Your ship keeps one clock for the whole cruise, usually its home port's, while many Caribbean and Mexican ports never change theirs. For half the year that leaves an hour or two between the time on your phone ashore and the time the gangway goes up. Here is which ports differ, by how much and when, and how to book a tour that still gets you back.
Updated October 14, 2026
A cruise ship keeps one official clock, called ship time, and the captain decides what it is. On Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico cruises from US ports the usual choice is the home port's time zone, held for the whole voyage, even when a port of call is an hour ahead or behind. Carnival ships, for example, normally stay on home-port time and change only on long voyages or Hawaii trips, plus the nights US daylight saving starts or ends, when Carnival's North American ships change with the rest of the country.
Everything aboard runs on that clock: the all-aboard time, the meeting time for ship-sold excursions, dinner reservations and shows. Norwegian's FAQ puts it plainly: shipboard time may differ from the port of call, and you must follow ship time. Royal Caribbean shows the official ship time in the top corner of its app, and its ship clocks match it. Carnival announces the local time the day before and the morning of arrival, prints it in the Fun Times and the Hub app, and posts it at the gangway.
The weak link is your phone. On land it picks up a local network and quietly changes to local time, often without any notice. At sea it may connect to the ship's own cellular service, which takes its time from that network, and those systems are not always set to the right zone. A watch you set by hand stays where you put it.
All-aboard is set in ship time, usually 30 to 60 minutes before departure, and the gangway goes up at all-aboard, not at the departure time. Royal Caribbean says the ship will not wait for any guest faring on their own; Norwegian requires guests back one hour before departure and makes anyone who misses the ship pay to rejoin it. Only excursions sold by the cruise line come with a promise that the ship will wait.
An hour's confusion is enough. In a 2025 Reddit post reported by Cruise Fever, a Carnival Horizon passenger said his and his wife's phones had moved back an hour in Jamaica without them noticing; he heard of people who missed their excursions, and a group barely made the ship. After the US clock change in March 2026, Carnival's brand ambassador John Heald answered a guest who had missed a private tour because of the time difference: checking the timings is the guest's job, and it was not Carnival's fault. Cruise Fever calls looking at the wrong clock the biggest reason people miss the ship in a foreign port, and Donald Bucolo of Eat Sleep Cruise, quoted by The Independent, tells clients to set their phones to ship time by hand before leaving the ship.
The risk peaks twice a year. US daylight saving starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November (8 March and 1 November in 2026). Florida ships change with it, and most Caribbean and Mexican ports do not, so a gap that was zero last week can be an hour this week.
The table assumes the usual case: ships from Florida and the US East Coast keep US Eastern time, ships from Galveston and New Orleans keep US Central time, and ships from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle and Vancouver keep Pacific time. US Eastern is UTC-5 in winter and UTC-4 from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Any ship can choose differently, and some switch to local time for a call, so treat the table as what to expect and the daily program as the answer.
The pattern is simple once you see it. Mexico's Caribbean coast, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Colombia stay on UTC-5 all year: same as a Florida ship in winter, an hour behind it in summer. Belize and Roatán stay on UTC-6: one hour behind in winter, two in summer. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, the Dominican Republic and the ABC islands stay on UTC-4: one hour ahead in winter, the same in summer. The Bahamas, Key West and Bermuda change clocks with the US, so their gap never changes.
