Ship time vs. local time

[Scotico]

We have a tour in curaçao at 9:30am. Ship says it arrives at 8am. Is that 8am local time or 8am ship time which I think is 1 hr behind?

[time4u2go]

It could be either, depending on if the captain decides to adjust ship time to be the same as local time.

[cruiseguy1016]

Changing the time on the ship is at the discretion of the captain. Sometimes they change, sometimes they don't. The tour operator will know the schedule of the ship in port and will (most likely) adjust his schedule if needed to accommodate the ship's schedule. To be safe, I would contact the tour operator to verify that he will wait for cruise ship passengers.

[bajathree]

Not sure when your sailing is...but we switch back to daylight savings time on March 12th which will make local time in Curacao and Florida the same until we switch clocks again on Nov 5th.

[Scotico]

25 minutes ago, bajathree said:

Not sure when your sailing is...but we switch back to daylight savings time on March 12th which will make local time in Curacao and Florida the same until we switch clocks again on Nov 5th.

It is next week so before the time switch. 

[publicpersona]

Always stay on ship time. (I'm going to go ahead and say that because that's universally true.)

 

Of course, the question is will the ship adjust to local time or not on a particular cruise? Decades ago, it seemed more common that the ship kept homeport time for the entire cruise as long as it was closed loop. It usually didn't change to match time zone unless it was not a closed loop and debark port was in a different time zone.

 

In the past ten years especially, it seems that changing ship time to match port time zone is more the rule than the exception. I can't remember the last time we didn't change time to match port on a cruise, though I'm sure it still could happen and one must stay aware. I suspect this trend is due to the fact that people are far more time conscious on a cruise now. Just about every person carries a time-keeping device, and it is typical that smart phones are configured to automatically adjust time zones. Things are just less prone to confusion if ship time and port time are the same version of the truth.

[DaKahuna]

We are in Curacao now and the ship did not change time zones.  Today 8 am ship’s time is 9 am local time.  Our captain has made numerous announcements regarding staying on ship’s time. 

[crewsweeper]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

We are in Curacao now and the ship did not change time zones.  Today 8 am ship’s time is 9 am local time.  Our captain has made numerous announcements regarding staying on ship’s time. 

By mid March ship time will be daylight saving time and that means same time on ship and in Curacao.  Other ports don't observe daylight savings time so in Western C, that could be a couple of hours difference.

[DaKahuna]

Also, I just looked at our tickets for our excursion in Aruba tomorrow and it says to meet at “12:45 ship’s time”.  I assume if you are taking an excursion with RCI it will be the same on your ticket, if ship’s time and local time are different.

 

[Racer70]

So from what I’m hearing, when daylight savings time begins in March, ship time & local time in Aruba & Curaçao will be the same time.

 

Is this correct?

We sail to Aruba & Curaçao in June, so  this won’t be an issue of concern.