Puerto Vallarta Ship Arrival and Departure Times

[VictoriaRealtor]

Hello,

My wife and I were trying to book an early morning tour in Puerto Vallarta, and were struggling to figure out exactly what time our ship would be arriving in port. There is a lot of information out there on the Cruise Critic message boards, from tour operators, and from Royal Caribbean themselves. But we found that if we spoke with different 5 sources, we received 5 different answers. Some said ships time was different, some said it was the same, some ships change their clocks, some don't and that it all depends on which ship you are on. That doesn't help anyone trying to book a tour, because all that really matters is this...what time is it locally, that I will be standing on the dock in Puerto Vallarta.

So I started doing my own research and found the following link to the Puerto Vallarta Port Authority's website which shows all the arrival and departure times for cruise ships in 2009.

http://puertodevallarta.com.mx/Docum...RIO%202009.pdf

So hopefully, anyone reviewing this document will be able to determine what time their cruise ship is going to be in Puerto Vallarta based on what the Port Authority has in it's records.

[MSN-Travelers]

Originally Posted by VictoriaRealtor

Hello,

My wife and I were trying to book an early morning tour in Puerto Vallarta, and were struggling to figure out exactly what time our ship would be arriving in port. There is a lot of information out there on the Cruise Critic message boards, from tour operators, and from Royal Caribbean themselves. But we found that if we spoke with different 5 sources, we received 5 different answers. Some said ships time was different, some said it was the same, some ships change their clocks, some don't and that it all depends on which ship you are on. That doesn't help anyone trying to book a tour, because all that really matters is this...what time is it locally, that I will be standing on the dock in Puerto Vallarta.

So I started doing my own research and found the following link to the Puerto Vallarta Port Authority's website which shows all the arrival and departure times for cruise ships in 2009.

http://puertodevallarta.com.mx/Docum...RIO%202009.pdf

So hopefully, anyone reviewing this document will be able to determine what time their cruise ship is going to be in Puerto Vallarta based on what the Port Authority has in it's records.

I feel your frustration. There is no standardization across cruise lines on this issue. I think you’ll find that all the information is actually correct. You just need to understand that all of the players view the times from a different perspective. The cruise line runs everything aboard ship on “ship’s” time. They tell the port director in Vallarta that they will arrive @ 8 AM and the port director doesn’t care, or ask, if that is local or ship’s time. 8 AM is 8 AM and that is what they publish in the port schedule. That is also what Johann & Sandra read.

I did an advanced forum search for MARINER LOCAL SHIP and got a number of threads that talked about this confusing issue. I pasted a couple of the entries below that were posted by Mariner passengers.

I would assume Mariner will arrive no earlier than 8 AM Vallarta local. However, I believe she will arrive 8 AM ship’s time which is 9 AM local.
Johann & Sandra are not “tour operators”, they are tour brokers. The attractive reason people book through them is their no-port-no-pay policy. If they book you into a 9:15 excursion and the ship arrives too late to make the tour, they will refund your money.
You say, in a different thread’ that you are going on a canopy tour. You don’t say which one so its hard to give you a recommendation on what to do.
If Los Veranos, they start an excursion every hour on the :45 starting at 8:45. Book the 10:45 time slot, off the ship at 10 AM local and taxi direct to the Los Verano office. Skip the “free shuttle” from Collage Disco.


July 23 posting –


From a compass off an April 09 sailing on the Mariner

TIME REMINDER
The time in Puerto Vallarta is one hour ahead of ship's time.
Please stay on ship's time for the entire cruise vacation.

Arrival 8:00 am (Ship's time)
On Board 6:30 pm (Ship's time)
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ```````````````````````

August 1 posting –

PV time change

I was confused too, so I did some more research. This pertains to Royal Caribbean ~~Mariner of the Seas only!! (since that is who we are sailing with.) Someone else will have to confirm Carnivals policy.

We leave San Pedro on Sunday afternoon. At 2am on Monday morning the ship will adjust its clock AHEAD 1 hour. So that when you arrive in Cabo on Tuesday morning, the "ship time" and Local Cabo time will be the same.

When you arrive in Mazatlan on Wednesday, ship time and local MAZ time will be the same. ( No adjustments made during the night.)

But when you arrive in Puerto Vallarta on Thursday the ship will still be on "ship time" but the minute you step on land in PV, the time will jump 1 hour ahead. The ship does not adjust their clock in this port. RCL suggest you keep your watch on "ship time". In PV, the ship and local PV time is 1 hour apart.

If you are booking an excursion on your own in PV, you need to realize that an 11am tour is an 11am tour local PV time. If you are still on the ship at 11am ship time and then get off, it will be 12 noon in PV and you will have missed your tour!!! I hope that clarifies it for you.

However, if you are booking an excursion with the ship's excursion desk then the meeting time that they give you will most likely be given in "ship time" since you will be meeting onboard the ship someplace before they escort you off. So if you are booking with them you don't need to be as concerned about time changes unless you head off on your own in PV in the afternoon.

Then on the way back to San Pedro on Saturday night/Sunday Morning the ship will again adjust their clock BACK 1 hour, so that when you arrive in San Pedro on Sunday morning the ship and local time will be the same.

Hope this helps!

Relax & enjoy!

[goofygame]

From everything I have been told by people who have sailed on the Mariner it depends on who is the Captain. Capain Johnny tends to change the clock, while other Captains tend to keep the same time. So, it all depends on who the Captain is. Good Luck.

