Clock change through time zones

Whenever you leave from Florida, be it Eastern or Western, you always seem to have to change your clocks to match local time of the next port. Typically the time is changed the night prior to arriving at the port. What bugs me, is that when you lose an hour during your cruise, the cruise ships seem to give it back during the last sleep before disembarkation. I get that it gives them an extra hour of working time, but wouldn't it be neat to get that hour back while you're awake to enjoy it? They don't suggest to return to Florida time when they cross the timeline, they return time during the wee morning hours of disembarkation.

Each day has 24 hours, no matter what time the clock says. No one can “take” time away, or “give” time back.

Why not stay up an hour later? Problem solved.

Not sure what your problem/complaint is. Many cruises never change time for shorter cruises especially to the Caribbean. They stay on ship's time. No messing with specific islands, daylight savings time, etc. That's why people end up being confused and/or pier runners.

Whenever you leave from Florida, be it Eastern or Western, you always seem to have to change your clocks to match local time of the next port. Typically the time is changed the night prior to arriving at the port. What bugs me, is that when you lose an hour during your cruise, the cruise ships seem to give it back during the last sleep before disembarkation. I get that it gives them an extra hour of working time, but wouldn't it be neat to get that hour back while you're awake to enjoy it? They don't suggest to return to Florida time when they cross the timeline, they return time during the wee morning hours of disembarkation.

Due to the international STCW convention (Standards of Training, Competency, and Watchkeeping), that regulates the hours of work and rest that all crew must have (number of hours of rest each 24 hours, hours of rest each 72 hours, hours of rest each 7 days, the number of rest periods that total can be broken down into, and the minimum length (6 hours) that one rest period each 24 hours must be), it is far simpler to change time at night when most of the crew is off duty. Some Captains will advance the clocks (eastbound) during the day, as this will shorten the work hours without affecting the rest hours. Then, when retarding the clocks (westbound), they will do that at night so they can "pad" the rest hours in case they need the crew for something the next day.

And, typically, a ship will not change time when they cross the zone dividing times, they will do it closer to the middle of the zone. Each hour of time, at sea, represents about 1000 miles east or west.

If they retarded the clocks during the day, the crew would have an extra hour of work, and this could lead to a cascade effect as the officers try to send crew to rest earlier than normal, with resulting loss of service, or the need for other crew to fill in, who may also be close to limits on hours. It isn't something done to tick off the passengers, there is a logical, statutory reason for it.

And, technically, each "day" (defined as noon to noon) does not necessarily have 24 hours in it. It can have 23 hours or 25 hours from noon (sun at its local peak) to noon (sun again at its local peak).

Due to the international STCW convention (Standards of Training, Competency, and Watchkeeping), that regulates the hours of work and rest that all crew must have (number of hours of rest each 24 hours, hours of rest each 72 hours, hours of rest each 7 days, the number of rest periods that total can be broken down into, and the minimum length (6 hours) that one rest period each 24 hours must be), it is far simpler to change time at night when most of the crew is off duty. Some Captains will advance the clocks (eastbound) during the day, as this will shorten the work hours without affecting the rest hours. Then, when retarding the clocks (westbound), they will do that at night so they can "pad" the rest hours in case they need the crew for something the next day.

 

And, typically, a ship will not change time when they cross the zone dividing times, they will do it closer to the middle of the zone. Each hour of time, at sea, represents about 1000 miles east or west.

 

If they retarded the clocks during the day, the crew would have an extra hour of work, and this could lead to a cascade effect as the officers try to send crew to rest earlier than normal, with resulting loss of service, or the need for other crew to fill in, who may also be close to limits on hours. It isn't something done to tick off the passengers, there is a logical, statutory reason for it.

 

And, technically, each "day" (defined as noon to noon) does not necessarily have 24 hours in it. It can have 23 hours or 25 hours from noon (sun at its local peak) to noon (sun again at its local peak).

Thankyou for this explanation. When cruising we tend to forget about employment regulations and requirements.

I am going to print it out and put it in my passport wallet, so that the next time the clocks change during a cruise I will be able to explain it all again (to myself ;p)

Due to the international STCW convention (Standards of Training, Competency, and Watchkeeping), that regulates the hours of work and rest that all crew must have (number of hours of rest each 24 hours, hours of rest each 72 hours, hours of rest each 7 days, the number of rest periods that total can be broken down into, and the minimum length (6 hours) that one rest period each 24 hours must be), it is far simpler to change time at night when most of the crew is off duty. Some Captains will advance the clocks (eastbound) during the day, as this will shorten the work hours without affecting the rest hours. Then, when retarding the clocks (westbound), they will do that at night so they can "pad" the rest hours in case they need the crew for something the next day.

