Then a water taxi to
Weather: Rain early, very hot and humid by
What a trip!!!!!
Pre-Arrival
I had done as much research as possible before the trip. Mapping out casino locations, reading what little information there was available, and trying to educate myself on what to expect. Didn’t help much. The hours of operation seem to change based on if there are cruise ships in port or not. Different web pages had different casinos on them, so I found a casino that I had never even read about which was a nice surprise.
While we were on the ship a rumor started buzzing about the
I went to the Guest Services on the ship and asked if they knew anything or how it would effect my casino time. They didn’t know much except that it was true that most stores would close at
This through off my planning a bit, as some of the casinos that I wanted to go to were near the airport and I couldn’t find out how this parade would effect traffic flow as I’ve read of people getting stuck because of a draw bridge near the airport and missing there cruise.
Time to Play
The ship docked just after
When we arrived I went out on deck and saw it was raining. At this point it was just a light drizzle but still not a good start. After breakfast, it appeared that the skies were clearing and I was ready to go.
I had revised my planning to include only the downtown casinos, just didn’t want to chance getting stranded. I knew of 4 casinos in the downtown district so I figured that was enough to keep me going. By looking over the maps, I knew that I could either walk about 15 minutes to downtown and around or there was a water taxi for 5 dollars a person that would take me back and forth all day. I went with the water taxi.
The water taxi was well marked and very close to where we docked. Service was fast and efficient, never waited to long and drivers were very friendly.
There are 3 stops for the water taxi, one at the cruise terminal and one on either side of downtown. We first stopped on the east side of downtown where everyone got off. I asked the driver if it was to early to go to the other side and he said it wasn’t a problem. So it was just my wife and I on the boat, it was like we had rented a private tour of the harbor or something, it was nice.
The water taxi dropped us off at a small dock on the west side of down town. As we were driving up, my wife pointed out a casino, just off the dock, very close.
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Beach Plaza Casino: 
This was my surprise casino as it was not in any of my information but nice. It was rather small but had a good selection of games. Most were relatively old, they had Cash Crop, the game based on Battleship (I don’t know the name, I always thought it was called Battleship, but the gaming case had a different name on it, so I guess I was wrong), and Chicken Run.
The staff was friendly but security was hovering. (a trend which would continue) At this point there are only about 4 people playing in the casino; My wife, a lady right by the door, a local in the back by the cage, and me at the Battleship game, not very busy. This security guard must have come by about five times in as many minutes. I don’t know if he was bored or thought I was going to rob the place. I had an uneasily feeling most of the time.
I discovered something else I didn’t like about gaming in St. Maarten, “The Gamble feature”. Some may remember this but it not as common as it used to be. After you get a winning spin, no matter how big or small, you can chose to gamble with a chance to double up. It’s either a high-low game (guess if the card will be Ace-6 or 7-King thing) or Black/Red Card. I hate this feature. If you read my Florida Report, you will know I like the games to flow, this just slowed things down. After each winning spin you had to hit the take win or gamble buttons, then the repeat bet button. Just a waste of time, in my opinion.
Other than the hovering security guard, my one complaint would have to be that I actually had to wait for a hand pay of a $10 dollar win. I’m not sure if it was the machine I was on or what, but the staff guy came over with Dell palm pilot to pay me. I just laughed. He was using a wireless palm pilot to commutate with the system to verify my win. Seems like a real secure system.
After waiting for him to sync up, we left. About a half hour of playtime and left $5.00 dollars down, not a bad first stop
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As I said this was the surprise stop. I had to relocate myself on my maps to figure out my next plan of action. Also with the parade news, I had to make sure to stop at all the stores on my wife’s list in between casino stops and before
I found some of her stops were just east or to the left of our current location, so if we walked up a block on one side of the street we could hit two of her stores and a casino then come back on the other side of the street, hit a few more of hers and the other casino on the west end of town, and we were covered.
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Coliseum: Don’t know why it says Princess Casino. I got it at the Coliseum?
First impression, this place is just my style. Large, well lit, lots of people but still plenty of open machines, and tables
Lots of new games, Roulette the slot version (I’ve read about it but hadn’t seen it yet) and a few that are leaving the floors here in the states, Who’s That Girl and such.
