Port of Call Times

[Shells0418]

Hi! First time Disney Cruiser here, also this is my first cruise in over ten years. All the information in the threads have been helpful here, but I did have one question that I couldn't find any recent answers for- the port of call times. I am sailing on the Magic in June. It goes out of Miami which would be Eastern Daylight Time. I am looking to book an excursion privately in Grand Cayman, which is in Eastern Standard Time (no daylight savings). According to the Navigator app, the estimated time at port is 8am-4pm. Is that in EST or EDT? Also, I read on an older thread to check the island ship schedule and when I checked that it says the Magic will be at port 10am-6pm.

The excursion is only a few hours but I do want to pick the right time that makes us able to get there on time (knowing we have to wait for tenders) and also have some time afterwards so we aren't rushing back to the ship after.

I would appreciate any insight!

 

[TRTRguy]

Technically it is "ships time". Typically Disney does follow local time and changes the clocks accordingly

 

[CisforCookie991]

We were on the Dream last month. Grand Cayman was day 3. On the evening of day 1, they told us to set our clocks back an hour so the ship time would be the same as GC time since GC doesn't do the time change (we had no idea). We spent all of day 2 (sea day) on GC time. Then on the evening of day 3, they told us to put the clocks forward an hour again so we would be on Eastern time for day 4 sea day and Castaway. So the port time listed should be the local GC time. Also the reputable excursion vendors know the ship schedules and won't let you book a time that you can't make.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

In our experience, ship time for DCL has always matched local port time. We did the 7-night Western Caribbean on the Dream last month. We changed clocks one hour back for the first sea day (day 2 of the cruise where we boarded on day 1). That put us on Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) for the first port stop in Cozumel. Most of Mexico does NOT observe Daylight Savings Time (as of October 2022, so a recent change), Baja California being the major exception. Clocks stayed the same for the subsequent stops in Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica, since both the Cayman Islands and Jamaica stay on Eastern Standard Time all year long. We changed clocks forward one hour to Eastern Daylight time for the second sea day and on into Castaway Cay and Miami.