Does Royal Caribbean stay on ship time in ports or local port time ?????

[RoyalCruiser2007]

Does Royal Caribbean stay on ship time in ports or local port time ?????

 

For example, my itinerary has us in St. Thomas from 9:00am till 5:30pm. That time of year St. Thomas is one hour ahead cause of daylight savings. Would the ship be on St. Thomas time when in port?

 

Thanks!

[Rancher Dave]

Ship Time!!! Be sure to keep your watch on Ship Time so you don't arrive late for the sail away party...would not be fun to watch it from the dock.

[maureencruiser]

Hello, Loath as I am to disagree with Rancher Dave, I have always been on ships that had us adjust our time to the ports. That way, if you are out and about and ask a local for the time, it will be correct- you won't think, Oh, we've got another hour to shop. I went to Bermuda on the Grandeur 4 weeks ago and we had to change our watches to Bermuda time...Maureen

[hazmatt]

Just curious, I on the Liberty of the seas next week. Does that mean if we arrive in Grand Cayman at 8am ship time it is actually 7 in GC?

[maureencruiser]

Hi Hazmatt, I remember you from the Filthy Infidel thread! We had some fun with that one before they removed it. Was it something we said?;) You will be told the night before to change your watches to GC time...Maureen

[Cuizer2]

Does Royal Caribbean stay on ship time in ports or local port time ?????

 

For example, my itinerary has us in St. Thomas from 9:00am till 5:30pm. That time of year St. Thomas is one hour ahead cause of daylight savings. Would the ship be on St. Thomas time when in port?

 

Thanks!

 

Always ship time. Whether or not the ship adjusts its clocks to local time is another question. I have have done an eastern itinerary once on Carnival and the ship keep its clocks on Miami time. I did a southern itinerary on Royal Caribbean and the ship kept its clocks on San Juan time.

 

I don't know if the ship will adjust its clocks while traveling between Florida and St. Thomas. However, no matter what the ship does, keep your watch set for the ship's time. If you don't have a watch, but a cheap one at K-Mart, Target, Wal-Mart or somewhere.

[hazmatt]

Hi Maureen, yea the filthy infidel thread was good for a few laughs, seems like the funny threads always get pulled.:) Thanks for the info about the time. I was hoping I might have an extra hour in GC to get to our 9:30 excursion. I guess Ill have to push my way on to the first Tender.:)

[maureencruiser]

Hazmatt, You know, I went back to glocktalk after they pulled the thread and he was still getting reamed by his buddies. He came back and posted about how he wanted to strangle a guy on that forum who disagreed with him-what a loser! This thread got me thinking and I pulled my Cruise Compass from the Grandeur. The day we left Bermuda, there is a big notice at the top of the Compass that says, set clocks back one hour before retiring....Maureen

[lance32]

BE CAREFUL, Do not change your watch, otherwise you will be watching your boat leave from the dock, very scary I am sure.

Peace,

lance32:)

[Gonzo70]

Always go with ship time. Sometimes the ship will adjust their clock so that ship time is the same as the time at the port you are visiting - other times it does not. It is up to the Captain. The Cruise Compass will alert you (as well as an annoucement) if you should change your watch before going to bed that night. When at port ignore the local time as the only time that matters in terms of when the ship sails away is ship time.

[rubrrick]

Many captains set the ships time to correspond with the port time...........but the rule of thumb is........check your watch against any clock onboard the ship............most new ships show the time on the cabin phone...............and use that time as the "official" time, as when to be back aboard!! Set your watches accordingly!! :) ;)

 

Rick

[realtreebar]

thanks for the informational post!:)

[RMH]

This is from the RCCL web-site shopping guide for St. Thomas. Looks like you should stay on ship time regardless of what the local time is

 

Time Zone

St. Thomas is on Atlantic Standard Time. The ship may not always follow local time. Please adhere to the ships time while in port

[Darkwolfe]

Be forewarned about one thing in particular... Ship time is at the Captain's whim!

 

Voyager stayed on a set ship time (EST since we sailed from Miami) all through the 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise we were on.

 

Enchantment started on EST, then switched to CST after leaving Key West for Cozumel and Belize, then switched back to EST on the last night coming back to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

So don't expect things to be the same from one cruise to the next.

 

I have no idea what will happen with the time zone on Serenade in January. We may see a third method for all I know.

[akcruz]

I agree with what the others have said, it depends. Last year on the Mariner Western route the ship stayed on ship time even though it was up to 2 hours different than local time at one point. On the Explorer to Bermuda this year the ship changed time to match Bermuda. Not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to any it.

 

Trying myself to figure out when we get to St. Thomas in November if we will be on the same time or different. Throw in the change of daylight savings time and who knows as some islands change for this and some don't!

[jaynne2001]

Ahh yes. I wish we had known about this on our Liberty cruise (Aug 23rd) We were not told the night before we hit GC that the ship stays on ship time and not local time.

We had booked a private tour and when our tour guide didn't know up 'at the right time' we checked with one of the locals and found out the local time was an hour behind. We managed to do our tour, but had to cut the last stop short in order to make it back to the last tender.

Make sure you check before leaving the ship!! It is my understanding that they usually tell you, but we were not told.

[luvscruising2007]

On Explorer last week we changed time 4 times. We added an hour, then subtracted an hour etc. It was in the compass each day and of course they told you at dinner and at the shows. The compass made it very clear when to change your time. It would show current time and then show what time to set it to. It also said exactly when, because you get the compass the night before. So, it would say change your time after departing (insert name of port).

