Are hours listed on my Carnival itinerary ship or island time?

[luvtovaca]

After several cruises I know I should know this...we have never cruised in the winter after DST ended, so it's not really been an issue. We are docked in St. Maarten 9 am - 6 pm as stated on our booking summary. The various websites that show what times ships are in port (CruiseTT, etc.) all show this same timing as well. However, St. Maarten is currently 1 hour ahead of EST. We have a tour booked and the tour operator said our port time is perfect for the 10 am tour which gathers at 9:30 and their directions specifically state to use island time. He even sent a link with the ships in port and their times for that day which match the 9-6 timing. So, if island time is one hour ahead meaning we are docked 10-7 (island time) this doesn't make sense? We wouldn't make the 9:30 island time meeting if we dock at what is actually 10 am. Am I correct in assuming the times Carnival listed must indeed be island time? This sounds more confusing than it should be, hope the ? makes sense.:o

[BethersD]

As far as I know, times are always listed according to ship time.

[klfrodo]

Ship time

[coevan]

After several cruises I know I should know this...we have never cruised in the winter after DST ended, so it's not really been an issue. We are docked in St. Maarten 9 am - 6 pm as stated on our booking summary. The various websites that show what times ships are in port (CruiseTT, etc.) all show this same timing as well. However, St. Maarten is currently 1 hour ahead of EST. We have a tour booked and the tour operator said our port time is perfect for the 10 am tour which gathers at 9:30 and their directions specifically state to use island time. He even sent a link with the ships in port and their times for that day which match the 9-6 timing. So, if island time is one hour ahead meaning we are docked 10-7 (island time) this doesn't make sense? We wouldn't make the 9:30 island time meeting if we dock at what is actually 10 am. Am I correct in assuming the times Carnival listed must indeed be island time? This sounds more confusing than it should be, hope the ? makes sense.:o

 

 

 

You are making way too much of this. Every tour operator knows ship time and their local time, this is what they do for a living.

[bakersdozen12]

You are making way too much of this. Every tour operator knows ship time and their local time, this is what they do for a living.

 

 

Exactly, they know exactly what time the ship is scheduled to arrive and will be at the pier to meet you accordingly. As long as you don't take your time getting off the ship, and instead get off right when they start letting people off and go directly to the designated meeting spot, you will be fine.

 

 

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[luvtovaca]

I wouldn't have asked the question if I thought it was "making too much of it". We have cruised enough to know how things work and almost always use non-cruise line tours. This is the first time there seems to be a discrepancy. The tour operator gave me a link to the site he uses for which ships are docked at what times and it has our ship to be there 9-6 which he referred to as "island time". This is where the confusion came into play, as Carnival ALSO has it listed as 9-6, which we know from past experience is generally "ship time". SO, if Carnivals "ships time" matches the St. Maarten ships in port websites "island time", there is a discrepancy somewhere since Carnival is on EST and St. Maarten is not...I admit I'm no rocket scientist but it's confusing and I would like not to miss the excursion we have paid for.

[OCruisers]

The time listed are the ship's time for when you are currently scheduled to arrive and time you are scheduled to leave the port.

[easyboy]

It's the ship's time. The tour operator knows exactly what time to expect your arrival. It's the operator's worry. Not yours. Just relax and enjoy.

[ChrisOz]

We pay extra to book these through Carnival. Much less than RC and others so don't take that as a criticism by the way... So I regard the ship time / local time thing as one of the benefits of having booked through Carnival. Just relax, I paid for them to do the worrying!

[luvtovaca]

We pay extra to book these through Carnival. Much less than RC and others so don't take that as a criticism by the way... So I regard the ship time / local time thing as one of the benefits of having booked through Carnival. Just relax, I paid for them to do the worrying!

 

Just an FYI, it's not always more expensive through Carnival. IIn fact on NCL we found their excursions the same price as private. We have done it both ways. For us it just depends on the offerings for that particular cruise and how busy a port will be that day.

[1sttimeAlaska]

I suspect somewhere before you get to your port, ship's time will change.

