Ship's Time vs. Local Time

[tip]

We shall be on the Serenade of the Seas from April 11-24th.

 

We have found in the past that some RCCL ship captains choose not to adjust times when changing time zones. Does anyone know if that is true of this ship? We have taken a handful of RCCL cruises and there was one ship a few years ago where the captain chose not to change the time and we had some confusion with a private tour on St. Maarten. I do not remember the name of the ship.

 

We are visiting the Cayman Islands on April 14th and want to book a private excursion. The itinerary has the ship arriving at 0700 which certainly is early enough, but I also know that the Cayman Islands is a tender port. The pick up for the tour would be between 0845 and 0900 local time.

 

I shall also post on the Cayman Islands thread to see what time zone that they are in and whether or not Daylight Saving Time is used on April 14th.

 

I hope that what I am saying makes sense. I guess that I am too much of a planner and do not like surprises.

[GUT2407]

We shall be on the Serenade of the Seas from April 11-24th.

 

We have found in the past that some RCCL ship captains choose not to adjust times when changing time zones. Does anyone know if that is true of this ship? We have taken a handful of RCCL cruises and there was one ship a few years ago where the captain chose not to change the time and we had some confusion with a private tour on St. Maarten. I do not remember the name of the ship.

 

We are visiting the Cayman Islands on April 14th and want to book a private excursion. The itinerary has the ship arriving at 0700 which certainly is early enough, but I also know that the Cayman Islands is a tender port. The pick up for the tour would be between 0845 and 0900 local time.

 

I shall also post on the Cayman Islands thread to see what time zone that they are in and whether or not Daylight Saving Time is used on April 14th.

 

I hope that what I am saying makes sense. I guess that I am too much of a planner and do not like surprises.

 

Well as you say t is some captains that decide not to change times, it will depend who is captain at the moment, not which ship it is, and the captain changes from time to time.

[tip]

Well as you say t is some captains that decide not to change times, it will depend who is captain at the moment, not which ship it is, and the captain changes from time to time.

 

Point well taken.

[BillB48]

Cayman Islands do not observe DST, after the US goes to DST check with one of the Serenades roll calls for the same itinerary and see how the time was handled on their cruise. That won't be a guarantee, but may give you an indication on what to expect.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

When we went to GC last year, our private tour folks knew to take the time difference into account. That was Captain Marvin's if you happen to be looking at the same.

[bajathree]

Some ships/captains do change time other don't...the 2 ships I have NEVER once after over a dozen sailings seen change time are Oasis/Allure.

[Grandma Dazzles]

As others have said, you won't really know until on board - the Cruise Compass for the day will be very specific about ship's time versus local time - as a warning so people don't get left behind.

 

Many private excursion companies are well aware of the time a ship will be docking - or tendering - and adjust their time of pick-up accordingly.

 

One last point, there have been lots of reports of people being left behind who were using their cell phone as their "watch" - cell phones automatically adjust to the time zone they are in. If you plan on using your cell phone make sure you also have a watch set to ship's time.

[TravelerThom]

We shall be on the Serenade of the Seas from April 11-24th...We are visiting the Cayman Islands on April 14th and want to book a private excursion....

You have a very nice looking itinerary! Note that you sail from NOLA in CDT and your first stop the Caymans are in EST. It is highly unlikely that the ship clocks will have changed, as 7am CDT reads exactly the same as 7am EST. Also any private excursion worth booking will know the ship time better than anyone on this board.

 

I can almost guarantee that the ship time will change to AST (Atlantic Standard Time) prior to Aruba as all remaining stops are either AST or the clock face identical EDT. [Note that I said "almost"]

 

Thom

[cb at sea]

Whatever time the ship's clocks show is what time it is! Nothing else matters! If you book a "private" excursion, you must still go by "ship's time". Your tour guide knows how this works. If you're supposed to meet your excursion at 9am, then you meet them at 9am SHIP'S TIME.....

[chadbeck]

Whatever time the ship's clocks show is what time it is! Nothing else matters! If you book a "private" excursion, you must still go by "ship's time". Your tour guide knows how this works. If you're supposed to meet your excursion at 9am, then you meet them at 9am SHIP'S TIME.....

 

This may have been the case for you, but not me. I always have to adjust when I book outside of ships tours. Most of the time you are joining people already on the island and they aren't going to make the people staying on the island switch to ships time just for you. The independent operator has always asked me to adjust to island time. You need to be back by ships time but the tour could start on island time or ships time.

[killtheump]

We shall be on the Serenade of the Seas from April 11-24th.

