Time in the Virgin Islands?

Coming to visit the Virgin Islands? Wondering what time zone we are in?

This past Sunday, the rest of the US Mainland went from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. That meant you moved your clocks back one hour.

Here in the Virgin Islands we are in the Atlantic Time Zone, which is technically one hour ahead of the US East Coast. We, however, do not participate in Daylight Savings Time, why? My guess is that since we are in the tropics and close to the equator, we experience pretty much 12 hours of daylight. June we will see sunrise around 5:00 AM and a sunset around 7:00 PM, and in December, 6:30 AM to about 5:30 PM. What is weird about this is that while the rest of the statesiders are enjoying daylight at 8 PM in July, we have already been dark for an hour.

Since we do not participate in DST, that means when stateside goes back to standard time, we become an hour ahead of the East Coast:

I call this "Island Time"

New York - 6PM   -  STT - 7PM  - one hour ahead
Chicago - 5PM      -   STT - 7PM -  two hours ahead
Denver - 4PM       -   STT - 7PM  - three hours ahead
San Francisco - 3PM - STT - 7PM - 4 hours ahead

And the rule when stateside has Daylight Savings Time = East Coast Time or subtract one hour from the table above.

What does this mean for us here in the Virgin Islands? This means any 10 PM shows or Monday Night Football or late night college football games are all without reach of watching. It also means getting up an hour earlier to catch that early morning flight (check your flight schedules if you have current reservations, there will likely be a schedule change). If you are on a cruise, be careful if they keep you on ship's time (Florida time), we will still be an hour ahead of you for your day here!

Speaking of which, I need to check my Dish TV DVR and make sure the time change was made in there too!

I hope this helps if you are coming here for a visit? My hope is that you will adjust to Island Time, where you are so relaxed, time doesn't matter?