So we arrived at St Martin about 7:30am. We had breakfast ordered for 8am as we needed an early start having planned a trip over to Maho beach. Before breakfast Paul did another round of deliveries to our fish extender group. Today is pirate day so we gave chocolate coins, a pirate pack for the kids (containing an eye patch, a telescope and some sweets and stickers) and a booklet on how to be a pirate. This includes then pirate code and the rules of Parley. After our toast, pastries, donuts, tea and juice we got off the boat at about 9:30. After a few photos of the ship we found the Hertz office which was right at the port. We had pre booked a car so after the paperwork we got on our Toyota and set our sat nav to Maho beach. We had planned this trip for one reason, to be on the beach (which we think is the only one of its kind in the world) where a 747 jumbo jet will land right overhead, and I mean overhead as the landing runway is literally the other side of the beach. It only took us about 30 minutes to get to the beach, despite some heavy traffic. We parked and made our way to the beach bar. The arrivals are all listed on a chalk board and the KLM jumbie was due at 11:20. It was about 10:30 and there were a few smaller planes due in so we could practice our pics on them. As the first one came in I took side on shots and Paul went right underneath the flight path. It really was close and we got good shots. Sadly, we haven’t been able to share any pics on this blog as we have previously as the Internet connection is just about ok for uploading the text but would not handle images. We will try and post some when we return (if I remember!).
I made my way down to the beach to join Paul. As we stood under a 757 jet that came in the noise and the wind from the jet engines are incredible. There are actually signs up warning of danger of severe injury and even death from being in path of jet engines but still crowds gather to do it! In the UK and the US the area would definitely have been fenced off for safety purposes I’m sure.
After a few small and mid sized planes we saw the lights of the 747 approaching. Everyone was gathering with cameras and videos. It really was quite amazing, and actually a little scary as the jets did physically push you back. The plane was so close that in my pic my lens wasn’t wide angle enough to even get it all in! We did both get some great shots though and Paul got a great pic of everyone looking up with cameras taking their own pics.
After the jumbo had landed it just started to rain so we headed back to the car. As it was only 11:30 and we had the car for the day we decided to take a quick tour of the Island. It is half Dutch and half French and we drove all around both sides. After a quick stop to get a shot of the boat we eventually got back to port at about 1:30. We didn’t really want to go into town so we had a quick look at the shops that were around the port before getting back on board. By this time we were hungry so we headed straight up to deck 11 for some food. They have hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, crisps, cookies and fruit all up on deck served all day. We opted for hot dog and chips and went into the quiet Cove to eat it. We noticed that the guitarist was playing one deck up on this cruise; we had written on our comments card last time that it kind of defeated the idea of a quiet area so whether we influenced the move or not, who knows.
After our late lunch we then got seats up on 12 where I blogged with my Piña Colada as you read earlier. I managed to finish all of day 3 by 3:50 which worked out perfectly for the Pirate trivia at 4pm that we had decided to do. The questions were about some Disney pirate films as well as questions about Treasure Island, real pirate names and other stuff. With 5 questions to go we were in second place so tried to go for the win. It was not to be sadly, and we ended up in second at the end. There are no prizes for second on Disney (unlike Royal Caribbean) so it was a case of so near yet so far. We left the trivia and went back to our room to get ready for dinner.
We were back at Royal Court for dinner and being pirate night we donned our pirate t shirts. The menu is Caribbean pirate themed. We had pot stickers to start, these are pork parcels and are really nice. After this I chilled melon soup followed by jerk chicken. Paul had the sirloin steak with extra sauce which our waiter is now getting used to. For dessert we had rum soaked chocolate cake. Again, a good meal all round.
After dinner there was no show but the main theatre we showing the movie “The Avengers” in 3D. I wasn’t overly fussed but Paul wanted to see it so we went in. It’s over 2 hours and sadly we had to endure lots of noise. There were people with what must have been the worlds loudest rustling bag which went on for a good 5 minutes. There were also kids crying, folks chatting and people leaving throughout. The movie was ok, I think we both felt it could have been shorter but the content was as expected.
Since it is pirate night, this is the night of Buccaneer Blast. Disney are the only Cruise line allowed to have fireworks at sea and whilst on a boat they are not quite up to Magic Kingdom standard they are still fab. Before the fireworks there is show on the pool deck stage. It starts Captain Jack Sparrow, who abseils down the funnel onto the stage. The premise is a gauntlet that the pirates fight over and eventfully Jack wins and pointed the gauntlet to the skies to start the fireworks. We got a pretty good view from between funnels, managing to see the show and the fireworks clearly. After the fireworks are done there is a deck party. It is quite cool to see everyone dancing under the stars on the deck of a ship at nearly midnight. It is also still perfectly warm enough to be in just t shirts.
We eventually turned in at about midnight, taking a cuppa down with us to enjoy before bed. We read our St Thomas brochures and supped our brew before bagging those zeds.