More port time misinformation

[Dan83]

This has been covered but there is plenty of conflicting information on this board and from the cruise lines and travel agents.  I have a good understanding of time zones and their relationship to UTC, Greenwich Mean Time,  Zulu time, etc.  Throw in daylight savings time, no problem.  I just want a simple CORRECT answer to port times listed on cruise itineraries. I already know "ship times" stay in departure port times for most caribbean cruises.  Let me provide an example.  Forget about daylight savings, we are in standard time.  Two Royal Caribbean ships have itineraries to arrive in Cozumel at 7 am.  One is sailing from Florida(EST), the other from Texas(CST). A local sitting on the pier is watching ships arrive.  Cozumel being in the Eastern time zone, the local's watch reads 7 am for the ship arriving from Florida.  An hour later(8am local), he sees the ship from Texas arrive as scheduled.  This is what I believe to be correct.  However, the cruise line representative and my travel agent both say that the Texas and Florida ships both arrive at 7 am local Cozumel time.  Websites that list the Cozumel port schedule have both ships arriving at 7 am local. An experienced local that we are meeting is confident that our Texas ship will arrive at 7 am Cozumel time.  Yes it may be trivial information.  And it doesn't matter at all because we have plenty of time to do what we want to do.  And yes I know how to set my watch and get back to the ship in time.  My curious mind just needs to get some facts on the subject.  

[BillOh]

My advice, keep in in mind, and listen to the Cruise Directors show the night before your port arrival.   I've been to Cozumel 5 times and I've seen it done or mentioned both ways.  Particularly with Cozumel . i dont' worry about it too much as all the port personnel are aware and I just make sure I know for sure the moment I get off the ship. 

[Clarea]

Royal says that the cruise itinerary schedules that are published pre-cruise are supposed to be using local time at that port.

[sparks1093]

34 minutes ago, Dan83 said:

However, the cruise line representative and my travel agent both say that the Texas and Florida ships both arrive at 7 am local Cozumel time.  Websites that list the Cozumel port schedule have both ships arriving at 7 am local. An experienced local that we are meeting is confident that our Texas ship will arrive at 7 am Cozumel time.  

Based on this I would count on both ships arriving at 7 am Cozumel time.

Edited February 27, 2019 by sparks1093

[NateUpNorth]

16 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Based on this I would count on both ships arriving at 7 am Cozumel time.

 

Google the local port authority, or local resource, and their docking times. That will tell you conclusively what "island time" you will be arriving at, regardless of what the ship time is.

 

We use this strategy when booking any excursion through a local provider. I believe the cruise company is intentionally vague to create more demand for their excursion desk.

 

For example:

https://www.infobonaire.com/getting-to-bonaire/cruises/  

http://crew-center.com/willemstad-curacao-cruise-ship-schedule-2019

 

Edit - sorry, quoted wrong post. Meant to quote OP.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by NateUpNorth

[LeeW]

Most of the time we see the ship changing to local time for Cozumel, only a few times have we seen the ship stay on embarkation port time for a whole cruise.  We do see no time change more often going east when US is on Daylight Saving and islands are on Atlantic because EDT and AST are the same.  Heading west we almost always see ship time changing to local.  Not sure where you got the idea that most ships keep the embarkation port time.

[ZoeyVictoria]

As I was leaving a ship in December (on another cruiseline), I realized that I wasn’t sure about the time listed on my excursion ticket.  I asked the employee who was just inside the gangway what time it was and he indicated that it was an hour later than ship time and I had already missed my excursion.  Another passenger overheard us and stated that the employee was wrong.  We proceeded to the meeting place and the organizer said that we were an hour early and should return in an hour.  We went back 45 minutes later and saw our group walking away, so we just barely made the excursion.  The time differences would not be nearly so difficult if ship and port employees were qualified to offer guidance.

[Dan83]

There is indeed conflicting information out there.  Every port schedule website I've looked at validates what everyone here is saying. The reason for my thinking is because last year we had a stop in Roatan.  Roatan was an hour behind US central time because they don't do daylight savings time.  Itinerary had us in port 8 am to 5 pm.  All aboard was 4:30 ship time.  They warned us many times that if our phones may update to local time.  All aboard was in fact 3:30 local Roatan time, 4:30 ship time.  I can see how that could be a pitfall if you're not paying attention.  I figured it would be the same situation in Cozumel with them being 1 hour ahead of CST. 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, LeeW said:

Most of the time we see the ship changing to local time for Cozumel, only a few times have we seen the ship stay on embarkation port time for a whole cruise.  We do see no time change more often going east when US is on Daylight Saving and islands are on Atlantic because EDT and AST are the same.  Heading west we almost always see ship time changing to local.  Not sure where you got the idea that most ships keep the embarkation port time.

Over 20 Caribbean cruises at all times of the years. Eastern and Western, embarking from multiple places, and I have NEVER had a ship change time to port time, all itineraries I have  been on have always stayed on embarkation Port time. 

Edited February 27, 2019 by not-enough-cruising

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Over 20 Caribbean cruises at all times of the years. Eastern and Western, embarking from multiple places, and I have NEVER had a ship change time to port time, ahiosninjabe been on have always stayed on embarkation Port time. 

 

We just changed time last week on Adventure.  We were on Eastern time when we left Port Everglades and went to Atlantic time after Labadee.

