Time changes

[Poppetsmum]

Hi all, out of interest when you’re on a transpacific cruise from USA to Australia or vice versa how do they handle the time changes? 

[hallasm]

Might depend on cruise line. My experience is change during night at 2 am west bound when gaining hours and at noon when sailing east bound when loosing hours.

[CruiserBruce]

Definitely depends on the cruise line.

[wcook]

Must be fun sailing Eastward across the date line. You go to sleep on Tuesday and when you wake up, you’ve got a whole another Tuesday. 

[StollyBolly]

I can only speak of time changes on trans Atlantic.   It was a breeze.  So much better changing gently on a ship one hour at a time than on a plane with 8-10 hours at once.  
 

 

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, Poppetsmum said:

Hi all, out of interest when you’re on a transpacific cruise from USA to Australia or vice versa how do they handle the time changes? 

 

On a westbound cruise from North America to Australia, the cloxs are put back on multiple nights. On this type of cruise, most changes are 1 hr per night. The objective is to keep Meridian Altitude, when the sun is at the highest point, close to Noon (ship's time). Most cruise lines also endeavour to have the ship at the correct local time in each port. When cloxs go back, my experience is the change is always implemented at 02:00.

 

Depending on ports of call, you may cross the International Date Line (IDL) multiple times, but they usually only adjust the ship's date once. Westbound you miss a day, putting cloxs ahead by 24 hrs. 

 

When sailing eastbound from Australia to North America, the cloxs are put ahead on multiple dates. The same objectives, as per westbound sailings, drive the time changes. However, some Masters will adjust the cloxs at Noon, or close to Noon, rather than the more traditional 02:00. While this has a pax benefit of not losing sleep, it is primarily to assist with managing the mandated crew hours of rest.

 

Crossing the IDL, you gain a day, so cloxs are put back by 24 hrs, so you experience the same date twice.

[MBP&O2/O]

Once closed the IDL on Xmas day, the Old Man wouldn't let me advance the clocks and miss out the 25th ... had to do it on the 26th instead. As it was the European ratings missed out on statutory overtime payments on the 26th so the books had to be cooked.

[evandbob]

3 hours ago, StollyBolly said:

I can only speak of time changes on trans Atlantic.   It was a breeze.  So much better changing gently on a ship one hour at a time than on a plane with 8-10 hours at once.  
 

 

If it was "a breeze" for you, great.  However, we're all different, and my experience with an E/B TA was horrible.  We skipped 5 hours ahead in 6 days, and I was on breakfast time and the ship was almost finished serving lunch!

 

I can handle the W/B gaining an hour on sea days better.  And if I'm flying, I can sleep on a red eye and not feel weird at my destination.

 

Just my experience.....viva le difference.....

[fruitmachine]

1 hour ago, evandbob said:

If it was "a breeze" for you, great.  However, we're all different, and my experience with an E/B TA was horrible.  We skipped 5 hours ahead in 6 days, and I was on breakfast time and the ship was almost finished serving lunch!

 

I can handle the W/B gaining an hour on sea days better.  And if I'm flying, I can sleep on a red eye and not feel weird at my destination.

 

Just my experience.....viva le difference.....

Experiments where they put a group of people in a cave or salt mine with no clocks for a month or more see them naturally moving to a long day of roughly 25-26 hours, but different experiments have turned up quite a big range above that.

 

I don't think any have been 24 or less, showing why gaining an hour a day is so much easier than losing an hour a day.

[sleepingcat]

our experience westbound from NZ back to the UK, the ship's daily newsletter gave advance warning each time there was to be a time change the next night.  be aware that the ship's time may not always be the local time where the ship is. And on that trip we also crossed the equator as you would also between Aus and the US. 

[wcook]

7 hours ago, sleepingcat said:

And on that trip we also crossed the equator as you would also between Aus and the US. 

Was there any sort of fun ritual? 

[CruiserBruce]

28 minutes ago, wcook said:

Was there any sort of fun ritual? 

There was as we sailed from Lima, Peru to San Diego. A lot of fun.

[Hlitner]

Bunch of winers :).  This week we flew from Washington, DC to Tokyo (via London).  Within 1 day of traveling we changed 13 time zones (Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of EDT).  When we have done cruises, having to change an hour a day or perhaps every 2 days is hardly worth mentioning.

 

We have done TAs and Trans Pacifics on multiple cruise lines and the procedure can vary not only by line by sometimes by ship (the Captain is truly the Master and can set his/her own rules).  When moving the clock ahead (east bound) we prefer the daytime procedure (usually they jump from Noon to 1pm).  This idea (who some claim was initially started by Captain Albert Schoonderbeek of HAL) seems to have gained in popularity.  We have had two captains (other than Captain "Albert") tell us they should get the credit for the noon changes :).

 

By the way, the noon change was arguably done more for the crew's sake than the passengers.  Losing an hour's sleep is a real issue for some crew (especially those who work in the food service Department).  

 

Hank

[whogo]

15 hours ago, wcook said:

Was there any sort of fun ritual [Crossing the equator]?

There usually is a King Neptune ceremony where polliwogs become shellbacks through some minor hazing of willing passengers. I swam a length of the pool, kissed the fish and received a certificate suitable for framing. Crew members were slathered with food gunk before going into the pool.

[Donald]

Time zone changes are really done for the crew's benefit - but not in the way you might think.

Going westbound, the clock changes usually changes at night, giving everyone an extra hour of sleep.

This rarely causes much drama for guests or crew.

Going eastbound, losing one hour of sleep at night quickly gets passengers very grumpy. After 4 or 5 changes, they are all in a foul mood and complaining about nearly everything. The crew have a much more difficult time with them.

On Eastbound trips, changing the clock at 2pm does not interfere with Breakfast or Lunch timing. The only downsides are: The hotel crew have a shorter afternoon break, and the passengers are not so hungry at dinner time. The ship actually saves money on food cost as people tend to eat less.

[MBP&O2/O]

Our clock changes were always at 0100 to advance one hour or 0200 to retard one hour.

The object was to keep nautical noon as near as possible to 1200.

Crew welfare never entered in to it, it was a purely operational decision. Those who were keeping watches ie 4 on 8 off, had to adapt accordingly, 20 minutes each on the three night watches.

[whogo]

If you rely on your cell phone to tell time, learn how to adjust for time changes when you have no cell connection.

[Markanddonna]

One captain changed the times at noon. He felt it gave his crew more sleeping time and that they weren't constantly sleep-deprived.

[Subman738]

We did hour adjustments at midnight during a MIA-SAN Panama Canal cruise as we crossed the various time zones. 

[Donald]

On 3/21/2023 at 12:55 PM, Markanddonna said:

One captain changed the times at noon. He felt it gave his crew more sleeping time and that they weren't constantly sleep-deprived.

If the ship is heading East, changing the clock at noon gives the crew more sleep at night - but less sleep on their afternoon break, and less time on their afternoon coffee time. It also saves food cost as many pax are not very hungry at the earlier dinner time.

 

If the ship is heading West, changing the clock at night still gives everyone plenty of sleep, without shortening or lengthening the time between lunch and dinner.