luv2travel06

does anyone know if HAL uses ship time or local time in guatemala? want to plan a private excursion... thanks!!!

The only time that really matters is what time all aboard is, and that is ship time. ;)

We were there when DST was not in effect in the U.S., so there was no issue, I guess. The ship time changed from EST to CST during the night after the sea day. It does not appear Guatemala follows DST.

I suspect that the ship time will be adjusted to match the local time.

However, even though the official ship time changed, the clocks in the lido pool area were not changed to match it on our Ryndam cruise last week. Confusing!!!! :confused:

The mid-ship pool on Lido deck is way too small for the ship. And when they allow children and young kids to PLAY in it unattended inlcuding jumping into the pool the adults have to leave. There is no pool for adults only like on Carnival ships ....

On our only Carnival cruise, the children thoroughly enjoyed the adult-only pool and/or hot tub. That policy did not seem to be enforced at the time.

We have nothing against inside cabins. But when the cruise line is selling outside cabins for the same price as inside, or we are able to get an upgrade to an outside cabin when prices change after final payment has been made, we much prefer paying the price for an inside cabin and getting an outside cabin. :)

Sorry, yes semantics.. when I was a TA we refered to "mass market" as Carnival, RCI, NCL, HAL, etc.. the "mega ship" cruise lines. Sometimes a charter operates differently though as in case apparently of the Pearl!

Our March 02, 2012 cruise on HAL's Maasdam is stopping at St. Barth's. Same itinerary Jan 27 and April 06.

So if you see this thread and are interested in going there, check out HAL, particulary the Maasdam.