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2 weeks ago i took 3 days to go to st maarten i have not been in the island for 4 years i was amazed with what i saw. In regards to shopping,tourist attractions they are kicking our butts over here. There port facilities could accommodate 4 big ships at a time and the pier next to that one that is going to open by october will accommodate another 4 ships. In regards to the shopping area frontstreet has way more shops than charlotte amalie including restaurant and casinos. The investments made by the island to improve fronstreet, beach boardwalk, restaurant area are way more what we are doing over here, and that is excluding Marigot the french capital with chic french boutiques is also beautiful . The selection of gourmet restaurants in the island specially grand case is incredible. Overall the investment that i saw in construction hotels, marinas, new airport, and indoor mall just like the one's in the mainland surpassed anything that they are doing in the USVI. I think St maarten get's it and over here we don't.
Posted : August 23, 2009 8:15 pm
Sounds more like a cruise ship port to a mall then an island. Its one of the biggest reasons I have no interest in visiting st maarten. Try visiting Dominica. They have one cruise ship a day and have still managed to remain a real Caribbean island. You won't taste better food then there because its all grown there fresh. Tons of natural beauty with out all the stupid shopping. Don't get me wrong I like to shop but its not why I travel in the Caribbean or live here. Definitely wouldn't want to be surround by 100s of other tourists.
Posted : August 23, 2009 8:37 pm
Topic starter
the reason that i point this out is that you could have both here in the vi if you wish to be away of all of that you could move to less develop st john or even st croix . Economic development and jobs puts food in the table of locals and to non locals like me that like to live in paradise. St maarten dutch side is more develop than st martin french side and the efforts that i see over there are way more than i see here.
Posted : August 23, 2009 10:00 pm
Yeah, it's all paved. They have something like 7 or 8 casinos on the Dutch side alone (gambling not allowed on the French side.) And that's on half an island roughly the same size of St. Thomas. No, thanks.
"They paved paradise & put up a parking lot."
Posted : August 23, 2009 10:44 pm
roki! Where ya been meh son? So you think that the cheap cruise ship passenger (spend an hour reading Cruise Critic!) is the key to economic development? IMHO, we need better education and law enforcement along with tax benefits for starting clean businesses. Casinos, high rise time share and malls like in America are not my idea of improvement.
Posted : August 24, 2009 2:08 am
Give the cruise sheeple what they want -- St Maarten. And if that is what the business community wants - open in St Maarten - long live the king !!
Posted : August 24, 2009 2:14 am
can you say whorefor money?
Posted : August 24, 2009 6:59 am
I'm not educated enough to determine whether or not more cruise ships would be a good thing but I would think that the added money would be beneficial. The Caribbean is a tourist spot with almost all of the industry geared towards tourism and supporting that tourism market. I would guess that making it so that you cannot effectually capitalize on your trade is a mistake.
It would also appear to me that there is a rift within the residents of the Caribbean about tourists as in they want their money, just not them. Unfortunately you cannot have one without the other. What the Caribbean needs is a secondary industry so that they can fall back upon when tourism is low.
Posted : August 24, 2009 1:24 pm
St. Maarten/St. Martin is beautiful. It is not just a haven for cruise ships and IMO was a great mix of laid back but still really nice. Things are polished and well taken care of. There is much less blight, people are friendly and service is good. The French side feels like Europe at times and it just has a great vibe. It is not a "cheap cruise ship port" or anything like that, it is just a really nice place in the Caribbean that offers everything we have here plus some of the refinement of Europe/the States. Just my opinion from visiting. Visiting there made me realize that not everything in the Caribbean had to be run down like much of the USVI which made me excited and a little sad at the same time.
Sean
Posted : August 24, 2009 2:41 pm
