A Shopping/Shore Tour "Time" Question In St. Maarten

[rickcop44]

We'll be in St. Maarten on January 25 on Victory. The ship is in port from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. Most of the shore tours happen mid-afternoon. Those we're interested in are from around 1 to around 4:30 or so. My wonderful wife, who has a serious shopping gene, is wondering if she will have enough time to shop in St. Maarten given these shore tour times. In the alternative, would anyone recommend a tour on our own. We're primarily interested in snorkeling. We want a good spot to wet our suits and gag on the salt water. If there isn't enough time to shop and tour, can anyone recommend a reputable outfit in St. Maarten to book a snorkeling venture through? Thanks again!

[LornaT]

Just a note: When we went to St. Maarten on both the Glory and Legend we were told to keep our watches at Ships time which is about 1 hour BEHIND of island time....................reserved a car at the pier for 9:30 (cuz we were told we'd dock at 9:00) and when we went to get the car was told that because we were an hour late (seems island time it was 10:30) they rented our reserved car to someone else.........so word of warning when arranging a tour other than through the ship.

[MamaParrotHead]

St. Maarten is beautiful, and has some good deals on a variety of things...but a lot of the shopping is repetitive, IMO (a lot of the shops carry the same items and the price doesn't vary much). I think 2 hours of shopping (will put you back onboard by 6:30) would cover it (depending on the seriousness of your wife's shopping addiction, LOL).:) my other advice would be to ask your tour operator to drop you downtown Philipsburg to shop after your tour (rather than taking you back to the ship, our bus driver/tour guide offered to do this and it worked out well), then take a water taxi back to the ship, $3 pp one way and it takes you almost DIRECTLY to the ship from downtown.

 

p.s.--we were on the Valor and told the time would NOT change throughout the duration of the cruise, so be sure to check your ship's own policy.

[LornaT]

Mama - Your right and that is what I meant, the ship and passenger's stay on Ship's time (which is usually Eastern Standard or Daylight Time) but the island themselves are on different timezones. So this is just a heads up to check and be sure of time differences between the ship and the island, local island operators work on their time...............not the ships.

 

As to shopping, yeah it's almost all the same stuff and same pricing, and that is a great tip..............have your tour operator drop you in the shopping zone/street and then take the water taxi back to the pier/ship. The Carnival Shop Talk Rep. will be telling you about all these free or almost free things you can get in town (like free tote bags at Del Sol, etc). I did like Last Mango in Paradise which carries a lot of Jimmy Buffet and Carribean Sole T-Shirts, etc. and the Guavaberry Emporium where you can taste Guavaberry straight and mixed in a slushy type of drink and taste test different salsa's and food products.............yum! Other than those it's a LOT of jewelry stores, one after the other.