How to know Ship Time before your cruise

[DieselMartini]

I have a cruise coming up in January and I'm trying to book an excursion through a 3rd party (it's not offered by the cruise line). I want to make sure that the start and end times of the excursion are within the hours that my ship will be docked in port. The site where I'm booking the excursion lists the local time for the activity, and the cruise line's itinerary shows our arrival/departure times for the port in what I assume is ship time. Is there a way to find out what ship time will be relative to local time prior to my sailing? 

 

In case it matters, I'm sailing on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas, and the port in question is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

Thanks!

[mom says]

Welcome to Cruise  Critic.  I'd suggest asking on the Royal  Caribbean  forum regarding ship time policies. Some lines conform to local port times, others dont.   https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/51-royal-caribbean-international/

[leaveitallbehind]

Most independent tour operators are well in tune with the various ships' times when in port and arrange their schedules accordingly.  We have never had an issue in the past when we have done that, and I would not be overly concerned.  You could contact the tour operator to confirm his understanding of what the ship time would be. (However, ship time is at the Captain's discretion and while it typically would be the same from itinerary to itinerary, it may not always be consistent.) 

 

I am not sure how to confirm what the ship time will be prior to a cruise other than perhaps going to the roll calls of previous itineraries and inquire there - often they remain open for post cruise discussions. That may provide some insight as to what it was on previous cruises.

 

I will add that with RCCL you will typically be able to leave the ship within about 30 minutes of the scheduled dock time, and you will need to be back on board by 30 minutes prior to the departure time.

Edited November 28, 2023 by leaveitallbehind

[CruiserBruce]

Agree with others to check on the RCI board.

 

MOST, but not all, cruise lines tend to be in alignment with local times. 3 notes...one, it is always at the final discretion of the Captain. 2, Puerto Vallarta is always one of the tricky ones, as it is right at a time zone change, as far south and east as most ships goes on the Mexican Rivera, and is frequently confusing to cruisers. There are far more questions about PV's time situation than any other port I have seen covered on Cruise Critic. And 3, the local tour people are extremely good about knowing the ship's schedule as well as anyone.

[Host Kat]

6 hours ago, DieselMartini said:

... and the port in question is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

Hello @DieselMartini and welcome to the Cruise Critic message board!

 

To research the port in question, click here: Ports of Call - Mexican Riviera. The forum is for Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, Loreto, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Pichilingue/La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, Topolobampo & Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, Mexico. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have been to those ports frequent that forum and provide feedback there. Browse through the thread titles on the forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

The Cruise Critic website and the message boards are both great resources for new as well as experienced cruisers and we are glad you found us! Please feel free to browse the message board categories list for all our various forums. Click here: Cruise Critic Community. Please read a few threads in the different forums to get a feel for what each forum is about. Make sure you read any pinned threads (aka Stickies) on the top of the first page of threads in most forums. You will find very important instructions or information there.

 

To find your fellow Cruise Critic members sailing with you on your cruise, you need to post on the specific Cruise Critic Roll Call thread for your cruise line, ship and sail date. Since you did not mention your sail date, I cannot refer you to the Roll Call thread for your cruise if one has already been created.

 

Please read What is a Roll Call? Everything you Need to Know and How To: Create A New Roll Call. For more information about our famous Roll Calls, please read the Roll Calls and Our Policy Regarding Facebook and Roll Calls sections in the Guidelines. We also have the following Cruise Critic article from last year you might enjoy: 8 Reasons to Join a Cruise Critic Roll Call

 

The specific Roll Call thread for your cruise is the ONLY place on the Cruise Critic message boards where you and your fellow Roll Call thread members are allowed to post personal ads about sharing private tours, excursions or transportation with each other to save money. There is a "captive audience" there since you are all sailing together! Your fellow Roll Call thread members may have important information posted in your Roll Call thread. Especially those that may have sailed your line, ship or itinerary before. Also, they may have already posted share requests that may interest you. Roll Calls are for people to get to know one another before their cruise. Therefore, there will be all kinds of discussion!

 

Once you locate the Roll Call thread for your specific line, ship and sail date if one is already created, first read through the whole thread to get to know the other Cruise Critic members sailing with you. Then use the dark blue Reply to this topic button to post an introductory post about yourself on the Roll Call thread. When done with your message, click the dark blue Submit Reply button. 

 

If you want to address a particular post already in the thread, click the Reply to this topic button and then be sure to use the Quote feature on that particular post as I did yours so all will be aware of what your post concerns. You type your message UNDER the light blue quote box then click the dark blue Submit Reply button. If the member has used the Follow feature on the thread, they will get a notification that you have quoted their post.

