Ship time vs. shore time

[Ariel Wanna-be]

I'm trying to reserve a diving trip in Cozumel, and they are asking about the ship arrival time, and if it is "ship" time or "local" time. According to the DCL itinerary we dock in Cozumel at 8:30...but does that mean ship time or local time?

TIA.

.

 

[ImDMous]

I think the ship time will always match the local time. They change the time on the ship as you travel to different time zones. At least that's how ours have always worked.

 

[kiford]

I think that there was only once where ship time didn't match shore time and they told us about it (over and over - on the PA, at dinner, in the Navigator, in the evening on our bed). I'm pretty sure that Cozumel was not that location - the ship and shore time were the same. I think it might have been Grand Cayman.

 

[cheermom2four]

I know when I booked a tour in Bahamas the gal asked if I was booking by ship time or island time. How the heck would I know lol. So I booked it to where no matter what we would be fine (couple hours after docking).

 

[bumbershoot]

A seasoned travel operator should know the situation with the ships and should match it up. It makes me nervous that they don't know. Odd.

 

[Dug720]

A seasoned travel operator should know the situation with the ships and should match it up. It makes me nervous that they don't know. Odd.

This! I wasn't positive about the changing of times when I inquired of Captain Bob for a St. Maarten excursion about the possibility and he instantly reassured me that his schedule worked VERY well for the Fantasy - which it did indeed. He clearly knew what was what with the cruiselines.

 

[erionm]

I'm trying to reserve a diving trip in Cozumel, and they are asking about the ship arrival time, and if it is "ship" time or "local" time. According to the DCL itinerary we dock in Cozumel at 8:30...but does that mean ship time or local time?

TIA.

.

As of Feb 1, 2015, the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, which includes Cancun and Cozumel changed to the Eastern Time Zone.

As noted in a post above, any deviation between ship time and port time will be announced.

 

[kiford]

A seasoned travel operator should know the situation with the ships and should match it up. It makes me nervous that they don't know. Odd.

Different cruise lines have different policies on whether they change the time to match shore time or not. There's no one single standard.

 

[tinkerone]

we seldom pay attention to time zones as we seldom stray to far from the ship. on our last cruise however, we had our children and we booked an excursion on our own. the night before at the show, the CD keep saying to remember to stay on ship time. he said it over and over. I was really confused so I stopped at guest services to clarify what exactly that was. turns out ship time was the same time as on the island so I could not figure out why he even bothered to tell us and it certainly wasn't necessary to repeat it four times. while I was at guest services there were other people asking the same question.
they need to keep it simple.

 

[jahber]

Once Mexico has moved over to daylight saving time you should be fine. We traveled in late October after the U.S. had changed, but Cozumel hadn't. Because it was a 5-night cruise, we didn't have enough time to switch two hours there and two hours back, so we just switched one hour and stayed an hour off of Cozumel time. Then we recovered that hour when we got to Castaway. They made it very very clear that our ship time was NOT shore time. There were also signs at the gangways.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I'm trying to reserve a diving trip in Cozumel, and they are asking about the ship arrival time, and if it is "ship" time or "local" time. According to the DCL itinerary we dock in Cozumel at 8:30...but does that mean ship time or local time?

TIA.

.

Ship is always on local time.

 

[Dug720]

Different cruise lines have different policies on whether they change the time to match shore time or not. There's no one single standard.

But I agree with Bubbleshoot - the travel operators who truly know what they are doing in ports will know the ship's schedule and can (or should be able to) honestly advise you on if their tour would work for the schedule you are on. Assuming their job is to stay in business, they depend on word of mouth - or nowadays fingers with online reviews and reports - for their business and if they are constantly making people miss or almost miss their ships because they don't know the schedules, they won't be in business for very long.

 

[Flossbolna]

When we did a 5-night cruise out of Miami with DCL in 2013, we did not change time. We stayed on ship time for Cozumel as this was the only port that we went to with a different time zone.

However, as someone pointed out, the area around Cozumel recently changed time zone and is now in the same time zone as EST. However, according to Wikipedia, they are now no longer observing Daylight Saving Time. So, in summer there should still be a one hour time difference.

(edited thanks to MelSpees pointing out my previous mistake)

 

[wdwwishes]

For some reason, like another poster, I think I remember thinking Grand Cayman was one where ship time and local time were different

 

[MelSpees]

When we did a 5-night cruise out of Miami with DCL in 2013, we did not change time. We stayed on ship time for Cozumel as this was the only port that we went to with a different time zone.

However, as someone pointed out, the area around Cozumel recently changed time zone and is now in the same time zone as EST. However, according to Wikipedia, they are now no longer observing Daylight Saving Time. So, in Winter there should still be a one hour time difference.

Actually, if they are on EST they would be the same in winter and different in summer. Daylight Savings Time is during the summer months.

 

[Flossbolna]

Actually, if they are on EST they would be the same in winter and different in summer. Daylight Savings Time is during the summer months.

You are totally right. No idea how I got confused about this...