.: Day Six: Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Our favorite Island! St Maarten was lots of fun. We had heard that the shopping was great on St. Maarten and they were right. We decided to cancel our excursion for the day and just do whatever we wanted to do. We got up early and boarded the water taxi to do some shopping in town. We shopped for about 3 hours and then headed back to the ship for an early lunch.

After lunch, we took a cab to Orient Beach. This was an interesting experience. We were told to expect some nudity at the beach, as it is on the french side of St. Maarten. Well, we saw a little bit of nudity (topless women) on the part of the beach where we were sitting. Then, we decided to walk along the beach in the opposite direction. WOW - we turned this corner and walked smack into a nudist colony. Full blown naked people of all ages all over the place. I felt pretty uncomfortable since we were the only clothed people, so we quickly turned back. I've never seen so much nudity in my life!! Once we were back to the clothed part of the beach, we rented jet ski's for a bit and stayed at the beach until about 30 minutes before the all aboard at 5:00. It was a very fun day at a great beach. The water was amazing. You could see clear down to your feet in the water. It was so clear.

Once we were back on the ship, we headed to dinner and the evening show. Then came the most hysterical moment of the week: The Quest. It was a game played by hundreds of people on the boat. We were divided into teams and given tasks to complete. Let's just say we were very involved in the game. I don't want to get into too many details, but I will say that Wayne did the worm, danced with our friend Cannon in a very friendly way and ended up dressed up in some VERY interesting attire. It was a hysterical game and one of the highlights of the week.