Avoiding Maho and Philipsburg is good advice.

As first-time visitors, it's probably helpful if we were a shade more descriptive. "Maho" refers to the area around the airport. near the end of the runway (beach and the area around it). Philipsburg refers to... um... Philipsburg! Which is where the cruise ships dock.

Here is my favorite site to go to check cruise ships at Philipsburg. I focus on the passenger count; this is more important than the ship count (look at Feb 11 - two ships: 808 pax. The next day, Feb 12, just one ship, but 2,074 pax! --> it's not about the number of ships, it's the number of passengers). Avoid Philipsburg on high-passenger count days.