Freedom of the Seas - ship time vs. local time?

[Cachecruiser]

Hello,

 

we will cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in November, 7 Night Western Caribbean (Labadee, Falmouth, George Town, Cozumel) and 7 Night Eastern Caribbean (CocoCay, Charlotte Amalie, Philipsburg) as a B2B, departing from Port Canaveral.

 

We would like to book private excursions and are not sure if we have to consider different times (ship time vs. local time) in the ports. Because there are different time zones during the cruises, does the Freedom change time or not? If not, which ports of call have different times than the ship?

 

Many thanks in advance.

[louv2000]

Hello,

 

we will cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in November, 7 Night Western Caribbean (Labadee, Falmouth, George Town, Cozumel) and 7 Night Eastern Caribbean (CocoCay, Charlotte Amalie, Philipsburg) as a B2B, departing from Port Canaveral.

 

We would like to book private excursions and are not sure if we have to consider different times (ship time vs. local time) in the ports. Because there are different time zones during the cruises, does the Freedom change time or not? If not, which ports of call have different times than the ship?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

We stayed on ships's time for our recent (Feb 2) Western cruise on Freedom.

[leaveitallbehind]

Your question is one frequently asked on these boards, and one that does not have a definitive answer.

 

Typically a ship will keep the time used each time they repeat a given itinerary, but that is not a certainty. The Captain has sole discretion as to which time he wishes to maintain in port if they are different - ship time or local time - and he could opt to change that one cruise to the next. All you can do is ask the question you asked and see what the most recent experiences tell you. But that is not a guarantee for future cruises.

 

The good new is the "locals" understand this and independent excursions will typically allow enough pick up / drop off time cushion to not be a problem in case the ship time on a given cruise is different from the local time.

Edited February 19, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[nolesrule]

The times shown on the website for the itineraries (and in cruise docs) are listed in local time.