Ship time vs island time for booking excursions

[Donsyb]

We will be visiting St Maarten in November on Oasis, and I want to book an excursion with a 3rd party.

 

I believe that St Maarten is 1 hour ahead of ship time - does anyone know if that's correct?  The planner says we dock at 8am, so I'm assuming therefore that we dock at 9am island time and the earliest I should book for is 10am?

[brillohead]

It's up to the Captain what time the ship remains on.

If you tell your private excursion operator what ship you'll be on, they'll know when you're in port.

 

[Donsyb]

ok thanks

[twangster]

Daylight savings time changes in November.  Most Caribbean nations do not observe Daylight Savings Time while the US mainland does so island time differences are not consistent throughout the year.  

[Donsyb]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Daylight savings time changes in November.  Most Caribbean nations do not observe Daylight Savings Time while the US mainland does so island time differences are not consistent throughout the year.  

Right - which is why I specified the cruise is in November in my post so people could advise for that time of year.....

[twangster]

2 minutes ago, Donsyb said:

Right - which is why I specified the cruise is in November in my post so people could advise for that time of year.....

 

Presumably you are visiting St. Maarten on Nov. 17 which is after DST has ended in the US.

 

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sint-maarten/philipsburg

 

St. Maarten is in the AST time zone (and so is San Juan the stop before St. Maarten).  In November the ship will leave Miami and be one hour behind both of these ports of call.

 

No one knows if your Captain will choose to change the ship time for your cruise or not.  

 

In 2021 Oasis visited St. Maarten on Nov. 25 and the ship did not change time to match the ports of call.  

 

 

That is not an accurate measure to predict what will occur in 2022 but it does give you an idea of what has occurred in the past.  

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Daylight savings time changes in November.  Most Caribbean nations do not observe Daylight Savings Time while the US mainland does so island time differences are not consistent throughout the year.  

Not the norm but I've done longer 12-13 nite Cruises in Oct/Nov where Captain changed Ship Time 3 times on that Sailing...

[twangster]

Just now, ONECRUISER said:

Not the norm but I've done longer 12-13 nite Cruises in Oct/Nov where Captain changed Ship Time 3 times on that Sailing...

 

I did a B2B that went to the same ports.  On one cruise the ship time changed.  For the other cruise it did not.  Same Captain, same HD.  🤷‍♂️ YMMV.  

[cruiseguy1016]

Ship time vs. island time can vary from ship to ship or even cruise to cruise. The local tour operators know what time the various ships are in port, they will adjust their excursion accordingly. Regardless of what time your excursion starts and ends, the ship will leave at the designated departure time. Make sure you know what ship time is before getting off the ship so you'll know what time you have to be back.

[NateUpNorth]

5 hours ago, Donsyb said:

We will be visiting St Maarten in November on Oasis, and I want to book an excursion with a 3rd party.

 

I believe that St Maarten is 1 hour ahead of ship time - does anyone know if that's correct?  The planner says we dock at 8am, so I'm assuming therefore that we dock at 9am island time and the earliest I should book for is 10am?

 

We've encountered this before.
I usually go straight to the Port Schedule online provided by the Homeport. That'll tell you what time "locally" you'll be docking. In our experience this is also what a local tour provider schedules around.

https://gls.portstmaarten.sx/sxm/MainMenu.aspx?ShipScheduleType=2