Monday, December 17, 2007

Pelican Marina Residences Panorama

Ever since Marina Residences construction began more than a year and a half ago, Pelican C & D building owners have been livid that their views --- promised by Pelican sales people to be available in perpetuity --- have been blocked by the new resort complex.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Kim Sha Beach [the beach between Festiva Atrium Resort and Diamond (Sunterra) Royal Palm Resort] and photographed Marina Residences. We then used Autostitch software to stitch the photos together. Here's the resulting panorama, which really makes the case for C & D timeshare owners:

Get the free Autostitch software here: http://www.photo-freeware.net/autostitch.php
It's exceptionally easy to use...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

See St. Maarten 10-Vacation Giveaway Winners At Everythingstmaarten.com

Just click the link near the top of the page for all the details.

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St. Maarten Coping Well With Intensifying Ice Storm

We'll have all the details for you in a lead story in "St. Maarten Weekly News" on Monday, December 17. Free subscriptions are available at www.everythingstmaarten.com.

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Dawn Beach in the 1950s and 1960s

Amazing video of "old time" Dawn Beach as it was developing 40-50 years ago....



Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Reminder: 10-Vacation Drawing Live This Morning at 9:10 a.m. EST

Listen live online at www.959watd.com or www.island92.com. Good luck!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

About Low Airfares to St. Maarten (12/11/07)

Our staff watches airfares to St. Maarten from more than 100 cities...airline fares (including many they don't ballyhoo), charters, special fares, air-only from packages, wholesale fares, and more. They'd do what you'd do if you had many hours a day to do it, and they specialize in St. Maarten exclusively.

Overnight last night they found a number of $377 round trips from several cities (including taxes/fees) and we're transmitting a bulletin about that to members as you read this. It's surprising to see such fares in light of high oil prices, but if they can do it and still profit...fine by us.

JMB Website Supporters membership information is available on our home page at www.everythingstmaarten.com.

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JMB Gives Away Ten St. Maarten Vacations Tomorrow, Dec. 12

The Town Manager and Assistant Town Manager of Plymouth Massachusetts will do the honors tomorrow as we draw the winners in "Thanks Two Million," celebrating www.everythingstmaarten.com reaching 2,000,000 site visits. See our home page for details. It will be broadcast live on radio and on the net from Massachusetts and St. Maarten (simulcast live).

Thursday, December 06, 2007

(NEWS RELEASE)

"Everythingstmaarten.com" To Give Away

Ten Weeks of St. Maarten Vacations Dec. 12


(Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 6, 2007) --- The Town Manager and Assistant Town Manager of Plymouth, Massachusetts, will draw the winners of ten St. Maarten vacations next Wednesday as the Plymouth-based website "Everythingstmaarten.com" concludes its celebration of reaching two million site visits by going after a Guinness World Record.

Plymouth Town Manager Mark Sylvia and Assistant Town Manager Melissa Arrighi will draw the winners at 9:10 a. m. Eastern time Dec. 12 at radio station WATD (95.9 fm), an event which will be broadcast live on the station and on its website and simulcast in St. Maarten on "Island 92" 91.9 fm. The drawing will be streamed worldwide on the stations' websites, www.959watd.com and www.island92.com.

The everythingstmaarten.com website has quietly accumulated more than two million site visits, most of them in the last two or three years. The site -- which started as a writing sample on a Plymouth, Massachusetts PR company's website 12 years ago -- provides news and travel advice about the popular half-Dutch, half-French Caribbean island.

"This St. Maarten website started as an accident," admits its reluctant founder, Jeff Berger, owner of JMB Communications, the company that posted the original writing sample in 1995. "When search engines kicked in, they found my writing sample, and business-owner friends on St. Maarten starting calling us. I had no idea why until I did a search for St. Maarten and found my writing sample."

Today the site has more than 120 pages and publishes two free weekly newsletters -- one offering general news of interest to tourists, the other oriented toward timeshare owners. Known both as everythingstmaarten.com and everythingstmartin.com, to reflect both the Dutch and French-Side spellings, Berger's St. Maarten website offers details about island restaurants, resorts, villas, beaches, tours, and shopping.

Berger says the top winner will be able to choose four one-week stays from a list of 10 destinations -- among them two hotels, Divi Little Bay Beach Resort and Summit Resort Hotel, one naturist resort -- Club Orient on Orient Beach, French St. Martin, a luxury catamaran from Tradewinds Cruise Club, and six villas on both sides of the island. The top prize also includes jewelry gift certificates, day sails, and many gourmet dinners.

Six other winners will each win one-week vacations.

A complete list of prizes is at http://www.jmbcommunications.com/sxm/nine.html . Entries are being accepted until December 11.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Simpson Bay "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"?

We'll run an article on it in our St. Maarten Weekly News on 12/10, but it looks like Theo Heyliger may be aggressively pursuing plans to build a road from the east end of the Princess Juliana International Airport runway to the French Side to aleviate severe Simpson Bay traffic headaches. With him in charge of public works, it's a real possibility. More coming.