[CarpeCerevisi]

Try being at Labadee with two ships docked, one on EST and the other on AST, i.e. an hour different. People from one ship had 9:00 excursion tickets and people from the other had 10:00 tickets and all were showing up at the same time on shore.

[SRF]

22 hours ago, Dan83 said:

This has been covered but there is plenty of conflicting information on this board and from the cruise lines and travel agents.  I have a good understanding of time zones and their relationship to UTC, Greenwich Mean Time,  Zulu time, etc.  Throw in daylight savings time, no problem.  I just want a simple CORRECT answer to port times listed on cruise itineraries. I already know "ship times" stay in departure port times for most caribbean cruises.  Let me provide an example.  Forget about daylight savings, we are in standard time.  Two Royal Caribbean ships have itineraries to arrive in Cozumel at 7 am.  One is sailing from Florida(EST), the other from Texas(CST). A local sitting on the pier is watching ships arrive.  Cozumel being in the Eastern time zone, the local's watch reads 7 am for the ship arriving from Florida.  An hour later(8am local), he sees the ship from Texas arrive as scheduled.  This is what I believe to be correct.  However, the cruise line representative and my travel agent both say that the Texas and Florida ships both arrive at 7 am local Cozumel time.  Websites that list the Cozumel port schedule have both ships arriving at 7 am local. An experienced local that we are meeting is confident that our Texas ship will arrive at 7 am Cozumel time.  Yes it may be trivial information.  And it doesn't matter at all because we have plenty of time to do what we want to do.  And yes I know how to set my watch and get back to the ship in time.  My curious mind just needs to get some facts on the subject.  

 

What you know is not that correct.

 

Two cruises to Bermuda, ship changed time to Bermuda time.

 

As has been mentioned, port times on itineraries is local time.

[HBE4]

Over my 8 cruises in 3 different time zones, never once has the ship's time been changed to local time. All of the SHIP's excursions were listed in the Cruise Compass were ship time.

 

However, since some of the more frequent cruisers reported different experiences, all I can add is the RCI is Really Consistently Inconsistent.

 

Since you asked about Cozumel specifically:

 

https://thisiscozumel.com/tourist-info/91-transport/1114-cruise-ship-time

 

 

[hancock]

It is up to the Captain to decide the time on the ship.

[ShillyShally]

15 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

We just changed time last week on Adventure.  We were on Eastern time when we left Port Everglades and went to Atlantic time after Labadee.

LOL am I the only one that somehow feels I'm losing an hour of vacation when this happens- doesn't matter that I know we'll get the hour back again on return (or lose it if so the case).  Just something that inevitably I always think of when this happens on board 🙂

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, ShillyShally said:

LOL am I the only one that somehow feels I'm losing an hour of vacation when this happens- doesn't matter that I know we'll get the hour back again on return (or lose it if so the case).  Just something that inevitably I always think of when this happens on board 🙂

 

I was surprised that they waited until the last night to move back to Eastern time, because our last two days were sea days.  However, maybe they have learned that those who missed the time change were getting up an hour earlier, so ultimately it tends to get people off the ship earlier.

[ShillyShally]

2 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I was surprised that they waited until the last night to move back to Eastern time, because our last two days were sea days.  However, maybe they have learned that those who missed the time change were getting up an hour earlier, so ultimately it tends to get people off the ship earlier.

I've had that happen too and always wonder if the last night is the safest night to do that though I expect since they'll put us off the ship whether we are ready or not it's likely they've found that's the easiest time to do it!

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

I've had that happen too and always wonder if the last night is the safest night to do that though I expect since they'll put us off the ship whether we are ready or not it's likely they've found that's the easiest time to do it!

 

I suspect that if they were moving the clock forward, they would not do that on the last night.

[Grandma Dazzles]

Always super careful on this.  I wear a watch to make sure cell phone doesn’t adjust to local time and still have had questions.  I always check my watch with ship’s time and read Compass carefully. Still have had problems/questions.

 

Sailed one time and realized we had friends on a different RC in port on the same day.  We arranged to meet at the end of the pier at a certain time planning to have lunch/drink.  Our two ships, both RC, were an hour apart in their time.  Guest services said it was the Captain’s choice as to whether to stay on ship’s time or local time. We missed our friends originally, but were able to find them after a discussion about time. 

[John&LaLa]

Oasis tends to arrive first, and leave first in my extensive experience at Cozumel. 

 

Is it an hour, maybe.

[ShillyShally]

26 minutes ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

Always super careful on this.  I wear a watch to make sure cell phone doesn’t adjust to local time and still have had questions.  I always check my watch with ship’s time and read Compass carefully. Still have had problems/questions.

 

Sailed one time and realized we had friends on a different RC in port on the same day.  We arranged to meet at the end of the pier at a certain time planning to have lunch/drink.  Our two ships, both RC, were an hour apart in their time.  Guest services said it was the Captain’s choice as to whether to stay on ship’s time or local time. We missed our friends originally, but were able to find them after a discussion about time. 

Sheesh, in port it won't be "Can you hear me now?" it will be "What time is it for you?" 

I try to make sure my world clock feature on the tab in clock app on the iphone has my local hometown and/or departure port town (if different time zone than home) and when getting off in port confirm a few different ways if that is a different time and find a city to add to my app that has that time and just remember if they differ.

 

Maybe with the new WOW bands they should add a clock on them that stays in sync with the ship - I know pipe dream and they wouldn't be the one who I'd trust to ensure it always worked!