Need Help - Time Zones & Cayman?!

The Magica is scheduled for a six hour stop in Grand Cayman, 12pm - 6pm, during the week of April 9th. I was hoping that someone will be able to offer some info and advice.

I have read in another post that GC will be on Eastern Standard Time. When the Magica leaves Fort Lauderdale that week, we will be on Eastern Daylight Time at departure, ie, 1 hr ahead. (Daylight Savings Time starts the first weekend in April.)

Will we be on daylight time or does Costa, (Magica or Mediterranea cruisers), switch to standard time while in Grand Cayman? :confused:

I am considering booking my own tour in GC, ie, stingray city & snorkel.

If we stay on daylight savings time and arrive at 12pm, that would actually be 11am Cayman time. This would give my family, plenty of time to catch a 1pm tour ashore. However, that might cause problems at the end of the day --- if the tour gets back at 4pm Cayman time, it would actually be 5pm by Magica's time. Would this be enough time to catch the tender? :confused:

If the Ship is scheduled to depart at 6pm, can anyone tell me when the last tender would be?

It will be tight scheduling no matter what we book, but I can make better scheduling decisions with this information.

Please share your info/experiences/advice!

Can't wait until April 9th!!!!!!!:)

the costa magica always follows the local time of wherever it is at.

if it is 1pm in grand cayman it is 1pm in eastern daylight (or standard) time then it is 1pm on the costa magica. - provided grand cayman adhears to daylight saving time.

last tender is normally 30 min before boat deports, so 530. try to aim for 5pm or an hour before it leaves, DO NOT BE LATE!

Talk to the Tour Operator - they know all the schedules of the ships, and are used to dealing with cruise passengers, so they "get it". Tell them what ship, your time in port etc. Ask them if they will get you back in time.

The Cayman Islands are on Eastern time but they do NOT observe daylight savings time. So Grand Cayman will be one hour earlier than Florida time. Costa ships usually follow local time customs and thus change the ship's time as necessary. Ditto Princess. But I just got off a Royal Caribbean ship and they stayed on Florida time the whole time and did not change the ship's clocks when we were in other time zones. Keep in mind that a local tour operator will be expecting you based on local time there.

BobK/Orlando

I think Magica is the only ship we have been on that changed time zones during the cruise. If you have an hour in GC you don't know what to do with, the Nautilus was great. :)

Princess changes their clocks according to local times. Last summer on the Sea Princess in Europe we changed ship time 4 times during a 7-night cruise as we went back and forth among two time zones!

BobK/Orlando

This is what I received from one of the tour operators in Cayman:

"Before you book this, you need to know if there is going to be a difference between ship time and local Cayman time. I will not know if there is until after your ship visits after daylight savings time goes into effect. Right now, we are on Eastern Time (ship time and local time are the same right now). However, we do not observe daylight savings time. So, when it goes into effect we will be one hour behind (Central Time). Some ships adjust to the local time before it arrives in Cayman. Others stay on the same time as the city that the cruise started out in (Eastern Time for Miami and other cities in Florida). I won’t know what your ship’s time will be until it visits us after daylight savings time. The only ship’s that have been consistent in their time, year after year has been the Royal Caribbean ships."

It confirms some of my initial thoughts. If the Magica does not change to Cayman time, we will be one hour ahead when we call there on Wednesday, April 12th.

The only Costa ship that arrives in Cayman the week before, (but after the daylight savings time change), is the Mediterranea on April 12th. And, I really have not considered if this would also affect Cozumel or Montego Bay.

Years back, I worked for Holland America sailing with them for 5 years, and we most always changed to the local port's time.

I will try calling Costa to their shore excursion dept --- perhaps, they can tell us whether or not we change to local times.

I phoned Costa regarding the time changes coming up and was told the following: --- For our cruise, the week of April 9, the Costa Magica will be on Daylight Savings time and will remain on daylight time in Cayman--- they will not be changing to the local time! Therefore, according to them, we will remain one hour ahead of the local port time. The gentleman that I spoke with was very precise and definite about this.

I specifically asked about Cayman because I would like to book my own excursion ashore there.

For all of you booking the same, you may wish to check for your selves --- Costa at 800 247 - 7320.

Unfortunately, I will not have any one's personal accounts re the above because the time change doesn't take place until the first weekend of April.

Oops! My reference to the Mediterranea above was incorrect. It is in GrandCayman on April 7th and the Magica is in Cayman on April12th.