Watch out for Daylight Savings Time change - 2 hour time difference from ship time!!

[columbusseminole]

Remember that Belize doesn't recognize DST - that means that after April 3 - Belize is 2 hours behind ship time. You might want to check with your tour operator and see if they are changing the time of their tour. Mine - Belize Rays is not. They said they ship would arrive earlier, they think. That is not the problem - the time the ship leaves is 2 p.m. Belize time - tour returns to pier at 2:15. I'm not going to be left behind!!

 

Now - 11 days out I have to find a new tour. Wouldn't you think the tour operators would start earlier so they can have the passengers back earlier?

 

Check with yours!

[mnsawyer]

That is exactly why we're doing a ship sponsored snorkeling tour. I had a difficult time confirming if Belize participates in daylight saving time...found out a few weeks ago they don't. So, if a tour starts at 9:00 local time, it's really 11:00 and if it's 5 hours, that isn't time enough.

 

Am sure the independent operators must accommodate for this but I'm not taking any chances.

[ShowSkiMom]

That's the reason I cancelled my tubing excursion. I'm not going to spend the entire time worrying and wondering if I'm going to make it back to the ship in time. You would think that they would adjust their schedule to accomodate the ships that are two hours behind :confused:

[Coral Breeze]

Hi Everyone:

It is true that Belize does not observe Daylight Savings Time and does not adjust their clocks. People in Indiana and Arizona can relate to this.

Operators in Belize change their tour times to be one hour earlier after April 3rd than they were before April 3rd. This is to account for the time difference from not adjusting the clocks. If your operator does not do this, "columbusseminole" makes a good point that you should find out why.

To review how the tour times relate to Ship Times, the following applies:

Before April 3rd (before Daylight Savings Time), Belize is 1 hour behind Eastern Time and the same time as Central time. The ships maintain the time zone from which they departed. You only need to calculate the time difference from the time zone you left from. After April 3rd (Daylight Savings Time), Belize will be 2 hours behind Eastern Time and 1 hour behind Central Time. This is why the operators have to move back their start time by one hour.

Most ships depart Belize at 5pm or 6pm Belize Time. The exception to this is the Carnival Miracle and Legend. The Miracle arrives on Fridays and departs at 4:30pm ship time. Operators start their tours earlier to accommodate this. For instance, a tour that normally starts at 10am Belize Time before DST, and 9am after DST would start an hour earlier (9am or 8am) to meet the early ship depart. The other exception is the Legend who does not show up each week and when it does, it is on different days. The Legend departs at 4pm and the early start time used on Fridays would apply. This does not apply to the awkward schedule of the Grand Princess.

It worries me that folks are going to pay the higher ship prices to be on the crowded ship tours. These tours do not have near the personal touch you get with independent operators. The time change issue is not a big deal as long as you ensure your operator is clear with you on the tour times. NO operator is going to allow you to miss your ship.

I hope this helps everyone understand the time change and how it affects the tours, enough that you don't shy away from a better experience with independent operators in Belize.

[slineberry528]

I have booked many tours using independent operators and have never missed the ship. that is how they make their money and they are going to work with the ships schedules.

I am using Coral Breeze for our tour in July.

Susan

[addicted to cruising]

I too have done my homework with DST as Im booking with private tours. I will be confirming with my guide about the time. Im using Reggie to go cave tubing and I feel very confident that he and his staff will make sure we are back on our boat in time. It is inperative that you check things like this and communicate with your tour company. If they are not changing there times then it is not the company for you. you should feel secure with your choice and if that means using the cruiseline so be it, however you will not get the personal attentions and you will be paying 2-3x the price. to eachs own.

[pookie9922]

Someone on the Roll Call for the NCL Sun 4/2 found old freestyle dailies from a March 2003 sailing that show that they have everyone set their clocks back on Monday night (so after Grand Cayman and before Roatan) and then forward again on Thursday night. I think this means they are on CST for the majority of the cruise instead of EST. If this is the case, Belize will only be one hour behind ship time after DST and all the other port time should be the same as local time.

I haven't been able to verify this with anyone who has actually sailed this route.

 

The rep I spoke with at NCL claimed that the port times are local times, including Belize, but then he also didn't seem like he knew what he was talking about.

