Enchanted Princess in Saint Martin

Having already tried the zipline at Pelican Peak on our last visit to Saint Martin, we booked the four-event tour at a different place on our visit on Enchanted Princess. The shore excursion listed on Princess’ website called it Rockland Estate. Nowhere on the property did we see that name mentioned, though it is listed on the Rainforest Adventures website as the name of the eco park portion of the former estate where the ziplines are now located. Some of the ship’s excursions there offered less of the features, but we wanted the whole package. Rainforest Adventures is the name on a sign at the entrance and on their website.

sign in the museum

A little museum at the park called it Emilio Wilson Estate. He was the first black man on the island to buy a former plantation where his ancestors had worked as slaves. He lived in the plantation house until it was destroyed in a hurricane, then spent the rest of his life living in a former boiler house from the plantation’s sugar cane production days. The restored plantation house is now the home of the museum. It’s a small museum with a few artifacts and a lot of signs with different historical bits. Busses back to the cruise ship dock come only once per hour for each ship so the museum is a good place to go if you have some extra time when arriving at the bottom of the mountain with a lot of time before the next bus. There is also a bar, restaurant, and gift shop.

lower tram station for the sky explorer

Our excursion started with gathering the group on the dock, then a bus ride to the estate where we were shown where to catch the return bus before getting dropped off. There they had separate lines depending on how many activities people booked.

Sky Explorer

Once everyone was briefed on how things worked there and what order to do things in we were free to go to the loading area for the Sky Explorer, a ski-lift style tram that brings people up the mountain. On the way up we passed over a tram stop for the schooner ride, which involves riding an inner tube down a 750-foot track on the mountainside. We were told to do that last as it had rained earlier and the track needed time to dry.

almost to the tram station at the top of the sky explorer

At the top of that tram there was both the entrance to the Canopy, which is the zip line course, and another ski-lift style tram identical to the first one except that it didn’t go nearly as far. That one brought people to the top of the mountain for the Flying Dutchman ride. People not going on the canopy went there, but those on the canopy tour were to do that first.

everything platform – top station of sky explorer, bottom of sentry hill tram, and starting platform for sentry hill zipline canopy tour

The first thing to do was walk up a few stairs to an area where there were helmets hanging on a fence, zip-line harnesses spread out in rows on the ground, and lockers along one wall. The lockers were free to use for any items not allowed on the zipline course, which was anything loose or bulky. A camera on a neck strap or phone in a pocket was allowed, but chest or head mounted cameras were not.

trail to the first zipline platform

Once everyone was harnessed and ready we walked up a trail to the first zipline platform. There were a couple of toilets at the side of the start of the trail in case anyone needed them before or after the zipline, though if anyone wanted to go ahead of time they would need to do that before getting the harness on. Especially if they’re female.

people waiting for a turn at one of the platforms

Everyone could have gotten through the course a lot more quickly and efficiently by having a worker on each platform and just sending people through as they got there, but they did the same thing every zip line course everywhere (or at least all of the ones I’ve ever been on) does and had the workers go with a group of guests where one or two go first at each platform to catch incoming guests on the other side while another stays at the platform to hook everyone up to the lines, then comes across last. Which means everyone in the group has to wait for everyone else at every platform. Rather than the single zipline every other course I’ve ever done has, this one had two side-by-side and would send across two people at the same time so even though there were a lot of people that cut the wait between each zip in half. Since this course had less platforms than most and a steady stream of people passing through them it still would have been more efficient just to have a worker stay on each platform.

view of Princess Juliana Airport

A lot of places along the zip line course had excellent views, going in different directions from different places. One platform had a viewing area extended out to the side where people could see Princess Juliana Airport in the distance, though it was far enough away that even large jets weren’t that easy to see. Then again nothing too far away was easy to see since it was a pretty cloudy day. Princess Juliana Airport is next to Maho Beach where people go to photo the undersides of airplanes flying directly overhead as they come in for a landing.

people on the zipline

The zipline course has four different lines with the series of platforms set up so that the last one ends up back at the beginning of the course. Quite convenient both for picking up anything left in the lockers and for catching the Sentry Hill lift up to the top of the mountain for the ziprider.

