Time zone changes

[mjp0499]

We will be traveling on the Celebrity Equinox on August 24th.  We will be leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale, and going to the Western Caribbean.  Will the ship time change to Central  time zone?  We are trying to book an excursion, and trying to see if docking at 7:00 a.m. is 7:00 am central time.

[Shadow9612]

I thought that the times listed on the cruise itinerary (ie your guest confirmation) were local times. I could be wrong and I would wait for more experienced Cruisers to answer.

[warmwinds]

10 hours ago, mjp0499 said:

We will be traveling on the Celebrity Equinox on August 24th.  We will be leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale, and going to the Western Caribbean.  Will the ship time change to Central  time zone?  We are trying to book an excursion, and trying to see if docking at 7:00 a.m. is 7:00 am central time.

I'm confused.  Are you asking about US Central Time Zone, as in where you live (Kansas City)?  

 

 

[Gonzo70]

Whether or not to change ship time is at the discretion of the Captain. While Celebrity more-often-than-not does change ship time to match the local time at a port when there is a discrepancy, it is not all that uncommon for there to be an hour difference between ship time and port time. The schedule on your itinerary is ship time; there is no way to tell in advance whether it will match port time or not.

 

If the ship is doing similar itineraries during the weeks/months leading up to your cruise, you can try and find out what they are doing on those cruises; that will give you a good idea what to expect. So long as you book with a reputable company, do not overthink or worry about this issue; they are used to dealing with cruise ships.

[voyager70]

45 minutes ago, Gonzo70 said:

Whether or not to change ship time is at the discretion of the Captain. While Celebrity more-often-than-not does change ship time to match the local time at a port when there is a discrepancy, it is not all that uncommon for there to be an hour difference between ship time and port time. The schedule on your itinerary is ship time; there is no way to tell in advance whether it will match port time or not.

 

Agree.  In the Caribbean, sometimes they change the clocks to match local times and sometimes they don't.

 

[jwlane]

Where in Central time zone?  Does it recognize daylight savings time?

[Denny01]

It kind of depends on the port you are asking about. A quick check of Mexico/Central America ports, Jamaica and Grand Cayman times shows it’s same as Central time here in Fla Panhandle even though Jamaica is further east and is listed as ET but they appear not to use EDT and is EST right now.  Heck, Grand Carmen has “CIST” which is Carmen Island Standard Time. But all are same as what I have here in a CDT area.

 

Just type in Google the town/port you are interested in such plus ‘current time’ such as ‘Grand Carmen current time’ and it shows you. 

 

   The ships normally stick with the port times. But the Capt sets it. 

 

Den

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Denny01

[Chicago Boy]

Time changes if there are any won't be a problem.  Celebrity has taken all of that into consideration.  Just book your excursions and enjoy.

 

[keesar]

On our last cruise, there was a difference between ship time and  port time.  I had no problem using my "old fashioned" wrist watch when I left the ship.  .Those with 'smart' devices were working off of port time.    Just something to be aware of.

[warmwinds]

1 hour ago, jwlane said:

Where in Central time zone?  Does it recognize daylight savings time?

Someone, please tell me I'm not insane...there is no Central time zone in the Caribbean...you go from Eastern Time (daylight or standard, I have no idea when the cruise is) to (maybe) Atlantic time.

 

What does Central Time have to do with anything???

[sptrout]

25 minutes ago, warmwinds said:

Someone, please tell me I'm not insane...there is no Central time zone in the Caribbean...you go from Eastern Time (daylight or standard, I have no idea when the cruise is) to (maybe) Atlantic time.

 

What does Central Time have to do with anything???

All of the East coast of Mexico, and most of Central America, is in the Central Time Zone. Just last year, or the year before, Cozumel changed their time to Eastern I assume to match all the ships coming from Florida. We were on the Equinox (I think) a couple years ago and we were changing clocks constantly, starting in Florida (we live in Central) to Eastern then back and forth between Eastern and Central Time as we made the loop. We were jet lagged the entire trip LOL.

 

Cuba, and east to the Alantic Time Zone, are all in Eastern. 

 

I cannot remember the last time that we were on a ship when the ship`s clock was not changed to match the up coming port of call. Sometimes they charge to the next port`s time while still well within another time zone.

[warmwinds]

Thank you - learn something new every day.

 

 

[Denny01]

3 hours ago, sptrout said:

All of the East coast of Mexico, and most of Central America, is in the Central Time Zone. Just last year, or the year before, Cozumel changed their time to Eastern I assume to match all the ships coming from Florida. We were on the Equinox (I think) a couple years ago and we were changing clocks constantly, starting in Florida (we live in Central) to Eastern then back and forth between Eastern and Central Time as we made the loop. We were jet lagged the entire trip LOL.

