Adjusting to time change on eastbound transatlantic

[SusieKay]

We have recently booked our first transatlantic (eastbound) on the Royal for 14 nights. I am curious how easy or difficult others have found the daily time changes.

Are there any tips you can offer to help adjust?.

We have a confirmed fixed 6 pm dining time and I am wondering if that is really the best choice due to the frequent time changes.

We have flown to Europe multiple time and hate feeling like jet lagged zombies for the first few days-hoping this experience will be different.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

 

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[FritzG]

We try to keep our schedule as normal as possible, and it's generally not too bad. You wouldn't think that one hour per night would make much of a difference, but by the third day you can feel the change. DH is a very early riser, and by the third day even he is sometimes sleeping later. He enjoys watching how fewer and fewer people are up and about an at early hour.

 

We always have first seating traditional dining, and it hasn't been a problem with the shortened days.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We try to keep our schedule as normal as possible, and it's generally not too bad. You wouldn't think that one hour per night would make much of a difference, but by the third day you can feel the change. DH is a very early riser, and by the third day even he is sometimes sleeping later. He enjoys watching how fewer and fewer people are up and about an at early hour.

 

We always have first seating traditional dining, and it hasn't been a problem with the shortened days.

I agree- by the third or fourth night, we were sleeping until nearly noon, which we'd never think of doing at home. It didn't help that we had late (8:30pm) dining at a large table and weren't finishing dinner until 10:30 (which became 11:30) each night, and then went to entertainment afterwards. My only suggestion is to dine early and get to bed early. And get a cabin with some natural light. We had.a balcony cabin and early dinner on our eastbound transpacific cruise and I remember no issues with the time change on that one.

 

I read on CC that RC now changes time at noon, which makes far more sense to me. Less taxing on the body, for some reason.

[shastatroy]

It was pretty easy on the Emerald TA last month. The Captain had the ships clocks changed at noon each day so it really wasn't noticeable, I guess if you lost an hour every night it might have been different. Obviously the patter didn't have anything scheduled at noon, but if you wanted to partake in something at 1:00 you had to be there at 11:55. :)

[Roses2]

On our recent Emerald Princess eastbound TA, Captain Nick Nash moved the clocks forward at noon. It was a smooth and easy transition. Virtually all of us approved of the noon forward system.

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree, changing the clocks at Noon made a big difference. :)

[CTGirl]

We just got home from the Royal TA yesterday. We had 7 sea days in a row. The clocks were changed at 2 AM. I usually changed mine once we got into the cabin for the night so I was already ahead about 2 or 3 hours before I should have been. I think that helped because I never really felt any effects from all the time changes.

[Pam in CA]

I agree with the others that the cumulative effect is difficult. And it hits at about the 3-4th day. You find yourself sleeping later and later. :) I can see where changing the clocks at mid-day would make a difference.

[SeagoingMom]

I just have to wonder why sleeping late on vacation is considered a bad thing... ;)

 

But seriously, I am glad I read this thread, as a transatlantic is on my wish list and I probably would not have thought about this aspect of the cruise.

[swedish weave]

This thread brings to mind an interesting conversation I had with a cruiser who had been arguing with the restaurant staff about having to wait in line. The person insisted that they would suffer severe health issues if they didn't eat at the same time every day.

 

When the subject came up at the table, I casually asked how they handle the time changes when cruising on an itinerary that crosses a few time zones.

 

The question was met with deafening silence !!! I saw some humor in that !!!

[mr green]

IMO putting clocks forward in the afternoon is bad, it fowls up the afternoon,

lunch in the MDR is out of the question, and for those on early seating it is ridiculous!!

What is wrong with going to bed just a half hour early?

 

john

[clueless2]

On the Emerald TA there was a petition going around during trivia asking the captain to adjust the time at night instead of noon. I didn't sign it because I thought noon was better. I don't know if they did anything with it but the adjuments stayed at night (except for the last night between France and the UK when the click was moved back one hour).

[antsp]

We were on the Emerald at, the noon changed well for us, didn't know about the campaign to change it to night time, maybe passengers thought they where losing an hour of there cruise.

