Belize - Liberty of the Seas: local time vs. ship time

[meab]

Royal Caribbean's itinerary shows a stop in Belize from 9am to 6pm.

 

Local time in Belize is currently 2 hours behind EST.

 

If I want to book with a local tour company, do I assume Liberty of the Seas is going to be in port from 9am-6pm local time, or 7am-4pm local time?

 

And given the tender situation, I'm curious how long it takes to actually get ashore...

 

Thanks.

[overthehillcruiser]

They normally stay on ship time, so should be 9-6.

[crewsweeper]

RCCL keeps ship time based on original embarkation port, LOS leaves from FLL. Belize does NOT observe DST, so the local time will be 7A-4P as you noted.

 

Getting off on an early tender is basically up to you. If your cruise fare includes priority tender boarding, you can go at any time. If not you need to follow the information RCCL will provide on tendering and seek to catch the earliest tender you can. It typically takes 15-20 minutes to go from the ship to the tender pier.

 

Be advised though that non-ship sponsored excursion providers may have other clients from other ships and will wait for those people to show up prior to beginning the excursion. DO NOT book an independent excursion in Belize whose return time is shorter than 1 hour before the last tender leaves for your ship. Typically the last tender will depart the tender pier one hour before your ship's sail time, but if anchored closer in, or waiting on ship excursions to return, that could be later.

 

Also be aware that most independent excursion operators are very aware of the time differences. You can ask the tour operator about the time of the excursion and when to meet up when you inquire about reservations. Reputable operators will be up front with this information.

[meab]

Thank you to you both. We ended up picking a time of 9:30, that I believe will work whether the ship is on local port time or not.

 

The confusion came when someone mentioned to me that Liberty of the Seas has changed their ship time to local time a few times, and there is no way to know what it's going to be until you're on the ship and the captain decides.