Shelley, I still don't have a definite answer to this question.
My best source of info has been from 3 other cruisers who were on the Carnival Glory recently (2 different sailing dates, all were the same itinerary as mine) and here's what all 3 said: The ship stayed on Eastern time throughout the whole cruise and that the port arrival times were in Eastern time. I'm particularly concerned about Belize because it's currently 2 hours behind EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). All 3 cruisers said the local arrival time in Belize was 6am, which is 8am Eastern time, and 8am is the arrival time listed by the ship.
However, I also talked with my local tour operator in Belize, and he said that just last week (not one of the weeks the 3 cruisers sailed) the Glory anchored at 7am Belize time, which translates to 9am Eastern time. What does this mean? Heck, I don't know! Was the ship late an hour? Or does it mean that for this particular trip the captain of the Glory decided to change the ship time to Central time while he was in the Central Time Zone. So the ship time in this case was 8am Central time (I'm still assuming the ship arrives at the port when it says it will on the itinerary, which says "8am"!), which translates to 7am Belize time.
This means that for the same ship, same itinerary, for the last 3 consecutive sailings, twice the Glory arrived in Belize at 6am local time, and once it arrived in Belize 7am local time!
Am I still confused? You bet. What makes me angry is why don't the cruise lines do what the airlines do, which is list the arrival and departure times in the local time zone in which the ship is currently docked? That way I wouldn't care whether the captain decides to change the ship time or not, and I could confidently arrange my independent excursions and let my tour operators know when I will be arriving at the port.
I haven't given up. I'm still trying to get the answer from Carnival and from other cruise experts, and I will post any further info I receive. I will also let you know what my particular experience has been, but as I've explained above, even my experience might not be true for the next cruiser on the same ship and itinerary as mine!
I've been emailing back and forth with my local tour operator in Belize about this problem, and he has been absolutely great about promptly responding to me with his experiences. Bottom line is, let your tour operator know about it and give him a time range of when you will arrive in port. If they are interested in keeping you happy, as mine has been, they will work with you and be flexible with times.
I hope this has helped!
