Time Changes on Independence?

[Cruisin Kay D]

Sailing next week on Indy's western itinerary -- leaving Ft. L, of course, ship will be on Eastern time, and at 1st stop, Labadee. Next 3 stops are ports on Central time -- Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel -- Will arrival times be on local time or Eastern time??

On the official itinerary, ARRIVAL at Falmouth is listed at 10:30 AM, at Cayman is listed as 8 AM, Cozumel is listed at 10 AM......

Most ships I have been on change time on the ship to follow local time!

Should I call RC? Should I ask my TA? Can any of you tell me?

Edited October 13, 2015 by Cruisin Kay D

[cb at sea]

There's really no certain way to know...it's up to the Captain. Labadee is certainly ship's time, as it's simply an extension of the ship.

 

It will be announced in the compass if you will change times, and they will announce it that morning...Ship's time is ALL that matters to you. Book private excursions based on SHIP'S TIME....

 

Use a WATCH, not a cell phone, when you go ashore, making sure your watch and the clocks at the exits of the ship read the same!!!! Tour guides know how this works, and will be expecting you to use ship's time.

Edited October 13, 2015 by cb at sea

[Clarea]

Supposedly, the official itinerary lists the local time for the arrival and departure times.

[Cruisin Kay D]

clarea, I hope you are correct!

[legaljen1969]

It will be announced in the compass if you will change times, and they will announce it that morning...Ship's time is ALL that matters to you. Book private excursions based on SHIP'S TIME....

 

That is absolutely right. Ship's time is ALL that matters. No matter what the custom- ALL that matters is ship's time.

 

That said, any cruise I have ever been on- the ship's time generally stays with the port of departure time- meaning if you sail from Ft. Lauderdale, ship's time will continue to be on Eastern Standard Time. You just adjust your "local" times accordingly.

 

I am NOT saying that is always the case, but it has been on the limited number of cruises I have taken.

 

I agree also with whoever said do NOT use a cell phone to be your clock. We sailed from Port Canaveral and by the time we hit the end of Florida, my clock had the time for Beijing. Do not know why Beijing, as we were nowhere near Beijing and not headed in that direction either.

 

Just listen when get off the ship for "Ship's time is...... We will depart at .... Ship's time."

[Clarea]

That is absolutely right. Ship's time is ALL that matters. No matter what the custom- ALL that matters is ship's time....

Local time is important when you have to coordinate with third party excursion operators.

[KCDCLINY]

The Independence of the Seas stayed on eastern time during our entire September 6-13 Western Caribbean cruise. Although Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel are in the eastern time zone, they do not observe daylight savings time. Therefore these islands were one hour earlier than ships time for our cruise.

 

Ships time and island times will be the same when eastern time goes back to standard time (early Nov).

[BillOh]

Local time is important when you have to coordinate with third party excursion operators.

 

This maybe one thing that the good private operators are very up to date about. Oasis, Freedom and Allure can all vary their arrival times coming from the Bahamas to ST Thomas. Royal changes their schedule with fuel prices and weather can cause some variation. I scheduled a dive with a company in St Thomas and they were aware of an arrival time change before I was.

[SonicShip]

It depends on the time of year as some Island do DST and some don't. So some CST insland could have the same time as a ship from the EST zone.

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

If you are:

 

Using a 3rd party excursion operatorContact the operator ahead of time. They'll know (relative to local time) what time the ship arrives and when their tours can start and need to end by. Set a watch or other device (one that won't change time automatically) to ship time as a backup to the 3rd party operator.

 

Going off on your own

Check the Compass ahead of time. It will be noted there whether ship time is different than local time. Set a watch or other device (one that won't change time automatically) to ship time as a backup to the 3rd party operator.

 

Going on a ship's excursion

They will make sure you are following ship's time.

 

Here's what was in our compass they day we stopped in Cozumel (this was Freedom of the Seas):

 

I apologize for the size.

Edited October 13, 2015 by S.A.M.J.R.

[brad_p]

On the 6 Sept sailing aboard Indy, the captain said that they keep to ship time to avoid the mini-jetlag effect. Apparently it was based on guest surveys.

