St. Maarten Logistics?

My DH and I will be sailing to St. Maarten in January and I have a couple of questions. We are arriving at 8 am ship's time and leaving at 5 pm ship's time.

We want to book the Lord Sheffield excursion that leaves near Chesterfield's restaurant at 11 am and returns at 3:15 p.m.

My questions- is island time different than ship's time in January? If so, what is 8 am (ship's time) on the island?

Secondly, how long does it take for a) a taxi and (b) the water taxi to get into town from the pier? I am trying to figure out if we have time to make a quick booze run either before or after the trip:D

Cheers

The ships time changes to the local time. You will set your clocks ahead one hour, as will the ship, before arriving in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. If it is 8am in New York, it is 9am in St. Maarten. It is also 9am ships time.

It is about a 20 minute walk from the pier to downtown - kind of a dusty walk. It is a five minute cab ride, depending on traffic. I never tried the water taxi. You can buy liquor at the shops right by the pier. They have some nice jewelry stores there as well.