time change on cell phones

[mariaw8889]

Is it true that the time changes, or can change, on your cell phone while on a ship and it shouldn't be used for an alarm clock?

[silentbob007]

It depends on the tower it connects to and whether or not you have your phone automatically adjust the time to your present timezone. On some phones, you can tell it to stay on the same timezone. It will also stay in the same zone if you leave it in airline mode so it can't connect to a tower to refresh its data.

[BluEyed445]

My advice to you is to forget using your cell phone as your alarm...We made that mistake once...almost missed an excursion. My phone's time changed, but my husbands didnt...

[Slowpoke2]

Agree, don't rely on it. I used the alarm to wake up in time for the approach into the Panama area. It turned out I was up and out an hour early due to the cell phone time change!! DW still laughs at this.

[abhb]

Wake up calls are reliable.

[bluegirlum]

My blackberry doesn't change on its own. Also, we didn't get good service in our cabin on the Majesty. If you need a clock, bring your own or use a cheap wristwatch. And yes, definitely get a wakeup call. It's weird if you're used to relying on your phone, but it's the way to go.

[SamFritz]

I hadn't thought of using it as an alarm, but I have noticed the time going all over the place, especially when we are at sea.

[cb at sea]

Do NOT use your cell phone as a "watch" when ashore....if there IS a time change, your phone will reflect the island time...and you MUST stick to "Ship time"...ALWAYS.

You can use your cell phone as an alarm on the last morning of the cruise....when you hit your "home port", the time will be right. But do NOT use it in the other ports! Bring a watch!

 

If you need a wake-up call, call on the cabin phone for one (just like in a hotel!).

[EugeneD]

We have Verizon, and both of our phones switched themselves by 3-4hrs (we only changed time zones once during the trip, only by 1hr).

 

So, it can be even worse than ship vs island time -- sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for it.

 

A travel alarm clock that's battery operated is best. Setting your cell phone into stand-alone mode may also work.

 

If you're just looking for a morning wake-up call, that works too.

[silentbob007]

Again, if you leave it in "airline mode" once you get onboard, it will not change times. This won't help much if the ship changes time, but on no-time-change itineraries it can be reliable.

[orchidj5]

ahhh silent bob-only smartphones have an airline mod or use network time-and most of them dont change unless you change them since they stay tied to the time on their home net or that they were set to-most other phones use gps time and auto change time to match the gps time being broadcast by the last tower they pinged-and that can only be disabled by turning the phone off-rendering it useless as an alarm clock.