 

We have found in the past that some RCCL ship captains choose not to adjust times when changing time zones. Does anyone know if that is true of this ship? We have taken a handful of RCCL cruises and there was one ship a few years ago where the captain chose not to change the time and we had some confusion with a private tour on St. Maarten. I do not remember the name of the ship.

 

We are visiting the Cayman Islands on April 14th and want to book a private excursion. The itinerary has the ship arriving at 0700 which certainly is early enough, but I also know that the Cayman Islands is a tender port. The pick up for the tour would be between 0845 and 0900 local time.

 

I shall also post on the Cayman Islands thread to see what time zone that they are in and whether or not Daylight Saving Time is used on April 14th.

 

I hope that what I am saying makes sense. I guess that I am too much of a planner and do not like surprises.

 

You have a very nice looking itinerary! Note that you sail from NOLA in CDT and your first stop the Caymans are in EST. It is highly unlikely that the ship clocks will have changed, as 7am CDT reads exactly the same as 7am EST. Also any private excursion worth booking will know the ship time better than anyone on this board.

 

I can almost guarantee that the ship time will change to AST (Atlantic Standard Time) prior to Aruba as all remaining stops are either AST or the clock face identical EDT. [Note that I said "almost"]

 

Thom

 

On April 14, 2015 New Orleans & The Caymen Islands will be the same time. Cayman observers Standard Time. I doubt The Captain will change until later in the cruise.

 

http://www.worldtimesrever.com

Edited February 15, 2015 by killtheump

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Whatever time the ship's clocks show is what time it is! Nothing else matters! If you book a "private" excursion, you must still go by "ship's time". Your tour guide knows how this works. If you're supposed to meet your excursion at 9am, then you meet them at 9am SHIP'S TIME.....

Unless you're taking a private excursion, in which case you'll need to meet at the appropriate LOCAL time (you may need to do some math).

 

I will post directly from an email sent to me from the very people who set up all of Royals shore excursions..

 

I hope this email finds you well. Please be advised that all debarkation times on itineraries are on local times.

 

 

Thank you and have a great day.

 

Inquiry Team Coordinators, Global Tour Operations

fax: 305-539-4131| email: shorex@rccl.com

 

As you have already read, some captains change times and some captains do not. There is no way to communicate this information to all the various vendors on the island. Since each captain is different, you must have one constant, that is is all itineraries based on local time, as advised by RCCL shore excursion people

 

The second item is if you had two different times, you now have a confusion issue with passengers. Read all the items on this blog, and yet you will be hard pressed to find one about passengers being left behind.

 

Third, I would be safe to guess that 99% of passengers have no idea what Ships time even is.. The easiest thing to do is look at the time on your phone, then read your Itinerary and you will see the times match. Its not as complicated as some will tell you. Imagine 5000 passengers get off a ship, and they all make it back on time and they dont even know ships time is.

Despite anzore's insistence that they follow local time for EVERYTHING, I suggest double checking on the ship if you're going to a port where ship time and local time are different.

 

I just pulled the excursion catalog for our Freedom cruise last year. That included a stop in GC (which operated an hour behind 'ship' time). According to the excursion catalog, we were moored from 8a-4p (7a-3p local time). The earliest excursion meet time was 8:30a. Is it possible that was local time? Sure. But I'd want to triple check with the excursion desk on board. If I assume the meet time was 8:30a LOCAL time (because anzore posted an email saying that was true) and it was actually 8:30 SHIP time, I've missed my excursion.

 

As far as how they let cruisers know there's a difference in time... easy:

Two reference to ship's time and a line saying there is a time difference between the ship and the shore.

 

And yes, not many people miss the ship. The time difference is only an issue if you're travelling on your own. If you're with a ship's excursion, they'll get you back in time. You don't need to worry about the time. I hazard most people sign up for ship sponsored excursions. Those that do their own thing are generally smart enough to understand there might be a difference in time.

Edited February 15, 2015 by S.A.M.J.R.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Again, and if your Captain changes time, and they can, what do you do SAMJR>>? this is comical..you arrive 10am ships time which is 7am local time, which you claim is 8am'"we were moored from 8a-4p (7a-3p local time)." Yet the itineray says 10 am to 7Pm...There is no time change of three hours anywhere..you, my friend, are completely confused. There is all the more reason why itineraries are local time. You just gave 3 different times to passengers..

Well, if you would have been paying attention, you would have read in my post I was referring to Grand Cayman, and the screen shot I posted specifically mentioned Cozumel (which was also an hour behind ship time). Let me know if you're still confused and I'll post the screen shot of the cruise compass from our GC stop.

hahhahaa ...Ill listen to the cruise lines i have contacted..can you say the same.

