Day 5 – St. Maarten/St. Marten on Oasis of the Seas
We arrived at Philipsburg in the Dutch and French island of St. Maarten/St. Marten. The weather was beautiful, blue skies and the green vegetation made every spot a picture perfect moment! From the port we had so many options for activities, but today we felt like taking an island tour, so we hopped on a small tour group and headed for our first stop, Maho beach next to the Princess Juliana International Airport.
Marigot shopping at St. Marten
Maho beach is famous for its proximity to the start of the airport runway. People come not only to enjoy the beach, but also to see the large 747 airliners land as they swoop so low from the beach you can almost touch the tires! We were there a little too early so we didn’t see any of the larger international airliners arrive, if you plan on seeing those get there later in the day after 3 or 4pm.
Our next stop was Marigot on the French side of the island. A beautiful little town with shops, restaurants and lots of artists. We stopped by a little area in downtown to shop, picking up a few original art pieces being sold by the French artists themselves!
Our last stop was the world famous Orient beach. An absolute beautiful beach, lined with restaurants and bars. A very large and long beach, where each portion of it is named after the restaurant that services it. The beach reminded me of the French Riviera, it has that “feel”. It’s the perfect place to lay out, have a drink, eat or just take a stroll along this very long beach. Be aware that a portion of the beach is also “clothes optional” so if you walk a little too far, the beach goers may start to look different! But don’t worry, the majority of the beach is not like this, so bring your family and enjoy!
Finally we ended the day at the port and our long walk back to Oasis of the Seas.
Oasis of the Seas at St MaartenOrient beach St. Marten
After a full day on St. Thomas and a quick bite to eat, we headed over to the Opal Theater on deck 4. Having already made the reservations before we left home for all our shows, we entered with no problems. A couple of nights before, we had seen the show Hairspray and enjoyed it very much, tonight was a musical group called Mosaic.
Mosaic is a vocal group made up of 6 men. They don’t use any instruments, only their natural vocal sounds to create music! They sound like a band, with musical instruments and all, but everything you hear, the vocals, guitars, drums sounds etc, all came from their voices! It really is a unique show.
Mosaic Show at Oasis of the Seas
At first, I didn’t know what to expect, but I am glad Oasis booked them for the cruise. You can find more information about them here on their website Notaboyband.com.
I must hand it to Oasis, because it seems that every minute of the day and night there is something to do and there is always something going on for everyone. As soon as the show ended, we headed over to the Promenade for a special disco party. The Promenade soon became full of people singing, dancing and moving in unison to disco songs. Ken Rush, the cruise director was leading the way dressed in all white, while his disco beauties danced along the crowd.
Disco night Promenade Oasis of the Seas
With a team of people taping the event, Oasis captured everyone dancing and having fun to 70’s music. It was especially entertaining the day after, since it was played on a special channel via our staterooms! My wife was recorded several times moving to the beat of YMCA!
I took the last picture as the party ended. Ken and his disco girls hopped on the Rising Tide Bar and finished the night rising up to Central Park. You can see the entrance to the Boardwalk behind them.
Tuesday – Day 4 Oasis of the Seas – Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Today our ship arrived at St. Thomas. We made sure to wake up early this morning and have breakfast before we left the ship. We stopped by the Windjammer buffet restaurant on the ship and sure enough it provided a spectacular view of St. Thomas’s picturesque mountains. After a nice breakfast, we proceeded to head out in a day of adventure, and it did turned out to be an adventure!
Our first stop was Main St. for some shopping, but to our surprise, its basically block after block of traditional buildings converted to jewelry shops! That’s right, if you’re looking for locally created art, crafts or anything unique, this isn’t the place. I was very surprised to see so many people shopping for watches, diamonds and other jewelry that normally sold in the U.S. for 10-20% less, seems the cruise ships and locals have managed to convince the tourists that items were highly discounted. I guess good marketing goes a long way! You might be able to find something you like, so don’t let my experience hold you back, but I will say this, be very cautious, I noticed many misrepresentations of items that were highly discounted, fakes which justified the lower amounts from a store next door with double the cost for the same item. Honestly, you’re better off buying your jewelry from Amazon, at least there you can return an item!
View from the top of the 99 steps at Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
After a long walk on Main St., we headed up a couple of blocks to Blackbeard’s Castle. You have the option of taking the paid tour which allows you to see the Danish Haagensen House and the old Scotman’s New Orleans style Villa Notman in addition to Blackbeard’s Castle or (something the tour guides wont tell you) you can walk on your own to Blackbeard’s tower and grounds at no charge! However the old Danish House and Villa will not be available to you. For us, we wanted to see the grounds and the breathtaking view. After walking up the 99 steps (also free 🙂 ) we walked in to Blackbeard’s Castle (again for free) climbed up the tower for some excellent views and photo opportunities.
