Wednesday, January 1, 2020

St. Maarten

St. Maarten is the last port of this 7 day cruise. Since I already did 2 Ocean excursions I thought I would try the "Flying Dutchman" zip line because I saw someone on Facebook coming down the mountain and it looked like a lot of fun. The excursion was supposed to be 3.5 hrs so I thought I would have enough time tot explore after that. I thought wrong.
Image result for flying dutchman st maarten
A photo from the internet

Usually I have really good excursions so was disappointed with this one, as many other people were also upset and complaining. I believe the whole thing was overbooked as there were 3 ships in port and we were the last one in. First they make you go up halfway, get off, go down an inner tube like thing with barely any water (the photo looked like a lot of water and people brought swimming suits which was unnecessary) . Then back to the bottom to wait in the hot sun to back up again on this chair lift which takes you to the top. It was a beautiful view at the top and you could see all over the island. But what happened was they were so backed up we had a 2.5 hour wait just to get down the hill. Even though it was a quick zip line down there were many people and we all had numbers waiting to get down. People were yelling because they were afraid they would miss their ship leaving and it was very disorganized and many people were going before other people that were there first. All I could think was, here I am on this amazing island with beautiful views but stuck on top in the hot sun just waiting. We were one of the last ones down. Don't get me wrong; it was exhilarating and fun going down, but if you have done zip-lining before, this is no comparison. I was so afraid to miss the last bus back I had to skip getting the photo. I was disappointed I spent over $100.00 for a minute zip ride down a mountain that took the whole day.
When we got back to the ship we shopped around the booths right before you get on the ship and bought some great home made vanilla and hubby bought some amazing cigars.

View from the top. 



The Shops next to the pier. 



I'm pretty easy to please, and it's rare I have a bad experience. But this was the bad one, and I guess you have to have one sooner or later.

Note to self: Stick with the beach excursions when in the Caribbean.
Home made Vanilla