Ship time vs Local time

[Illinois cruiser]

I am trying to book an excursion and the tour operators are asking if we stay on ship time or on local time. Does anyone know the answer? St. Thomas is an hour later than the time zone of fort Lauderdale. I called Royal Caribbean and the girl I spoke with did not know the answer!!

[rbenson09]

always ship time!

 

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[tusconcam]

Hi there. A great question that I'm trying to get figured out as well.

 

Last year I was on the Oasis of the Seas on a Western Caribbean itinerary and we left from Fort Lauderdale too. I believe we stayed on ship's time and of course everybody in the know (and all on this board) will say to stay on ship's time when you are aiming for a time to get back onboard after a day in port. So last yr I stayed on Eastern Daylight Savings Time (as those on EST Spring ahead an hr in March and we were traveling late April). I don't recall any real discrepancies in time except maybe Cozumel where we got off the ship as soon as possible as we had booked a non-RCCL tour and wanted to be there on time. We did get there early; but better that than late.

 

This year I am going on the Harmony of the Seas A29-M6th and the ship's time should as well be EDST. We are going on an Eastern Caribbean swing stopping at Nassau, St, Thomas and St. Kitts.

I have been asking Q's to RCL with not very clear answrs as well wrt time and time differences.

I spoke to my Travel Agent and she said that the Arrival time at each Port is the Local time and not Ship's time. I had to find out if there was any difference between ship's time and the local times on this trip. Nassau is in the EST zone and follows the spring ahead to EDST so I believe the ship's time is the same as Nassau's time (good).

 

St. Thomas and St. Kitts are both in the Atlantic Standard Time zone which is normally 1 hr ahead of EST, but since EST zone states/provinces,countries have moved ahead 1 hr I am told that St. Thomas and St. Kitts at the time of my cruise will be the same as Ship's Time. (also very good).

 

When in communication with a Tour operator in St. Kitts, he said that his meeting time was Local time. he said that he didn't know the ship's times, which surprised me as he must know when my ship arrived in port so he could offer his tour at a time that would work for the masses on this huge ship.

 

Sorry for the wordiness.

When are you going? Is it during EST or after EDST?

 

I hope some of it helps a bit.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

[zqvol]

I am trying to book an excursion and the tour operators are asking if we stay on ship time or on local time. Does anyone know the answer? St. Thomas is an hour later than the time zone of fort Lauderdale. I called Royal Caribbean and the girl I spoke with did not know the answer!!

 

It all depends on when you are going and what line you are sailing. Some lines change ship time to match local time. When the US is observing daylight savings time east coast time is the same as STT time. When you can answer those two questions we can get you an answer that is more meaningful.

 

BTW you should always stay on ship time, the question you are really asking is does ship time match local time, or is it different?

Edited December 15, 2016 by zqvol

[diane.in.ny]

I have never been on a ship where ship time did not match local time.

 

And I have been on over 30 cruises.

[Illinois cruiser]

It all depends on when you are going and what line you are sailing. Some lines change ship time to match local time. When the US is observing daylight savings time east coast time is the same as STT time. When you can answer those two questions we can get you an answer that is more meaningful.

 

BTW you should always stay on ship time, the question you are really asking is does ship time match local time, or is it different?

Going on allure of the seas in january