Reserve Early for Pub Crawls, Sunset Cruises, and Day Sails to Tintamarre

Celine catamaran captain Neil Roebert tells us his lagoon pub crawls, sunset cruises, and day sails to Tintamarre are all selling out in advance these days, even though we're in the low season. (Our members get discounts on all Neil's cruises; see details later in this article).

Uncle Harry's is a Pub Crawl focal point. But don't be surprised to see good-natured pirates on these Pub Crawls; Neil is offering pirate garb to passengers as a fun theme. We'll have more news about the food on the Pub Crawl coming shortly. Rest assured you will not go home hungry.

We've done the pub crawl, sunset cruise, and Tintamarre sail several times each. Members: visit www.jmbcommunications.com/secret and follow the instructions in our Member Benefits List / Welcome Letter to make reservations with Neil and get the JMB Website Supporters members-only discount on any of his cruises. You'll need the password in the Welcome Letter.

After the trip, Neil gives JMB members a souvenir bought especially for them by www.everythingstmaarten.com and JMB Website Supporters.

Last Few Weeks To Win a Vacation at Divi Little Bay, The Radisson St. Martin, or Summit Resort

Our "Memory Lane" St. Maarten and St. Martin vacation giveaway is only a few weeks away. You can enter up to 50 times; see http://www.jmbcommunications.com/memorylane to see all the prizes and learn how to enter.

New St. Maarten Timeshare Owners Association Forming

If you are interested in St. Maarten timesharing, please visit the "St. Maarten and St. Martin Travelers" group on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) and join it, free. Not only does this 500+ person group share island info, it is also actively involved in the formation of the St. Maarten Timeshare Owners Association. Learn more at www.linkedin.com -- look for the "St. Maarten and St. Martin Travelers" group. You will be admitted if you ask to join.

Urgent News For All St. Maarten Timeshare Owners:

Every current or future owner of any St. Maarten timeshare resort --- or even full- or partial-owners at other condominium developments --- had better be watching closely the latest litigation initiated by Festiva Atrium against certain timeshare owners who are litigating against that resort.

We published news about this last week in a Bulletin to all our readers. If you missed it, see our archives at http://jmbcommunications.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/archive/pelican_resort .

Festiva wants the Antillean courts to allow it to change provisions of the contracts it currently has in force between itself and its timeshare owners regarding charges it has levied and intends to levy against its timeshare owners. It apparently wants to remove limits on these charges, so it can charge whatever it decides to charge.

The court’s forthcoming decision on this matter will no doubt be applicable to all other SXM Dutch Side timeshare or condominium resorts and that is why it’s so important. A decision in favor of Festiva Atrium would, according to some people, open the floodgates to big increases in Annual Maintenance Fees at all SXM timeshare resorts and to huge Supplemental Maintenance fees such as those at Atrium that are being contested in court by some Atrium timeshare owners.

It’s critical for all timeshare owners to stay aware of this situation. We will post news as soon as we receive it. In the meantime, if you know anyone who owns or is contemplating buying timesharing in SXM, please suggest to them that they subscribe to this newsletter using the link immediately above the masthead on www.everythingstmaarten.com . If they own at Atrium, they should also contact rowiep@aol.com ; that’s Rowie and Pat Percoco who are involved in the current Atrium timeshare owner litigation.

Spread the word please . . . this is a big deal.

We've Switched To A New St. Maarten / St. Martin Blog

This is actually the JMB Communications blog which was usurped by everythingstmaarten.com. Since JMB is going to start using this for their businesses, "Everything St. Maarten" now has its own blog: http://stmaartenstmartin-jeff.blogspot.com/

Please visit that new blog for the latest St. Maarten info.

Swells Lash St. Maarten & St. Martin

This photo, from Sunset Beach Bar's webcam, was taken before the road between Maho and SSBB was closed.

15-foot swells from a big North Atlantic storm some 2500 km from the island brought in the swells, which caused Orient Beach to be closed for a time and beachfront restaurants to be deserted. Little damage of significance and no injuries have (yet) been reported. Things are expected to return to normal Friday (today).

St. Maarten Weekly News has a lead story on the storm Monday.

The Best Places to Watch Moon Rises

It's easy to notice the moon once it's in the sky, but did you ever watch it rise? It's amazing how billions of people gather to watch sunsets, but few actually watch the moon rise. Here are a couple of great locations to do that:

First: Westin Hotel Dawn beach. Go onto the beach and you'll be able to see the moon rise to the left of St. Barts, right out of the ocean. If you have a sensitive camera, and something to hold it steady, you can get some great photos here.

Second: the pool terrace at the Kissing Fish bar, Summit Resort hotel, Dutch Side. The visibility from the cliff-top bar and pool terrace is phenomenal. As we've mentioned before, during the day you can see all the way to Creole rock north of Happy Bay on the French Side.
The moon rises over the mountains here, casting its beautiful reflection on the northern part of Simpson Bay lagoon.

It's another great place to shoot pictures.

"St. Maarten and St. Martin Weekly News" and "Timesharing in St. Maarten Email Forum" Move To RSS Feeds

Our two weekly St. Maarten newsletters, both free, are now read by over 130,00 people worldwide. We had also published them here for a while but will now publish them as RSS News feeds instead. You can check (and subscribe, if you like) to those feeds through the RSS link just below the masthead at www.everythingstmaarten.com. You can also receive either or both newsletters by email -- the way most folks get them. A "subscribe" link is just above the masthead on every page of www.everythingstmaarten.com.

We'll still publish assorted St. Maarten news, features, and meanderings on our blog, but we'll no longer load it up with the newsletter every week.

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Low Round-Trip Airfares To St. Maarten

These fares are currenly avaiilable:

Northeast: $348
MidAtlantic: $293 (not a typo)
Southeast: $264 (a big airline but not who you think)
Midwest: $293 (not a typo)
Rockies: $434
Southwest: $303
Far West: $434

Fares include all taxes and fees. For all the details, see www.everythingstmaarten.com .