[jjb415]

I have sailed on the Mariner with both captains and the situation was the same with each. Ship's arrival in Puerto Vallarta is 9am local time (8am ship's time). As always, this doesn't mean that the captian will not change his mind at some point in the future. Be aware also if you are sailing during the time change in spring and fall things could be different.

[briguy7]

I am doing the Mariner cruise this weekend and this information is all VERY helpful! Thank you so much.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I sailed on the Golden Princess in January 2008 and the time was as stated above - ship changed clocks one hour ahead on the first night - Ship time & local time the same in Cabo & Mazatlan - PV was one hour ahead.

Now I will be on the Mariner in May (after DST begins in LA) and am wondering if it will be the same then? Does Mexico also observe DST?

[MSN-Travelers]

Originally Posted by Sunny AZ Girl

I sailed on the Golden Princess in January 2008 and the time was as stated above - ship changed clocks one hour ahead on the first night - Ship time & local time the same in Cabo & Mazatlan - PV was one hour ahead.

Now I will be on the Mariner in May (after DST begins in LA) and am wondering if it will be the same then? Does Mexico also observe DST?

Yes, Ginny, Mexico does observe DST. They start the first Sunday in April just like the US did before our government screwed things up. Here is the link that shows the world and how other countries do or do not observe DST. http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2010.html

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Thank you. So by May the time difference should be the same as in winter. I wonder how the ship vs. port time will play out for the people caught between US DST & MEX DST (March 14 - April 4).....

[landni]

Here is an email that a fellow poster got from RCL regarding our upcoming trip on the Radiance 11/21/09.

Dear Guest

The ship will be operating on ship time. Once they reach a port of call that has a different time zone the ship will cease to operate on ship time and will resume operations at local time.
Please note if there is a time change in a particular port of call there will be an announcement done onboard the ship the night before so that all our guests may set their watches and become aware of this.

[Jiffymom]

Now that's different than everything I have read. So we do arrive at 8 pv time.

[Jiffymom]

landni will you report back after your cruise?

[Jiffymom]

do we depart 7 pv time or ship time? So confusing.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Originally Posted by landni

Here is an email that a fellow poster got from RCL regarding our upcoming trip on the Radiance 11/21/09.

Dear Guest

The ship will be operating on ship time. Once they reach a port of call that has a different time zone the ship will cease to operate on ship time and will resume operations at local time.
Please note if there is a time change in a particular port of call there will be an announcement done onboard the ship the night before so that all our guests may set their watches and become aware of this.

I think that is very confusing. Not at all what I have experienced in the past.

[VictoriaRealtor]

Originally Posted by briguy7

I am doing the Mariner cruise this weekend and this information is all VERY helpful! Thank you so much.

Hi Briguy7,

Hope you had a great cruise. It sounds like you were leaving for your cruise on Mariner of the Seas on Sunday, November 15th. If you're back, perhaps you could provide a first-hand account of how the time worked out in Puerto Vallarta for those of us that are heading out soon. I've received information from the Port Authority in Puerto Vallarta, from RCCL, tour providers, and from tons of Cruise Critic posters, and it's all different. So I'm hoping for an update from someone on the same ship and itinerary as I'm going on.

Note to other posters, I'm not looking to re-open the debate with this post, I'm just looking for replies from someone who has just returned in the past week or so from PV who sailed on the Mariner of the Seas specifically.

Thanks very much, you're input is greatly appreciated!

[friedmom]

I, too, would greatly appreciate any information from those who have cruised this route in the last few weeks. I just got off the phone with RCI after an extremely unsatisfying and confusing conversation - the bottom line seems to be that even THEY don't really know the answer! The first person with whom I spoke told me very emphatically that ships ALWAYS go by local time - EVERYWHERE. When I asked to speak with someone at the excursion desk, I was told that it was up the captain's discretion and that they would make announcements on board but couldn't make any guarantees in advance, which of course isn't at all helpful for making plans in advance. So input from recent cruisers would really help! Thanks to all.

[VictoriaRealtor]

Hi everyone,

We just got back on Sunday, December 20th from our cruise on Mariner. Had a wonderful cruise. The ship did not change it's time when we arrived in PV. We booked our Los Veranos tour through Puerto Vallarta Tour by Johann and Sandra. They assured us the ship would arrive at 8am local time and we'd have plenty of time to get to our pick-up location at Collage Disco which was to be at 9:15am local time. They were wrong! The ship did not change it's time for PV and we arrived at 9am PV time. Even being the 10th people off the ship, running (literally) to the first cab we could find, jumping in and scrambling to get there, we just barely got to the bus as it was about to pull out. There was no way we could have gotten there any faster than we did. Another cab came racing up behind the bus and we were able to get the very nice bus driver to wait for the people who were also from our ship. The rest of the people coming from Mariner who were on the list missed the tour bus. Not sure what they did.

The Los Veranos tour was amazing, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Our children - son is 9 and daughter is 6, had an amazing time and wanted to do it again as soon as we were done. We only got out of there by promising to bring them back on our next trip. The pick-up at Collage Disco was great and we'll do it again next time.

Next time though we'll book directly through the Los Veranos office rather than bother with Johann and Sandra - while their people were friendly, we didn't appreciate what we went through to get to our tour with our two young children.

Happy sailing to everyone who is on their way soon!

Cheers