Ship time in St. Thomas

[NYreadytogo]

Hello, I will be on the Noordam next January, and I am trying to book an outside tour for St. Thomas. St. Thomas is 1 hour ahead of EST, but I am wondering if the ship will be on EST or on St. Thomas local time when we are there- so that I know what hours we'll actually be at the island, and when I should schedule a pick up.

Thank you.

[tomc]

It is customary for the ship to be on local time.

[7x5090g]

It is customary for the ship to be on local time.

 

Hi Tom: By local time did you mean the local time of the port of embarkation? My last western caribbean cruise had a port in Mexico which is on Central. We went by Florida (EST) time or "Ship's time" all cruise long.

[Sea King]

the Noordam should be on "St. Thomas" time which is 1 hour ahead of New York

 

the clocks stay the same in St. Thomas and don't change

 

in April when we "spring ahead", St. Thomas and New York will again have the same time

[NYreadytogo]

Thank you. So this means that if it says we're in St. Thomas from 7am-5pm that's 7-5 St. Thomas local time, right? Because the tour operator seemed to thing otherwise, and I just want to make sure.

[7x5090g]

Thank you. So this means that if it says we're in St. Thomas from 7am-5pm that's 7-5 St. Thomas local time, right? Because the tour operator seemed to thing otherwise, and I just want to make sure.

 

I am not sure if this is right. As I have stated, last time I took a cruise (on a different cruise line), if the port hours are 7 to 5, that's 7 to 5 ship's time and ship's time is defined as the time at port of embarkation i.e. NYC.

 

To be sure, just check with the cruise staff and I am sure they will be happy to inform you.

[NYreadytogo]

I was wondering if anyone who took the Noordam specifically (and I know many of you have), may remember or have schedules which indicate if this trip/ship in particular do or do not change ship time to correspond to local time.

Thank you.

[PRINSENDAM]

I am not sure if this is right. As I have stated, last time I took a cruise (on a different cruise line), if the port hours are 7 to 5, that's 7 to 5 ship's time and ship's time is defined as the time at port of embarkation i.e. NYC.

 

To be sure, just check with the cruise staff and I am sure they will be happy to inform you.

 

 

 

Andy,

 

Ship's time is ALWAYS adjusted so that it is the same as the in the port being visited. Do do anything else would be completely confusing to everyone.

 

 

 

Perhaps on your cruise you did not pass through any time zones which meant that the ship could stay on the same time throughout the cruise.

 

To the OP.... don't worry about this. The clocks on board your ship will be advanced or retarded BEFORE you arrive at any port. If you have a tour arranged at 10 am then that will be the time... on board and ashore in the port that day.

 

Stephen

[7x5090g]

Andy,

 

Ship's time is ALWAYS adjusted so that it is the same as the in the port being visited. Do do anything else would be completely confusing to everyone.

 

 

 

Perhaps on your cruise you did not pass through any time zones which meant that the ship could stay on the same time throughout the cruise.

 

To the OP.... don't worry about this. The clocks on board your ship will be advanced or retarded BEFORE you arrive at any port. If you have a tour arranged at 10 am then that will be the time... on board and ashore in the port that day.

 

Stephen

 

Thanks Stephen. I could be wrong. The last time I was on a cruise had a port in Cozumel (1 hour behind Miami). I left Miami and was told that all times posted are based on the ship's time and the ship's time was never adjusted. But that was 7 years ago and things may have changed.

 

I'd be curious as to how the times are kept for those cruises that cross multiple time zones (e.g. Trans Atlantic and or those world cruises, etc.)

[WNYCRUISER]

I was wondering if anyone who took the Noordam specifically (and I know many of you have), may remember or have schedules which indicate if this trip/ship in particular do or do not change ship time to correspond to local time.

Thank you.

 

March 2006, Noordam 11 day Embark - Saturday....Disembark Wednesday

 

Time Change (This was the first night out of port)

During the night of Saturday/Sunday all clocks will be set FORWARD ONE HOUR

 

Time Change (This is during sea days returning from Carib)

During the night of Monday/Tuesday, all clocks will be set BACK ONE HOUR

 

Ship time was always local time.

Never been on a HAL cruise that wasn't.

[tomc]

7x

 

Yeah, but that was on a different cruise line. HAL always keeps to local time.

[7x5090g]

7x

 

Yeah, but that was on a different cruise line. HAL always keeps to local time.

 

Thank you all for clarification. Last time I went on RCI and we were told to stick with the clock on the ship, which was never changed.

 

To the OP, I hope this clarifies everything for you. Tomc and I just got off the noordam but since that was before we fall back, we never had any issues with time differences throughout the cruise. I guess St. Thomas does not change their clocks througout the year.

[NYreadytogo]

Thank you very much to everyone. I know that I've been on cruises where time was changed and ones where time wasn't changed- it's always very confusing. With this system I at least know that 7-5 will mean 7-5 both on shore and on ship.

[grannynurse]

Multiple time zones can be a pain. Crossing the Atlantic going east the time is turned forward in hourly increments about 6 times but as it is only 1 hour at a time it's not like the jet lag you get from flying over. Coming back on the return trip you gain the time back one hour at a time. The only confusion was in NewFoundland where the time difference is a half hour... BUT the ship stayed on local time, even in NF.

GN

[hammybee]

The confusion with ship versus port time happens when most of the U.S. is on daylight savings time, Oct- April. Some Caribbean Isands adhere to DST and others do not.

 

St. Thomas is an hour ahead of NYC from late Oct-April and the same as NYC the rest of the time.

 

Regardless, HAL time is port time and you will be advised to set your watch forward and back, as appropriate.