[rockedge]

every ship i have ever sailed on has gone changed their clocks to the same time as the port. Always been announced in their capers or daily paper

[MobileMystic]

I noticed before I cruised some of the dailies showed time changes, but on the Dream last week, the ship time remained constant. We never moved clocks forward or back.

 

It was really strange because ship time was out of sync with the port time in Belize....fortunately our tour was through NCL.

[Cruisemaiden]

Help! I am so confused....and god forbid would not want to miss my ship.

 

I will be on the Elation April 17 sailing from Galvaston. Carnival says we arrive in Belize at 8:00am. I booked a tour with Wet and Wild and that starts at 9:00am Belize time...so what the heck time will I actually arrive on the ship in Belize?

Any help is appreciated....I would hate to have to cancel my tour...

[pookie9922]

Cruisemaiden - If your ship is in EST you will arrive at 6:00am Belize time - so you will have plenty of time to make your tour. But the questionable part is the end time. What time do you leave port? The tour is from 9:00-2:00 Belize Time (I'm also going with WetNWild on my cruise). So that would be 11:00-4:00 EST

Our port times say we leave at 5:00pm. So if we don't change the clocks to CST we might have trouble getting back to the ship if anything goes wrong with the tour. That's why I'm trying to figure this whole darn thing out.

Hope that made sense and was helpful.

[ShowSkiMom]

My son and I were really looking forward to the cave tubing and I agonized over the decision to cancel it. But, after doing all the research and factoring in the what if's, I decided that it was cutting it too close for my comfort.

 

I'm on the Miracle and like Coral Breeze said, we depart at 4:30. The last tender is supposed to depart at 4:00. The tour starts at 8:30 which will be 10:30 ship time. If the tour is 5 to 5 1/2 hours, that gets me back to port at 3:30 to 4:00. There is no wiggle room in that schedule and that makes me nervous. It's not that I don't trust the tour operator 100% but things happen, vans break down, schedules get delayed...it just made me too nervous.

[Cruisemaiden]

Cruisemaiden - If your ship is in EST you will arrive at 6:00am Belize time - so you will have plenty of time to make your tour. But the questionable part is the end time. What time do you leave port? The tour is from 9:00-2:00 Belize Time (I'm also going with WetNWild on my cruise). So that would be 11:00-4:00 EST

Our port times say we leave at 5:00pm. So if we don't change the clocks to CST we might have trouble getting back to the ship if anything goes wrong with the tour. That's why I'm trying to figure this whole darn thing out.

Hope that made sense and was helpful.

Thanks Pookie9922, but now I am not sure if Galvaston is on Central or Eastern time?? Our ships leaves Belize at 6pm....Oooh...I am excited for you that your ship sails in 8 days!! But my countdown is getting smaller...only 24 days out for me now! I guess I am not going to sweat the small stuff...I really want to go on the tubing trip, but if we miss the trip or feel uncomfortable for any reason that we may not get back in time prior to the ship sailing I will just not go and eat the $26 dollar deposit..no big deal and find something else to do. No worries...

[Coral Breeze]

I feel the need to jump in here again. People are getting very confused and I'm not sure why.

A couple of things that were mentioned here are adding to the confusion. Someone said they read something from back in 2003 about the ships changing their clocks. That is correct, even as recent as 2004, some ships changed and others didn't. Imagine the confusion then. NOW, in 2005, the ships are maintaining the time zone from which they departed. Galveston is in the Central Time Zone by the way.

As far as the cruise line's customer service phone centers go, I think you can call 10 times and get 10 different answers. For instance, just this week the Grand Princess who typically comes in on Mondays, about a month or so ago changed to come in on Tuesday for this week. We heard rumor on Monday in Belize that it cancelled for Tuesday. So on Monday I called their Customer Service center. They said "no, it isn't cancelled...as a matter of fact it showed up today (Monday) as it normally does". Well we all know it didn't show up on Monday and then it did end up canceling on Tuesday. Moral of the story...well, I won't say it.

Someone else in this thread did the time math for the Miracle on Fridays. The math was done correctly for the 8:30am start time that you mentioned. This is one of those instances were you should contact your operator. They should be starting at 7:30am to get you back in time.