 

And, typically, a ship will not change time when they cross the zone dividing times, they will do it closer to the middle of the zone. Each hour of time, at sea, represents about 1000 miles east or west.

 

If they retarded the clocks during the day, the crew would have an extra hour of work, and this could lead to a cascade effect as the officers try to send crew to rest earlier than normal, with resulting loss of service, or the need for other crew to fill in, who may also be close to limits on hours. It isn't something done to tick off the passengers, there is a logical, statutory reason for it.

 

And, technically, each "day" (defined as noon to noon) does not necessarily have 24 hours in it. It can have 23 hours or 25 hours from noon (sun at its local peak) to noon (sun again at its local peak).

Additionally, if they moved clocks back during the day, it could cause confusion. I.e. if the clock is set back at 2 PM instead of 2 AM, is your 2:30 PM spa appointment for the first 2:30 PM or the second one. Simpler to make the change when almost everyone is asleep. You see in the daily update delivered to your room in the evening that the time is changing so you change your devices before going to bed.

I did a Pacific crossing this May - clock set forward 7 of the nights at sea, but we got an extra day to make up for it. Still, I was glad to see the last time change. Another ship was doing the crossing in 5 sea days so they would have at least 2 hour time changes.

It's even worse when you cross the International Date Line. Did you make a spa appointment for a date and time that doesn't exist? Oops.

It's even worse when you cross the International Date Line. Did you make a spa appointment for a date and time that doesn't exist? Oops.

On one of our Pacific crossings a friend missed her birthday...which did not exist on our cruise :(. But I did have to smile when we saw the OPs post. Taking cruises that go through many times zones plus the International Date Line can drive many to have another drink :). And for those that do a full world cruise it is even crazier. Many experienced cruisers prefer West bound cruises since you keep gaining hours as you continuously turn back the clock. Long East bound cruises result in many 23 hour days. On HAL some of the Captain's will turn the clock ahead during the day (often at Noon) which many passengers prefer since they do not lose an hour of sleep.

Hank

Lol my left foot at 10AM and my right foot at 11AM

Lol my left foot at 10AM and my right foot at 11AM

No, because all of the UK is the same time zone.

Gaining and losing an hour only has a meaning if you have get up at a certain time, like for work.

Since the OP is a PASSENGER, there is no real affect of changing the clocks.

You must understand one basic rule, ship's captain word is law. It's the captain's call whether to change "ship's time" to match local time. We experienced this one hour difference twice. It was up to pax to remember what time to return, which they all did.

Gaining and losing an hour only has a meaning if you have get up at a certain time, like for work.

 

Since the OP is a PASSENGER, there is no real affect of changing the clocks.

It can have real meaning. Consider that when we do a crossing from the USA to Europe we will have 5 or 6 twenty-three hour days. That means we spend less time on the cruise :).

Hank

It can have real meaning. Consider that when we do a crossing from the USA to Europe we will have 5 or 6 twenty-three hour days. That means we spend less time on the cruise :).

 

Hank

For the original topic of this tread: a lone 1 hour time change the night before debarking, I agree with SRF: it is totally up to the passenger whether to stay up longer so they get an extra hour of awake time or go to bed to get an extra hour of sleep. And it was a round-trip cruise where they were just getting back and hour that they had lost earlier.

A crossing is a different matter. You can't choose to ignore the time changes because you will get out of sync with dining venues and other on board activities. For me, most of the lost hours had to come out of awake time because I've learned over the years that cheating my sleep time by too much hurts my immune system making a cold likely. At least my East-bound cruise was a Pacific crossing so we lost 7 hours, but crossed the date-line for an extra day = 17 extra hours in our cruise. :D

It can have real meaning. Consider that when we do a crossing from the USA to Europe we will have 5 or 6 twenty-three hour days. That means we spend less time on the cruise :).

 

Hank

uuuhh, NO. You just have more days.

It takes X hours to cross the Atlantic.

Just like flying. Flying from Europe to the US does not take less time due to time zone changes.

Nice try though. :D