First time on Carnival, confused about time zones.

[HawksFan74]

I thought Cozumel is Central? That's what it says when I google it.

Prior to February of this year, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo (which includes Cancun and Cozumel), was in the Central time zone and observed daylight savings time. On February 1, a new time zone was created that effectively moved Quintana Roo to Eastern Standard Time, with daylight time no longer being observed. With this change, Cozumel will now be the same time as Jamaica and Grand Cayman year-round.

 

Here is an article about it from the Time and Date website:

http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/mexico-quintana-roo-time-zone.html

[k2excursion]

I have to take exception to this - I have always done independent tours (never have done a Carnival tour). The independent tour operators know EXACTLY when your ship arrives and departs ! They make their living off the ships and their reputation depends on them getting their clients back to the ship on time. Their tours are geared around the ships arrival and departure times.

 

Once your connect with your tour operator at the port, they will have you back in plenty of time to stand in the lines to get a tender back to the ship in Grand Cayman.

 

I have done things on islands where we were expected to figure out the time difference. It wasn't something where cruise passengers were their only customers. There are things done on some islands where they get plenty of business from fly-in guests, and you are taking a taxi to their facility. Chankanaab in Cozumel is one of many examples. You had better not use ship time to book your program there. If there is a difference in ship time & island time, you will miss your program or you will be very early and might have to leave early. There are plenty of things to be done at ports that don't involve a tour operator meeting you at the ship. You may never have done any of those, but if you do in the future, then you need to be aware that they might not make the time conversion for you. They might be expecting you to do this.

 

Some beach clubs won't open until a certain time, and they may close at a certain time, and that will always be island time. If you totally disregard island time, you may be arriving too early, or you may be surprised to find out how little time you have remaining. You will have to make the time conversion to see when you should head that way or whether you will have enough time to make it worth it. If they open at 9am island time and you are arriving at 9am ship time, but it's 7am island time, you don't want to be grabbing a taxi at 9:20 ship time. Wait until closer to 11am ship time. They will not open their beach club 2 hours early to accommodate the ships that have a time difference.

[k2excursion]

Glad I read this thread. Wife and I are going on our first cruise in April and wondered about time differences and time zones with daylight savings. Our cruise will be western Caribbean ports of mahogany bay, Belize, Cozumel and grand cayman. Isn't mahogany bay and Belize in a different time zone then Cozumel and grand cayman? Now let's throw daylight savings into the mix. Cruise is in April, daylight savings is in effect now. Florida uses daylight savings, I think grand cayman does too but mahogany bay, Belize and Cozumel do not right? BUT Cozumel is a different time zone then Belize and mahogany bay because time line cuts straight east just between Cozumel and Belize. So after I've thoroughly confused half the people reading this the conclusion I come too is mahogany bay and Belize will be 2 hours ahead Miami/ship time and Cozumel and grand cayman will be 1 hour ahead Miami/ship time? Correct? Phew. :o

 

I think that Hawksfan made the corrections for you. April is after the "spring forward" time, so that will make Cozumel & GC 1 hour earlier, and Belize & Roatan 2 hours earlier. That is based on none of those ports observing daylight savings, and Cozumel & GC both being Eastern time zone with the other 2 in the Central. Cozumel recently changed from Central & observing daylight savings to Eastern & not observing daylight savings.

 

I did a similar itinerary from Florida (Costa Maya instead of GC), and in our case, we didn't change clocks the whole cruise, so we had those exact time differences. It mattered in Cozumel, since we were doing a dolphin swim, and that facility will NOT make any time adjustments for cruisers. They expect you to do it, so in some cases, you absolutely do need to know the difference. Our Roatan tour met us just outside the port, and they did make the time adjustments. Most tours like that will make the time adjustment for you, but I have indeed heard of some that didn't, so it's best to make sure ahead of time. The advice about a cheap watch is good. Leave it at ship time and use it while ashore, so that you don't miss the ship. Don't use your cell phone for that.

Edited August 27, 2015 by k2excursion

[GUT2407]

Enjoy your anniversary cruise.

 

 

But

 

 

Be prepared to be addicted.

[lizardhowson]

I have done things on islands where we were expected to figure out the time difference. It wasn't something where cruise passengers were their only customers. There are things done on some islands where they get plenty of business from fly-in guests, and you are taking a taxi to their facility. Chankanaab in Cozumel is one of many examples. You had better not use ship time to book your program there. If there is a difference in ship time & island time, you will miss your program or you will be very early and might have to leave early. There are plenty of things to be done at ports that don't involve a tour operator meeting you at the ship. You may never have done any of those, but if you do in the future, then you need to be aware that they might not make the time conversion for you. They might be expecting you to do this.

 

Some beach clubs won't open until a certain time, and they may close at a certain time, and that will always be island time. If you totally disregard island time, you may be arriving too early, or you may be surprised to find out how little time you have remaining. You will have to make the time conversion to see when you should head that way or whether you will have enough time to make it worth it. If they open at 9am island time and you are arriving at 9am ship time, but it's 7am island time, you don't want to be grabbing a taxi at 9:20 ship time. Wait until closer to 11am ship time. They will not open their beach club 2 hours early to accommodate the ships that have a time difference.

 

OK, but I was referring to excursions focused on cruise ship passengers. Yes, we have gone off on our own via busses, taxis or walking and in that case, a simple watch set when one leaves the ship eliminates any headaches.

Edited August 27, 2015 by lizardhowson

[dltvermont]

When we first cruised to GC in 2014 aboard NCL, they had us change our clocks when we approached and set them back when we left. This past spring Carnival didn't have us change and we got off the ship, went to our "meeting place" for our tour and were all wondering why the guide wasn't there. When he did show up, everyone mad because he was "late", we found out that they were an hour behind so we were in fact early. We had to remind the guide a couple of times of that time difference so that we could make it back to the ship on time. It got kind of worrisome a couple times because we were stuck in traffic and the time was ticking away......it ended up not being an issue as the line was so long getting onto the tenders that we would have had plenty of time even if we HAD been late getting back to the port.

[Sea-Maid]

A good place to look now is on the Carnival Webcam page. After you choose the ship if you click the Itinerary tab it will tell you the ship's time. The current local time where you are is in the upper right of the screen. You can see where some ships stay on their home port time and others change ship's time based on the ports of call. You can always check your ship one or two cruises prior to yours and see how and if the ship time changes. :)

[Roz]

Y'all are making this way more complicated than it needs to be!

 

Roz

[k2excursion]

When we first cruised to GC in 2014 aboard NCL, they had us change our clocks when we approached and set them back when we left. This past spring Carnival didn't have us change and we got off the ship, went to our "meeting place" for our tour and were all wondering why the guide wasn't there. When he did show up, everyone mad because he was "late", we found out that they were an hour behind so we were in fact early. We had to remind the guide a couple of times of that time difference so that we could make it back to the ship on time. It got kind of worrisome a couple times because we were stuck in traffic and the time was ticking away......it ended up not being an issue as the line was so long getting onto the tenders that we would have had plenty of time even if we HAD been late getting back to the port.

 

Thank you very much for your report. This is one of several that I have read. Not a huge amount, but there have been some, which is why it's good advice to check with your tour operator (and not just assume) if there is likely to be a time difference.