title: iCAL DTSTART and DTEND format confusion. Should be easy to answer
body: <p>I'm writing an iCAL file.  I work on a cruise ship and the file will basically be my itinerary for the next 6 months, which I want to share with other crew members, to be displayed on our phones (a mixture of iPhones and Android phones).  I want to included the name of the port we visit, and the arrival and departure times.  So far, so easy.</p>
  
  <p>BUT, on a cruise ship we pass through different time zones on an almost daily basis.  Some people use local carrier info to set their phone timezones, others adjust the timezone manually, and some don't bother doing either.  I tried this once before, but got very confused with TIMEZONE formats: whether to use UTC with a 'Z' prefix, whether to specify the country codes, etc.</p>
  
  <p>HOWEVER, a recent bit of googling turned up the 'floating' DTSTART and DTEND format, aka 'Local Time', which seems to do away with all the region and timezone specifications. So, am I right in thinking the following will work?</p>
  
  <p>(Source data: 23 Nov, Rio De Janeiro, 8:00am to 6:00pm,<br>
   and 25 Nov, A Different Port, 10:00am to 8:30pm)  </p>
  
  <pre><code>    BEGIN:VCALENDAR
      VERSION:2.0
      PRODID: MyNameHere
      BEGIN:VEVENT
      UID:milesmuso.mf@qwertyqwertyqwerty.com
      DTSTAMP:20171123T080000Z
      DTSTART:20171123T080000
      DTEND:20171123T180000
      SUMMARY:Rio De Janiero
      END:VEVENT
      .
      BEGIN:VEVENT
      UID:milesmuso.mf@qwertyqwertyqwerty.com
      DTSTAMP:20171125T100000Z
      DTSTART:20171125T100000
      DTEND:20171125T203000
      SUMMARY:Another Port
      END:VEVENT
      .
      .
      BEGIN: VEVENT
      (next event here)
      END VEVENT
      END:VCALENDAR
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And if that syntax IS correct, then do I still need to specify DTSTAMP:20171123T080000Z with the 'Z' suffix? (something I read on <a href="https://www.kanzaki.com/docs/ical/dtstamp.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.kanzaki.com/docs/ical/dtstamp.html</a> said that the 'Z' suffix is mandatory, even though I don't WANT to use UTC - I just want floating start and end times.)</p>
  
  <p>Also, should the DTSTAMP time be the same as the DTSTART time for each event, or do I use the same one for each event?</p>
  
  <p>I hope you can help</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <p>Miles,<br>
  Musician,<br>
  Celebrity Infinity</p>