We took a Caribbean cruise on the Allure of the Seas, and on our shore day in Saint Maarten we visited some of the island’s must-see locales, including the iguana farm, the French/Dutch border, Orient Beach, and Maho Beach to watch the low-flying planes.
Labadee is a part of Haiti that is owned by Royal Caribbean. The area around Labadee is very green and lush. You can take a look at my walk around video above: I go from the cruise ship to the main beach on the left side, and then loop back to the cruise ship via the the second beach on the right side. (If you go there, you’ll understand what I mean by the left and right.) The beach area itself is quite nice; it’s definitely been engineered to accommodate a lot of cruise passengers. The beach on the right seemed to have better water if you want to go for a dip. You can read the detailed account here.
Labadee in Haiti has the longest over-water zip line in the world: Dragon’s Breath Flight Line. It’s quite high, and you end up going quite fast. The zoom on my camera may obscure just exactly how high and long the zip line is, so here are the numbers: it is 2,600 feet long and 500 feet high. You end up reaching speeds of 40 to 50 miles per hour! You can read the detailed account here.
Royal Caribbean has outfitted some of its bigger ships with a zip line. The zip line is quite high: 9 decks high to be precise. It’s also about 80 feet long. It’s not the same as zip line for real where you have multiple legs, but as close as you’ll get on a cruise ship! You have to remember to have laced shoes with socks and your clothes can’t be wet. You can read the detailed account here.
Royal Caribbean has outfitted some of its bigger ships with simulated surfing machines. We used the FlowRider on the Oasis of the Seas (there are two aboard, one for surfing and the other for boogie boarding) and it was a lot of fun. It’s not the same as surfing for real, but as close as you’ll get on dry land (or a ship)! We’d never done this before so it was tricky. The water moves at 35 to 40 miles per hour. The surface under the water is a little bit padded, but there is a real chance of injury if you fall. You can read the detailed account here.
Adventures for two 