ship's time vs. local time

[SAM101]

Hi guys, we are trying to book an excursion with a company not affiliated with the cruise line.  The ship is supposed to port at 7 AM.  but is this time, ship time or local time?  So do the ships change their time on board to go with whatever region they are in, or do they just base it off of the departure's dock time and keep it as that?   It's so confusing!  Thanks!

[teddy]

As you saw in the other thread, the unfortunate answer to whether a ship uses local time is "it depends".  Twangster explained it well in his post in that thread.

Whenever we've booked excursions with third party companies, they were more concerned about what ship we were on rather than what time we were getting in.   I would think a local company should have access to the arrival times of the various cruise ships coming into their port. 

As an example, here's a website that shows the arrival and departure time of all the cruise ships going to Philipsburg, St. Maarten in December.  https://cruisedig.com/ports/philipsburg-st-maarten.  I chose St Maarten because that is the port we've used third party excursions the most.  That website (and others) will let you choose different ports/months/cruise companies.

Be aware that the arrival time isn't always the time that guests can get off the ship because the local authorities need to clear the ship's arrival before people can disembark. 

[ChessE4]

The reported time is Ship Time.  Now if you look at the Cruise Compass for a similar cruise, you can find out if Ship Time changes during your trip.

You won't know for sure until you are on the ship, however.

As stated, 3rd party companies will be familiar with ship arrival times.

[Traveling Mike]

Any descent 3rd party company will know what time your ship comes in.  It is their business to keep track of it.  Your biggest concern is to make sure you return on ship time before the ship leaves.  No matter what time it is locally you need to make sure you are on ship time.  The Ship App will show you the ship time while on the ship.

[Galveston Steve]

On 12/4/2022 at 5:20 PM, ChessE4 said:

The reported time is Ship Time.

Although I would have agreed with this a month ago, this is not always the case. On two cruises on Allure out of Galveston the reported time on our Royal Caribbean itinerary is off by an hour because of “ship time”. We arrived and departed one hour early at the Mexican ports. Your experience may differ.  

[CruizIan]

This past Thanksgiving on Wonder was the first cruise in 10 cruises that we actually changed time zones when we went to St. Kitts. I have never in the past had any cruise ship have us change time zones in the past. So your mileage will certainly vary by what ship you are on.

[ChessE4]

20 hours ago, Galveston Steve said:

Although I would have agreed with this a month ago, this is not always the case. On two cruises on Allure out of Galveston the reported time on our Royal Caribbean itinerary is off by an hour because of “ship time”. We arrived and departed one hour early at the Mexican ports. Your experience may differ.  

Interesting.  Will be on Allure next week and can check.  Up to now, the itinerary time on our invoice has matched Ship Time.  (Latest example last month.)

[Kathleen]

As others have said this is tricky. In January we were on Oasis and porting in Costa Maya and we were scheduled on a ship's excursion. All of them were scheduled on ship time but when I turned my phone off airplane mode it reset to local time. I did not notice that it was different than ship time. We were fortunately traveling star class and our Genie showed up to take us to our excursion location to us what was an hour early because we were paying attention to our phone time!! We were able to hustle and get there just in time. We were not the only ones on our excursion that this happened to. We waited at least 45 mins for another couple to arrive who thought their phone (local time) and the ship and the excursion was all the same time also. Moral of the story, check your tv for the ship time and not your phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Most Caribbean nations do not participate in daylight savings time so the difference between ship time and island time is only present for half of the year.   For ships that depart from the central time zone the difference is also not as noticeable at all ports of call.  It depends on the time of year.  Consequently some people have not experienced this situation on every cruise.

I'm not really sure how they decide to switch ship time or not.  I have been on B2B cruises where we changed ship time on one cruise but not the other cruise where we were warned that the destination is not on ship time.   Same Captain, same Hotel Director, same Cruise Director.  Two different outcomes.  

The ship app is prone to mistakes which I saw for myself in 2021.  The ship changed time but the app and the cabin TV map channel did not change right away.  It wasn't until mid-morning the app and the TV system were finally updated.  Someone did an oops.  This is afterall an app created by Royal Caribbean who as we know is technically challenged.  

The lesson learned is never state absolutes when dealing with Royal.  The outcome is always maybe.  

[Ditchdoc]

Generally, ship time will change to match local time. However, not always. Its pretty much Captains discretion if the change would only be for a few hours while in port then go back to what it was. As a convenience to passengers and crew, ship time may not change for the few hours spent in port.  There will be numerous announcements on board so passengers will know. Current ship time is on the TV and will be published in the daily schedule or Cruise Compass.

On longer voyages, ships generally go by longitude.  360 divided by 24 is 15. So every 15 degrees of longitude is a new time zone. Then there is GMT or Greenwich Mean Time. GMT is the same everywhere but is adjusted to local time as needed. Confused yet?

I know, I know, you just want to get back on the ship before it leaves. Just make sure you understand what ship time and local time is when you get to port and then make sure your excursion returns before scheduled departure. If it is questionable, do not go on the excursion. Its just not worth it to miss the boat.

[mistertomatohead]

I'll echo what was already mentioned. The ship clocks sometimes don't get updated and the app doesn't display the correct time. On my Samsung phone, I change the time and the app reflects the updated time even if it's wrong! Also, don't make the mistake I did last time when going forward one hour shortly before midnight. I didn't realize it starts the day over! My apps started to act weird. Make sure the day is correct when manually adjusting your phone's time. 

[Alex k]

How to change the clock on iPhone and Apple Watch to ship time instead of my time