| Port | Local time vs ship time | Notes | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cozumel (Mexico) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | Quintana Roo moved to Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) on 1 February 2015 and has no daylight saving. A ship on US Eastern time matches the island from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March, and is one hour ahead of it the rest of the year (in 2026, 8 March to 1 November). A ship from Galveston or New Orleans on US Central time is the reverse: one hour behind Cozumel in winter, the same in summer. | Port guide |
| Costa Maya (Mexico) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | Same state and same clock as Cozumel: UTC-5 all year. Carnival lists Costa Maya among its ports that skip daylight saving. Florida ships: same in winter, ship one hour ahead in summer. Gulf ships on Central time: ship one hour behind in winter, same in summer. | Port guide |
| Roatán (Honduras) | 1 h behind ship in winter, 2 h in summer (Florida ships) | Roatán is on Central Standard Time (UTC-6) all year. Against a ship on US Eastern time it is one hour behind in winter and two hours behind in summer, so an 8:00 am ship-time arrival is 6:00 am on the island in April. Against a Galveston or New Orleans ship on Central time it is the same in winter and one hour behind in summer. | Port guide |
| Belize City (Belize) | 1 h behind ship in winter, 2 h in summer (Florida ships) | Belize is on Central Standard Time (UTC-6) all year, the same clock as Roatán, with the same one-or-two-hour gap to Eastern-time ships. Carnival names Belize City and Half Moon Caye among its non-daylight-saving ports. | Port guide |
| Grand Cayman (George Town) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | The Cayman Islands keep Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) all year. Same as an Eastern-time ship in winter; one hour behind it from March to early November. On a Gulf ship on Central time, the island is one hour ahead in winter and the same in summer. | Port guide |
| Ocho Rios (Jamaica) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | Jamaica keeps Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) with no daylight saving, so it behaves like Grand Cayman. Carnival's brand ambassador singled out Jamaica in a March 2026 warning about guests missing private tours after the US clock change. | Port guide |
| Falmouth and Montego Bay (Jamaica) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | Same island clock as Ocho Rios (UTC-5 all year). A 2025 Reddit post reported by Cruise Fever described Carnival Horizon guests whose phones jumped back an hour in a Jamaican port; some missed excursions and some were left running for the gangway. | Port guide |
| Nassau (Bahamas) | Same as Florida ships | The Bahamas use Eastern time and change clocks on the same dates as the US (8 March and 1 November in 2026), so a ship from Florida or the US East Coast is on the same clock all year. When Carnival confirmed its March 2025 clock change, Cruise Hive pointed to Carnival Conquest, in Nassau that very morning, as the kind of call where guests had to get the time right. | Port guide |
| Key West (Florida) | Same as Florida ships | Key West is on US Eastern time with daylight saving, identical to Miami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral and Tampa. | Port guide |
| Key West, Nassau and other Eastern-time ports on a Galveston or New Orleans ship | 1 h ahead of ship (all year) | Galveston and New Orleans are on US Central time, and ships usually keep their home port's clock for the whole cruise. Because Central and Eastern time change on the same dates, a Central-time ship is one hour behind Key West and Nassau all year. | — |
| St. Maarten (Philipsburg) | 1 h ahead of Florida ships in winter | Sint Maarten keeps Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) all year. A Florida ship on US Eastern time is one hour behind the island from November to March and on the same clock in summer. Some ships switch to island time for Eastern Caribbean calls and some do not, sometimes on the same ship, so check the daily program. | Port guide |
| St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) | 1 h ahead of Florida ships in winter | Although it is US territory, St. Thomas uses Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) with no daylight saving. One hour ahead of an Eastern-time ship in winter, the same in summer. Ship practice varies; on a Cruise Critic thread about a Port Canaveral sailing, other cruisers said the ship would stay on its own time. | Port guide |
| San Juan (Puerto Rico) | 1 h ahead of Florida ships in winter | Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) all year, like the Virgin Islands. Carnival lists San Juan among its non-daylight-saving ports. Ships that sail round trip from San Juan run on San Juan time, which then differs from Florida, not from the islands. | — |
| Amber Cove / Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) | 1 h ahead of Florida ships in winter | The Dominican Republic is on Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) with no daylight saving in 2026. One hour ahead of an Eastern-time ship in winter, the same in summer. Carnival lists both Amber Cove and Puerto Plata as ports that skip daylight saving. | Port guide |
| Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire | 1 h ahead of Florida ships in winter | All three keep Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) year-round. On a Florida sailing the ship may stay on Florida time or move its clocks forward on the way south and back on the way home; either way, read the daily program. | — |
| Cartagena (Colombia) | 1 h behind Florida ships in summer | Colombia Time is UTC-5 with no daylight saving, the same offset as Cozumel and Jamaica: equal to US Eastern Standard Time in winter, one hour behind US Eastern Daylight Time. | Port guide |
| Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) | 1 h ahead of LA ships in winter | Baja California Sur has been on Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7) all year since Mexico ended daylight saving on 30 October 2022. A ship from Los Angeles or Long Beach on Pacific time is on UTC-8 in winter, so Cabo is one hour ahead; in summer (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-7) the two match. Princess passengers report that its ships usually match port time on Mexican Riviera sailings; other ships may not. | Port guide |
| Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) | 2 h ahead of LA ships in winter, 1 h in summer | Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco) is on Central Standard Time (UTC-6) with no daylight saving. That is two hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time and one hour ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. A December 2023 Princess daily program read that ship's time was one hour behind local time in Puerto Vallarta, so even a ship that adjusts its clocks may not match Puerto Vallarta. | — |
| Mazatlán (Mexico) | 1 h ahead of LA ships in winter | Sinaloa, including Mazatlán, is on Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7) with no clock changes, the same as Cabo San Lucas: one hour ahead of Pacific ships in winter, the same in summer. | — |
| Ensenada (Mexico) | Same as LA ships | Baja California kept daylight saving on the US schedule when the rest of Mexico dropped it, so Ensenada is on Pacific time and changes clocks on the same dates as Los Angeles. | — |
| Bermuda (Royal Naval Dockyard) | 1 h ahead of East Coast ships (all year) | Bermuda uses Atlantic time and changes clocks on the US dates (8 March and 1 November in 2026): UTC-4 in winter, UTC-3 in summer. That keeps it one hour ahead of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and Boston all year. Some ships move to Bermuda time for the call and some stay on home-port time, so confirm in the daily program. | — |
| Alaska (Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway) | 1 h behind Seattle/Vancouver; most ships switch | Alaska time is UTC-9, or UTC-8 in summer, always one hour behind Pacific time. On Alaska cruises from Seattle or Vancouver most big lines set clocks back an hour before the first Alaska port and forward again on the way south (a Victoria call puts the ship back on Pacific time). A few ships do not change, so check the program before booking a 9:00 am tour. | — |
| Hawaii (Honolulu, Maui, Kona, Hilo) | Ship resets clocks on the way | Hawaii stays on Hawaii Standard Time (UTC-10) all year: three hours behind Pacific Daylight Time and two hours behind Pacific Standard Time. Ships from the West Coast set clocks back an hour on several nights at sea, so by the first island ship time and local time normally match. | — |
Plan the day in ship time and convert only when you must. The all-aboard time on the gangway sign, in the daily program and in the app is the one that counts; photograph it on the way off. Cruise Fever suggests a plain watch set to ship time and left alone for the whole cruise.
Independent tour operators work in local time. Their booking pages, confirmation emails and pickup times are local, and so are shop and beach-club closing times. When you book, write both times down, and ask the operator to confirm in writing what time you will be back at the pier in ship time. Passengers sailing from Port Canaveral to Roatán were told exactly that on Cruise Critic: the ship stays on Eastern, the operator uses island time, so confirm with them.
Worked example: Cozumel in June on a ship from Florida. The ship is on Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4); Cozumel is on UTC-5. A tour that ends at 1:00 pm local time ends at 2:00 pm ship time. If all-aboard is 4:30 pm ship time, that is 3:30 pm on the island, and that is the time to give your driver. The same tour in January has no gap at all.
Two more: on a Port Canaveral sailing to Roatán in April, an 8:00 am ship-time arrival is 6:00 am on the island, and a 4:00 pm all-aboard is 2:00 pm local. On a Florida sailing to St. Maarten in January, a catamaran that docks at 3:00 pm local time is back at 2:00 pm ship time. Here the island is ahead of the ship, so local times look later than they are on board.
No. Cozumel and the rest of Quintana Roo have stayed on UTC-5 all year since February 2015. What changes is your ship: a Florida ship on US Eastern time matches Cozumel from early November to early March and is one hour ahead of it from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. A Galveston or New Orleans ship on Central time is the opposite: one hour behind in winter, the same in summer.
Usually, yes. Roatán is on Central Standard Time (UTC-6) all year. On a ship from Florida on Eastern time it is one hour behind in winter and two hours behind in summer. On a ship from Galveston or New Orleans it matches in winter and is one hour behind in summer. Belize City is on the same clock as Roatán.
Excursions sold by the cruise line are listed in ship time, like everything else on board. Independent operators almost always quote local time on their websites and confirmations. Convert their times into ship time yourself and agree a return time to the pier with them that leaves a margin before all-aboard.
In port your phone joins a local network and switches to local time automatically. At sea it may join the ship's cellular service, which sets the time from that network and is not always on the right zone. Turn off automatic time zone, set the clock to ship time, or keep the phone in airplane mode, and check it against the ship time in the cruise line's app or daily program.
Not any more. Baja California Sur has stayed on Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7) all year since Mexico ended daylight saving in October 2022. For a ship from Los Angeles or Long Beach on Pacific time, Cabo is one hour ahead from November to March and on the same time from March to November. Some lines move ship clocks to local time on Mexican Riviera cruises, so check the daily program.
Bermuda is on Atlantic time and changes its clocks on the same dates as the US, so it is one hour ahead of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and Boston all year (UTC-4 in winter, UTC-3 in summer). Some ships move to Bermuda time for the call and some stay on home-port time; the daily program will say which.
Most do. Alaska is one hour behind Pacific time all year, and most ships from Seattle and Vancouver set clocks back an hour before the first Alaska port and forward again on the way south. A few ships keep Pacific time, so confirm before booking an early independent tour in Juneau or Ketchikan.
In winter, usually. Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, St. Maarten and the Dominican Republic stay on Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) with no daylight saving, so they are one hour ahead of an Eastern-time ship from November to March and on the same time in summer. Some ships switch to island time for these calls and some do not, so read the daily program.