Confused about ship time vs. local time

[hrmkr]

We are sailing on the Freedom of the Seas on Dec 1.

 

When we port in Curacao, we are scheduled to arrive at 8:00 AM.  Is that ship time or local time?  Does the ship time change to match the port time?

 

We are taking Irie Tours and they said that the tour begins at 9:00 AM local time.  Does that mean we have 1 hour once the ship arrives?  I wanted to be safe than sorry and not miss this tour nor any other tour we have scheduled. 

 

thank you

[Clarea]

 

The itineraries pubished in advance of the cruise are local time according to Royal.  Ship time may or may not match local time.  Captain's decision, and it can be different cruise to cruise even with the same Captain.

[fscool]

I think when I one Liberty, as soon as I joined the wifi on the ship, my phone updated to Ship Time which I believe was GMT. Do I have that right? It drove me nuts until I disabled it.

[hrmkr]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The itineraries pubished in advance of the cruise are local time according to Royal.  Ship time may or may not match local time.  Captain's decision, and it can be different cruise to cruise even with the same Captain.

Thank you. Good to hear.  I was worried that I needed to rush off the ship and hope not to miss the tour.  Now, I have a little bit of time.

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, fscool said:

I think when I one Liberty, as soon as I joined the wifi on the ship, my phone updated to Ship Time which I believe was GMT. Do I have that right? It drove me nuts until I disabled it.

 

GMT would have been correct if you had been in England (or near that same north/south line).

[pnsnkr]

delete

Edited June 21, 2019 by pnsnkr

[h20skibum]

Set your phone to a time zone that corresponds to the ship time, and turn off the “Set automatically” button, so that it will stay on ship time.  

 

If they get Freedom on the app, it will always list ship time on the app.

[killtheump]

Puerto Rico & Curaçao are the same time, so Ship Time will also be the same.

[Clarea]

10 minutes ago, killtheump said:

Puerto Rico & Curaçao are the same time, so Ship Time will also be the same.

 

As long as they both have the same daylight savings policy.

[Sancho_proudfoot]

5 hours ago, killtheump said:

Puerto Rico & Curaçao are the same time, so Ship Time will also be the same.

 

Not necessarily. Ship time can still be different.

 

(We missed breakfast one morning last year on the Brilliance. Changed time zones, and on waking, my watch said one time, my phone gave a different one, and the ship channel on the TV gave a third one)

[nalrudaini]

I asked about this on my first cruise, and was told that ship time is usually the time of the port it sailed from. 

[Clarea]

3 hours ago, nalrudaini said:

I asked about this on my first cruise, and was told that ship time is usually the time of the port it sailed from. 

 

The problem is that this is not true sometimes, and that is unpredictable.

[UKWLDCruise]

10 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

GMT would have been correct if you had been in England (or near that same north/south line).

Unless like now we were on BST

[fscool]

10 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

As long as they both have the same daylight savings policy.

 

Actually, now that I think of it the time was 6 hours off based on CST (Galveston) so it seems more likely they were using UST on the wifi routers at the very least.

[cb at sea]

Your tour guide totally understands the "Ship time" thing.  Ship's Time is all that matters to you.

[killtheump]

5 hours ago, Sancho_proudfoot said:

 

Not necessarily. Ship time can still be different.

 

(We missed breakfast one morning last year on the Brilliance. Changed time zones, and on waking, my watch said one time, my phone gave a different one, and the ship channel on the TV gave a third one)

 

But on this itinerary there is no time change at any of the islands, they are all the same.

[Joseph2017China]

One of the greatest mysteries of all time, is why they still follow a policy of ship time.  It requires people to be confused as they are visiting areas with multiple times.  Clock in the store says one thing, your phone says another, unless you remembered to turn off auto updates.  Maybe you have a watch, but some of them use GPS time clocks.  Outside of the Caribbean, the clock is always set at the local time. 

 

Let's bring all ships current and the policy changed.

