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Home > Before You Fly Down
Get The Most Out of Your Vacation With All The Benefits of JMB Website Supporters Membership
Posted June 15, 2009
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Get The Most From Your St. Maarten Vacation With JMB Website Supporters
CURRENT MEMBERS:
go here to
renew your membership.
FORMER MEMBERS, go
here to reinstate.
Page Updated June 15, 2009
New Memberships Are On Sale!
$49 for a Full Year
OR
$59
for
three full years
five years is now just $79
Scroll down the page to
see membership benefits and to join
Renewals,
only $13/ year
when you select our lowest-cost multiyear
renewal option
NOW
36
Benefits -- Why Join?
Major St. Maarten / St. Martin
Travel Benefits from
JMB Website
Supporters Membership Subscriptions:
This is only a partial list. There are now 36
benefits in all (and more are coming).
-
SUPER
LOW-COST AIRFARES:
Our exclusive St. Maarten-only "Low Airfare Bulletins" tell you when great
fares are available up to 330 days in advance, so you can quickly get the
fares you want.
We monitor fares from more than 100 cities in
the U. S., Canada, and a few in Europe. Whenever we find great fares --scheduled,
sale, wholesale, or charter-- we post them on our
Low Airfare Grid and email you news
of outstanding fares. As a member, you'll have a much better chance of paying
lower fares for the travel dates and seats
you want. Sometimes, they're exceptionally low fares -- like 2007
$200 Winter round-trips to SXM from several U. S. cities. Many of our fares
for winter 2008-2009 travel have been under $400 round trip including all
taxes and fees. Low airfares alone
are worth the price of subscribing. (Renewals are as low as $13 per year
when you select our lowest-cost multi-year renewal option.)
-
SELL OR RENT OUT YOUR TIMESHARE, VILLA, OR CONDO WITH
FREE, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ADS ON OUR
OWN "CONDORENTALS" WEBSITE: Sell or
rent out up to 10 weeks you own in SXM or anywhere worldwide (new) per 12-month period. Many owners sell
or rent their units in just a few weeks. Ads are free for members and there
are NO COMMISSIONS. If you like, you can even order
highlighting
to make your ad stand out in the crowd.
See ads here.
You can also advertise weeks you've already banked with II or RCI (new),
also for no charge.
-
CAR RENTAL DISCOUNTS:
Members-only discounts give you $15 off the regular non-discounted rack rate
of one of the island's top car rental companies. Available year-round. We
expect to add discounts soon (late 2008) at one or two additional companies, giving you a choice.
-
BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE DINING
DISCOUNTS: Discounted access to the Caribbean Card,
which brings you many buy-one, get-one-free dinners at top restaurants
across the island. Your favorite restaurants are probably on the list!
New.
-
FREE PHONE CALLS TO BOTH THE DUTCH AND FRENCH
SIDES from the US for your family and
associates, plus 9 to 13.5 cents a minute once you use your free calls. Lets
you keep in touch with your kids, the office, or elderly relatives at home
for pennies.
-
ULTRA
LOW-COST CALLS HOME:
We tell you how to make calls from SXM for pennies using your hotel phone or
your cell phone. Hotels charge about $5/minute for calls home. How does
about 32 cents a minute grab you? By contrast, Verizon Wireless from SXM is
$1.99 per minute for all incoming and outgoing calls.
-
TOP-CLASS
HOTEL ROOMS OR TIMESHARE CONDOS
FOR $449 PER ROOM, PER WEEK:
Our exclusive discounts off Cheap Caribbean's regular low rates mean you may
just pay less than the maintenance fees timeshare owners pay on the exact same
units. You can take additional vacations for short money! (Members only;
details on Members' Website. This rate available with "SXM Surprise" Packages only.
Members-only code required.)
-
SHARP
DISCOUNTS ON PUB CRAWLS AND TINTAMARRE CRUISES on the Celine
catamaran (new).
-
DISCOUNT ON
THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE ABOARD THE ST. MAARTEN PARTY BUS (new)
-
DISCOUNT ABOARD RAPID EXPLORER, the luxury fast ferry service to
St. Barths (new).
-
SHARP
DISCOUNTS AND FREEBIES ACROSS THE ISLAND: Through your
discounted membership in the Value Guide of St. Maarten
(new).
-
HEAVILY
DISCOUNTED EMERGENCY MEDICAL
EVACUATION PROTECTION: Should you become critically ill
or injured and
require an emergency air ambulance home, the cost is usually over $42,000.
Our members get $60 off annual plans good for emergency travel home from
anywhere in the USA, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Bermuda,
Belize, or Costa Rica:
short money for great
peace-of-mind.
