Philipsburg, St. Maarten and 1977, the ice show!
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
I'm pretty excited about this one! Half of the island is Dutch and the other half is French and there should be stops at a local rhum distillery and a free tasting of Old Amsterdam Gouda cheese! Plus photo ops along the way!
We get our photos before the Allure of the Seas docks next to us, blocking our view. It's almost as big as we are but size doesn't mean class. There is one stateroom that has hung all it's laundry out to dry on their balcony!! They must not know about our humidity!!
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| The captain's on the bridge. |
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| We've docked on the Dutch side, in Philipsburg, which is the Dutch capital. |
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| A good omen! |
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| There are some smaller boats, too! |
The excursion is three and a half hours long, so we figure we'll need a real breakfast since we won't get back until around two. Lots of people have that idea, so the Windjammer is pretty jammed! But we all get breakfast and decide that we'll go down early rather than rush at the last minute. We follow the gangway exit sign but are told we have to go down one more floor. The normal exit is an escalator and Ma's walker would have been a real trial. It's so much easier one deck down!
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| The Washee Washee lady is a stitch with a new costume each day! |
We're waiting around, being good little doobees, when a lady sitting next to us says she thinks that's our line, pointing to a group. I've already been told that we're very early and to wait to line up, but she goes and talks to someone and motions us over. The tour organizer looks at our tickets and at Ma with her walker and says that since we're slow walkers we can go ahead and make our way to the bus! She gives us directions and off we go.
I receive a text from Dean asking where we are but my response doesn't go through. We're took far from the ship's wifi. We follow the directions and get to the open-topped double-decker bus and the lady there says we can board! By the time I snag an outside seat and look down Dean has found us! Robin comes upstairs to sit by me and as we're chatting we see Ma topping the stairs! Both Dean and Maureen are trying to get her to go back down but it takes a whole lot of convincing!!
Everyone is aboard and our tour guide tells us his name is Chris and that he will be assisted by Optimus Prime. That turns out to be an AI who tells us about the history of the island and points out various sites. Unfortunately "he" doesn't always know where we are so he isn't always helpful. He is much less annoying than Chris, however!! He repeatedly tells us his name and that he is "open-minded" and we can ask him anything, or tell him a joke, and that there is ice-cold, filtered water available if we just ask for it. He also tells us that our driver is a lady and manages to make it sound demeaning.
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| Chris |
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| The police pulled our bus over, sirens and all! It looked like they just wanted to say Hi to the driver and Chris! Lots of handshaking and fist bumps! |
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Solar-powered bus stop!   |
Traffic is beastly and Chris keeps apologizing,
There are four stops along the tour and at each one we are allowed twenty minutes. That barely gets everyone off and on the bus, especially if someone needs a bathroom break. The first stop is in the French part of the island and there is a French bakery that looks appetizing as well as what looks like an open-air market that would have interesting trinkets and souvenirs. WWe opt for the bakery and I get a chocolate eclair that beats our home-grown variety all hollow. But there's no time for shopping or for investigating the guava berries that are unique to the island. When everyone gets back on the bus we are berated for being five minutes late and told that that time will have to come off our next stop's allotment.
We return to the Dutch side of the island and go to Maho Beach which is famous for having an airport so close that the planes come in right over you! Chris says he will lead us down to the beach but he doesn't. When asked about it, he says that we had an adventure, finding it on our own! I guess it was featured in some movie?
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| The boundary line with both flags and welcome signs |
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| The brown pelican is the national bird. |
Our next stop is Toppers, a rhum distillery and restaurant and souvenir shop. We get to sample a rhum punch and five different flavors of rhum - banana vanilla cinnamon, white chocolate raspberry, coconut (just add pineapple for a piña colada), mocha mama, and spiced. There are also little slivers of rhum cake to encourage purchasing. Chris actually comes in to Topper's with us. I guess he wants his free samples, too!
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| There are a lot of casinos (I think he said 18) but they are all on the Dutch side of the Island! |
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There are clouds of tiny white butterflies that love these pink flowers! that evaporated from the water in the Great Salt Pond. When it became polluted, they switched to a tourist economy. |
Onward, now, to the Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store. The sample here is an aged gouda and it is really something! Again we have twenty minutes and we just about make it this time.
Along the way we did learn a bit about the island. There are about 80,000 inhabitants with 60% of the island being French and the rest Dutch. The official languages are Dutch and English. Nearly every religion is represented on the island and you can find every kind of ethnic restaurant. Yesterday was St. Maarten's Day, celebrating the island's discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and one of the tour ladies said there were five cruise ships in port and chaos reigned! It is the smallest island to have two countries on it and trade and everything else flows smoothly across the boundary line. If you missed the monument with the two flags you would never know when you changed countries, except for the language in which the signs are written! The prices in the bakery were in Euros, with a notice that one Euro equals $1.15 US. We learn that there are 18 casinos on the island and they are all on the Dutch side!
We return to our starting point and Chris reminds us all to write a review by clicking on the QR code on the back of our seats. Yeah, right. He also makes a pitch for tips. All that aside, the island is gorgeous and fascinating!
We get back with just enough time to clean up for dinner and get to our table to find Dean already there. It's Italian night and for a while old favorite Italian songs are piped in. I have Maureen's wine put on my tab because I didn't switch seats with her on the bus!
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| Lemon curd tartlet |
We finish with plenty of time to get to the ice show, "1977", which is on the same deck. We choose seats that are not behind any of the poles and relax for a few minutes before the lights dim. The opening of the show is performed by lighted drones! They are like large fireflies and quite charming! The show, itself is a delight, as always with dazzling costumes and excellent skating. The lighting makes photos tough, but you can get the idea.
After the show we go to the Schooner Bar. I'm following blindly because I'm on a video-chat with Ginger. She had her first PT this morning and they had to quit when her BP plummeted! But she's feeling better now and only had morphine this morning.
Our new favorite pianist is supposed to be back this evening after his "medical situation" yesterday and sure enough, there he is. He plays a terrific set of requests and it's good we're kind of far away so I don't disturb anyone when I sing along! But who can resist "Country Road" and "Piano Man" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"!! After a break he's going to do a whole set of Queen! But we're all beat, except Ma!, and we pack it in. There's another excursion tomorrow morning and there won't be time for breakfast, so we hang our Room Service order on the door knob and say good night.
RAINBOW! I love this one. And your photos from the tour. So much fun! Courtenay
ReplyDeleteSaw more rainbows in this week than in the past year at home!
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