Staying on ship's time

[unseemlygamer]

Hello again. Right at the beginning of February, we booked a Western Caribbean cruise on the Allure of the Seas, for my high school graduation - I graduated just a couple weeks ago :D🎓

 

Many of you probably know that the Western Caribbean itinerary goes to Cozumel, Falmouth and Labadee.

 

As far as I've looked up (I research well ahead), all these ports of call are on Eastern Time, but don't use daylight saving time (basically it's the same as Central Time), so they'd be an hour behind ship's time. I don't know if this information is entirely accurate.

 

In Cozumel, a Mayan Ruins excursion I planned departs at 7:30am. I don't know if this is local time or ship's time. The ship gets into Cozumel at 7am ship's time. Either way, we'd have to get up very early.

 

One of the Dunn's River Falls excursion options in Falmouth that I decided on departs at either 7:15am, 8:15am or 9am, but we've decided on 9am.

Everyone must be back onboard the ship by 3:30pm ship's time, a half hour before leaving port, and it doesn't help that this excursion lasts 5 1/2 hours - counting the time it takes to get to the falls and back...right?

 

Again, I don't know if the time differences I read up are accurate.

Basically, when an excursion departs, does it depart at local time or ship's time (if there are time differences)?

[NurseDave]

The ship is always on local time. They will state on the navigator you get at night if they are changing time for the next day.

[scottwe4]

Is the excursion Thru the ship?

 

 

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Edited June 23, 2016 by scottwe4

[NurseDave]

 

 

One of the Dunn's River Falls excursion options in Falmouth that I decided on departs at either 7:15am, 8:15am or 9am, but we've decided on 9am.

Everyone must be back onboard the ship by 3:30pm ship's time, a half hour before leaving port, and it doesn't help that this excursion lasts 5 1/2 hours - counting the time it takes to get to the falls and back...right?

 

The excursion time includes the transport time. So they should have you back at the port around 2:30pm. When reading the excursion info they usually tell you 30min bus ride, 45 by van etc...that's all part of that 5 1/2 hrs.

[ccjunior]

I was on Oasis a couple weeks ago for Western Caribbean cruise (Cozumel, Falmouth and Labadee). The time for arrival, departure, ship activities, ship arranged excursions, etc. are ALWAYS in ship's time which is Eastern time. I got on at Florida Port Everglades, so the ship ALWAYS use that time zone.

[cb at sea]

If they are ship's excursions, it's ALL on "ship's time". If you're using some private thing...then they should be able to tell you..they deal with this ALL the time. Not all ship's change times....some do, some don't. Ship's time is ALL that matters TO YOU! Wear a watch, and make sure your watch and the the ship's clocks match before you leave in the morning!

[unseemlygamer]

Is the excursion Thru the ship?

 

Yes.

[cruisegirl1]

The ships are not always on local time. They will tell you what time to use. If you are on a ship excursion, the time is not a factor. And, private excursion operators know when you will arrive. We had a recent private excursion in Roatan and our correspondence simply stated that we must be at the designated meeting place one hour after the ship arrival.

 

On a recent western cruise, we turned the time back one hour the first evening. We were now on central time but still an hour ahead of local time. Then on night 6, we were instructed to turn the clock up an hour to get back to east coast time.

 

To be on the safe side, set your watch or phone on ship time and leave it there.

You can go to phone settings and turn off automatic time zone and the phone clock will not change.

 

I imagine that ships heading to the western Carib., leaving from central time zone might not have as many time changes as those that leave from the eastern time zone

Good luck

 

M

[alfaeric]

The ship is always on local time. They will state on the navigator you get at night if they are changing time for the next day.

 

No, it's not.

 

We were on a B2B on the Liberty (when it was out of Florida)- first trip to Cozumel did NOT change time, second trip to Belize and Cozumel did.

 

Read the Compass to see if the times change or not.

