Does ship time still stay on whatever time zone it embarks from?

[MisterOJ2]

Going on the Spirit next week out of Mobile to the Bahamas. I've always thought that ship time would remain the same as the embarkation port, but now I'm starting to second-guess myself.

 

The time on my ship next week will be CST the entire time, right? 

[Haljo1935]

No, ship time changes as you cross time zones. If your time is moving forward or backward, you will be notified the evening before.

Always best to note what ship time is at each port before you get off (as well as back on board time) so you will calculate your back on board time correctly.

Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

[mz-s]

It's up to the Captain. I've been on Carnival cruises where they did change time and I've been on Carnival cruises where they didn't. I don't know if there's any hard-and-fast rule.

[bafinegan]

31 minutes ago, mz-s said:

It's up to the Captain. I've been on Carnival cruises where they did change time and I've been on Carnival cruises where they didn't. I don't know if there's any hard-and-fast rule.

^^^^^This^^^^^ I have had it both ways too.

[shof515]

36 minutes ago, mz-s said:

It's up to the Captain. I've been on Carnival cruises where they did change time and I've been on Carnival cruises where they didn't. I don't know if there's any hard-and-fast rule.

also been on cruises where it depends too. sometimes they do and sometimes they dont. the hub app will always always have the correct time 

[jiggs]

just triple check when you are in line to get off the ship, as others have said, it really depends.  I have been to ports where ship changed time to adjust to local time and have been on ships where it has not and you have to be back an hour before local time.  I will say for the ports we have stopped where ship and local time are different they mad it abundantly clear....or just wear an old school watch with the ship time and ignore island time

[staceyglow]

21 minutes ago, jiggs said:

just triple check when you are in line to get off the ship, as others have said, it really depends.  I have been to ports where ship changed time to adjust to local time and have been on ships where it has not and you have to be back an hour before local time.  I will say for the ports we have stopped where ship and local time are different they mad it abundantly clear....or just wear an old school watch with the ship time and ignore island time

One of the reasons Cozumel is famous for its dock runners is that often, ship time is an hour earlier than local time.  Well, that and all the drinking.

[ninjacat123]

When we were on Pride this October out of Rome, the ship time changed as we cruised to Greece.  I thought that was unusual because I don't remember the ship time changing when we cruised the Caribbean on previous cruises.  Or maybe, like @staceyglow posted, it was all that drinking😉

[jimbo5544]

10 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

When we were on Pride this October out of Rome, the ship time changed as we cruised to Greece.  I thought that was unusual because I don't remember the ship time changing when we cruised the Caribbean on previous cruises.  Or maybe, like @staceyglow posted, it was all that drinking😉

We have found that to be WAY more common than other cruises.

[Joanne G.]

I sailed on the Pride from Dover to Rome this past September.   We moved our clocks ahead for the first port, which was in Spain.   Then we moved them back an hour for the next two ports in Portugal.   Then ahead again for the remaining ports in Spain and Rome.  I prefer it when ship time matches port time - no confusion during activities in port.  In July on the Pride, we changed time twice going from Dover to Denmark and Germany and on to Finland.  

 

I don't remember changing times zones in the Eastern Caribbean, but it may be because we cruise in the spring during daylight saving time in the U.S., and it's my understanding that the eastern Caribbean islands in the Atlantic time zone (one hour ahead of the U.S. Eastern time zone) do not go on daylight saving time.   I'm not sure what happens at other times of the year.  I can't remember what Carnival did on the Western Caribbean itinerary we did once, but NCL did change ship time to match port times as we sailed from Florida to Mexico.  

Edited December 21, 2023 by Joanne G.

[Mike C]

22 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

No, ship time changes as you cross time zones. If your time is moving forward or backward, you will be notified the evening before.

Always best to note what ship time is at each port before you get off (as well as back on board time) so you will calculate your back on board time correctly.

Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

In November on the Venezia, we stayed on ship time when we went to San Juan which was one hour ahead of ship time due to daylight savings time.  We almost missed our excursion we booked with Flavors of San Juan due to the time difference 

[Elaine5715]

I have never seen a time change when cruising Caribbean ports even when the ports are  two hours different

[teknoge3k]

We've done dozens of cruises and changed timezones many times. The ship has never change time with the only exception being when we were in Bermuda for multiple days. All other cruises have stayed on the same timezone as the departure port. EST in my situations. 

[dan4182]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:24 PM, staceyglow said:

One of the reasons Cozumel is famous for its dock runners is that often, ship time is an hour earlier than local time.  Well, that and all the drinking.

If you leave from an East Coast port (EST or EDST) this will be the case.

[DallasGuy75219]

3 hours ago, dan4182 said:

If you leave from an East Coast port (EST or EDST) this will be the case.

There are no hard and fast rules.  Generally on cruises out of the US the ship we will stay on home port time, but it is at the Captain's discretion.  

 

With some countries not recognizing Daylight Savings Time, it makes things more complicated.  If we had changed ship time on my current Glory cruise, we would have moved one hour ahead (New Orleans to Costa Maya), one hour back (Belize), one hour ahead (Cozumel), then one hour back (New Orleans).  It's just not worth the hassle and confusion of all those one hour time changes.

[TrqoisWtrs]

The transpacific cruises are the worst.  Literally changing your clock every night, and then when crossing the international date line and losing a day, that confuses things even more.  Even the Hub app is usually wrong until they get it caught up lol.

[ontheweb]

32 minutes ago, cruisin*tigger said:

The transpacific cruises are the worst.  Literally changing your clock every night, and then when crossing the international date line and losing a day, that confuses things even more.  Even the Hub app is usually wrong until they get it caught up lol.

Yes, I can see how crossing the international date line would really screw things up. The most time change we have gone through (on a different cruise line) was a cruise that started and ended in Copenhagen and went as far as St. Petersburg, Russia.

[Purvis1231]

On 12/20/2023 at 2:04 PM, MisterOJ2 said:

Going on the Spirit next week out of Mobile to the Bahamas. I've always thought that ship time would remain the same as the embarkation port, but now I'm starting to second-guess myself.

 

The time on my ship next week will be CST the entire time, right? 

Some ships stay on the same timezone but not all so check with the ship.

[tidecat]

The only cruise I've had a time change on was the Mexican Riviera, and even then we generally weren't in line with the time ashore. Mexico has since changed its DST rules.

[jsglow]

Here's the bottom line. The VAST majority of standard 3 to 8 day Carnival cruises departing from Florida, the US east coast or Gulf Coast ports DO NOT switch ship time. Exceptions would be long Journeys heading multiple times zones (think Hawaii or a trip from Galveston to St. Maarten), Europe and the Med., and frequently the Mex Riv. out of Long Beach. I've personally not sailed Alaska on Carnival so can't comment.

[simplelife]

You will be notified of Ship time and it will be posted many places, such as at the main desk, some bars, and on your TV, as well as being posted at the disembarkation points at ports