Thread: local time vs carnival time

I am arranging for a shore excursion on my own and have been asked if the docking time in Cozumel (9am) is "Carnival" time or local time. Evidently "Local time" is an hour earlier. I am ASSUMING it's "Carnival" time, but could someone verify this for me??

Thanks!! (holiday - Mobile 3-1-2008)

It's Carnival time. For some reason Carnival always uses ship time instead of the local time in the islands.

Thanks Char! Boy, I get confused enough going from eastern to central! Hope I make it back to the ship on time!!!!

Originally Posted by naniboujou

Thanks Char! Boy, I get confused enough going from eastern to central! Hope I make it back to the ship on time!!!!

Just keep your watch set for ship time and you will be fine.

There is a 1 hour time difference in Cozumel, and Carnival's Time is local time, it can't be anything else. When we were on the Carnival Valor in Cozumel in 2005, our clocks agreed.

Originally Posted by Char

Just keep your watch set for ship time and you will be fine.

Excellent advice.

Interesting! When we were on Glory in September they told us NOT to change our clocks and to stay on Ship time! BIG bold letters in the Capers. Other Carnival cruisers said this was standard procedure.

So I guess the answer is maybe, sometimes, depends on the ship!

Originally Posted by Char

Interesting! When we were on Glory in September they told us NOT to change our clocks and to stay on Ship time! BIG bold letters in the Capers. Other Carnival cruisers said this was standard procedure.

So I guess the answer is maybe, sometimes, depends on the ship!

Yes, that's interesting. Can't see the logic of not changing your watches if the local time is different, and all shore excursions are based on the local time in the country you're in. We were told to set our watches back 1 hour, before arriving in Belize, and the ships' time agreed with my watch there, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel We were also told to set it forward 1 hour when we left for Miami.
Maybe for some reason,they have changed since I've cruised with them in May, 2005 if other Carnival cruisers say that's standard.
(Btw, I've modified my earlier post)

This is 1 of many things that go right over my head. I have no idea why cruise lines can't have the ships time the same as local time. This has caused many problems that I have seen over the years. The last on our Spirit group this month.

The only possible reason I can see is that it makes booking independant tours more difficult and may coerce some into booking excursions through the cruise line.

Originally Posted by reggierail

This is 1 of many things that go right over my head. I have no idea why cruise lines can't have the ships time the same as local time. This has caused many problems that I have seen over the years. The last on our Spirit group this month.

The only possible reason I can see is that it makes booking independant tours more difficult and may coerce some into booking excursions through the cruise line.

I agree, ships time should be the same as local. Never ever figured out why we adjusted ships time by one hour but never by the additional hour for complaince to the shore time on the Spirit cruise. In this case with 2 sea days before the first port and 2 sea days after the last port day, it really didn't make sense to not to adjust by one hour each sea day.