changing the clock on TA's

[JimmyVWine]

No, it does not truncate the lunch hours, just realigns them. ...Only real loss is that lunch and afternoon tea are now an hour closer together, essentially ruling out having both.

 

... there is no doubt that having lunch start one hour later than normal would generate far greater complaints than dinner one hour "earlier". I put "earlier" in quotes because after some teething at the first time change, one should be able to adequately "adjust" their internal clocks in the space of an afternoon on subsequent days.

 

But just as the gap in time between lunch and tea is compressed, so too is the gap in time between lunch and dinner. This doesn't seem optimal to the galley staff and dining room crew. Their work lives are already a fire drill.

 

Not sure about the "no doubt" conclusion as it relates to which scenario would generate the most gnashing of teeth. I doubt it has been studied. I can only speak to personal preference and a later lunch would always be preferred over an earlier dinner.

 

But the most significant thing in this debate is the idea of sleep deprived passengers and the adjustment of the internal clock. With all the playing around of times resulting in shifting lunch schedules, lunch that collides with tea, early dinners, etc., the one adjustment that is easiest to account for is sleep. Every person has the ability to determine for themselves how much sleep they need. They then can determine what time they want/need to get up in the morning, and then count backwards. I don't mean to sound cruel, but any passenger who utters the words: "I need 8 hours of sleep each night and because we changed the clocks forward overnight, I only got 7" is an idiot. You have the power in your grasp to make this happen. Just go to bed one hour earlier. The path of least resistance here is to go to bed earlier rather than monkey with lunch schedules, dinner schedules, shuffle board tournaments, bingo games, etc. The only thing that is impacted by changing the clocks overnight is sleep. And that can be accounted for with the snap of the fingers. Calling it a night at 11:00 instead of midnight is far easier than adjusting all of the ship's activities and dining schedules from noon to 7:00 p.m.

[chengkp75]

On all ships (not just cruise ships) I'm seeing the practice of advancing clocks during the day, but retarding them at night become more and more common with the advent of the statutory STCW work/rest hour regimes for crew. The losing of an hour during the working day does not impact the mandatory rest periods the crew must have, while doing so at night can lead the cruise line into legal difficulties, if they don't curtail some crew's hours (resulting in cut backs of service).

[chubbypiggy]

Every April, from 2011 – 2017, I did the Eastbound Transatlantic. All starting from Ft. Lauderdale, and ending in different ports (Barcelona, Southampton, Copenhagen, and Civitavecchia). Of those 7 cruises, 5 of them we had time changed at 2 a.m., and 2 of them we had time changed at 12 noon. The 2 times that were changed at noon, the route ended in Barcelona; it was April, 2015 on the Emerald with Commodore Giuseppe Romano and April, 2017 on the Royal with Captain Nick Nash. So it seems to me the route determines when the clock should be forwarded, and not strictly the decision of the captain or the ship. Just my thought.

[fishywood]

With all the playing around of times resulting in shifting lunch schedules, lunch that collides with tea, early dinners, etc., the one adjustment that is easiest to account for is sleep. Every person has the ability to determine for themselves how much sleep they need. They then can determine what time they want/need to get up in the morning, and then count backwards. I don't mean to sound cruel, but any passenger who utters the words: "I need 8 hours of sleep each night and because we changed the clocks forward overnight, I only got 7" is an idiot. You have the power in your grasp to make this happen. Just go to bed one hour earlier. The path of least resistance here is to go to bed earlier rather than monkey with lunch schedules, dinner schedules, shuffle board tournaments, bingo games, etc. The only thing that is impacted by changing the clocks overnight is sleep. And that can be accounted for with the snap of the fingers. Calling it a night at 11:00 instead of midnight is far easier than adjusting all of the ship's activities and dining schedules from noon to 7:00 p.m.

 

Superficially a fine argument. But the conclusion that there is one and only one choice in how to adapt to 23 hour days--just go to be early--would be unsatisfactory to many.Also there is technically another choice: go to bed at one's normal hour, but then start their next day early. Which would mean eating breakfast an hour closer to the remaining meals of the day, with the same effect of "playing around with times" (at least internally for that individual) for the rest of the day. And why should it be the passenger's responsibility to "take the path of least resistance" rather than the cruise line's to offer up a path with multiple easy choices? The conclusion that moving the clocks forward at noon requires elaborate and difficult "monkeying with the schedule" is just as much a guess as the one I postulated of delaying lunch for an hour being a larger customer service issue than advancing dinner.

 

Again I will suggest anyone who feels that advancing the clocks at noon to be impossibly disruptive an d too difficult to adapt to should check out the many postings of Daily Programmes from QM2 Eastbound Crossings. (I will let everyone search individually rather than choose one blog over another to give extra hits to). No issues with activities or anything missing from the day--other than one less hour between morning and afternoon activities. Only a problem for those who would spend that hour napping, I guess :rolleyes:

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[Tucker in Texas]

I can tell you the shops and bars don't like the midday change--fewer hours to sell! (lol). To me, it is 1/2 dozen of one, six of another. Advantages/disadvantages to both in about equal amounts.

[RNGALNG]

I can see everyone's point of views, but aren't you all forgetting one thing? Changing the hour at noon means you are an hour closer to cocktail time! It's always 5:00 somewhere, right?

[Tucker in Texas]

My husband is an early riser. A favorite "activity" when the time changes at midnight is to go and get a cup of coffee and watch the little Energizer Bunnies running up and down in their feetie pajamas dragging their teddy bears while a poor, frequently hungover father, is keep them out of the cabin so the Mrs. can sleep. The little kiddos don't get the time change (lol)

[mummsie]

On our recent cruise on P&O Aurora they did the change over at midday as well. It seemed to work ok. This was the yearly round the world so thought it was something just peculiar to that but obviously not :) We also had early sitting for dinner but that didn't really bother us. Mummsie