Ship vs. Port Time: What's the Difference? (Heading to Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico)

[FirstTimeCruiser27]

Hello everyone, I want to understand the difference between ship time and port time.

 

If a ship is scheduled to depart at 17:00 (5:00 PM), and I've set my watch to the local time of the port, can I be confident that I'm aligned with the ship's departure time?

 

Specifically, I'm curious if there's any difference between the port time and the local time in Mexico (I am going to Costa Maya and Cozumel on Carnival Jubilee). 

[d9704011]

5 minutes ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

If a ship is scheduled to depart at 17:00 (5:00 PM), and I've set my watch to the local time of the port, can I be confident that I'm aligned with the ship's departure time?

No.  This is something you'll need to verify before leaving the ship. And, BTW, your departure time will be whatever the ship time is being kept.  Don't set your watch to local time.

[FirstTimeCruiser27]

Thank you, d9704011. I'll confirm the time before leaving the ship and keep my watch on ship time to ensure I don't miss the ship. Your advice is appreciated.

[leaveitallbehind]

20 minutes ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

Thank you, d9704011. I'll confirm the time before leaving the ship and keep my watch on ship time to ensure I don't miss the ship. Your advice is appreciated.

There will be multiple notifications and announcements on board prior to each port confirming ship time, especially noting if there is any difference between ship time and port time.  This will include a sign at the departure door prior to leaving the ship.  In other words it will be rather difficult not to know the ship time in each port. And as mentioned it is critical while in port to be certain you are following ship time.

 

It should also be noted that ship time is at the discretion of the Captain and may not always be the same in every port from one itinerary to the next. But it is not a complicated issue for the passengers as it is, as mentioned, clearly stated.

Edited December 20, 2023 by leaveitallbehind

[1025cruise]

Since you mention Carnival, they generally don't change the time to match the ports. However, I believe all of your ports are on Central time.

[leaveitallbehind]

9 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Since you mention Carnival, they generally don't change the time to match the ports.

I realize you say "generally", but would that apply when sailing closed loop from the east coast of the US with multiple days in Bermuda, which is in a time zone one hour ahead?  In our experience with RCCL & Celebrity, they change the time the night before arrival and night after (Bermuda) departure to match the local time for the three days there.  Just curious.

Edited December 20, 2023 by leaveitallbehind

[leaveitallbehind]

Just for the sake of the discussion for newer cruisers, I had mentioned that ship time is at the Captain's discretion.  It is my understanding that this decision is based on the convenience to the crew, not the passengers.  Obviously, the thousands of crew members on board have their daily routines and work requirements based on a time schedule, which is the ship time and is typically based on the departure and return port time zone for closed loop itineraries.

 

It can be very disruptive to these many crew members to have to adjust their work day schedule periodically during the week based on ports of call that may be in a different time zone than the departure port.  It is far less disruptive to have the passengers take note of a possible difference in time and adjust their activities in port for that day accordingly. 

 

Besides, all ship based excursions take the time difference into consideration with their schedule, so there is nothing the passenger has to adjust for.  It is only those passengers on their own in port that need to take note of ship v local time and plan accordingly.

Edited December 20, 2023 by leaveitallbehind

[Essiesmom]

Little wrinkles, seasonal.  FYI, Carnival is the only cruise line I have sailed that does not change their clocks to local time.  That said, time difference may depend on the time of year.  For instance, in the winter when we are on standard time, cruises from the eastern time zone are on the same time as the Yucatán peninsula.  But when DST starts, we are an hour ahead.  Coming from Texas, you currently may be an hour behind Yucatán, but once you go onto DST you might be the same.  I realize it is confusing.  EM

[d9704011]

10 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Little wrinkles, seasonal.  FYI, Carnival is the only cruise line I have sailed that does not change their clocks to local time.  That said, time difference may depend on the time of year.  For instance, in the winter when we are on standard time, cruises from the eastern time zone are on the same time as the Yucatán peninsula.  But when DST starts, we are an hour ahead.  Coming from Texas, you currently may be an hour behind Yucatán, but once you go onto DST you might be the same.  I realize it is confusing.  EM

I am currently on the Sky Princess; today we went to Grand Turk (unfortunately, couldn't tie up due to weather) but did not adjust the ship's clock to local time.  This was the first time on Princess that I experienced this.  A notification was left in all the cabins advising passengers that this would be the case and judge themselves accordingly for getting back onboard for departure.

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

Hello everyone, I want to understand the difference between ship time and port time.

In my experience, few ships (cruise or otherwise) do not use anything other than local time. Local time is the easiest for all concerned to understand and follow.

As a passenger, if you’ve got an iPhone or something else with a World Clock and a true GPS receiver, know that the GPS functions even with no cellular or wifi. However, on its own, the GPS may take a bit longer to get a “fix” (particularly at sea).

 

Might I suggest that, if your ship uses local time and you don’t want to make manual adjustments for each time zone encountered during the cruise, make sure your phone is set to do automatic time zone adjustments. While home, double check that your date and time align with the reality at home. Once that’s verified, add your home city to your World Clock app. Then add each port you’ll encounter as well as  exemplar cities on your known or guesstimated midnight longitude for each sea day (e.g., Alaska time for one of your sea days enroute to Hawaii from San Francisco).

In that way, even without cellular and wifi service, your phone’s World Clock will always show the correct time in each port and each sea day’s estimated longitudinal land location.

The attached pic shows the beginning of a World Clock setup for a transPacific cruise (just needs a place listing for each missing hour. 

