time changes for excursions

[dinnysuw]

Help-we are booking our own excursions for 9/25/04 and i know DCL keeps the same time regardless-but when you go to cayman and cozumel the time changes on the island-so when do i make the ressies for? if i made a 9 am ressie for cayman is it the same time on ship or a time difference-i don't want to book wrong and end up losing my money and excursion!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by dinnysuw
Help-we are booking our own excursions for 9/25/04 and i know DCL keeps the same time regardless-but when you go to cayman and cozumel the time changes on the island-so when do i make the ressies for?

Actually, the ship changes to local time. You'll get a note the night before, and your Navigator will also provide information about time zone changes.

When it's not Daylight Saving Time, here's how it works: The time zone in Grand Cayman is the same as the Eastern Time Zone (like Florida) in the US. The time in Cozumel is the same as the Central Time Zone (like Chicago) in the US. What this means on the Disney Magic's Western Caribbean itinerary is:
-- Tuesday night (before bed) or Wednesday morning, you adjust your watch back one hour to Central Time.
-- When you visit Cozumel, your watch is on local Cozumel time.
-- Wednesday's events and meals on the ship are on local Cozumel time.
-- Wednesday night (before bed) or Thursday morning, you adjust your watch forward one hour, back to Eastern Time.

It's different during Daylight Saving Time because Grand Cayman does not observe Daylight Saving Time.

Also, see http://www.dcltribute.com/faq/timezone.htm

 

[dinnysuw]

thanks Horace-i spoke with DCL and they told me time stays the same on the ship-so i appreciate the info and the link-we have an 8:30am excursion planned in Cayman-so we should be OK if i understand it right we will set our watches back the night before to adjust to their time. so making the 8:30 should not be a problem. thanks again
darcy

 

[CM_Mom]

The "time stays the same" is correct for the Eastern since the St. Thomas and St. Maarten are on Atlantic Time but don't observe Daylight savings time so it's the same as Eastern Daylight time.

On the Western, Horace is correct about the time changes.

The ship ALWAYS synchronizes their time with local (port) time so if it's 9:00 on the ship it will be 9:00 on shore. It would be too confusing for meals and all aboard if they didn't.

You will need to change your watches but if you ask for a wake up call you don't need to figure out any time adjustments and the time shown on Channel 52 in your room will match shore time.

 

[jrabbit]

BE SURE TO SET YOUR WATCH TO THE CORRECT TIME EVERY TIME THEY TELL YOU THERE IS A TIME CHANGE AND DOUBLE CHECK BEFORE LEAVING THE SHIP. You don't really want to "miss the boat" because your watch was set to the incorrect time (and you don't want to unnecessarily cut your time short)

 

[goin2disneyagain]

When we were approaching Cozumel on DCL we were constantly reminded to set our clocks back an hour before we went to bed and then reminded to set them back again after we left Cozumel. They did go according to local time.