[biomedbob]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carnival "get's it"!  Times are always "ship's time" for the entire cruise.  No need to keep adjusting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

6 minutes ago, biomedbob said:

Carnival "get's it"!  Times are always "ship's time" for the entire cruise.  No need to keep adjusting.

Apparently so...even when Carnival ships are stranded due to engine failure or towed around at sea due to poor maintenance in general...at least their clocks work. Good point. 🤣

 

In the meantime...if people simply read their daily bulletins...or TV announcements...or PA system announcements...(in other words pay attention)...they'll always know the right times.

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[maryred]

10 minutes ago, Joseph2017China said:

One of the greatest mysteries of all time, is why they still follow a policy of ship time.  It requires people to be confused as they are visiting areas with multiple times.  Clock in the store says one thing, your phone says another, unless you remembered to turn off auto updates.  Maybe you have a watch, but some of them use GPS time clocks.  Outside of the Caribbean, the clock is always set at the local time. 

 

Let's bring all ships current and the policy changed.

The only problem here is if visiting 3-4 ports in 1 week do you really want the possibility of changing your watch each day?Especially if all the ports use different times (observe or not observe DST, or do so on the Euro which differs from the USA change over date).

A good private tour company that caters to cruise passengers as opposed to one that prefers resort/hotel guests will communicate with you in terms like the tour starts 1 hour after your ship's scheduled docking time if you ask them to. And there is a reason why most online excursion consolidation companies ask what ship are you arriving on, because they don't want to have to offer a refund or catch-up transport, if the ship gets in after the tour starts (or too close for you to get to the meeting point from your dock) or will end after your ship leaves.

[ryano]

25 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

even when Carnival ships are stranded due to engine failure or towed around at sea due to poor maintenance in general...at least their clocks work. Good point. 🤣

 

 

 

 

 

Lol.  One instance out of THOUSANDS of cruises but you run with that if it helps you sleep better at night. ;)   As far as Vista goes, shall I point out how many times Royal ships have had propulsion issues and altered/cancelled itineraries? 

Edited June 21, 2019 by ryano

[CRUISEFAN0001]

19 minutes ago, ryano said:

 

Lol.  One instance out of THOUSANDS of cruises but you run with that if it helps you sleep better at night. 😉  As far as Vista goes, shall I point out how many times Royal ships have had propulsion issues and altered/cancelled itineraries? 

Actually...Carnival had 3 major failures just in one summer season. 2013 was a particularly bad year for that cruise line's passenger experiences. They have an established reputation of poor maintenance - just Google "Carnival ship stranded" for the long list of failures over many years.

 

In the meantime...back on topic...it would be interesting to find out how many of those who are confused about ship time/port time/excursion port time actually read the daily Cruise Compass bulletins left in cabins every day...since they announce the correct time withing them every day if a change is applicable.

We've also heard regular announcements over the PA if there is any time impact at a destination.

 

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[pnsnkr]

20 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

In the meantime...back on topic...it would be interesting to find out how many of those who are confused about ship time/port time/excursion port time actually read the daily Cruise Compass bulletins left in cabins every day...since they announce the correct time withing them every day if a change is applicable.

We've also heard regular announcements over the PA if there is any time impact at a destination.

 

 

 

The OP was about ship time clarification prior to boarding.  

 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

4 minutes ago, pnsnkr said:

 

The OP was about ship time clarification prior to boarding.  

Since ship time and port time at departure is the same...not sure how anyone would even be confused by that.

 

Any adjustments once you've set sail are announced.

 

Easy peasy.

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[fscool]

I guess I may be causing confusion with my posts but my problem was this.  When it was 12:00pm (noon) in Galveston, as soon as I boarded and connected to the wifi, my phone and watch flipped to 6:00pm.  This was either due to a mis-configured wifi router or could that be because the ship was using UTC as the Ship Time?  In any event, it made it somewhat complicated to keep track of what the actual time was.

 

Now, I know how to change my settings to not auto update the time.  But that was a pain....