Blackbeards Castle Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
Feel like a swim? No problem, on the ocean facing side of the tower grounds lies a pool available for those daring to take a dip! The statues are awesome and the views are one of the best in the island. We spent a while taking pictures and relaxing before walking down the 99 steps.
The day was early, our ship was not scheduled to depart for at least another five hours so we decided to visit the beach at Magen’s Bay. St. Thomas is easy to get around, everywhere you go you can hop on small taxis that are going to several destinations. We found the one headed to Magen’s Bay, along with at least 10 other people (taxis are actually trucks converted to small buses) we drove up and over the main mountain top. The views were very beautiful but short, the drive was only about 10-15 minutes, as I mentioned earlier, its easy to get around the island in a short period of time.
Blackbeards Castle pirate statue Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
Magen’s Bay beach was full of tourists, in fact about 95% of the people there are tourists from the cruise ships. The beach itself is very nice and safe, calm waters, so for those with kids its especially nice, no need to worry about rough waves. After walking a short while along the beach we finally found an open space to lay out and relax. They have small paddle boats for rent and one can easily order drinks while relaxing at the beach. It was a cloudy day so we decided to stay only for a short while.
View from Blackbeards Castle Oasis of the Seas
On the drive back from Magen’s Bay was another fun
trip. We hopped on a taxi loaded with other tourists also headed back to the Oasis of the Seas. The driver must have been in a hurry, because when he arrived to downtown in Charlotte Amalie, he decided to take short cuts through some very quaint but narrow streets! As he narrowly missed cars parked on the side of the street, he managed to maneuver this large taxi bus through town. With every near miss, the passengers on our bus cheered and laughed with excitement! I must admit it was exciting but scary at the same time!
Magens Bay Beach
Finally we arrived at the port and returned to our ship. Everyone has to go through security to get on board. They screen our bags and everyone goes through the metal detector. I was carrying a backpack with a bottle of water which I had purchased earlier on the island, luckily the person operating the screening machine didn’t catch it. Why you ask do I mention the water bottle? Well, on the ship, they want you to purchase their bottled water, which costs $4.25 per each. I purchased the same bottle on the island for $1. I wasn’t smuggling the bottle, it really was an accident, but I’m glad I forgot it and I was not told to throw it away.
Magens Bay Crowded Beach
TIP: on the ship, both bottle water and sodas are very expensive but lemonade, apple juice and regular filtered water are free. Take your own empty water bottle and fill it up with the free filtered water at the many restaurants. The filtered water tastes great, perhaps due to Oasis being a new ship, either way I couldn’t tell the difference from the filtered and bottled water.
After dinner, while docked at the port, we headed over to the large jacuzzi along side of the ship near the Solarium. Later that night it was time for us to attend a show at the Opal Theater, I’ll include a short post about that later.
Taxi bus at Charlotte Amalie St. ThomasCharlotte Amalie St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands
View from my Boardwalk Balcony Stateroom on Oasis of the SeasZipline at the Oasis of the Seas
Monday – Day 3 on Oasis of the Seas
On the third day, I still could not believe how beautiful our view was from our stateroom on the Boardwalk. Located on the 10th floor, the full boardwalk was in view, if we looked towards the Aquatheater the large theater area and ocean were in plain view. If we looked up, the people using the zip-line were zooming by!
The various activities viewable from our room was great. On the photo to the left, you can see the rock climbing wall. And like I mentioned earlier, the zip line was fun to watch from our balcony.
TIP: for those wanting to use the zip line, don’t wait until the last several days of the trip, the demand is high and you need to register to reserve a time. My wife waited until the 5th day and they told her the only time left was on the last night when we were going to be in Nassau. So she didn’t get a chance to go on it, best thing to do is sign up the first or second day of the cruise.
That night we were eager to see the aqua show Oasis of the Dreams in the Aquatheater, but it was postponed for the 5th night. The ship was rocking a little too much for the divers, so it was unsafe for them to proceed.
The nights at the ship, especially the boardwalk were very beautiful. The lights make you feel as though you really are on a boardwalk!
As for the rooms, I took a couple of photos of our stateroom. We had the Boardwalk Stateroom with a balcony. It was very nice with a large flat screen TV, safe, queen bed, desk, refrigerator, couch, lots of closet space and of course the restroom. Having the balcony with the two chairs also made the stateroom feel more “roomy”.
Be sure to check out my tips to pack for your cruise. There are a few things I found useful for making my trip safer, more comfortable and of course more enjoyable!
Oasis of the Seas boardwalk at the nightOasis of the Seas boardwalk at nightOasis of the Seas Boardwalk Balcony pictureOasis of the Seas Boardwalk Balcony
, at least there you can return an item!
