Question for the nautical experts about TA crossings

With the Fall 2018 itineraries announced, we're interested in the Westbound TA. I've seen some discussion that since the ship will be leaving Dover, it will take a Northbound Atlantic crossing route as opposed to a southbound one. They made this sound less appealing. Does anybody know why that would be and what the differences are?

I suppose it depends on the itinerary. If the company is simply repositioning the ship from the UK to North America (especially NYC) then they're likely to do it as quickly as possible and (maybe) set themselves up for something more lucrative like a cruise to New England and Canada for the fall colours.

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I suppose it depends on the itinerary. If the company is simply repositioning the ship from the UK to North America (especially NYC) then they're likely to do it as quickly as possible and (maybe) set themselves up for something more lucrative like a cruise to New England and Canada for the fall colours.

 

 

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They're leaving Dover and visiting Cork and Portland before heading across to Sydney, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before ending up at New York.

Well then, I guess that pretty much explains why they're keeping to the north. A diversion to the south would take longer and require more fuel with, really, no great advantage as far as weather goes.

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This route allows them to visit ports that DCL has not visited or visited far less often in the past. That makes the TA more enticing to guests who have done the "Barcelona to Port Canaveral/San Juan" run in the past. New or unusual ports = higher costs that guests are still willing to pay for.

I realized I wasn't clear enough.The reason I was seeking out the experts was I wasn't referring to the itinerary as much as the path it will take and how the seas will be. What I've been reading intimates that it's a rougher trip because of the northern route.

I realized I wasn't clear enough.The reason I was seeking out the experts was I wasn't referring to the itinerary as much as the path it will take and how the seas will be. What I've been reading intimates that it's a rougher trip because of the northern route.

As the seas in the Atlantic have a mind of their own, it's difficult to really know for sure how they will be in any given location on any given cruise.

We did the North Atlantic crossing (on DCL) last year (in May) from Sydney to Ireland. We had the proverbial North Atlantic icy, rough, gray weather for 5 days and 6 nights.

I loved it, but many did not.

We've also crossed the Atlantic (basically) down the middle from Madeira to St Maarten in September (hurricane season) and had seas like glass and glorious sunny skies the whole trip.

I realized I wasn't clear enough.The reason I was seeking out the experts was I wasn't referring to the itinerary as much as the path it will take and how the seas will be. What I've been reading intimates that it's a rougher trip because of the northern route.

It's the same reason a flight from NYC to London flies over Gander, Newfoundland. The great circle route is the shortest route between two points on a sphere.

What you see on a Mercator chart (the most common projection of the Earth's sphere onto a flat chart) as a straight line is called a "rhumb line" course, and is a course of constant heading, but is not the shortest route between points. A great circle route on a Mercator chart shows as an arc, and in this case is significantly more northern than the rhumb line. (Try it with a piece of string and a globe if you have one of those archaic things around).

The great circle route can save about 3-4% in distance over a rhumb line between Europe and the US, and with a fuel bill for a crossing around $250,000, that kind of savings is worth it.

Thanks, guys. We're doing it regardless. Just wanted to know what to expect. We've cruised up to Halifax and New Brunswick twice now, but I figured the crossing might be a different experience. Thank goodness my wife doesn't read the reports I read. She's not the seafarer I am ;p

Here's the basic track followed by QM2 when she does a crossing Southampton to NYC ... we did our last in early June of 15.

The cross hash notation of the chart is the ice warning area. On our early June crossing the ice limits were moved a bit north and the track was adjusted north accordingly after we had begun the trip (allowing us to pass nearer the Titanic site) ....

I believe it is clear from this picture why a more northerly path is happening however. Most folks in the US don't grasp how far north the UK ... even southern UK ... is versus NYC .... & in round numbers the entrance to the Med' is 1000 miles south of the southern UK!

I don't think there is any way to predict how rough the seas might be. We've done identical crossings in the same month a year apart and had widely varying sea conditions. You hope for the best and deal with what you get.

True. When we sailed to Canada in 2012, we ran ahead of Hurricane Matt which went up the east coast. The seas were a little rougher than I expected, but we were well ahead of it enough that it wasn't too bad. When we sailed to canada this past fall, it was relatively calm.