ship time vs. local time

[kat1014]

I haven't been able to find much info on this around here, so forgive me if it's already been discussed. I'm sailing out of Miami in June on the Victory (E Caribbean) and am looking for excursions to book (not through the ship) and I am having trouble with the times. As I understand it the ship will stay on EST, yet the islands are on their local time, is that correct? So when it says we arrive in St. Thomas at 8am, that's 9am local island time, right?

 

This is causing some difficulty in setting up excursions as most morning ones seem to start at 9am local time, which will leave me no time to get from the ship to the excursion departure site (most commonly Red Hook [for diving and 1/2 day sails], 1/2hr from the dock). :confused:

[rjack22]

The time should be the same in June. Right now Miami is on Eastern Standard time. And right now St. Thomas is one hour ahead in Altlantic Time.

 

When we go on Daylight Savings Time we jump ahead an hour. Now we are the same as the eastern Caribbean as they do not observe Daylight Savings Time and therefore remain the same.

 

The reason I know this is because last August I checked the local times for both Florida and the eastern Caribbean ports we are going to. They were exactly the same. This was for St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

 

Then when we changed to Standard time in October I checked again. Sure enough, now the eastern Caribbean was one hour ahead because of the eastern US "falling back" when switching to Standard time.

 

So in June there should be no difference.

[herb]

ALWAYS ALWAYS go by ship time, no matter what....

[Wennfred]

If youre with a Private party, then tell the Cab Driver or excursion person that he needs to set his time to the ships time, They understand what you mean and also they dont want you to miss the ship. Just pay attention to your watch and or set an alarm to let ya know its time to start heading back.

[Wennfred]

Oh one last thing, Your Capers Paper you get every night that tells ya the sked on events etc... they always post an Extreme Emergency contact number and a name in the box that says Going Ashore, so always take this Caper with you when you leave the ship to have someone to call if you get in some type of trouble.

[amf]

rjack22 is correct from april to the end of oct. the eastern caribbean is on the same time as the east coast usa.So when you go in june your ship time will be the same as island time.

[kat1014]

Thank you everyone for the info!! I'm so glad we'll be on the same time, that makes things much easier!

[kjt]

Hello,

 

One more comment on the time - I was really worried about the time switching also, because in St. Thomas we're going on a 1/2 day sail with Intraline Day Sail, and I've read a lot about the different time zones.

 

The captains wife said that all cruise line except one line (she didn't remember the line at the time) change their clocks to match island time. So, if your ship says it arrives at St. Thomas at 7am, it's 7am in St Thomas. She said the one cruise line that doesn't change times messes everything up for everyone. But, if you're sailing with Princess, the ship will match island time...

[rjack22]

I would love to know which line doesn't change to the local time. Anyone know?

[deelappy]

Always go by local time when you are on shore. NO one on any island goes by ship time. :)

[Cruzntime]

When we did Western Caribbean with Royal Caribbean last year we were told to go by ship time. They said the ship may Go without us if we go by local time (there time was behind us). So, perhaps its Royal Caribbean but I am not sure.

[98Charlie]

NO one on any island goes by ship time.

Which is why you have to keep your watch on ships time. If shore time is earlier than ships time you run a risk of using shore time for the next several days while you figure how you are going to get back home (and how you are going to pay for it :eek: ).

 

Charlie

[h20 4 me]

Which is why you have to keep your watch on ships time. If shore time is earlier than ships time you run a risk of using shore time for the next several days while you figure how you are going to get back home (and how you are going to pay for it :eek: ).

 

Charlie

 

 

So.........what I gather from this board is that if we are going in MAY, and I want to tell a tour operator what time to expect us on the dock, the ship time and the local time (in Nassau and St. Thomas) will be the same. I don't want to tell the guy we'll be there at 9 and it's already 10 his time when we stroll off. Thanks in advance.