Cruise Time vs Island Time in Grand Cayman

[sunshine26]

Hello,

 

We will be on the Legend the week of March 9. Looking at excursions and just want to make sure we don't miss the boat . We are looking at a 2pm reservation for a 3 hour excursion.

 

I know in some ports times can be off as much as 2 hours . Is Grand Cayman one of these?

 

Does the ship time go by East Coast Time? Daylight Savings starts on March 9 in the US.

 

Thanks for any info you may have!

[KenMo]

On March 9th, if ship time is 8am, local time is 7am.

[Tullic]

This used to be so easy. Back in the day, you set your watch for ship time and ignored everything else. (watch: an analog device you wore on your wrist or kept in your pocket that kept reasonable time.) Shore excursion enterprises knew your ship time and would abide by those parameters. (I believe all reputable shore excursion companies still do.)

 

Now that the modus operandi for time checks is a cell phone (that conveniently picks up local time) it all becomes more difficult. I've read that most people that miss their ship while in a port were using their cell phone to check the time.

 

If you don't own a watch, buy one of those $2.00 little plastic digital clocks at Wal or K Mart, set it before you leave and keep it in your pocket or beach bag and refer to only it while in port.

 

As for setting up third party excursions, make sure ahead of time your excursion co. knows your ship time and will have you back to the ship on time. I've never found one that didn't.

[k2excursion]

There are definitely some companies that will not adjust their times to match your ship time. If you are meeting them at their place of operation (not picking you up at the ship), they will most likely not be automatically adjusting to your ship time. But if you ask them ahead of time about this concern, they will likely help you find out what the time difference is. It's not wise to just assume that an independent tour operator is adjusting to match your ship time.

 

If you are on the ship the night that we "spring forward", the ship time will likely jump ahead one hour that night. It did that for us when we were on the ship when we "fell back". There will be a mention of it in the Fun Times, and probably a couple announcements made. Once that happens, Eastern Time will be one hour later than Grand Cayman. GC is in the Eastern Time Zone, but they do not observe daylight savings time ever.