All aboard time is the deadline to be back on the ship, and it comes before the departure time printed on your itinerary. Mix those two up, or trust the clock on your phone at port, and you can watch your ship sail away without you.
I have been on more than 70 cruises, and I have watched it happen. Almost every sailor who misses the ship got one of two things wrong.
The first is all aboard time versus departure time. The second is ship time versus port time.
Both are easy to fix once you know them, so here is exactly how each one catches people, and what I do every port day so it never catches me.
What Is All Aboard Time on a Cruise?
All aboard time is the last moment you can walk back onto the ship at a port of call. After that, the gangway is closing and you are on your own.
Your itinerary usually shows something like 9:00am to 5:00pm in port. That 5:00pm is the departure time, not the time you need to be back.
All Aboard Time vs Departure Time: Why They Are Not the Same
Think about a flight. The boarding doors close, nobody else gets on, and then everyone buckles up and the safety steps happen before the plane actually takes off.
A cruise ship works the same way. There is work to do after the doors close, so all aboard is always earlier than departure.
In my experience it lands anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before departure, depending on the cruise line. So on a 9:00am to 5:00pm port day, all aboard might be 4:30pm, or even 4:00pm.
Where to Find Your All Aboard Time
The cruise line always tells you. Look for it in the daily schedule and in the cruise line’s app for that port day.
The trap is the time you saw first. Weeks before the cruise, you read 9:00am to 5:00pm and that number sticks, so check the all aboard time again on the morning of every port day.
Ship Time vs Port Time: The Second Trap
Ship time is the clock the ship runs on for the whole cruise, and it is the only clock that matters for getting back on board. Port time is the local time wherever you are standing.
They are often different. You may have crossed a time zone overnight, or the port may simply sit in a different one from the ship.
This catches people most when the time only changes once or twice on a sailing. On a transatlantic you change clocks so often you are watching for it, but on a short Caribbean cruise nobody expects it.
How to Keep Your Phone on Ship Time
Your phone is the problem here. The moment it finds a signal at port, it quietly switches to local time, and you have no idea it happened.
Before you get off the ship, go into your phone settings, turn off the automatic time zone, and set it to ship time.
The other fix is the cruise line’s app. In my experience it can still show ship time even when you are offline at port, so it works as a backup clock.
It is also one more reason to learn the app on day one, before you need it.
How a Snorkel Day Turns Into a Missed Ship
Here is how it actually goes wrong. You are snorkeling, your phone says 2:00pm, and you decide you have time for one more hour in the water.
But it is really 3:00pm ship time. You stay out that extra hour, and now it is 4:00pm with a 4:30pm all aboard.
Then you realize it is an hour back to the port. You will arrive after all aboard, and the ship does not wait for a clock you misread.
Watch the ship time. Be wary of the port time. Do not let the two throw you off.
When It Is Not Your Fault: Third-Party Excursions
Sometimes you do everything right and the day still goes sideways. Friends of ours booked a scuba trip with an outside company, and the dive boat ran out of gas.
They sat on that boat looking straight at the ship while it got ready to leave. There is not much you can do from the water.
I am not against outside tours. My mom has cruised hundreds of times, books her own tours all the time, and is never late, because she checks every time and keeps her tour operator updated if the ship is diverted or running late.
The risk is an operator who does not work with cruise sailors. They are not asking what time all aboard is, and if the tour runs long, that is your ship.
More Cruise Mistakes I’ve Watched Happen
Missing the ship is number one on my list of cruise mistakes to avoid, but it is not the only one that can wreck a trip.
The full list of 20 covers everything from a passport packed in a checked bag to the fines people never see coming.
All Aboard Time FAQ
Is all aboard time the same as departure time? No. All aboard is when you need to be back on the ship. Departure is when it leaves, and all aboard always comes first.
How early is all aboard before departure? It depends on the cruise line. In my experience it is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before departure, and the cruise line tells you the exact time for every port.
Does my phone change time zones at port? Usually, yes. It switches to local time automatically once it finds a signal, so turn off the automatic time zone and set it to ship time before you go ashore.
What is ship time on a cruise? The clock the ship keeps for the whole sailing. All aboard is always given in ship time, even when the port is in a different time zone.
All Aboard Time vs Departure Time: The Short Version
Two things put people on the pier watching their ship leave: reading departure time as the time to be back, and trusting a phone that switched to port time on its own.
On every port day, check the all aboard time that morning, set your phone to ship time, and build your day backwards from all aboard instead of forwards from whenever you wake up.
Do that, and the only thing you will be watching from the pier is somebody else’s bad day.