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, d9704011 said:

I am currently on the Sky Princess; today we went to Grand Turk (unfortunately, couldn't tie up due to weather) but did not adjust the ship's clock to local time.  This was the first time on Princess that I experienced this.  A notification was left in all the cabins advising passengers that this would be the case and judge themselves accordingly for getting back onboard for departure.

 

Wow, I'm shocked to read that a Princess ship didn't synch the cloxs to shore time. Certainly isn't the company I used to work for. Just out of interest, where is the Master from?

[FirstTimeCruiser27]

Essiesmom and leaveitallbehind  My upcoming trip on the Carnival Jubilee is from Galveston, Texas, I plan to explore Costa Maya with an independent excursion company popular among cruise passengers. Also, I'll visit Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel, which is also popular and independent of the ship.

 

Thanks all for the information about the time differences between the ship and local time. I'll adjust my schedule to ensure I return to the ship on time after using independent companies.

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

In my experience, few ships (cruise or otherwise) do not use anything other than local time. Local time is the easiest for all concerned to understand and follow.

 

Oops! Meant to say:

…few ships (cruise or otherwise) use anything other than local time.

[d9704011]

33 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Wow, I'm shocked to read that a Princess ship didn't synch the cloxs to shore time. Certainly isn't the company I used to work for. Just out of interest, where is the Master from?

Captain Marco Fortezze; I believe he's originally from Genoa, Italy.

[1025cruise]

6 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

I realize you say "generally", but would that apply when sailing closed loop from the east coast of the US with multiple days in Bermuda, which is in a time zone one hour ahead?  In our experience with RCCL & Celebrity, they change the time the night before arrival and night after (Bermuda) departure to match the local time for the three days there.  Just curious.

I believe in this situation that yes, the time will change. Same for Alaska.

I just know that in a general sense, Carnival keeps shiptime to the same as the homeport.

However, it is always up to the captain. I was on a cruise that changed times. The following week, it was reported that they didn't.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Captain Marco Fortezze; I believe he's originally from Genoa, Italy.

 

Thanks, I figured it wasn't one of the British Masters.

[Honolulu Blue]

17 hours ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

Hello everyone, I want to understand the difference between ship time and port time.

 

If a ship is scheduled to depart at 17:00 (5:00 PM), and I've set my watch to the local time of the port, can I be confident that I'm aligned with the ship's departure time?

 

Specifically, I'm curious if there's any difference between the port time and the local time in Mexico (I am going to Costa Maya and Cozumel on Carnival Jubilee). 

Both Cozumel and Costa Maya are in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which is on Eastern Standard Time all year.  During the fall and winter, local time matches the eastern US.  During the rest of the year, it matches the central US (at least the parts that use DST).

 

I know that Galveston is in the Central Time Zone; therefore, it will be an hour behind both ports.  I'm pretty sure the Jubilee will be on Galveston time throughout its shorter cruises.  Plan accordingly.

[thinfool]

If you are on Princess and using their app for your shipboard activities, the 'ship time' is displayed in the upper left corner of the app's home page.  For the ports that you described  the ship time will, as others have said, be EST until we adjust to EDT in March.  

[FirstTimeCruiser27]

I'm looking at websites like CruiseMapper.com to track cruise ship schedules, including arrival and departure times.

 

How do these websites determine when a cruise ship arrives or departs? Also, is the information on these sites, especially regarding time schedules, accurate? If you've used CruiseMapper.com or similar sites, what are your experiences?

[fruitmachine]

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

I'm looking at websites like CruiseMapper.com to track cruise ship schedules, including arrival and departure times.

 

How do these websites determine when a cruise ship arrives or departs? Also, is the information on these sites, especially regarding time schedules, accurate? If you've used CruiseMapper.com or similar sites, what are your experiences?

Generally, all they do is screen-scrape the details from the cruise lines' websites, or interrogate their TA APIs. Sometimes schedule changes take time to be reflected (and sometimes they never make it).

 

Detail is often lacking.  For Edinburgh, which I know best, they lump all four ports in a single entry.  This is because some cruise lines show the specific port on their itinerary and some do not; lumping them together means that they are always correct but less specific.

[leaveitallbehind]

8 hours ago, FirstTimeCruiser27 said:

Also, is the information on these sites, especially regarding time schedules, accurate? If you've used CruiseMapper.com or similar sites, what are your experiences?

If you are looking at these sites for information relative to any specific cruise that you may be on, the information provided by the cruise line and the published itinerary is all that is necessary to have and would be the most accurate.  

 

Otherwise, the only value IMO in these sites in terms of potentially useful Information would be relative to other ships that would be intended to be in port with our ship at the different ports of call on our itinerary.  

[SbbquilterUT]

Love to travel - learned to wear an inexpensive traditional watch so that it can be adjusted easily.  Do not rely on your cell phone for an accurate time if you set it to automatic time update.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

52 minutes ago, SbbquilterUT said:

Love to travel - learned to wear an inexpensive traditional watch so that it can be adjusted easily.  Do not rely on your cell phone for an accurate time if you set it to automatic time update.  

Already posted about using the “world clock” on, at least, an iphone. No need to turn off automatic time zone correction. As long as your home time zone in the world clock was/is correct, each port location you add to your list will show correct local time.

[SbbquilterUT]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Already posted about using the “world clock” on, at least, an iphone. No need to turn off automatic time zone correction. As long as your home time zone in the world clock was/is correct, each port location you add to your list will show correct local time.

Thanks - I do not want to change to local time so turning it off works for me.  I keep manual watch on ship time to reduce a chance for any confusion in my brain 😎

[MWarren3549]

NO!  Never change your watch to local time.  ALWAYS keep it on 'Ship' time.  The difference is:  Getting back to the ship EARLY or becoming a pier runner and most likely missing the ship and finding your things on the dock.