosquito, usually around the hotel. Often we'd get one in our hotel room. Not a big deal, but you might want to consider bringing repellent.
Food Express in Maho is a small grocery store that has most of the food & drink items you'll need for your visit. There are some other small grocery stores nearby, but it's my observation that you'll pay an average of 10-15% more for your groceries at those places, depending on what you get. The big grocery stores on the island, like Le Grand Marche, have the best prices.
This trip I brought back 15 liters of booze from SXM, and one bottle of champagne. These were divided evenly among three suitcases. I declared all 15 bottles when we arrived back in the states, and was only charged $3 in customs fees. However, two suitcases did not arrive back to us until the next day. When I opened them, I found that two bottles were missing -- a bottle of Malibu Rum and Absolut Ruby Red Vodka. Also a small LED flashlight was missing. There was no odor or damp clothing which would indicate the bottles had opened or broke. I reported the loss to United and they are investigating, and is supposedly sending me a check for the loss. I also reported the loss to the TSA, since they had inspected the bag that had missing items.
I realize there are some reading this who may take offense with some of my observations, generalizations and criticisms. I trust you'll keep in mind, this is just my personal experience and opinion -- you have yours, I have mine. Is this a great country or what!
Contessa