 

Cuba, and east to the Alantic Time Zone, are all in Eastern. 

 

I cannot remember the last time that we were on a ship when the ship`s clock was not changed to match the up coming port of call. Sometimes they charge to the next port`s time while still well within another time zone.

Agree. There are posters who have experienced ship-time differing from port-time, but been on 38 of these babies with 3-6+ ports per cruise and have never had a difference.....yet. 

 

Here’s one funny Sea Story: on the USS Kitty Hawk crossing the Pacific heading to Southeast Asia (yeah Vietnam), the Capt decided to try something different and had the ship’s time changed every 1/2 hr time change as we sailed west. The poor Quartermasters who had to manually change all the timepieces throughout the ship went crazy and of course all of us Aviators and deck crew who had to be right on time for manning the aircraft and launching, and the watchstanders were always screwed up. It was a fiasco. I think he stopped that about somewhere off Guam or so. 

 

Den

[GeorgesGal]

On 6/19/2019 at 11:09 AM, voyager70 said:

 

Agree.  In the Caribbean, sometimes they change the clocks to match local times and sometimes they don't.

 

 

Really!?  In all my Caribbean cruises - more than 40 over the years - The lines I've sailed have all had time changes to match ports.  Lines include HAL,NCL, RCCL, ~X~, Oceania.

[voyager70]

2 minutes ago, GeorgesGal said:

 

Really!?  In all my Caribbean cruises - more than 40 over the years - The lines I've sailed have all had time changes to match ports.  Lines include HAL,NCL, RCCL, ~X~, Oceania.

 

Really.  I've done 25 or so Caribbean cruises and, as I said earlier, it's been hit or miss whether or not they change the clocks.  This has been on X, Royal and Princess.

 

 

[cruisestitch]

Here’s one example from a Celebrity cruise. I don’t know why the focus is fuzzy but I think it’s still legible.

Edited June 20, 2019 by cruisestitch

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

The ship will be on the ships port time which is Eastern DST. You will be going to ports on Atlantic time EST. However the ship being on Eastern DST is the same time as the Atlantic time zone that will be EST.

So at the ports, the ships time will not change and be the same as at the ports. I hope I explained clearly.

Lets try this for an example. Fort Lauderdale is lets say 4:00 PM Eastern DST, St.Kitts will also be 4:00 PM but on EST

[WestLakeGirl]

The OP is going to the western Caribbean where the issue of. Rossing into the Central Time Zone comes into play

[CRUZBUDS]

On 6/20/2019 at 10:33 AM, GeorgesGal said:

 

Really!?  In all my Caribbean cruises - more than 40 over the years - The lines I've sailed have all had time changes to match ports.  Lines include HAL,NCL, RCCL, ~X~, Oceania.

 

Carnival rarely changes time on the ship int he Caribbean.  We were at an excursion location in Honduras once and they had two clocks everywhere.  One labeled with our ship name, the other with another ship.  The ships were an hour apart. We sailed from New Orleans and stayed on Central time., the other ship sailed from Florida and was staying on Eastern.   

[varoo]

4 hours ago, twodaywonder said:

The ship will be on the ships port time which is Eastern DST. You will be going to ports on Atlantic time EST. However the ship being on Eastern DST is the same time as the Atlantic time zone that will be EST.

So at the ports, the ships time will not change and be the same as at the ports. I hope I explained clearly.

Lets try this for an example. Fort Lauderdale is lets say 4:00 PM Eastern DST, St.Kitts will also be 4:00 PM but on EST

 

?? Wouldn't St. Kitts be on Atlantic Standard time, which would be the same as Eastern Daylight Time?

 

EST would be an hour later than AST.

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by varoo

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

here is your answer.

Time Zone Currently Being Used in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Offset	Time Zone Abbreviation & Name		Example City	Current Time
UTC -4	AST	Atlantic Standard Time	Basseterre	Fri, 9:37:23 pm

Saint Kitts and Nevis observes Atlantic Standard Time all year. There are no Daylight Saving Time clock changes.

Need some help?

 

 

 

Advertising

[WestLakeGirl]

I don’t see what St Kitts has to do with the original question.  The O P is going to the 

western Caribbean.

 

 st. kitts is in the eastern Caribbean

[gloriab43]

Just off the W. Caribbean. Clock was set back 1 hour night before Costa Maya and forwarded 1 hour night after Grand Cayman.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 6/21/2019 at 9:33 PM, varoo said:

 

?? Wouldn't St. Kitts be on Atlantic Standard time, which would be the same as Eastern Daylight Time?

 

EST would be an hour later than AST.

 

yes Atlantic standard. My error. The time is the same as Eastern Daylight Savings Time.