Princesses of the Caribbean P&O Arvia February 2024. Day 8. St Maarten.

[vampiress88]

St Maarten today. Not one I was really bothered for. Plan was to water taxi over to the beach and have a lounge.

So we were up at 6.30 which is now our usual time. As on port days Scott goes and get muffins and himself a coffee while I shower and the kids get dressed.
We were all ready and off the ship by 8am.

We went and queued for the water taxi and we saw a turtle just bob up, split second and he was gone. Then there were lots of really big lizards on the rocks all different colours.

We got the taxi over $28 return for 4 of us. It wasn’t a bad ride but as soon as we got off there were loads at the end of the pier trying to get us to sit with them and I really don’t like pushy people.

Scott told them no and we had a walk down, I’m glad I wasn’t there on my own with the kids as they make me feel quite uncomfortable.

We came across one with a woman at the bar, didn’t try to sell to us at all just said good morning, but we quite liked the place, there was a price sign just outside the bar. This was Lizzy’s.

We got two chairs with the umbrella, wifi and fruit punch for $20 which I thought was good. We had a chair a row from the sea as we don’t like to be too close. There were only about four or five rows.

The only thing I didn’t like about this beach was the hill in the sea. So you’d be walking into it and suddenly your off a ledge. Even worse to try and get back out but we all managed.

We had a lovely time playing in the sea. It wasn’t very clear again same as Tortola so you couldn’t snorkel but it was nice and warm and we just kind of floated while we watched the kids running in and out for a good hour or two.

At one point Georgia said she could see a turtle and she could. Now I’m sure your not supposed to touch them but this poor little guy was getting absolutely battered. He couldn’t swim out as he was on the bit where the waves break all the time. After watching him and losing sight of him a few times in the next 20 minutes we decided that we would just move him. He wasn’t safer there. I couldn’t catch him and neither could Scarlett. Luckily Georgia was quick enough to spot and scoop him and quickly had him to Scott who took him out as deep as he could where the waves weren’t crashing and then watched as he swum out to sea.

We decided that was enough sea for us so Me and Scott went and got the fruit punches. I didn’t like it way too much rum. Scott said he couldn’t even taste the alcohol. I’m not one for alcohol at all so he drunk mine instead.

I then had a strawberry smoothie followed by a mango one. These were lovely $6 each. They tasted like soleros. Scott got a beer bucket for $15 and then a few banana daiquiris $8 each. They were all very nice drinks and reasonable prices.

The kids played just near the water and they did so for ages. We had a few people comment on how nice they just played together and how good they were. They really are.

There didn’t seem to be many children, more retired people if I’m honest.
We did get bugged by some people asking about hair braiding and massages etc every two minutes which was the only bit that spoilt it, and it wasn’t anything that could be helped by the bar.

We ordered some lunch. We got jerk chicken wrap that came with chips. We ordered one to share as we always do. Usually as we aren’t that hungry and because it’s not always nice. This was the nicest chicken wrap I think I’ve ever had. We kept umming about ordering another one and I really think we should have. It was $13. I really regret not getting another one. It was the one that got away.

The kids played some more and the bloke in front of us had been snorkelling far out and found a massive shell and he gave it to the kids. Which is now going to end up in our bathroom. We left for the water taxi about 3pm ish.

We picked up a few snacks some bracelets and a magnet. It had been red hot and even though we had put so much sun cream on we all still ended up burnt. The kids legs are very tanned now. And that was factor 50. I could do with really long leggings on them. They all at least went brown, not like me who is bright red.

Back to the ship for 4ish. We went and showered then got dressed and went to play pool at Brodies.

We were off to 6th street diner again tonight.

Our table was for 6.30pm and it was a different menu to last time. I had a mocktail with candy floss which was really nice.

For starters, we all swapped but Georgia got fried chicken on a donut, Scarlett got monkey bread, I had weird pork balls and Scott had prawn cocktail.

I didn’t like any of them. I preferred the honey bread from the other menu. I thought the chicken on the donut was the best out of the bunch.

For mains Georgia got spicy sausages, Scott and Scarlett had philly cheese steak sandwich and I had beef brisket. Mine was really nice and Scott was enjoying his.

However for the second night on this cruise my child, this one being my youngest this time, decided the sausages were too spicy and to swap with me. She was right and the sausages were too spicy. I left most of it. She however liked the brisket so ends up eating all of it. Things you do as a mum.

For pudding we had s’mores pudding apart from Scott who had peanut butter pie. He said it was ok. Ours was a bit rich so we only hate half of it.

We went up to the club house for “I love rock” now we are big rock fans and the band we saw on Britannia in April ‘22 that did rock songs were amazing. This was the house band pulse. It wasn’t very good and we managed 20 minutes before I decided I wanted to go to bed instead. They were murdering the classics and it was making my ears bleed. Dramatic I know 😂
We went back to the cabin and finished watching the film we had started the other night instead.
St Maarten Great Bay Beach turned out to be the best beach we did. We got great beach, great food and good drinks, apart from Us getting burnt it couldn’t have been any better.

Water taxi $28
$20 2 chairs
$6 smoothie
$14 smoothie and daiquiri
$15 bucket of beer
$21 chicken wrap and daiquiri
$58 cigarettes
$7 crisps
$4 bracelets
$8 magnet
$11 crisps and sweets


Punk ipa £5.55
Coke £3.55
Mocktail £3.95
Punk ipa £5.55
Tea £2.40
Cocktail £10.45
Mocktail £3.95
Total £35.40