-
MEMBERSHIP REFERRAL BONUS
gives you a free one-year extension of your membership once you refer just
one
individual to us who joins and mentions you (one free year of membership for
you with every new paid membership you refer).
-
LOW-COST SXM (St. Maarten)
AIR/HOTEL PACKAGES:
You will not find lower package prices anywhere. We beat Travelocity,
Expedia, and everybody else every day.
-
FREE ST. MAARTEN SCREENSAVERS:
Just-for-JMB Website Supporters, we offer totally FREE St. Maarten PC
screensavers with a number of our best pictures. Passworded web access lets
members download these special, members-only screensavers for free. And now
there's a downloadable St. Maarten movie, too -- with more coming.
-
HEAVILY DISCOUNTED ST. MAARTEN SOUVENIRS:
T-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts, jumping-dolphin baseball caps, colorful
Caribbean-color hair or wrist "scrunchies," hand-painted porcelain
refrigerator magnets, and lots more. The lowest prices are always offered to
members only. Meet other members when you wear SXM Euro-oval logo
merchandise!
-
MEMBERS-ONLY SXM PHOTO GALLERY:
Post your favorite SXM photos online, free.
-
MEMBERS-ONLY MESSAGE BOARD:
Ask questions and get answers from other members and from
Jeff, Susan, and other JMB Communications' knowledgeable, experienced staff.
-
MEMBERS-ONLY TRAVEL CALENDAR:
Meet other members from around the country or around the world and make new
friends on St. Maarten.
-
MANY MORE MEMBERS-ONLY BENEFITS: At
this writing there are 31 in all, with more coming. You'll receive complete details when you
join.
How To Join:
Initial Membership Subscriptions are for one, two, three,
or five years (your choice); the longer, the lower the cost per year and the
more St. Maarten bonus gifts you get.
Renewals thereafter are just $13/year when you choose our lowest cost
multiyear renewal option.
Please note that if you join by PayPal,
PayPal will acknowledge your payment immediately, but it takes us up to three business days to enroll you and email you your sign-in and benefits information.
If you're in a rush, the Fax sign-up option is ideal for you.
There are three ways to join,
see specific payment links below:
- Online via PayPal,
an eBay unit with over 100 million members; it's the world standard for
online payments. If you need faster service, see the next sign-up option. Most new members join through PayPal.
- Phone/fax (if you're in a hurry);
these are generally completed within 24 hours (weekdays), sometimes the same
day. The price is higher because the service is faster.
- Mail
(by check) is for those
who aren't in any hurry at all. Mail takes a week or two to process,
sometimes longer, since we process these last. Scroll down for details.
- Regardless of how you join, you
MUST give us
your name, street address, daytime phone number, and email for us to launch your membership.
Most
member communications are by email/web, but we may (rarely) need to phone
you to verify sign-up information. Please check your sign-up info for
accuracy. If we don't have accurate info, we can't get your membership
started properly.
- Join Below By Any of The Above Methods:
SIGN UP WITH PAYPAL HERE:
SALE: JOIN FOR THREE YEARS FOR
JUST $59 TOTAL (SALE PRICE; LIMITED-TIME OFFER):
JOIN FOR THREE YEARS BY PAYPAL
($59 TOTAL) Click the button to sign up. New
members clicking this button also get a free "SXM" St. Maarten Euro Oval
sticker, the exact same sticker you see on cars all over the island. Offer
available only through PayPal or by check; instructions for check payment are
below. A sample of our SXM Euro Oval sticker is displayed below as well.
Other signup offers:
JOIN FOR ONE YEAR BY PAYPAL
($49) Click the button to sign up. (See
next item first...neat bonuses!)
JOIN FOR TWO YEARS BY PAYPAL
for just $57 and get free SXM souvenirs:
Get a colorful St. Maarten keychain plus two "SXM" Sint
Maarten Euro-Oval stickers free when you join for two years
for just $57. Limited time
offer for keychain while supplies last; available through PayPal or by check:
NEW
FIVE-YEAR MEMBERSHIP, $79 -- OUR BEST OFFER:
JOIN FOR FIVE YEARS BY PAYPAL
for just $79 and get lots of free St.
Maarten souvenirs.
Get a colorful St. Maarten keychain plus TWO "SXM" Sint
Maarten Euro-Oval stickers
free PLUS an all-new, rugged,
oversized fluorescent green luggage tag when you join for
five years for $79, our newest and best
sign-up offer. Limited time offer for souvenirs while limited supplies last;
available through PayPal or by check. Photos of some of what you get are below
(photos reduced to fit on your screen):
You may also sign up by check, phone, or fax...please scroll
down for details.
See
more St. Maarten souvenirs here.