[MattInFLL]

On Freedom's western itinerary last October, the ship stayed on eastern time. I bet Indy does the same. All of the independent tour operators I contacted at our stops knew of this and planned accordingly.

[melinda0222]

We are on Indy in Feb 2016. My sister is getting married in Cozumel so local time matters A LOT to us. If I am reading everything correctly, Indy will stay on EST and Cozumel is on EST as well. Since it is not DST we should have the same time. Can anyone verify that this is correct, because it does matter a lot to us.

Thanks

[pharaoh]

FYI, if you're like me and don't have a device that doesn't automagically update the time, you should be able to set your smart device to ship time by turning off automatic time updates.

 

I know for sure you can do this on an iPhone by going into Settings > General > Date & Time, and then turn off "Set Automatically." Then you can set your time to ship time and it won't update until you turn that feature back on.

 

I don't have experience with other smart phone brands but I'm sure they all have that option if you look through your settings.

[Clarea]

We are on Indy in Feb 2016. My sister is getting married in Cozumel so local time matters A LOT to us. If I am reading everything correctly, Indy will stay on EST and Cozumel is on EST as well. Since it is not DST we should have the same time. Can anyone verify that this is correct, because it does matter a lot to us.

Thanks

Royal says their published itinerary lists local time, irrespective of ship time. You cannot predict ship time, because a Captain may decide to change one cruise and not change the next cruise.

[MattInFLL]

At time and date dot com you can find out the time in a place on a future date, whether they observe DST, etc.

Edited October 19, 2015 by MattInFLL

[rogicoco]

We just came back today from back to back cruises and we always stayed on ships time. In the compas it said to stay the whole time on ships time.

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

Royal says their published itinerary lists local time, irrespective of ship time. You cannot predict ship time, because a Captain may decide to change one cruise and not change the next cruise.

One thing I've never understood about this statement... the compasses have to reflect what the ship is doing timewise, right? Surely if the ship is going to change time, it will be listed in the compass. If the ship is on a different time from local, it will be listed in the compass.

 

Since (I'm assuming) the compasses are printed at least a week in advance (or do they have printing presses/copiers on board to handle everything?), it's not like the captain can decide before embarkation "oh, I think we will change time", right?

[Clarea]

One thing I've never understood about this statement... the compasses have to reflect what the ship is doing timewise, right? Surely if the ship is going to change time, it will be listed in the compass. If the ship is on a different time from local, it will be listed in the compass.

 

Since (I'm assuming) the compasses are printed at least a week in advance (or do they have printing presses/copiers on board to handle everything?), it's not like the captain can decide before embarkation "oh, I think we will change time", right?

The ship has a print shop. I've seen them come up with new compasses within a couple of hours of announcing an itinerary change.

[negc]

Local time is important when you have to coordinate with third party excursion operators.

 

However, most third party excursion operators know what time your ship will arrive and you are able to disembark so they will almost always take that information into consideration when arranging to meet you and your party.

[nbsjcruiser]

On our last cruise (on the Indy) there were at least 4 time changes which really messed me up. There was the official time change that week that everyone went through then there was 3 more after that. By the end of the week I had no idea what time it was. They should have put us all on ship time and left it there until the official time change.

[MattInFLL]

I think the choice of whether to keep a certain time zone or not also depends on the itinerary and geographical location.

 

I just remember how all the tour operators at our various stops on Freedom's western itinerary knew exactly what time the ship would be on. If it was subject to change all the time, I don't think that would be the case.

Edited October 19, 2015 by MattInFLL

[CT Sean]

The Independence of the Seas stayed on eastern time during our entire September 6-13 Western Caribbean cruise. Although Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel are in the eastern time zone, they do not observe daylight savings time. Therefore these islands were one hour earlier than ships time for our cruise.

 

Ships time and island times will be the same when eastern time goes back to standard time (early Nov).

 

I'm almost 100% positive that we also stayed on ship's time in August, I seem to recall the cruise compass "warning" us of this fact.