people coming in for a landing at the end of a zipline

None of the lines in the canopy course are especially long or steep, but it’s still fun to do them. There wasn’t a huge price difference between booking all the things or just some of them so might as well go for everything if you’re going to be there anyway. That way it doesn’t feel so much like you just got there and you’re done already.

unhitching people from the zipline

About the time we got unharnessed it started to rain. We had already gone out to the tram and were just about to get on so we went ahead and got on anyway. Pretty much everyone else hunkered down under the roofed harnessing area to wait for the rain to stop. When we got about halfway up it started to pour so we were pretty soaked by the time we got to the top. Luckily it was still pretty warm out so even wet on the top of a mountain it’s not really all that cold.

view of the top of the mountain from a zipline platform

Between the exit of the Sentry Hill lift and the entrance to the Flying Dutchman there are a series of viewing platforms and some steep stone stairways. Once you reach the top there is a bar and restrooms as well as the staging area for the Flying Dutchman.

Bar at the top of the Flying Dutchman ZipRider

The Flying Dutchman is the prime attraction for this park. It’s a ZipRider similar to the one at Icy Strait Point in Alaska, except it has only 4 lines instead of 6 and the ride is shorter and steeper. In both rather than wearing a zipline harness there is a chair-like harness permanently attached to the cable that comes the line empty and backwards after the people get out at the bottom. This one came up in pairs. People start out together with one on each of the two paired lines, but they go down individually.

view from the top of the Flying Dutchman

The cable spans about a mile with a drop of over 1000 feet and it takes about 45 seconds to get from the top to the bottom. Near the bottom the lines become more horizontal and less vertical and at the end there are giant springs for stopping like at the end of each zip line.

loading a person into the Flying Dutchman

At the top of the Flying Dutchman the workers have a list and you have to get your name on that list in order to get the ride down. It was closed for the rain when we got there. They let things dry off for about half an hour before opening it up again, during which time the area got quite a lot more crowded since all the other people who had waited out the rain by the canopy ride made their way up to the top. They still would have gotten wet on the way up since the seats were pretty wet, but not so wet as we did. We were ahead of them on the list since we had come up sooner and gotten on the list right away, though still behind people who had already been up there when it got shut down for the rain.

people going down and harness chairs coming back up

There’s wooden rails around each loading area, which you stand on to get into the harness. Then you are sitting in its cushy little chair all strapped in and ready to go down. One pair of people goes down while the other two harnesses come back up for the next pair. Though you leave together you may not arrive at the bottom at the same time. If one person weighs more than the other the heavier one tends to go faster.

going down the Flying Dutchman

The ride is fun, but also over pretty quickly so it’s definitely good to do the canopy course as well so it’s not all over so fast.

going over the platform for the schooner ride on the sky explorer

After completing the Flying Dutchman we were intended to take the Sky Explorer back up and get off at the platform for the Schooner Ride. After the brief but heavy rain the track for it was soaked and since it was a cloudy day there was not enough sun to dry it out. All the workers said that ride can only run when dry so it was shut down for the rest of the day and we did not get to go on it. That was a disappointment since it was the one thing there that was totally unlike anything we have ever done before. It involves riding an innertube down the mountain on a track made especially for that ride.

a bit of the schooner track seen from the sky explorer

We finished the Flying Dutchman about 6 minutes after the hourly bus left so we had lots of time to go to the museum and gift shop before the next bus came. The restaurant and bar were of course another option, but we did not go there.

displays in the museum

Besides our ship there was one from Royal Caribbean docked that day and some of their people were also at that park. Busses for that ship came 15 minutes earlier each hour than ours. We were at the bus stop well before their bus came. When it was about time for the bus to arrive someone from the park came and asked if everyone there was for Royal. All the others were, but there weren’t very many and no more came so she said we could go on that bus too. They all stop in the same place at the port. The only difference is that they need to mark off on their list how many people from each ship have gone back to make sure nobody gets left behind. Some other people from our ship showed up at the bus stop after we got on, but before it left. They did not let any of them onto that bus.

looking down from the sky explorer

Overall it was a fun excursion even if it did rain so we didn’t get to do everything. We were refunded 15% of our excursion price for missing out on the schooner ride. We would rather have done the ride.

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