SIGN UP BY CHECK (MAIL):
SLOWEST WAY TO JOIN: Send a
check for $49 or more if you want to join for more than one year --
(same
prices as PayPal, above) to JMB Communications, P. O. Box 1812,
Plymouth, Massachusetts 02362-1812 USA. (Sorry, NO Canadian checks;
Canadians please see above and use PayPal.) Include your name, address,
email address, and phone. PLEASE PRINT. We'll email an acknowledgment. Checks usually
take one to two weeks to process.
FASTEST
WAY TO JOIN: PHONE OR FAX:
IMPORTANT:
If you want high-priority membership processing, use this option. Fax or
phone us your name as it appears on your card, and SPELL YOUR NAME PLEASE &
PRINT CLEARLY IF FAXING, credit card billing address,
email address, credit card number, day and evening phone numbers, and credit
card expiration date. Also include your "card
code" -- on Amex cards, that's the four-digit code printed on the top front of
your card. On MC, Visa, and Discover, it's the three- or four-digit code on the
back of your card, following the card number's appearance there. Fax or phone
10am to 8pm Eastern only, please. Phone calls are
usually answered by an automated system, so please give us all the information
noted as soon as you hear the "beep." We usually process
these within about 24 hours of receipt (weekdays), sometimes faster.
Specify whether you want one year for $59, two for $75, three for $85, or five
for $100; we do charge more for this high priority sign-up service because we
put these orders ahead of all others. We accept AX, MC, Visa,
Discover, Diner's, Carte Blanche, and JCB. Rest assured that our phone / fax is
secure with access by authorized Membership Services personnel only. All
individuals who sign up by fax / phone receive two SXM Euro Oval stickers by
mail when joining for one year, or two stickers and a St. Maarten keychain when
signing up for two or more.
Fax & phone: 978-453-4760 (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time only
please)
The benefits described above are EXCLUSIVELY for JMB Website Supporters
members and their spouses/partners and are not to be shared with others.
All memberships are good for one year unless otherwise
specified. At the end of one year, you can take advantage of low single-year or
multi-year renewal rates -- now as low as $13/year when you select our
lowest-cost multiyear renewal option.
See our
Privacy Policy and Credit Card Return / Refund Policy.
IF YOU BENEFIT FROM WHAT YOU'RE READING, PLEASE JOIN "JMB WEBSITE
SUPPORTERS"!
Attention
Users of Hotmail or of Mailwiper, or Other Spam Prevention Programs:
Hotmail and various spam prevention programs including Mailwiper reply to JMB
mailings and ask us to take certain actions for our mail to be accepted by your
mail program. With more than 130,000 readers of our various newsletters (free and
paid), we are inundated with these requests and we do not have the time or the
staff to answer them. Therefore, to ensure that you receive all our mailings,
please enter the following email addresses into your programs as "acceptable"
addresses. Please note that the address you enter should contain no spaces
within it. We added spaces here to prevent email address harvesting
programs from gathering and using the following addresses: Jeff1620
@jmbcommunications.com; tracy @jmbcommunications.com; susan
@jmbcommunications.com; accounts @jmbcommunications.com; and jeff
@jmbcommunications.com.
JMB Communications
*See our
return policy.
Go To The St.
Maarten Gifts & Souvenirs Center
LEGAL:
Entire contents copyright (c) 2009, JMB
Communications. World rights reserved. "JMB Communications" and the stylized JMB
logo are trademarks of JMB Communications. The SXM Euro-style oval with the palm
trees background is copyrighted by JMB Communications. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners. All logos other than the JMB
Communications logo are the property of their respective owners. No contents of
this site may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without express written
permission in advance from the copyright owner. Permission is granted to
individual vacationers to make single copy printouts of St. Maarten/St. Martin
pages SOLELY for their personal use during vacations in St. Maarten/St. Martin.
All other use requires permission in writing. Click
here to request permission. (Requests do not presuppose authorization.) All
trademarks or logos used here are the property of their respective owners.
All photography (c) Jeff
Berger and JMB Communications, 2009 and 1994-2008; reproduction in any form
whatsoever is prohibited worldwide. JMB vigorously defends its copyrights.
JMB Communications is a
member of the Plymouth County Development Council and the Plymouth Area Chamber
of Commerce (Massachusetts).
Latest articles in Before You Fly Down
Caribbean & St. Maarten/St. Martin Timeshare Condominium & Vacation Rentals -- For Rent or Sale by OwnersHOW THIS PAGE WORKS: Members of JMB Website Supporters can post free timeshare rental / sale ads here. Members who own timeshare weeks must provide the exact dates of the week being rented since many renters do not know what week numbers mean. When submitting an ad, you must EXACTLY follow the format we use below. Ads should be submitted to the email address supplied to JMB Website Supporters; submit ads as far in advance of the "use" date as possible (a year ahead isn't too soon).