Coin pay machines, I’m a complete and total backer of coin less gaming. I don’t like how dirty your hands get with all those coins and it’s heavy if you get lucky.
All and all, the gaming was not that great. Lots of options, just none that I wanted to play.
We decided to leave pretty quickly. On the way out, they have one of the oversized dollar machines, still with the giant arm. I just felt like playing it. While I was playing, my wife wanted to take my picture, so she snaps a few shots. Immediately 3 security guards surround her, I didn’t even have time to move. They are yelling at her about taking photos, saying she’s an international and she should know better. There was actually one of the guards who was being very nice just saying he needed to see her delete the photo and it would be ok, but one guy was just over the top.
Now as you can tell from the site we take photos everywhere. We took all kinds of photos at Atlantis in
Either way, my wife was not happy and not happy with me for playing out my credits in the machine. She was not giving that casino anymore of her money and we were leaving.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I was trying to find more of her stores to try and calm her down but the security guards had defiantly scared the heck out of her and the camera didn’t came back out of her bag for a few hours. After we got somewhat settled we moved to the next casino.
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This was the most themed casino on our trip. It was a beautiful place with a Mardi Gras/Carnival theme. Would have loved to take some photos………….
Gaming floor was small, three rooms with limited gaming. Not many penny machines. 6 tables or so on the lower level with 5-dollar minimums, I think. We didn’t stay long. I played a Cash Crop machine, while the wife played something beside me just trying to get past her unpleasant experience.
The staff was nice and the place was great. Just don’t think the personal mood was right to enjoy it enough. Would defiantly go back on a future visit, spend more time, and ask to take photos…..
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We then walked down to the east end of the Philipsburg area. People began to come out to the main street and set up chairs and stuff for the parade. Still no information on where and when the thing was coming but at least we finally had evidence that something was really happening.
We stopped at a few stores and the Guava berry Museum. Bought some BBQ sauce that I can’t wait to try, and then made it to our next stop.
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Diamond Casino: 
On the far east end of the main street near the first water taxi stop was this rather small casino, (I did see some stairs so it may have been two floors but I didn’t investigate), Found some games that I had never seen and hope to never see again. Weird line configurations almost like Aristocrat’s 50 Lions but much worse. At least 50 Lions pays.
Its tables and a large virtual horse racing game dominated this place. The thing that threw me off the most was when I went to get change, the attendant was just standing at a machine talking to someone, a friend I assumed, saw me, walked to the cage, opened the door, got me my change, (wouldn’t break down a 20 into 5’s, even when we asked), then walked back out the door and started her conversation back up with her friend. Interesting to say the least.
In and out and won’t be back. Not worth the time.
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Directly across the street, well actually around the corner a bit, was the last casino on my list for downtown.
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Jump-Up Casino: This casino is actually advertised as being themed after the “Carnival” but I didn’t see it. It was very large in size but not much inside. It seems like they have huge dances or maybe they used to have tables in it but just a bunch of unused space. I guess if you were in a wheel chair or ECV, this would be a good place with lots of room between machines, but just felt hollow to me.
Really didn’t play much in here either. I found an IC Money machine and did nothing. Saw a coin and an
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This trip was fun; being that how many times do you get the chance to go to St. Maarten in the first place. I’m the type of person who just enjoys getting to go to a casino. I may complain about gaming types, selection of machines, or whatever, but in the end, if I got to go to a casino of any sort. I’m happy
Recommendations: Even though the security guards scarred the heck out of my wife, I would have to say that out of the five casinos we went too, I enjoyed the Coliseum Casino the most. It had a nice selection of games, the general staff was nice, and décor was warm and inviting.
Second place would be the Beach Plaza Casino. I can get past the hovering security guard, I’ll write it off as he must have been bored. I can look past the hand pay for a $10 win as a machine issue or something; I didn’t see anyone else getting hand pays. It was a nice place with friendly staff and enough machines to keep you busy. I’m defiantly biased due to them having one of my old favorites in Battleship but there was a nice mixture of somewhat new and old machines.
That’s it; it was an all and all-amazing couple of hours of casino time. If I were to ever visit again I would first make sure there was no parade scheduled for that time and second I would try the casinos near the airport in
Till next time,
J
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