 

If a Roll Call thread for your specific line, ship & sail date has NOT been created, please feel free to create it! Just follow the directions in How To: Create A New Roll Call. Then sit back and wait for your fellow Cruise Critic members sailing with you to join in with posts. They will appreciate you starting the Roll Call! And don't worry about any responsibilities in starting a Roll Call thread. Roll Calls belong to everyone on the Roll Call thread. There is no designated leader or owner. It does not matter who started the thread.

 

If you ever need technical help in regard to using the Cruise Critic message board software, go to the Need Help Using the Forums? Check Here! forum. You will see a large amount of "How to..." pinned threads toward the top of the forum's first page. Also, browse through the threads in the forum looking for threads of interest. Again, you will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

So sorry this is so long, but I sincerely hope this information will be helpful to someone new to posting on our message boards. We are glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[donaldsc]

If the tour company does not know the answer to your question I am not sure I would want to book anything from them.  Have you asked them?

 

DON

Edited November 28, 2023 by donaldsc

[Heidi13]

16 hours ago, DieselMartini said:

I have a cruise coming up in January and I'm trying to book an excursion through a 3rd party (it's not offered by the cruise line). I want to make sure that the start and end times of the excursion are within the hours that my ship will be docked in port. The site where I'm booking the excursion lists the local time for the activity, and the cruise line's itinerary shows our arrival/departure times for the port in what I assume is ship time. Is there a way to find out what ship time will be relative to local time prior to my sailing? 

 

In case it matters, I'm sailing on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas, and the port in question is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

Thanks!

 

In over 35 yrs at sea, I never arrived in port where ship's time wasn't local time. Not getting such a visible requirement correct would incur the severe wrath of the Master, so we always double and triple checked the times.

 

I am aware, some Carnival ships may not change the cloxs in the Caribbean, might also be others, but they are definitely a minority.

 

Your tour vendor will also know the ship's arrival time and especially the departure time, as future business depends on getting you back aboard.

[Charles4515]

49 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

In over 35 yrs at sea, I never arrived in port where ship's time wasn't local time. Not getting such a visible requirement correct would incur the severe wrath of the Master, so we always double and triple checked the times.

 

On Royal Caribbean we had Grand Cayman a few times where ships time was different than local time. That was I believe was because the ports on the itinerary were out of sync with time zones, daylight standard  so there would have been too many time changes. I think that for the pacific coast Mexican cruise OP is on the ship time would be the same as local time but since they did not mention the other ports and whole itinerary that is just a guess. 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Charles4515

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

In over 35 yrs at sea, I never arrived in port where ship's time wasn't local time. Not getting such a visible requirement correct would incur the severe wrath of the Master, so we always double and triple checked the times.

 

I am aware, some Carnival ships may not change the cloxs in the Caribbean, might also be others, but they are definitely a minority.

 

Your tour vendor will also know the ship's arrival time and especially the departure time, as future business depends on getting you back aboard.

Carnival is known for not changing their clocks at PV.

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Carnival is known for not changing their clocks at PV.

 

So unprofessional to arrive at a different time than the shore.

 

I did Mexican cruising for 3 months, stopping in PV every week and never had an issue arriving at the correct time.

[Heidi13]

10 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

On Royal Caribbean we had Grand Cayman a few times where ships time was different than local time. That was I believe was because the ports on the itinerary were out of sync with time zones, daylight standard  so there would have been too many time changes. I think that for the pacific coast Mexican cruise OP is on the ship time would be the same as local time but since they did not mention the other ports and whole itinerary that is just a guess. 

 

From memory Grand Cayman uses EST year round, so they don't use daylight savings time. Should only be 1 hr difference to ports within a day steaming and if there is a 2 hr difference, the cruise line's itinerary planning dept screwed up. In addition to ensuring the ship has sufficient speed to make the ETA's, they should also ensure the ship can adjust the cloxs in the time available.

 

I've crossed the ocean many times at 20-25 kts with 1 hr cloxs every night. It really wasn't challenging, so just can't understand Masters that want to be at a different time from the shore. The risk of errors escalate when you have to factor in a time differential.

[sandiego1]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

So unprofessional to arrive at a different time than the shore.

 

I did Mexican cruising for 3 months, stopping in PV every week and never had an issue arriving at the correct time.

For some odd reason, Celebrity doesn’t use local time for their ships in the Galapagos. From what I’ve read, the ships stay on Quito time. This makes no sense as the ships obviously don’t sail from Quito! The ships (Flora, Xpedition, and Xplors) stay in the Galapagos.

[EatonDoolittle]

Perhaps you could ask on the roll calls for a few sailings around now.  Sometimes people are happy to check on that type of thing and report back.  Look for a sailing with the same ship and itinerary as yours, and ask nicely for someone to check on time changes. 

 

A few captains do stay on ship (not local) time,  usually on short trips, and  if the change is only for one day. Too much trouble for pax, crew, etc to change.