We arrived at Philipsburg, Sint Maarten (or Saint Maarten) at about 8 am. That was 2 hours earlier than previously scheduled due to bypassing the port of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic yesterday. We were the fourth cruise ship to dock and the closest to the port. We docked on the port side, but our starboard balcony was on the side closest to land. The docks were concrete finger piers that extended parallel to the shore. We had a tugboat tied to our starboard aft corner during docking and we hadn’t seen that before. There is a strong wind here today and maybe that’s why. Fingers crossed that weather conditions don’t prevent our next 2 ports or we won’t make 100 countries.
Is St. Maarten a country? It is a more complicated question than you’d imagine. But, for our purposes using the Encyclopedia Britannica list of countries as our definitive source, the answer is no. Some background since the 1600’s this small island has been unevenly divided into territories controlled by France and the Netherlands. It still is. In the 2000’s both French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten held elections regarding independence. According to our guide, Eva, today St. Martin opted to remain in France and St. Maarten opted for independence. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica St. Maarten by that election became a country within 4 countries making up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The US State Department also defines St. Maarten as being within The Netherlands. So, while the status of the Dutch side has changed since we last visited here, we still can’t count it as a country.
Our ship’s tour was originally scheduled to meet at 11:15 am. That got changed with our earlier arrival to 9:15 am. It is not clear what the problem was, but it was an hour after that before the bus arrived for us to load. Pasted below is a description of our tour. (Sorry, the description Oceania has on their website now is completely different than what we booked. I typed it in from our hard copy.) The hour we spent waiting for the bus was bonus and the tour lasted the promised 3 hours after we boarded. It was interesting to drive around through both countries on the island. I haven’t had enough Internet access to look it up, but as I recall we only walked into Philipsburg on our previous visit here. We were back onboard Riviera by about 1:30 pm. Eva said there were 14 roundabouts with historic event marking monuments. I don’t know if that is what the tour description of 14 historical monuments is referencing, but most of the roundabouts (I didn’t count them) were 1 empty with a blank concrete base where something used to be and 2 we were on the right side of the bus and could only see what was or was not there in the center through and between other bus passengers. I know we saw a statue of a man in broken chains for emancipation, a woman dancing to celebrate either liberty or independence, a brown pelican for the national bird, a dry fountain that went unremarked and what looked like a broken water tank lying on its side (again unremarked). The rest of the roundabouts were empty as far as I can recall. We stopped at beach first for about 10 minutes after crossing into France. We stopped for a 30-minute potty/shopping break in the French-side’s capital of Marigot. (I was surprised that nearly everyone who spoke to us in Marigot did so in English. Clay bought 2 beers. Ironically, he bought a beer in French St. Martin that was brewed in Dutch St. Maarten.) We stopped for 10 minutes on a windy seacliff with a monument to 5 brothers before returning to the port. It was not a great tour, and an alarm went off constantly inside the bus from the first stop to the Marigot stop. I don’t know if it was because it was Saturday, but we were in an almost continuous traffic jam as we circled the island. We’re still glad we did it as it was a completely different look at this port stop from our previous visit and we learned alot. The island has a sandy white beach for every square mile. There are 131 nationalities residing on this small 2-nation island. The 3 main languages are Dutch, French and English. The word soualiga in our tour title is an Arawak Indian (first inhabitants, here when Christopher Columbus discovered the island) word that means Salt Place. Gambling is legal on the Dutch side but not the French except for cockfight wagering.
Soualiga Historical Island Tour
3 hours Tour price $89
Drive through St. Maarten's scenic routes while soaking up the island's history.
Relive our ancestors past, learn of our struggles and get ready to understand how we got to where we are as the smallest island in the world that shares 2 countries.
This 2 nation historical tour takes you around the entire island with visits to 14 historical monuments in between multiple photostops.
End of tour description.
We had lunch in Terrace and plan dinner there as well. We don’t set sail from here until 9 pm. I’m not sure why the long day here except we are pretty close to our next port of Antigua, which we hope is country #97 now.
I asked about our Silver VIP port disembarkation perk tonight when I went to return our disembarkation form (which she tore up and threw out since I'd written in our back-to-back option as her coworker had done last time). She made a phone call and took the book with the perk listed in a O Club Silver benefits to her superior. She came back and said "they" (Riviera's Destinations staff? Oceania management?) had changed the wording and now the benefit was called Priority Shore Excursion Check-In. Um, that's not a wording change. It's a benefit removal. She said, that's all you get now. In other news, we received our promised silver member pins, ball caps and messenger bags instead of tote bags. We see the extra shipboard credit and gratuities on the TV account screen. We got the bottle of wine.
All aboard was 8:30 pm. Everyone must have gotten back aboard early as we set sail between 8:30 and 8:45 pm.
I asked about our Silver VIP port disembarkation perk tonight when I went to return our disembarkation form (which she tore up and threw out since I'd written in our back-to-back option as her coworker had done last time). She made a phone call and took the book with the perk listed in a O Club Silver benefits to her superior. She came back and said "they" (Riviera's Destinations staff? Oceania management?) had changed the wording and now the benefit was called Priority Shore Excursion Check-In. Um, that's not a wording change. It's a benefit removal. She said, that's all you get now. In other news, we received our promised silver member pins, ball caps and messenger bags instead of tote bags. We see the extra shipboard credit and gratuities on the TV account screen. We got the bottle of wine.
All aboard was 8:30 pm. Everyone must have gotten back aboard early as we set sail between 8:30 and 8:45 pm.
