2BCruising: Tuesday (01/06): St Maarten

St Maarten (Philipsburg Pier): 10am-6pm
Temperature: 79 degrees

Princess Patter-Today's Activities: Bible Study/Card & Board games/Singles & Solos Get-together/How to Lose 8 inches in 1 hour (Really???)/Chess Lovers Get-together/Knitters & Natters/Paddle Tennis/Quiet Room (Skywalker's)Brunchtime Trivia/Party Bridge Play/Pictionary Challenge/Baggo Challenge/BOGO Happy Hour/Best of 10 Basketball Challenge/Afternoon Tea/Golf Chipping/Caribbean Melodies/Trivia/Acupuncture Clinic Open Hour/Piano Melodies/Modern Masters Exhibition (art gallery)/Crab Shack (Cafe Caribe)/Runway @Sea/Production Show-Colors of the World/Party Line Dance Class/Cocktails and Dancing/Blackjack Tournament/Passenger Feud gameshow/Team Trivia challenge - All about Musicals/Karaoke Power Hour/The Ultimate Deck Party/Texas Hold'em/Jackpot Bingo/Princess Theater Evening Movie: Boyhood

Cruise Life: Wow! Hubby and I are having a wonderful time on this cruise. I'm so far behind in my posts that I've had to jot down things on a piece of paper so I would not forget the key points of our cruise. I apologize for not posting pictures. I am using five (5) cameras plus an iPhone to document our cruise.

Three cameras are being used for snorkeling/beach/marine activities. All three are waterproof. The remaining two and my iPhone are used on dry land to document ship's activities as well as ports visited. It's taken awhile to go through all the pictures and still having issues with posting them here on the blog. I hope to iron that problem out by this coming weekend (turnaround). I may have to purchase additional Internet minutes...it's actually a special package on top of what I get for free. No worries.

Approaching St Maarten

Is that Dumbo's rear end?

Super Mega Yachts

Ship maintenance is always ongoing

Now back to the cruise. We arrived into St Maarten (Dutch side) to find several ships already in port. Yes, the Ruby was the last to arrive to the huge port party. One pier was shared by the NCL Getaway and the Disney Fantasy. The other pier which we were headed into was shared with RCCL Independence of the Seas and the Jewel of the Seas.

Hubby noticed tiny butterflies fluttering around the Disney ship. How cool!

Our snorkeling tour excursion did not leave until later in the morning, so Hubby and I left the ship to do some early window shopping. As we were walking around the port area we noticed a lot of butterflies all around us. It was so beautiful to see.

Hubby's new boat...all aboard?!

This is probably as close to Christmas cruising we'll get.
It was great to see some holiday decorations.

Places to go and see

Can you see the small butterflies?

Linens available for sale

A bit crowded at the pier with two RCCL ships (left) and the Ruby (right)

After window shopping, we headed back towards our ship's gangway and waited for our snorkel group to assemble. We all signed in (waivers) and walked over to the water taxi dock area. Our yellow speed boat was waiting for us. We boarded the boat and literally "took off" away from the port area and cruised (fast) along the western side of the island toward Martinique (French side of the island). It was a bright and beautiful sunny day. Warm weather and cool breeze makes for happy cruisers.

We spend the next 30 minutes cruising around the waters going in and out of coves and going under bridges. We passed many fancy yachts and beautiful extravagant homes. We finally stopped at a place called "the Rock" which literally had a huge rock-like island in the middle of the ocean. It was beautiful! We were one of the first groups to arrive and dropped anchor. We were told not to climb the rock and to stay within the confines of the small reef area. Beyond the tiny reef, I could see some waves that could carry someone out to the Caribbean Sea quickly.

A hurricane moved this freight into the island

The Rock

It did not take Hubby and I too long to put on our snorkel gear and basically jump off the boat. We headed over to the "Rock", but didn't find much coral or fish. We swam away from the rock and headed over to the reef. Not much here. A few fish, but that was it. Hardly saw much live coral. Hubby and I spend about 20 minutes snorkeling in the water and decided to head back to our boat. Several other fellow snorkelers agreed with me that besides the water being murky, there wasn't much to see. The above water view with the "Rock" was striking and beautiful (picture to come).

Once everyone was back on board, we headed back the way we came. We cruised around a small island and stopped briefly. We were told Denzel Washington has a house here along with some other famous folks. We continued onto another island with a huge beach front and huge home. This home belonged to Harry Belafonte. I heard there were 20 or so bedrooms at his home (picture to come). We also passed a home that belonged to Oprah Winfrey. They were all beautiful!

Harry Belafonte's home as told by our tour guide. I can't confirm this,
but it definitely belongs to someone and it's one beautiful abode.....

We stopped at a beach to take a break and enjoy the cool water. Yes, it got hot on the boat even though we were speeding along at 15-21 knots. After our beach break, we cruised over to another beach and stopped. Behind this beach was the airport. I imagined if I was lying on this beach and plane came over to land, I could probably see the treads on the plane's tires. That's how close the airport is. We watched a plane take off, but didn't see one land. Too bad. Still...this was something not to miss. Side note: as we were waiting for some airport activity, I looked over to my left and saw a guy standing on a small surfboard. He was moving at a good clip. He had a small motor on his board! How cool! (pictures to come)

Pit stop at a public beach

Motorized board riding along in front of Maho Beach

Where the airport and beach meet: Maho Beach

We made it back to the pier in time and headed back to our ship. We were starving! Can you believe that?! We watched the NCL Getaway sail out along with the RCCL Jewel of the Seas and the Independence of the Seas. We were next and waved goodbye to St Maarten. We had a wonderful excursion despite not seeing much underwater marine life. We did enjoy the tour of the island (French and Dutch side). This island is very mountainous and very beautiful. We saw a lot of yachts here. More than we've seen in St Thomas.