[FritzG]

I'd hate a noontime time change because it would shorten the after own. I'd much rather lose an hour at night. I hope that's what the Ruby does this fall. We've never been on a TA where they changed the time during the day.

[can786]

I was also on the Emerald TA where the time change occurred at noon. At first I thought it was rather strange, but it actually worked very well. I didn't feel any cumulative effect as the cruise went on at all. We still woke at the same time each day. It also makes much more sense for the crew and staff. Instead of losing an hour of sleep (which they definitely deserve, considering how hard they work) they lost an hour of their workday.

[rdsqrl]

They may have lost an hour of their work day, but for some of them, like cabin stewards, they don't lose any tasks that have to be done. If you have 18 cabins to make up, you still have 18 cabins -- just now, you have one less hour. Or else one less hour for your afternoon down time.

 

Losing an hour's time in the middle of a precious sea day is so wrong, I'm really in awe that people are actually in favor of this.

[tweakes]

I have issues with time changes, but I've never had issues with the daily 1-hour changes. I just always try to make sure I go outside to get at least some real sunshine even on days that I don't want to go to the pool (for some reason I like to spend too much time in the casino so this is something I have a consciously try to do!). Just feeling the skin on your body seems to make a little bit of a difference.

[caribill]

I was on a RCCL eastbound TA last year and the time changes were done at noon.

o To me this was much better than changing time in the middle of the night. It was easier to do the time adjustment because I had the same hours of sleep each night, going to sleep at the same clock hour and waking up at the same clock hour.

o At noon, an announcement was made so everybody would know the time was changing immediately to 1 PM.

o In effect, the lunch in the dining room was now from 1 PM to 2:30 PM.

o The only drawback in my opinion is that activities normally scheduled for 1 PM were still scheduled for 1 PM and thus no time for lunch between the end of an 11 AM activity and the start of the 1 PM one.

o There were a number of people who were unhappy and said they would rather have lost an hour of sleep each time the clock moved ahead.

 

When heading westbound on TAs, RCCL does add that extra hour in the middle of the night.

[OzKiwiJJ]

There are two key factors to adapting to timezone changes.

 

1. Make sure you change with the time zone. If you normally get up at 8am then do that all the time. Allowing yourself to sleep in just delays the time zone changes within your body.

 

2. Get out into natural light for at least half an hour as early as you can. This helps reset your internal clock. If you have a balcony cabin, wake up and go sit outside for half an hour, otherwise go up on deck for half an hour before breakfast. If it's raining sit right by a window instead.

[dorisis]

It never seems to affect me. Maybe because time is not so important whilst on board.

[Grammyluvs]

I agree, about the 3rd or 4th day we were sleeping until 10-11 in the AM. Missed Zumba:( and breakfast. LOL

I was feeling lazy as I am an early riser but our steward said 75% of the ship were sleeping in due to all the time changes.

[mr green]

On land IF the times were changed at noon, or 2.00pm it would result in utter chaos. So why foul things up on a cruise???

 

john

[SusieKay]

Thank you all so much for the very helpful interesting comments. Based on your advice I feel quite confident in keeping my 6 pm dining time, using my balcony as often as weather permits, and attempting to keep to a regular schedule as much as possible. Whatever time of day the clocks are gradually moved forward has got to be easier on the system than the brutal overnight flights with little refreshing sleep!!

 

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Edited May 15, 2014 by SusieKay

[DrivesLikeMario]

I have never experienced jet lag with all my trips to Europe. When I get there, I am on their time immediately. It's never been a problem at all.

 

OTOH, on my Eastbound TA, I found myself staying up later and later every night and then wanting to sleep in to 11am. That's horrible!! :eek: I never sleep in that late. It made me mad at myself for being so "lazy". I had to make a real, concerted effort to get on the right time schedule. My cruise was only 8 days, so with 14, I think you'll have an easier time of adjusting to the schedule.

[pandora518]

We just got back from an eastbound TA on the Emerald. They had decided, as an experiment based on a suggestion by the maitre d'hotel, to change the clocks ahead at noon instead of at night. For the crew, that meant more sleep, which resulted in a happier and more productive staff. Pax benefitted from that, so I don't think anyone minded. However, if it were me I'd change that dinner reservation. 6PM will come awfully fast unless you have a very early lunch.