Beach trip in St Maarten with 9 month old? Car seat?

Hi everyone! We're doing the Freedom of the Seas eastern Caribbean trip this spring and want to do a day at the beach. Our biggest problem is transportation from the port to a beach. Has anyone done this?

I'm wondering if the water taxi would take us to a suitable place for a few hours of swimming and sand.

What would other options be? Are there car rentals near the port where we could get a car with a car seat?

Thanks for any tips!

Following

Yes the water taxi will take you to the beach in downtown Phillipsburg where you can rent chairs and play in the sand, though there are many more beautiful beaches in St. Martin. There is also a car rental place right at the port, and we've done that several times when our girls were very young. Le Gallion is a beautiful calm beach on the French side - also known as Baby Beach so great for little ones. Dawn Beach in the Dutch side is lovely as well and an easy drive. We brought our own car seat but you could ask when booking if they would provide one. Most agencies do upon request...

Did this route with an 18 month old. While by US/Can standards she was too tall for her infant seat she was within its weight limits so we brought the infant seat which can be installed in any vehicle with a seat belt (no base necessary). This worked wonders for us and allowed us to travel wherever and whenever when in port. Lastly; we visited Le Gallion and it was as advertised. Perfect for the little one.

We did the water taxi from the port. The beach was nice & DD (3 at the time) loved it. I'm sure there are prettier beaches, but the ease of using the water taxi and not having to worry about a car seat was worth going to this beach. There are chairs for rent and quite a few food and beverage options (& shopping) right there too. When we had enough of the beach we wandered through town, got a snack & then gelato.