BLUE WATER/WHITE CHOCOLATE IN ST. MAARTEN

Our morning shore excursion in St. Maarten was short enough to allow us time after lunch to cruise through the Great Bay in a water taxi to the town of Phillipsburg.

And what a beautiful view we had on our water taxi ride...look at the blue color of that water!

When we exited the water taxi, what a surprise to see the beautiful beach right in front of the main shopping street!

We walked up and down Front Street which is the main shopping street in Phillipsburg...

 





Finally finding the store I really wanted to find: The Belgian Chocolate Box...

 




where we bought several pieces of the most delicious white chocolate...if you visit St. Maarten, this is a must-see stop.

Since we had some time before we were due back on board the ship, we took an opportunity to walk along that beautiful beach and put our feet in the warm Caribbean waters...

 


Sadly, we eventually had to board the water taxi back to the ship (seen in the background in the picture above). We left St. Maarten knowing we would return very soon...even though it was only our first stop, we already knew St. Maarten would be our favorite stop of the trip.

Our next stop was the island of St. Kitts. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos in this post were taken by my husband and me during our Caribbean cruise in May, 2014.

TWO CULTURES; ONE ISLAND: ST. MAARTEN

After cruising through the beautiful blue Caribbean Sea for two days, with the new Norwegian Getaway cruise ship already docked, we finally arrived at our first port: St. Maarten...

...or is it Saint-Martin?

Our entire group decided on the Ultimate Island Tour for our shore excursion. It turned out to be a great choice.

The first part of the tour was a scenic ride from Philipsburg on the Dutch side to Marigot on the French side. The scenery was spectacular...that is St. Barts in the distance.

We arrived in Marigot and had an hour or so to walk around the town. We took the opportunity to shop at the local outdoor market...

and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The second part of our shore excursion was a double-deck boat ride across the Simpson Bay Lagoon. Our catamaran departed from Marina Royale...

Back in 1995, Hurricane Luis caused severe damage to the island of St. Maarten. 80% of the buildings sustained serious damage or were totally destroyed. Cruising across the picturesque Simpson Bay, we could see many boats destroyed by the hurricane that had never been repaired, and still remained where they were moored nearly twenty years previously.

But there were also many beautiful sites (and boats) to see during our relaxing cruise across the bay...

Arriving back at the ship, we ate a quick lunch and decided to catch the water taxi over to Phillipsburg for some shopping. We were wonderfully surprised by what we discovered which in the end made St. Maarten our favorite stop on this cruise.

I'll show you that portion of our time in St. Maarten in the next post.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos in this post were taken by my husband and me during our Caribbean cruise in May, 2014.
 

AT THE TOP OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS

Before I begin to tell you about the four fabulous destinations on our recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, I want to finish my tour of the ship.

We left off on Deck 12. Deck 13 is the sports-activity deck. There is an activity for everyone:

For adventurous water lovers there is the Flowrider, the surfing simulator. It's located at the back of the ship so you have a beautiful view.

There were some who were really good...

And others not so good...but it was fun to watch those who tried.

 

Behind the Flowrider is the miniature golf course. Everyone has fun pretending they are Tiger Woods or Rory McElroy...

For a more active sport, there is a basketball court. Somebody's husband likes to pretend he is Lebron James...

And behind the sports court is the rock climbing wall...I really thought about doing this...the cruise next May for sure!

 





Up on Deck 14 is the Olive or Twist Lounge.

From here you can get amazing views of the ship and beyond...

And finally on Deck 15 is the Skylight Chapel for those planning a wedding or vow renewal on their next cruise.

In the next blog post I'll talk about our visit to St. Maarten which has become our new favorite Caribbean island.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos in this post were taken by my husband and me during our Caribbean cruise in May, 2014.