[Pratique]

All of those ports are on Eastern Standard Time year-round. In April Allure of the Seas stayed on Ft. Lauderdale time for the entire cruise, so we were always one hour off from local time. The Cruise Compass will say, and the captain will announce, what ship's time is.

 

Change your phone setting as mentioned above. My phone changed time in Jamaica and Cozumel automatically even though it was in Wi-Fi mode only (no cell) the entire cruise.

[ccjunior]

Definitely should check the Compass and RCI tv channel - especially the morning show that runs from 12AM - noon, it gives you quite a bit of useful info.

[TBone2K]

Whether the captain decides to change the ship's time does vary from cruise to cruise. So as others have said watch the Cruise Compass as to what will be happening.

 

If you booked an excursion through the ship, don't worry, they won't let you book a trip outside of when the ship will be there and the ship will wait for your excursion to get back.

 

As for keeping track of ship's time I use my watch.:eek: I try not to take my cell phone around the ship with me since it doesn't work there anyway. Cell phone time will change with the cell signal. So having your data turned off will not stop the time from changing.

Edited June 23, 2016 by TBone2K

[NurseDave]

 

As for keeping track of ship's time I use my watch.:eek: I try not to take my cell phone around the ship with me since it doesn't work there anyway. Cell phone time will change with the cell signal. So having your data turned off will not stop the time from changing.

 

For those that do use their phones as watches, having it in airplane mode will stop the auto time change, or go into your date/time settings and change it to manual update instead of auto.

[Pratique]

For those that do use their phones as watches, having it in airplane mode will stop the auto time change, or go into your date/time settings and change it to manual update instead of auto.

 

Just to be clear, my phone was in airplane mode but with Wi-Fi turned back on. When the ship was in port the time automatically changed even though I was only connected to the ship's Wi-Fi network.

 

Also, just to be clear, Cozumel (and Cancun) are in Eastern Standard Time as of February 2015. This is a relatively recent change. The last time I was in Cancun it was Central time. No longer.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintana_Roo#Time_zone

Edited June 23, 2016 by Pratique

[Norway2]

I was just on the Allure Western Carribian itinerary in May. You always stay on EST. My suggestion is to bring a watch as your phone May adjust to the local time. Have a great cruise!

[rockdoctor]

People will contest this but I think this is just another reason to use cruise line excursions since they run on ship time.

[cruisegirl1]

For those that do use their phones as watches, having it in airplane mode will stop the auto time change, or go into your date/time settings and change it to manual update instead of auto.

 

Just to be clear, my phone was in airplane mode but with Wi-Fi turned back on. When the ship was in port the time automatically changed even though I was only connected to the ship's Wi-Fi network.

 

Also, just to be clear, Cozumel (and Cancun) are in Eastern Standard Time as of February 2015. This is a relatively recent change. The last time I was in Cancun it was Central time. No longer.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintana_Roo#Time_zone

 

 

My phone (iPhone) was on airplane mode the entire time. I used either the ship Wi-Fi or local Wi-Fi's. I went into settings and turned off the automatic time so that once I put my phone on ship time, the time will not change. After the change to one hour back on the first evening, I had to go back into the settings and select the central time rather then Eastern time. I kept me on ship time until the second to the last evening. It was announced that we would be setting our clocks up one hour to get us back to eastern time so I switched the clock again.

 

I took my phone off of airplane mode once we docked in Florida, and also changed back to automatic time. This works great for us, as on previous cruises I did not know about taking the phone off of automatic time. We use the phone for photos and a clock, and it has messed us up on previous cruises.

 

 

Good luck and enjoy

M

Edited June 23, 2016 by cruisegirl1

[constable145]

The ship is always on local time. They will state on the navigator you get at night if they are changing time for the next day.

 

This is wrong.

 

The ship is not always on local time. Example if the Allure leaves FLL and stops in Cozumel they will have staff at the gangway hammering home "stay on ship's time".