Low-cost airfare to St. Maarten/St. Martin/SXM!We are frequently asked how you can find the lowest airfares. We have one red-flag warning to everyone who is searching for the lowest fares: if possible, never search at the last minute. Hunting for low airfares when you have a tight short-term deadline is the worst way to buy tickets...
Summit Resort: Our Favorite Hotel/Timeshare in SXMWe visit St. Maarten often enough to have selected accommodations which feel a bit like home -- friendly, comfortable, and convenient. Usually, you'll find us at Summit Resort, on a hilltop in the Cupecoy area overlooking Simpson Bay Lagoon. We first went there 24 years ago on a charter. It's a great place, totally rebuilt after 1995 Hurricane Luis. Summit offers both hotel accommodations and timesharing with all the amenities.
Jeff Berger's St. Maarten / St. Martin Hotels & Resorts Information and Discount Reservations CenterGreat rates & immediate confirmations from 35 "SXM" hotels. What could be simpler?
This page enables you to make online reservations at hotels on the French Side and the Dutch Side. All hotels are listed in alphabetical order according to which side of the island they're on. We've even listed Orient Beach hotels separately under French Side Hotels and we're providing an Orient Beach map so you can see exactly where they are.
Vacation Packing ListDepending on where you're going, who is going with you (spouse / significant other / parents / grandparents / friends / kids) you'll want to change this list. However, if you've ever forgotten anything important and then been faced with the cost of replacing it while away, that can be a pain. We hope this list helps!
How To Obtain a PassportPassport rules have changed! If you have no prior passport or one issued over 15 years ago, adult or child, you need...
About Your Safety in St. Maarten / St. MartinIs there crime in St. Maarten? Unfortunately the only place where we think there ISN'T crime these days is Antarctica. The crime rate is lower than many other islands. We have always felt quite safe there, but the island is not crime-free and savvy tourists always take precautions. (It's paradise, not utopia.)
Jeff Berger's Discount St. Martin Hotel Reservations CenterThis page and the one you can link to above enable you to make online reservations at hotels on the French Side and the Dutch Side. All hotels are listed in alphabetical order according to which side of the island they're on. We've even listed Orient Beach hotels separately under French Side Hotels and we're providing an Orient Beach map so you can see exactly where they are.
Online Air, Car, and Hotel Reservations CenterThe same company that owns both Expedia and Travelocity runs our simple, easy to use reservations system. Our system is much simpler and easier to use. A couple of clicks, and you're there. It's Reservations Made Simple*.
An Overview of St. Maarten/St. Martin History & CultureThe history of the Caribbean is filled with stories of colonial imperialism where islands changed hands from country to country. St. Maarten was no ace in the imperial holdings, but had its share of skirmishes and smoky gun battles, which caused the island to change hands many times between the Spanish, Dutch, English and French powers.
Airlines Flying to St. Maarten / St. Martin, and How To Get Low-Cost AirfaresWe are frequently asked how you can find the lowest airfares. We have one red-flag warning to everyone who is searching for the lowest fares: if possible, never search at the last minute. Hunting for low airfares when you have a tight short-term deadline is the worst way to buy tickets. Some people join JMB Website Supporters expecting to find low airfares overnight. If sales are underway [wholesale, retail, or unadvertised], they'll succeed. On the other hand, if sales are not underway when you are looking for fares, you will have to be patient to find the fares you want.
St. Maarten Gifts/Souvenirs 2006 Early-Bird "Pre-Holidays" SalePictures & Order Form for: T-Shirts - Sweatshirts - Tank Tops - Oversized Fluorescent Green Sxm Euro Oval Luggage Tags - "Fly Me To St. Maarten!" License Plate Frames - White/"Tropical Raspberry" Sxm Canvas Beach Totes - New Edition Sxm Euro-Oval Stickers - Genuine Coleman® Drink Coozies - Tropical Hair (Or Wrist) "Twisties" - St. Maarten Keychains, and more.
Medical Preparations for Travel To St. Maarten / St. MartinPerhaps two years ago, we first mentioned "emergency medical evacuation." This story tells you what "medical evacuation" has to do with you, and why taking care of this before your next trip is so important.
First a brief personal note. In 1996, I contracted "Ciguatera" (which I had never heard of) in the tropics. I won't tell you all the symptoms (you may be having your morning coffee and a bagel), but I lost about 40 lbs in a month. Andy at Baywatch on Orient Beach later told me he saw a guy fall off a stool at a restaurant, overcome by Ciguatera. (Google it). Bottom line, I got better and am fine, but it could have been much worse....
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