Ship Time

[snie]

Does the ship change to local time when pulling into a port?

 

Puerto Vallarta is on Central Time, 2hours different from Pacific Time in LA.

I'm trying to ensure that non-Princess excursions are booked in a time window where we won't get left behind!!

[Hobson's Choice]

On any ship I've been on, it's always been just a little past 5 o'clock, and the bar is open.

[kevinsac]

Does the ship change to local time when pulling into a port?

 

Of course!!! Do you really think that a cruise ship, plying the waters of Asia, is going to stay on local time based on the US? That could mean, then, that you would be getting up to have breakfast just as the sun is setting......you leave on your excurions just as the local night clubs were opening and getting ready to rock-n-roll.....and you'd be going back to bed just as the sun rises.

[hrob777]

Princess has always changed time to local port times the night prior to arrival. This even when it means turning the clock ahead one day and turning it back the next.

[Pam in CA]

Actually, Princess doesn't so much change to "port" time as to the time zone it's in. If, for instance, you're at sea and going through multiple time zones, such as a two- or three-hour difference, the ship's time will change as it goes from one time zone to another. The result is that when you arrive in port, you're always on local time.

[geoherb]

Not always. When we were on the Grand Princess in December 2003, the ship stayed on Eastern Standard Time although our two Mexican ports were on Central Standard Time. There was a notice in the Patter for passengers to keep their watches set to ship's time and to remember that the clocks they saw on shore were an hour behind ship's time. This was the only one of our Princess cruises that did not change time to match local time when in port.

[changinlat]

Most of these posts just flew in the face of what I thought I knew. I've been on nine cruises (granted, none on Princess... yet) through the Caribbean - some western, some southern, departures from Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. For each one, the ship's time stayed on the same time as the departure port for the duration of the cruise.

I find it interesting that apparently Princess likes to change their clocks depending on the time zone. This is good info. to have, since I will be booking scuba diving independently. So all this begs the question (similar to OP, but more specific)...

Has anyone sailed the Golden Princess southern from San Juan with stops in Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten & St. Thomas? Did the ship time change any, and how did it compare with local times in ports? (I would expect that ship time would not change and would be the same as ports because they are all in the same time zone, but I guess I have to ask.)

Thanks.

[14A04]

Usually Princess does change time however Feb/04 on the Grand Princess we did not.

I see member geoherb was on that cruise just a few months before I was and they did not.

 

Here is what the Princess Patter said in regards to time,

 

"Please be advised that during our Mexican ports of call, we will be keeping ships time. Please disregard any clocks ashore, as these will be on Central Standard Time Zone Ships time is one hour ahead of local time. Please use Ships time when ashore."

 

This is the only itinerary on Princess we have not changed time based on time zones. It was for Thursday in Costa Maya and Friday in Cozumel. I'm going on the Star in Feb of 2006 so I guess I will see if they are still staying on "ships time" while in the Mexican ports.

 

Celebrity changed the time on the Alaskan Cruise in May so it's not just Princess that is doing it.

[CTP]

I was most disappointed to read that the ship would stay on ship time while we are in Belize. Apparently its a couple of hours difference .... we are to arrive in Belize at 6:30 a.m. hopefully the time is ahead???

[cherylandtk]

Has anyone sailed the Golden Princess southern from San Juan with stops in Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten & St. Thomas? Did the ship time change any, and how did it compare with local times in ports? (I would expect that ship time would not change and would be the same as ports because they are all in the same time zone, but I guess I have to ask.)

 

Thanks.

No clock changing was necessary on this trip, it all matched the ship and San Juan.

[mii]

I have been on six different Princess ships and 1 Celebrity ship and they have always changed the time when we went through a time zone. I wonder why they would keep the ship's time even though it is in a different time zone. Now that is weird.

 

Marilyn

[GoCruisin]

I have cruised several different lines and in my experience most ships stay on EST as ships time. However, I have recently spoken to Princess regarding this and the official word from them is "all ships change time zones as they enter them". So the above poster is correct at least when it comes to Princess. Now, that is not the case with many other lines, so those new to Princess should certainly be made aware of this. My suggestion would be, if you are reserving outside shore excursions, call your travel agent and have them verify that the ship will be using local time for your specific cruise. If you have a good agent, they will certainly call and verify this information directly with the Princess rep assigned to your ship.

[changinlat]

CherylandTK

 

Thanks for the info. That was my assumption, but it's always good to confirm. You know what they say when you assume...

 

The day we are boarding (10/29/05) also happens to be the day that daylight savings ends in the U.S. I'm not sure if San Juan uses DST or not, but I'll let you know how Princess handles it when we get back.

 

Just a little FYI... A nice website to check is www.worldtimeserver.com. You can compare the times in different places all around the world using the current date or a future date. And using the "meeting planner" allows you compare times around the world for up to five locations simultaneously at any given future date. It's pretty useful.

 

26 DAYS TO GO!!!