Time Changes & Daylight Savings

[love2306]

We'll be on the CB 3/2-3/9. I heard the first night aboard they change the clocks, but my question is if 3/9 is daylight savings - do we not switch back the last night or do we lose 2 hours? Also will ship time be the same as St. Thomas and St. Maarten time? I would hate to miss out on island adventures because I've screwed up the timing.

[englishharbours]

Your clock should be set to whatever time zone you are in at that moment.

[DetroitMark]

I don't know about you, but when I get there the only "time" I'm going to be concerned about is how many minutes and hours before the ship departs for the next leg.

 

Apart from that time will be some abstract formula that exists somewhere outside of the Space/Vacation contiuum.

 

:D

[love2306]

Funny, but we are trying to take a water taxi on St. Thomas that only leaves every 2 hours so atleast for that day it does matter. It wont be the end of the world but I figured the trusted experts on Cruise Critic would be able to help me out. I get turned around enough be daylight savings time not to mention deliberate time changing. We've mostly sailed on Carnival and as far as I can remember never changed clocks. I mean as far as daylight's savings time change - if we're losing 2 hours, we'll have to party(and relax, and eat ;o) ) harder in our 163 hours just to make sure we get our moneys worth that most weeks get in their 165 hours.

[John in Cicero]

Ship's time changes with the time zones observed by where ever you are on the earth, with or without a port. The ship's time will also be the same as whatever port you're in. Time changes are more frequent and pronounced as you approach either the North or South Pole.

[Pam in CA]

As the others have said, the ship changes time with the time zone so whether it's Daylight Savings or not, whatever the time zone, that will be the ship's time. There will be a notice in the Patter a day or so before the time change and then the night of the time change, a small card will be put on your pillow reminding you to change your clock/watch.

 

One time, on a T/A cruise, we had a couple of days at sea and during that time we went from one time zone to another and back. Yup... the ship changed the clocks with each time zone even though we were at sea the whole time and the time zone for the two ports was the same.

[caribill]

The Caribbean islands do not observe DST.

 

Whatever schedule you see for the ferry will not change because of DST elsewhere.

 

Ship time will be local time.

 

Also, you will probably not need to change clocks when returning to Florida. DST for Florida is the same as standard time in the Caribbean where you will be.

[cherylandtk]

I generally agree with what folks above have posted; particularly for an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

 

Specifically to your cruise, the ports are Princess Cays (Bahamas), St. Thomas and St. Maarten. St. Thomas and St. Maarten are on the Atlantic time zone, and do not observe DST.

 

What usually happens on your cruise is that you change clocks forward one hour sometime after departure from FLL. This puts you on the same time zone as those two islands. (Princess Cays is on ship time.) I would expect this will also happen on your cruise. On most cruises, time is re-adjusted back after the visit to Princess Cays.

 

However, daylight time occurs for the US on March 9, your last day. But you have already moved your clock forward, so you will not have to re-adjust for your return. I cannot imagine they will have you move it back on Friday and then forward on Saturday.

 

I would plan on being on local Atlantic time (one hour ahead of EST) when making your shore excursion plans, but double check with your tour operator.

[cherylandtk]

Time changes are more frequent and pronounced as you approach either the North or South Pole.

:confused: Time zones run in a generally north-south direction along the longitudinal meridian lines, not an east-west direction along the parallels. They do squiggle around to match up with political borders, and they do narrow in width as you approach the poles, but they don't necessarily change as you move north or south. You can travel all the way from the south pole to the north pole and stay in one time zone. You cannot do that for very long traveling east to west.

[JandD Mom]

FWIW, I was on the phone with Princess about my booking and before I hung up, I asked the rep whether we would always be on port time. She told me we would.

 

I have the opposite scenario. We will be on the Grand on 3/22. On that date, FLL is on EDT. Cayman will be on EST because they don't observe DST, so they will be one hour behind.

 

Cozumel, does not observe DST until April, so they will be 2 hours behind FLL. The rep told me we will have 2 time changes in each direction.

 

I hope she gave me the right info because I have private tours scheduled in each port.

[FredS]

I have found the only time I care about is ships time. I check it at the clock by the gangway when I go off. I have never heard of nor experienced a tour operator missing the ship's docking due to not knowing what time the ship docked. they are in business to make money and know very well when the ship will be docking. I have heard of people missing the ship because they were going by local time and not ships time.