[Grumpy1]

I'd be curious as to how the times are kept for those cruises that cross multiple time zones (e.g. Trans Atlantic and or those world cruises, etc.)

We were on the 2005 World Cruise, sailing mostly East to West. We had lots of time changes, mostly setting the clocks back an hour. When we crossed the International date line we lost an entire day to off set the day we gained an hour at a time. A few times we sailed a little East to another destination and had to set clocks ahead. We even had a couple of times that we adjusted by a half hour to coincide with the local port time. We were always on local port time.

 

Hal will notify you of the time change in the daily bulletin and also there will be a "gentle reminder" card under your pillow chocolate to remind you of the change.

[RuthC]

I'd be curious as to how the times are kept for those cruises that cross multiple time zones (e.g. Trans Atlantic and or those world cruises, etc.)

On the '03 Rotterdam round-trip out of NYC we headed east eight (count 'em! 8!) time zones. Trust me on this one---losing eight hours' sleep was a killer. Heading back---ahhhh.

[Grumpy1]

On the '03 Rotterdam round-trip out of NYC we headed east eight (count 'em! 8!) time zones. Trust me on this one---losing eight hours' sleep was a killer. Heading back---ahhhh.

That's why I would not want to do a west to east world cruise.

[7x5090g]

............mostly setting the clocks back an hour.

 

Interesting. So if you have to set your clock back one hour every hour, then in theory time just stops until you cross the date line? :-)

[PRINSENDAM]

Interesting. So if you have to set your clock back one hour every hour, then in theory time just stops until you cross the date line? :-)

 

 

 

Andy....

 

Nothing is ever that simple. :confused:

 

What they do is.... set the clocks back one hour.... and then advance the DATE by one whole day.

 

The best way to think of it is..... CLOCKS WILL BE ADVAANCED BY TWENTY THREE HOURS. In effect that is what is happend.

 

Stephen

[OceanLiner]

In coming back to the original question of what time to schedule your pick up, my advice is not to schedule a time. Tell the tour operator what day and what ship, and ask them to meet you at the dock. Let the tour operator do the work of figuring the time. If it is to early then specify that you would like to be picked up 1 hour after docking, or some such variant.

 

As a final note, getting off the ship on a private tour is not the issue; getting back on the ship on time is the real issue! Make sure that you know that exact time that the ship will sail and how that relates to local time. Set your watch to the ships time and do not alter that time. Confirm the time of sailing and the present time with an officer or two, particularly the very good security staff. And tell the staff in writing what you are up to.

 

It has been more than once that we have waved goodbye from the ship to a golfing party/scuba expedition/shopping junky on the dock while they stared at their watches in disbelief.

 

PS If you want to have a really interesting discussion about the topic of missing the ship, talk with the senior security officers at St Thomas. They are really nice and they have some amazing stories. They are usually around in the late afternoon as the ships prepare to leave. They told us something really interesting about departing ships, that it is all up to the captain. Some captains will wait and wait, some leave right on schedule regardless, and some are in between. There was one story of a ship (NCL or X?) that was out about a half mile and returned to port to pick up four guests. The security staff had never seen that happen before and to this day they are tring to figure out what was the big deal about those particular four guests.

[7x5090g]

They told us something really interesting about departing ships, that it is all up to the captain. Some captains will wait and wait, some leave right on schedule regardless, and some are in between. There was one story of a ship (NCL or X?) that was out about a half mile and returned to port to pick up four guests. The security staff had never seen that happen before and to this day they are tring to figure out what was the big deal about those particular four guests.

 

While I was in St Maarten 3 weeks ago off the Noordam, I was in a restaurant and the owner told me that there was a couple who missed the boat by 10 minutes a few days before. The ship was still tied to the pier, gangway was up, and they were refused entry. I guess the captain of that ship, whichever cruise line that was, was not so nice.:eek:

[Pete Jackson]

While I was in St Maarten 3 weeks ago off the Noordam, I was in a restaurant and the owner told me that there was a couple who missed the boat by 10 minutes a few days before. The ship was still tied to the pier, gangway was up, and they were refused entry. I guess the captain of that ship, whichever cruise line that was, was not so nice.:eek:

 

If the ship was still tied to the pier, they should have climbed up the rope and refuse to climb back down until the gangway was lowered again! What could the captain do?

 

Seriously, there are a number of things that could go in the captain's decision. A small delay could turn into a big delay if other traffic wanted to leave the port at the same time. Also, whether reaching the next port on time requires full ship's speed, or whether the ship can take it easy, making a delay less of a problem.

[AAAAmerican]

We just came back again from Bermuda and while (whilst) leaving there two men ( I took there pictures ) and after that one woman came late..

Not a few minutes it was about 37 minutes... and the Captain did wait.

 

People like that should have been left (IMHO) as keeping the whole ship waiting is absurd and they didnt care.. talk about procrastination..........

 

:mad:

 

 

 

 

 

While I was in St Maarten 3 weeks ago off the Noordam, I was in a restaurant and the owner told me that there was a couple who missed the boat by 10 minutes a few days before. The ship was still tied to the pier, gangway was up, and they were refused entry. I guess the captain of that ship, whichever cruise line that was, was not so nice.:eek:

[lucyforrest]

I was wondering if anyone who took the Noordam specifically (and I know many of you have), may remember or have schedules which indicate if this trip/ship in particular do or do not change ship time to correspond to local time.

Thank you.

 

I can tell you with certainty that the ship will be on St. Thomas time when the ship is docked in St. Thomas. We are getting married on 11/29 while in port, so I checked with two different people at HAL on that issue because I didn't want to show up an hour late for our own wedding!