Ship Time VS Port Time

[PatyCake]

When Carnival lists your itinerary with arrival and departure times, are they listing A Ship or Port time? Magic says arrival in Cozumel at 9 AM, but currently Cozumel is an hour later than Galveston?

[KenMo]

It's ship time.

[cb at sea]

Ship's time is ALL that matters....if you go by ship's time, you're good. If you're worried about a private tour...don't...they know how this works...you'll be on ship's time!

[javafish]

And make sure your watch does not have satellite GPS timekeeping that changes the time for you. i have to take a cheep watch with me

[cntrydncr1]

You always stay on ships time. But once we had a problem with a private excursion in Cozumel which operated on local time...we arrived an hour early. Ugh.

[knagl]

Noob question, is the ship's time based on where you leave from (ie. if you depart from Florida do you just stay on Eastern time for the duration of the cruise?)?

[PatyCake]

Sorry not a "noob", I even work at one of the Cozumel ports. I just was not sure which way Carnival did it as not all lines are the same. I am concerned about a birthday party for my grandson at his old school, which is a surprise for him....guess he will be late for his own party!

[knagl]

Sorry not a "noob", I even work at one of the Cozumel ports. I just was not sure which way Carnival did it as not all lines are the same.

 

My apologies if I was unclear -- I was not calling you a "n00b" -- I was calling myself one! I've never been on a cruise before and, well, my question above still stands. As a passenger on a cruise leaving from Florida, do I just leave my watch set to Eastern time, or does the ship have its own time that is different from the departure port?

[Papa_Bear_]

Keep your eyes on the clocks around the ship. Normally the ship stays on the same time as the departure port but like most things at sea it is up to the whims of the ships captain.

[Keith1010]

For whatever reason unlike most cruise lines who base the times on local times Carnival usually goes with ships time.

 

But this can vary so best to check your daily program.

 

Keith

[summersigh]

We have a private tour scheduled in St Kitts and the tour guide made sure I knew that the time she gave us was ship time NOT local time. :)

[Plant]

The ship's Captain decides whether to change the clock's to local time or stay on the departure port time. You won't know until you get to a port and see what ship's time is when you get off the ship :).

 

Any good private tour guide will know before you dock what time the ship is on.

[Tapi]

Definitely pay attention. I've been on cruises where ship's time was determined by the port of embarkation and on other cruises where ship time was adjusted to local time at the ports of call. The most confusing one was when we switched to daylight saving time while onboard. We left Miami, adjusted ship's time to local time as we sailed to our first port of call. Then we switched to daylight saving time during the week so we didn't switch our clocks again when we sailed back to Miami. [emoji43]

 

I've read that on transatlantic crossings you move your clock one hour every night for 5 nights.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Tapi

[zqvol]

When Carnival lists your itinerary with arrival and departure times, are they listing A Ship or Port time? Magic says arrival in Cozumel at 9 AM, but currently Cozumel is an hour later than Galveston?

 

Carnival's posted arrival times are ship time, which is generally the time at the port of departure. Carnival only very rarely changes time to match local time.

Edited December 14, 2015 by zqvol

[k2excursion]

There are many GREAT tour companies that do NOT automatically use your ship's time. Most of them do, but some of them do not. There are numerous reports of this all over these boards, including in this thread, and many of those reports are from reputable, amazing tour companies. For some of those, it makes perfect sense why they don't, especially when there are like 6 ships or more in port with various ship times. Or when the "tour" is simply going to a particular facility, which always use local times for their operating hours. They will not adjust their operating hours to match your ship time. None of these things make these companies bad. I have done excursions with great companies where they didn't adjust to ship time. It would be very unwise to just assume that a tour company is going to adjust to your ship time. You could end up being an hour early, an hour late, or have to cut your tour short to get back to the ship in time. It just makes sense to check with the tour company rather than assume. Better safe than sorry.

 

Back to the questions listed here. Carnival almost always stays on the time of the departure port. They rarely change times during the cruise. The main exceptions to this has been on repositioning cruises, other 1-way cruises, Hawaii, or sailing during the daylight savings switch.

[arnerriso]

Keep your eyes on the clocks around the ship.