Ship time vs island time

[irockadidas]

How do you guys figure out the difference between ship time and island time for shore excursions? Is there a website or something to help? Will be leaving ft lauderdale for eastern Caribbean in less then 2 weeks.

 

 

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[shof515]

i use http://www.timeanddate.com/ to find local time on the island

[thebsinmiss]

Keep it simple.

 

Buy a cheap waterproof watch if you don't have one (I have a Timex Ironman)and keep it on the ship time. Do NOT take a cell phone/iphone/blackberry and use it for your time keeping as it can reset to local port time if you have the autosynch feature turned on.

 

Saw 5 people miss the Oasis in April due to this (and a few to many cocktails).

[lindfaz]

Just make sure when you leave the ship you look at their time. That is the time you use. Ship time never changes no matter what port you are in. Don't change your watch..use ship time or you will get left behind.

[GPoll189]

When ever you do a cruise the only time that you should pay attention to is SHIPS TIME. Some lines change the ships time to correspond with the port. For example on the Explorer of the Seas that I just was on. They moved the clocks ahead before we docked in St. Maarten. By doing this they put the ships time on island time so there wasn't any confusion. However, when I was on the Oasis they didn't change the ships time so we were one hour behind port time. Before you leave the ship make sure you know the time on the ship. That is the time you need to follow. Nothing else matters.

[mclinns04]

Just make sure when you leave the ship you look at their time. That is the time you use. Ship time never changes no matter what port you are in. Don't change your watch..use ship time or you will get left behind.

 

Correction- Ship's time does change, but only if you are going through different time zones. We went from San Diego to Ft. Lauderale through the Panama Canal a few years ago. Ship's time changed a couple of times.

[kingoftheicedragons]

Correction- Ship's time does change, but only if you are going through different time zones. We went from San Diego to Ft. Lauderale through the Panama Canal a few years ago. Ship's time changed a couple of times.

 

Not necessarily.

 

Most cruises in the Caribbean are going to go through different time zones and may not change their ship's time (i.e., if you leave from Florida and cruise to Mexico, you've changed time zones; if you leave from Florida and do an eastern Caribbean cruise, you've changed time zones). Even a western Mexico cruise is going to be in a different time zone than San Diego.

 

Ship's time did change on our Alaskan cruise on the Spirit, but of our six cruises, that's the only time it changed. On a cruise through the Panama canal, it would make operational sense to change ship's time, otherwise ship time may be pretty far off from the port time on arrival in FLL.

[astropilot]

In our of our cruises, ship time has never changed... It has stayed the same as the ship's home port's time zone.

[sunlover2]

So it sounds to me like this...if the whip does change their time, change your watch to their time and no matter where you stop, you will follow your watch, which is ships time. Correct?

 

This always worried me too.

[kyrisong1]

In our of our cruises, ship time has never changed... It has stayed the same as the ship's home port's time zone.

Ugh you are soooooooooooo lucky.

We've done a few 11 days with Celebrity and they changed time like 4 times during the cruise. Even though it's just an hour or two, it still makes you feel odd.

And one time ship time didn't change with the time change and our 6 am wake up call came at 4AM!!!!

It was annoying and stupid, wish they would have just left it on EST!!!

Carole

[kingoftheicedragons]

So it sounds to me like this...if the whip does change their time, change your watch to their time and no matter where you stop, you will follow your watch, which is ships time. Correct?

 

This always worried me too.

 

yes, if ship time changes, change your watch. They will let you know in advance of the time change and make sure you know about it. You should always stay on ship time no matter if the ship changes it's time or not, no matter where you are.

[maldenmusic]

Makes me glad I only cruise in my own time zone or within one hour :o

[Cigar Dude]

The simple answer is always go by the ship's time. The ship will leave at the time they say so don't test them! I've seen it happen too many times! Stay on ship's time!

[Silverscreencruiser]

Be careful if you are booking a shore excursion locally. They usually go by local time and you may find yourself booking something that leaves before you arrive in port or, even worse, takes you back after your ship leaves.

[beshears]

Once I know the ship time (island time too), and we do things on our own, we are off the ship, I make sure we have at least 1 or 1 1/2 hours time to get back on the ship by tender, etc. before they start sailing. There is nothing like watching people running/waving/shouting once the ship has sailed.