[TravelerThom]

To at least half of you it is obvious that ship time IS ship time, but a lot of people still don't seem to comprehend this. Ship time may or may not stay on the time of the port of origin, and may or may not change to be identical to port time. It does seem to be up to the Captain [ie it can vary, even on identical itinararies], but often if the time change would be for one day only ship time will NOT change to match the port time, whereas if there will be multiple days in the new time zone the Captain will generally change the ship time to match the new time zone. I'm not sure how people expect to be told, but as stated the Compass should always identify the time situation. I have to disagree slightly with "it would say change your time after departing (insert name of port)"; the ship will stay on whatever time it was on throughout the evening, and the change occurs in the middle of the night when most are asleep.

[Barkeeper]

On our Baltic cruise the Jewel changed ship time to reflect local time, +3 hours eastwards, - 3 hours westwards. Made life ashore very easy with no need to worry about any time differences. Can understand problems if ship time does not match local time. How does anyone manage to keep track, especially tour operators who have to get people back to ship at correct time. Wouldn't it be much easier if fleetwide a policy be set so all ships followed the same procedure. Or are Captains so powerful they can decide which side of the ship is port?

[wrp96]

It definitely depends on the Captain AND the sailing so always check your Compass and just make sure to follow ship's time. On my first Voyager cruise the ship time changed to local time, on my 2nd ship time stayed on Miami time and I had the same Captain for both sailings.

 

I have no idea what will happen with the time zone on Serenade in January. We may see a third method for all I know.

 

On your Serenade cruise it's easy, you never leave the Atlantic time zone while on your itinerary so ship's time = local time.:D

[luvscruising2007]

I guess I didn't explain it quite well.

The compass is distribute in the evening of day1 for day 2. The info about time change shows the clock before the time change, say 1:00am and after the time change 2:00am.

The compass then explains that the time change is completed after you have departed a specific port. for example, Day 1 you are in Quebec, Day 2 you will be in Halifax. In the above example the compass would say "set your watch the evening after you depart Halifax".

I see where I may have confused someone. I hope this example explains it better. My point is that they will tell you specifically when and how to change your watch, etc. They give you as much info as you need to keep on the correct time.

[TravelerThom]

I guess I didn't explain it quite well.

The compass is distribute in the evening of day1 for day 2. The info about time change shows the clock before the time change, say 1:00am and after the time change 2:00am.

The compass then explains that the time change is completed after you have departed a specific port. for example, Day 1 you are in Quebec, Day 2 you will be in Halifax. In the above example the compass would say "set your watch the evening after you depart Halifax".

I see where I may have confused someone. I hope this example explains it better. My point is that they will tell you specifically when and how to change your watch, etc. They give you as much info as you need to keep on the correct time.

To be honest, not having a Compass in front of me, I didn't know what the wording was. I was just making the point that dinner and the shows are still operating on the time of the that day, not the time of the following day. Of course you don't get the Compass until after dinner, so dinner time is not an issue. And missing the show is minor compared to missing the ship sailing!

[kimbiak]

Ok but what about booking an excursion in advance. When you book your cruise and it says Grand Cayman 7:30am -4pm & Cozumel 10am - 7pm. So is this local time or EST?? In deciding if you can be somewhere for an excursion if you dock at 10am you know you can't be there for 10am but if its really 9am local time you could be there for 10am. So how do you know in advance so to plan and book excursions accordingly?

Thanks,

Kim

[RMH]

Ok but what about booking an excursion in advance. When you book your cruise and it says Grand Cayman 7:30am -4pm & Cozumel 10am - 7pm. So is this local time or EST?? In deciding if you can be somewhere for an excursion if you dock at 10am you know you can't be there for 10am but if its really 9am local time you could be there for 10am. So how do you know in advance so to plan and book excursions accordingly?

Thanks,

Kim

 

The simple answer is that you can't - at least if you book outside the ship. We are going through that right now with our Sting Ray tour in GC. Captain Marvin's is assuming that the ship will be on EDT and Grand Cayman is on EST, so the ship is one hour behind. Our tour lasts from 10:00 - 1:00 local time and we will just have to figure out if that is the same as ship time or one hour ahead of ship time. Kind of a bummer because we want to do 7-mile Beach too, but it might be tough depending on the time.

 

If you book an excursion with the ship I would assume the tour would always be on ship time, but that is just a guess.

[Cuizer2]

Ok but what about booking an excursion in advance. When you book your cruise and it says Grand Cayman 7:30am -4pm & Cozumel 10am - 7pm. So is this local time or EST?? In deciding if you can be somewhere for an excursion if you dock at 10am you know you can't be there for 10am but if its really 9am local time you could be there for 10am. So how do you know in advance so to plan and book excursions accordingly?

Thanks,

Kim

It is ship's time. If you are booking a ship's excursion, don't worry about it. If you are booking a non-ship sponsored excursion, don't expect the cruise line to make it easy for you. The cruise line wants you to purchase the ship's sponsored excursions.

 

Having been on two summer time Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruises leaving out of Maimi, I knew the ship would not change the time, so I knew we would be off by one hour when we arrived in Grand Cayman. I was able to book my independent tour in Grand Cayman with this knowledge.

 

The next cruise where I stopped in Grand Cayman I did not know what time zone the ship would be on when we arrived. As a result I could not take a chance in booking an independent tour, and thus was forced to take a ship sponsored tour, which is what the cruise line was hoping would happen.