I realize it is your vacation and you need to do what is best for you and your family. Like I said earlier in this thread, I just don't you to miss out on a better experience at a lower cost just because of a mis-understanding regarding the time. I can not stress it enough. NO tour operator will allow you to miss your ship, period! Belize is a beautiful country and you should allow yourself to see it in a more personal setting.

If something is still unclear on the times, please post your questions and let people who know answer them for you instead of jumping to conclusions that cause you to do something in Belize that you didn't really want to do.

[KentuckyTam]

Just wanted to let you know that I have booked through X Stream and will be arriving on the Miracle. Our tour departs at 7:00am which(hopefully) leaves us plenty of time to get back. So as it has been said on here before...the tour operators will do what they need to do to fit your ship's schedule! Now if I can just make sure we can get an early tender:D

[pookie9922]

Cruisemaiden - I wouldn't cancel your tour! You should have plenty of time. Even if you are 2 hours off (on EST) which it doesn't seem like you will be, you will have 2 hours from when the tour is supposed to end until your boat leaves. I was only concerned because we leave at 5:00 - leaving only 1 hour to spare.

 

BTW - people keep mentioning the times that the last tender leaves...How does one find that out? I haven't seen any mention of tender times on any of my cruise docs or even specific information about which islands have tenders.

[pookie9922]

Oh, also in response to Coral Breeze - some lines do still change their clocks. The dailies I found were a couple years old but I was able to verify with someone who just got back from the same cruise (Sun) that they did indeed change their clocks to CST.

It must differ from cruise line to cruise line or perhaps even ship to ship. If each person could find a thread of someone just returning from their cruise, that would probably be the best way to verify.

[mnsawyer]

We're sailing on the Glory and they do not change the ship's clocks to accommodate local time. So, after April 3rd, the ship will be two hours ahead of Belize time. In terms of knowing times of last tenders, etc., you could look through some reviews of your ship or post the question. As an example, we're in Belize from 8-5 but it's a tender port and the last tender departs at 4:00 p.m. ship's time. I found this information from the Carnival Capers and other cruisers. What islands are you sailing? Grand Cayman and Belize are tender ports.

[Coral Breeze]

pookie9922....I stand corrected. You are correct that the NCL Sun does have their passengers adjust the clock for the port they are in. This is the only ship that we are aware of doing this.

This thread was started very wisely to get people thinking about DST and the affects it has when stopping in Belize. I believe the message is out that after April 3rd, Belize is 1 hour behind Central Time and 2 hours behind Eastern Time. Any question about your tour time, should be directed to your operator. But as I said several times, don't let your experience in Belize be anything less just because of time confusion. Just ask and confirm and your operator will make sure everything is taken care of.

[willowcreek1955]

Paul,

 

Help me understand. I will be sailing in on the Miracle the week of June 19, 2005. I would like to book the Caye Caulker excursion but I am not sure if it really fits into my time schedule. What time does the excusion leave? Is it 10 am ship time, and is the exursion 5 hrs which would bring me back to the ship at 3pm? Thanks

[kathylee]

Paul,

We just booked the cave tubing for April 6, 2005. We are on the Norwegian Sun and it says it is in Belize from 8:00am-5:00pm. Our confirmation says the tour starts at 7:30am. Is this correct? I know you say that times fit to ships schedules, but this seems like it does not. I will be looking for your reply

Thanks,

kathy

[kathylee]

Paul,

I forgot, one other thing. We also need to be sure about tender times off the boat to make your tour. I hope that it can work out

[Coral Breeze]

On these boards, I can only provide general information, so I will do my best to answer your questions:

willowcreek1955 - The Miracle is in port from 7:30am to 4:30pm which is the ship's Eastern Time. After April 3rd, this will be 5:30am to 2:30pm Belize time. You can match these times up to a time an operator in Belize provides as the tour times. I can tell you that any operator you choose will ensure your tour fits in the time you are in port.

 

kathylee - I saw your reservation and will respond to you.

[kathylee]

Thanks Paul,

 

The email given on the reservation is my sister in law who will be doing the tour with me. My email is christiansonl@comcast.net

[tankersbabe]

Precisely why hubby and I opted to go with the ships tour to Xunantunich in Belize. Too remote, too confusing on time, and just too nervewracking. It's the first time we have ever booked through the ship, and just felt a lot more comfortable doing it that way for this port.

 

Hope it all goes well!

 

Stef