Recent Splendour Cruisers - ? Time Change

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

We are going to be on the Splendour in April. I called RCCL and they told me that the port times on the ship's itinerary were all in "Tampa time" and that the ship stays on Tampa time (Eastern Daylight Savings Time) for the duration of the cruise. I have read here on the boards however that the ship changes time to match the local time. Does anyone have any recent experience and know which it is? I am worried about excursion times, etc.

 

Thanks for your help!

[alb38]

We changed times at one of the islands, I cannot remember which one but since we are soon to switch our clocks they might be right for this time of year.

[NancyIL]

Interesting...cuz I just called RCI and asked the same question, and was told the ship's time changes with the time zones. I will also be on Splendour in April, and I know that Grand Cayman and Belize (not sure about Mexican ports) DON'T observe daylight savings time, so the ship should be an hour ahead of local time.

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

Thanks for answering - why do they make it so hard to understand. Seems like all the ships should do the same thing and should let you know on the web site.

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

I just called RCCL back to book stateroom decorations so decided to ask the time questions again to try to get it straight.

This time they told me that the times listed on the itinerary are all "local times" - so that when it says 9 - 5 for Grand Cayman that is Grand Cayman time, regardless of what time it is on the ship !!!!

So if we leave Tampa on Eastern Daylight Savings Time it will be 8 am ship time when it is 9 am Grand Cayman time (which is in the Eastern time zone but doesn't observe DST). Does this make sense - we are trying to make a shore excursion at 10 am local time.

Well I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks.

Thanks if anyone can help.

[Apex Cruiser]

On the 3/12 cruise we changed time for Costa Maya, Belize and Coz so yes Splendour changed time to match the local port. I actually prefer this as it made it easier for us to know when we had to be back on board.

[NancyIL]

I just called RCCL back to book stateroom decorations so decided to ask the time questions again to try to get it straight.

This time they told me that the times listed on the itinerary are all "local times" - so that when it says 9 - 5 for Grand Cayman that is Grand Cayman time, regardless of what time it is on the ship !!!!

So if we leave Tampa on Eastern Daylight Savings Time it will be 8 am ship time when it is 9 am Grand Cayman time (which is in the Eastern time zone but doesn't observe DST). Does this make sense - we are trying to make a shore excursion at 10 am local time.

Well I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks.

Thanks if anyone can help.

 

If it is 8 a.m. ship time in Grand Cayman, it will be 7 a.m. GC time (without daylight savings). Daylight savings time is 1 hour later (or ahead) of standard time.

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

Whoops - thank you - I was never very good at math. So it will be 10 am ship time (DST) when it is 9 am Grand Cayman time. And then the ship changes for the last 3 ports to match local time - except Belize is not on DST and Mexico is. Does this sound right?

 

No wonder people eat all the time on cruise ships - if the time keeps changing you must be always hungry at the wrong time.

Thanks.

[NancyIL]

I'm more confused than ever! I was under the impression that port times were the same as ship's time. I have an excursion in Belize that starts at 9:30 local time...and we get to Belize at what I thought was 9:00 ship's time - which would be 8:00 local time. If port times are local times, I'm not likely to make my excursion!!

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

Me too - I decided to email RCCL and see if I get a different answer. We are taking a ship's excursion in Belize, but have local excursions in the other ports. I will let you know if they answer my email and I'll definitely post when we get back - I think this is confusing for many new cruisers.

[wvernnr]

Just got back. The 2 Mexico Ports and Belize are in the central time zone, so when we were there the clocks were turned back 1 hour @ 2AM night before Belize. Caymans are on east coast time so no change.....I don't know what happens when we switch to daylight savinigs time next week.

[Elexman]

That is odd. We recently got off EOS and never altered time from Eastern Time...

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

I just got the following e-mail message:

 

"We would like to apologize for the delay in our response. The ship observes Daylight Saving Time/Eastern Standard time. The ports adhere to local times however guests are required to adhere to the ship's time when in port. Thank you for choosing Royal Caribbean International."

 

So I think this means that the ship does not change time, but I really can't tell for sure. That is what the local tour operators told me, but I guess I won't know for sure until we sail.

 

Thanks to all who replied.

[Sheffie]

We just got off the Splendour last Saturday and we changed our clocks to be on local time at our ports. I believe it is up to the ship's captain as to whether or not the ship changes time.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Michelle

[BlueSkiesGreenTrees]

Thanks - we should have to change times frequently because of Daylight savings time: Tampa, EST/Daylight Savings; Grand Cayman, EST/no DST; Costa Maya, CST/DST; Belize, CST/no DST; Cozumel, CST/DST, Tampa, EST/DST.

 

That looks like we would have to change times 5x to match all the ports.

Wow.

[ontheroad]

I found that checking with the site, http://www.worldtimezone.com and linking to daylight savings time will also provide some info in planning. Your port of departure's time zone will of course, determine your "ship's time" while in various ports, but as I understand it, if you are booking a local excursion at a port, then you are on "their time zone."

[scsagh]

We sailed on the Splendour April 2-9. When daylight savings time should have started, we did not change our clocks, but stayed on regular EST since that is what our first port, Grand Cayman, was on. Unfortunately, we didn't get into Grand Cayman because of rough seas. The captain then changed the order of our itinerary since he didn't think we would make Costa Maya the next day either. Instead we went to Cozumel next. Again, we kept our clocks the same since EST was the same as Central with Daylight Savings time. When we got to Belize, we stayed on ships time, so we were one hour different than local Belize time since they are Central but do not recognize daylight savings time. When the ship docked at 7:30 a.m. ships time, it was 6:30 a.m. local time. In Costa Maya, ships time and local were the same again since it was Central with daylight savings time. Thursday night, before our day at sea, we were told to change our clocks one hour so that we were then on Eastern daylight savings time.

 

Hope I haven't thoroughly confused you! Will be interesting to see what they did this week. My guess is that they changed one hour to start the week, and then changed again at the end of the week. Would make all ports the same as ships time except Belize.

 

Good luck and have fun!

 

Sandy