Is the ship time same as port time?

Sailing on Caribbean Princess end of March, just wondering if the ship time will be same as the ports time.

Unfortunately the only honest answer is maybe yes, maybe no. Always check on disembarkation at Port.

Daylight Savings time in the US starts next weekend; at 2AM Sunday morning March 8 we "spring forward". But as Cayman Islands and Jamaica do not observe DST, ship's time would have to go back one hour after leaving Ft Lauderdale if they wish to be same as port time--not something that was necessary during the winter.

So will they or won't they? My experience in sailing the odd weeks where US Standard-Time-vs-DST is out of sync with Mexico and the Caribbean nations which move their clocks at different dates or not at all (I've been on such cruises in both the spring and fall) is that there was at least one port with ship time not matching port time. But as always, "maybe" is the best answer.

Daylight Savings time in the US starts next weekend; at 2AM Sunday morning March 8 we "spring forward". But as Cayman Islands and Jamaica do not observe DST, ship's time would have to go back one hour after leaving Ft Lauderdale if they wish to be same as port time--not something that was necessary during the winter.

 

So will they or won't they? My experience in sailing the odd weeks where US Standard-Time-vs-DST is out of sync with Mexico and the Caribbean nations which move their clocks at different dates or not at all (I've been on such cruises in both the spring and fall) is that there was at least one port with ship time not matching port time. But as always, "maybe" is the best answer.

We have the same issue in Australia, last time I cruised to Queensland they didn't change the time, so there was an hour difference and not in a good way in that when the ship said 6:00 on land said 5:00 so it was possible to be late back if you weren't careful.

But on a cruise to Tasmania when we were out of Sync, so a few years back now, they did change the ship time, same ship, and purely by coincidence same captain [he'd been on a couple of ships in between].

Wear a watch when off the ship and have it set to ship time so that you don't miss the ship when it sails. It has been my experience that the ship will change time at 2:00 AM to match the next port time but that has not always been true. They will not shift ship time every night so it depends on where you will be going. They will put a note on your bed after it is prepared for the night reminding you of the time change and will have it in the patter.

On our recent cruise from LA to Rio I think we changed our clocks 7 times during the cruise. The ship always ran with the port time.:)

On Princess, the ship's clocks have always been set to local time.

On Princess, the ship's clocks have always been set to local time.

On Princess We have been on many cruises where the ships time was a hour difference and have been on the ship when they switched time the night before. Pay attention when on the ship they will let you know don't listen to people on here.

The ship time is always the same as the port of call. The ship always lets the pax's know when it move into another time zone. Also just turn on the TV and go to the ships information Channel to get the current time.

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On Princess, the ship's clocks have always been set to local time.

The ship time is always the same as the port of call.

Those are some pretty bold statements.

So on the various Princess cruises I have been on with ship's time different from port time in Limon, Cozumel, Huatulco and Princess Cays--was I hallucinating that fact or did Princess put such information prominently and boldly in the Patter just to mess with everyone's minds?

The ship time is always the same as the port of call. The ship always lets the pax's know when it move into another time zone. Also just turn on the TV and go to the ships information Channel to get the current time.

 

This is not always true. I have had local time and ship time be different. I wish it wasn't so but I have had several incidents where the times are different.

The ship time is always the same as the port of call.

Not so. :o

I agree that the ship's time is not ALWAYS the same as port time. Most of the time it is, but there are exceptions. We were on a Mexican Riviera cruise awhile back when the ship did not change to Central time for the Puerto Vallarta day, since the ports before and after were on Mountain Time. We received notices that ship's time would be one hour different from local time, and to please keep that in mind when onshore.

On Princess, the ship's clocks have always been set to local time.

Except not always!