Disney Magic Cruise | Eastern Caribbean | St. Maarten Port of Call

Early in the morning on day 3 of our Eastern Caribbean cruise, I woke up to find this outside of our room:

We were pulling into St. Maarten, and what a beautiful sight it was!


We weren't the only ship arriving - this place was cruise central.

We grabbed breakfast and made our way down to Deck 1 to get off the ship and explore.

I'm biased, but Disney has the most beautiful ships.  The long pointed bow, dark hulls, and double funnels remind me of luxury oceanliners from times gone by.

See? Cruise ship central.  What you can't see is they are packed 2-deep.  We had a Princess cruise ship nearly playing bumper cars with our stern.

The island is owned by both the French and the Dutch.  The southern side, where we were docked, is known as Sint Maarten and is owned by the Dutch.  The northern side, Saint Martin, is owned by the French.  The cruise lines are one of the biggest contributors to the island's economy.

When you first get off the boat, you can either walk to Philipsburg, or get a round trip ticket on a water taxi for a small fee.

The water taxi area.  Can you believe that weather?  It was a gorgeous day.

Cute boat while walking toward the taxis.

And again, while waiting.

When the taxi dropped us off, we began to explore the area.  The buildings had many interesting architectural features.

This is basically what you do in St. Maarten if you don't have any port excursions booked.. you shop!  From cheap souvenirs to diamonds the size of my head, most of the shopping on the island is tax and duty free.

Beautiful alley!

Colorful menu advertising Poutine! I don't think I've ever seen that sold locally.

One menu - four languages.

Heeheehee.  Yes, I'm immature.

The beautiful Holland House Hotel on the beach.

The beaches are packed with stacked deck chairs waiting to be rented for a day of sun.

There is no shortage of color!

Good to know, man.  Good to know.

Aww!! You know we can't resist a random pup.

Packed beaches!

Back on the taxi and headed back to the ship.

The view from our room until we left that evening. 🙂

Disney's info site about the island provides brief but useful information to get the most out of your day.

This post is from our 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Magic from January 28th to February 3rd of 2012.  To see all of our cruise posts, you can click right here!