Flip Flops & Time Off – Adventures in Travel & Every Day Life

St. Maarten Trip Report – Day 1 (Travel Day)

This year, for our “big” trip, we decided to spend 10 days on St. Maarten.

Travel Dates:  December 16 – December 26, 2015

Location:  Divi Little Bay

Airline:  Delta (DAY -> ATL -> SXM)

We flew Dayton, OH through Atlanta because I was able to save $400 by flying from DAY vs. CMH.  With Dayton only an hour away from us it’s an easy way to save.  Last day of work was a really bad day, so I didn’t leave as planned.  Late departure from work, pack up the car, dropped off our dog and headed for Dayton.  Given the early flight, we decided to sleep in Dayton, near the airport.  We booked a really good rate through a third party at one of the hotels near the Dayton airport.  If you’ve ever booked a room through Hotwire, you know you can have an epic win or an epic failure.  This was my first Hotwire fail.  Our room at the Clarion Inn was old, dated and just plain worn out.  It was however clean.  We checked in to our room, #207 around 10:00pm…to find two double beds.  We spent the first night of our vacation in his and her beds.  #hotewirefail

We managed to get about 3 hours of sleep before our early rise.  5:20am boarding time meant up and at ‘em at 2:15am.  There’s nothing like a hot shower to wake a person up on the morning.  Unfortunately, HOT was not a word the Clarion Hotel understood.  Frigid is the only word that can possibly describe the water temperature at 02:15 at the Clarion Hotel.  Two showers later we were awake, cold and grumpy.  This vacation is off to an AWESOME start.  Or not.

Check in at the Delta counter was a breeze, dropped one checked bag and headed to the gate with our two duffels.  Through TSA in less than 5 minutes with plenty of time to stop for a quick breakfast sandwich on our way to the gate.

Boarding and take off all on time – easy breezy hour and twenty-minute flight to ATL.  Arrival at ATL was 10 minutes early.  Naturally, we arrived at the furthest possible terminal from the international terminal, but one quick train ride and we were at Terminal F.  Marcus likes flights through ATL for the smoking lounges.  A quick break for him while I sat at the food court to people watch.  Got a kick out of the ATL Police cruising around on a 3 wheeled Segway.  Marcus found it quite amusing as well and when he asked the officer if he could take a picture of it, the officer said “do you want your picture on it?  I’m happy to take it.”  Men will always be boys at heart, so naturally – we get this:

 

Flight from ATL to SXM was nice and smooth, arrived 15 minutes early.  Off the plane and a quick bus ride over to the terminal.  There was no one in line at Immigration, so we were through Immigration in a matter of minutes and off to wait for our bag.  Bag in hand, we headed for the Hertz waiting area and were off to pick up the rental car.  I was really impressed with car pick up.  We couldn’t have been there any more than 30 minutes total.  Map in hand, we were headed off to find the Divi Little Bay Beach Resort.  I am an obsessive planner.  Excel spread sheets and Google Earth are my saving grace.  Somehow, I managed to leave our house Tuesday night without any of my research in hand.  (Did I mention Tuesday was a really bad day?!)  The map we got at Hertz was less than helpful – no street names.  Luckily, it took less than 5 minutes to realize there were signs pointing you in the general direction of most places.  Put the map away and decided to follow the signs.

We arrived at the Divi without issue.  Checked in around 3:30 and were able to get into our room.  We were in room 704 on the Great Bay side.  First floor, one-bedroom unit.  Easily our room would have been comfortable for four people.  Two full baths.  (Technically, 2.75 baths.)  The one in the bedroom had a soaking tub, and the hallway bath only had a shower, sink and commode.

We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and sitting on the patio watching the cruise ships depart.

For dinner, we decided to stay on property and eat at Gizmo’s.  Happy hour was still going strong, but we managed to score a table just off the beach.  Marcus  ordered Fish & Chips, while I ordered the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich.  Dinner was so good.  I realize I hadn’t eaten more than a snack box on the plane (which we shared), but this was really, really good food…and fresh.  I don’t typically like fish, but Marcus was raving about his Fish.  I ended up eating half of one of his pieces of fish, and my entire sandwich.  The fish was so fresh it just melted in your mouth.  Two Bahamma Mamma’s for me, a Corona for DH and two entrées, with tip came to $42.00.  We were full and I was pretty buzzed.  Well worth the money and a really great start to our vacation.  Bedtime came early at 8pm, as we were both exhausted from the days travels.