As far as I'm concerned, you can do what you want. I'm trying to make sure any new cruisers know there MIGHT be a difference between ship time and local time. It may affect them and it might not. But they need to know the possibility is there.

Hey here is another question , WHY doesnt the cruiseline just put in the actual ships time on every itinerary printed on their brochures, if you say its not local time? why do they have multiple times for passengers? come on smaj, answer that?

All I can tell you is the itineraries we had for our trip WERE given in SHIP time. Look again at the picture. How do YOU explain the line that says "local time in Cozumel is one hour behind ship's time"?

 

As I mentioned before, I can supply an similar capture for our visit to Grand Cayman AND Falmouth. IIRC, another cruiser also posted a capture of his cruise compass that had the same line for his port. So WHY would RCI publish this info in the compass, if, as you say, everything goes by local time?

[S.A.M.J.R.]

yes samjr, I looked at the itinerary which states 10am...You do not even know if the Capt adjusted the ships time to match local time do you? I guess the four cruise lines i contacted, are all wrong. Their shore excursion people are all wrong. All cruise line people are wrong and you are right.. enjoy your cruise.. Look up on this site and find how many posts are about people being left behind.

I honestly don't even know what this post means. I'm telling you, our SHIP time never changed from when we left Port Canaveral. I have Compasses from stops in Falmouth, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, that ALL say local time is different than ships time. I feel pretty safe in saying our Captain DIDN'T change the time. If he did, why did the compass say the times were different?

 

I've answered your questions, why won't you answer mine? Here it is again...

 

Why do my Compasses say local time is different than ship time?

[S.A.M.J.R.]

So if everything was on ships time, for the last 4 months GC has been an hour behind, yet according to you, you docked at 8am, which is 7am Local time. You pre printed itinerary says 10am. ok you have given us three different times. Now factor in GC, Grand Cayman is on EST, that mean there is no way it can be three or two hours difference in time. The Most GC is ever is one hour, and during EDT, its the same time as Fort Lauderdale. You may have moored at 7-8am, like most cruise lines, they get there early, then have to pay the local authorities and then begin to disembark passengers which is about two hours later or what time, 10am...its not that hard

Answer the question...

 

Why do the Cruise Compasses say ship's time is different than local time?

 

The capture I posted is from Cozumel, not Grand Cayman. If you can't read that, I apologize.

Edited February 16, 2015 by S.A.M.J.R.

[hellsop]

Answer the question...

 

Why do the Cruise Compasses say ship's time is different than local time?

 

The capture I posted is from Cozumel, not Grand Cayman. If you can't read that, I apologize.

 

Cozumel is on CT. The ship is maintaining ET.

[chadbeck]

[/quote

If the Captain may or may not switch times, how do you expect tour to start on time? can you explain

 

 

Pretty simple actually. I know the time zones that I will be traveling in so if the website says we will be arriving in Cozumel at 10am I know it will actually be 9am. The website never listed the local time in port but rather the departing port time zone. So if a tour leaves at 9am on shore I won't be making that trip and need to book later.

 

I don't care what he captain does with the clocks. Most trips it doesn't ever change and you stay on the local departure port. However last year when I left out of Tampa the capt changed the time in the middle of the night. Had they not left a note on the bed I would have been really early for my tour.

[TravelerThom]

Cozumel is on CT. The ship is maintaining ET.

hellsop is correct that it was true that Cozumel was on CT when that Cruise Compass was printed. As of 1 Feb 2015 the Mexican state of Quintana Roo (Cozumel, Cancun, Costa Maya, etc) has moved to Eastern Time. I THINK (there are various tales on the internet) that QR will stay on Eastern STANDARD time, so its EST time will match CDT, when Daylight Time is in effect. Still another reason to pay attention to SHIP time.

 

Thom

 

Don't argue with idiots, they drag you down to their level and win with experience.

[akcruz]

Answer the question...

 

Why do the Cruise Compasses say ship's time is different than local time?

 

The capture I posted is from Cozumel, not Grand Cayman. If you can't read that, I apologize.

 

Not worth arguing with aznore. Simply let other posters who are looking for accurate info they are wrong as is done in every thread they post to regarding ship vs local time and move on. Arguing with them is useless they just don't get it :rolleyes:

[awhcruiser]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2069104&highlight=ship+time+vs+local+time

[TravelerThom]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2069104&highlight=ship+time+vs+local+time

Unfortunately, that is just one of many similar threads, always "starring" the same misguided poster. SAD

[awhcruiser]

That's why I selected this one. Incorrect information is not helpful.

Unfortunately, that is just one of many similar threads, always "starring" the same misguided poster. SAD

Edited February 17, 2015 by awhcruiser