Been to St Maarten. Loved it. About the only complaint I have about it is that the locals take the "keep to the right" law as more of a suggestion.
That's the first place I ever had (or heard of) riistaffel (sp?). We stayed on what was Dawn Beach, right on the French/Dutch border. I heard a hurricane dd it in a few years later.
Not too much snorkling ther (heck,none to speak of) but the wife loved the shopping. Another benefit to staying on the eastern tip was that we could see Saba and Stasis.
We took a day trip to Anguilla to do some snorkling off of Sandy Island there.
Wanna get to Bonaire one of these days, tough. I feel bad for Aruba, what with all the bad press it's getting here about that stoopid college student who disappeared. Her folks just won't drop it.