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Yes, the worlds smallest island occupied by two countries is worthy of the double name. It is only about 34 square miles (22,000 acres) and has a population of nearly 75,000 people (a little bigger than Schaumburg). Madeline and I visited here on our very first cruise 23 years ago, not that we really remembered it, but it was fun to return this time with our girls. It was a good first port of call for the Disney Magic.

Sint Maarten—St. Martin

It was nice waking up to our first port of call, St. Maarten. The weather was perfect and the island was beautiful as we docked, even if there was some construction going on near the pier.

Happy to be in the sun and on land, my three girls pose in front of the Dutch sign

Our excursion took us to Simpson Bay on the west end of the Dutch side. The drive over there gave us a good view of our ship (with others above) and the bay, as our excursion began on the pier just below the yellow building with the three windows in the center of the picture to the left.

The excursion was riding Rhinos (above) through Simpson Bay to the French side, then out into the Caribbean to Happy Beach (left) where we saw a couple of European-style sun worshippers

Our trip back towards the ship gave us an almost surreal picture of the beautiful Caribbean waters.

When we arrived, we did a little shopping and walking along the beach near the ship.

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