[Wheatie59]

I suspect somewhere before you get to your port, ship's time will change.

 

Sorry, but no, it won't. Carnival uses the time at the departure as ship time for the entire cruise.

[Scurvy Seadog]

On all 9 Caribbean cruises that I have taken, the ship time has been consistently kept the same time as the original departure port.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Scurvy Seadog

[coevan]

Believe me the only ones worried about the time is nervous tourists. The tour companies know when your ship comes in, when it docks, what time the ship is on, what local time is and they know when you need to get back to the ship.

[peajay84]

So if Port Canaveral and Nassau are in the same time zone, then there should be no concern over keeping track of "what time is it where"?

[summersigh]

You are making way too much of this. Every tour operator knows ship time and their local time, this is what they do for a living.

Not necessarily - in our experience with private tours most go by island time and expect you to do so as well. Last winter in both St Kitts and in St Maarten ship time was 1 hour different than island and both of our private tours operated on Island time. Both were with reputable well known companies.

[luvtovaca]

Not necessarily - in our experience with private tours most go by island time and expect you to do so as well. Last winter in both St Kitts and in St Maarten ship time was 1 hour different than island and both of our private tours operated on Island time. Both were with reputable well known companies.

 

Thank you! Someone "gets it". This is exactly why I posed the question. Now I know I'm not being a worried tourist. I will re-contact the tour operator when it gets closer...

[amydresh]

Not necessarily - in our experience with private tours most go by island time and expect you to do so as well. Last winter in both St Kitts and in St Maarten ship time was 1 hour different than island and both of our private tours operated on Island time. Both were with reputable well known companies.

 

I agree with this. I was going to book an excursion in Grand Cayman when we are arriving at 7 am-4 pm CST. GC in Jan is on EST. The company was trying to book our tour for 8:15 a.m. when we would only have been in port for 15 minutes at that time. They insisted that we were arriving on island time but I knew that was not the case and wasn't wanting to risk it. When I asked if there was any chance that she was wrong and what would happen if I booked and we weren't able to make it on time, she said we better not book through them.

[Kacot]

I agree with this. I was going to book an excursion in Grand Cayman when we are arriving at 7 am-4 pm CST. GC in Jan is on EST. The company was trying to book our tour for 8:15 a.m. when we would only have been in port for 15 minutes at that time. They insisted that we were arriving on island time but I knew that was not the case and wasn't wanting to risk it. When I asked if there was any chance that she was wrong and what would happen if I booked and we weren't able to make it on time, she said we better not book through them.

 

AGREED... last winter we were on Carnival, but booked a private tour on St. Maarten. Our tour operators did not realize that Carnival was on ship time and thus an hour behind island time. It was a bit of a mess.

[ViolinKate]

Thank you! Someone "gets it". This is exactly why I posed the question. Now I know I'm not being a worried tourist. I will re-contact the tour operator when it gets closer...

 

Did you ever get this figured out? I'm stressing about the same thing for our cruise next week (presumably the same.. Conquest Christmas Cruise). We have booked with Swaliga 2 for an all day tour. Hopefully it all works out. They say Carnival told the port that they'd be in at 9am local time. Which agrees with other port times listed. Fingera Crossed!

[Micahs Grandad]

Not necessarily - in our experience with private tours most go by island time and expect you to do so as well. Last winter in both St Kitts and in St Maarten ship time was 1 hour different than island and both of our private tours operated on Island time. Both were with reputable well known companies.

 

I found this to be true in st kitts as well.

 

Contact tour company and tell them you will be there at a time based on originating point.

 

BTW OP why did you pay in advance? We always pay at end of tour.

[easyboy]

I found this to be true in st kitts as well.

 

Contact tour company and tell them you will be there at a time based on originating point.

 

BTW OP why did you pay in advance? We always pay at end of tour.

We also don't book private tours that require advanced full payment. Refunds are uncertain if port of call is cancelled, which is the prerogative of the Captain/cruise line for varying reasons.