Which ship is most stable?

[C at Sea]

Reading through the latest threads, I noticed someone had said that Arcadia rolls about even in moderate seas!

Does anyone think that one particular ship is more stable than others?

We've sailed on most, except Ventura and Adonia, including P&Os earlier ships - Canberra, the old Arcadia and Adonia. I can't really say I've noticed much difference!

When the seas bad they all seem rocky to me!!

What does anyone else think?

[littlesteelo]

There isn't going to be much in it. I thought Ventura was very stable, and handled the seas very well. All ships roll and pitch even in calm seas, which is why you frequently see the horizon moving even when it is calm.

 

As a rule of thumb, larger ships are more stable, as are wider vessels, which is why Oasis of the Seas is very stable. All of the current P&O ships have a similar waterline beam. A ship with a deeper draft will also be more stable.

[Host Sharon]

Oriana and Aurora were specifically designed for long-distance deep-ocean cruising whereas Oceana and the Vista & Grand class hulls (Arcadia, Ventura etc) were designed for the relatively calm Caribbean. Having said that, most of them appear pretty stable on the whole. Adonia made me really seasick, but the seas were running diagonally so she was corkscrewing through the BoB!

Edited September 12, 2012 by Host Sharon

[silver service]

i remember arcadia, pitching quite a bit, in heavy swell, off iberia.

also on aurora, 2 years ago, in a force 12, it rode it very well, but it made me heave!

[C at Sea]

I'm not surprised in a Force 12!! You'd have to be strong stomached not to!!

You know its bad when the sick bags come out! And when members of the ships crew are ill!

We were in the North Sea once on the old Arcadia and our poor wine waiter was terrible!

Inbetween serving, she had to dash to the loo!

[daiB]

I cannot say that I have found any ship to be worse than any other. We have done about 30 BoB crossings and only had 2 bad ones and 5/6 lumpy. We have sailed on Arcadia to the Caribbean and she was fine.

 

The worst we have had was on the old Arcadia (OV1) going through the bay mind it was a force 12 head on. Not really a problem.

 

Now I have my scooter I find the movement very easy to deal with.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[Sutho]

I have been on Arcadia and always found it was a very stable ship and have even been through storms on it and hardly noticed any movement. It does not really matter who thinks which ships are the most stable because whoever you ask you will always get a different answer. Out of all the ships I have been on I cant complain about any. I have seen my fair share of bumpy sea days as well.

 

The other thing you need to think about is sometimes ships do not have their stabiliser deployed if they do not need it and this could mean you get a gentle roll as you cruise the seas.

[ts2004]

Ive experienced some Vibrations on Ventura, this is more than likely due to the Stability keeping the ship upright.

[jeanlyon]

Don't agree that larger ships are more stable.  It depends entirely on what's under the water.  If it's a modern flatter bottomed ship she will roll.  Oriana has a deepish keel.  I found her very stable in a Force 10, whereas Azura rolled like a pig in the Med in a Force 7.  It also depends where the wind is coming from.  If it's on the aft quarter the ship will roll.  If it's on the nose, she will pitch up and down.

[ozzysdad]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Don't agree that larger ships are more stable.  It depends entirely on what's under the water.  If it's a modern flatter bottomed ship she will roll.  Oriana has a deepish keel.  I found her very stable in a Force 10, whereas Azura rolled like a pig in the Med in a Force 7.  It also depends where the wind is coming from.  If it's on the aft quarter the ship will roll.  If it's on the nose, she will pitch up and down.

Going across the Bay of Biscay last Easter Azura both pitched and rolled, quite unnerving at times and I'm an experienced cruiser.

 

Hoping for better from Ventura in the North Sea this Easter.

[daiB]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Don't agree that larger ships are more stable.  It depends entirely on what's under the water.  If it's a modern flatter bottomed ship she will roll.  Oriana has a deepish keel.  I found her very stable in a Force 10, whereas Azura rolled like a pig in the Med in a Force 7.  It also depends where the wind is coming from.  If it's on the aft quarter the ship will roll.  If it's on the nose, she will pitch up and down.

 

Jean Oriana is no different to Aurora and all the others. She is faster but her keel is flat. The only ship sailing which is different is Queen Mary. I do agree that the biggest factor is the wind direction and the sea direction.

[Presto2]

Funnily enough we were not impressed with Ventura in August 2017 In our cabin on D deck we felt that she was 'learning' at times and really did not seem to handle the swells well at all.

 

Now, we are on Azura in early April so hope she is ok going through the North Sea. Thankfully we are pretty good travellers and don't get sea sick ……… and I have been in a force 12 on a ferry when I was 16! ……. so am hoping that this will still be true if the weather is not kind to us.

[majortom10]

Azura and Ventura are exactly the same build so shouldnt be any difference on how they handle in rough seas.

[BrianI]

Compared to the original Grand Princess design, Ventura and Azura have an extra deck added. This makes them taller with a larger area exposed to side winds both of which would make them less stable.

 

Brian

[daiB]

53 minutes ago, BrianI said:

Compared to the original Grand Princess design, Ventura and Azura have an extra deck added. This makes them taller with a larger area exposed to side winds both of which would make them less stable.

 

Brian

Yes, the first three were built with one deck less, when they were solely under the ownerships P&O. The next six ships all had the extra deck, as well as Ventura and Azura. 

 

Also interesting to note is that three of the grand class are registered in the U.K. and not Bermuda.

[Eglesbrech]

We find the P&O ships all quite good in everything but the very worst of weather and in that most ships will move a bit.

 

The best ships I have been on for stability were the Cunard QM2 and Disney Magic, both had little to no movement even in rough seas.

 

 

[lebreos]

Being ex- Royal Navy having experienced various sea conditions in the same ship class, I can definitely say from experience that once the ship starts a corkscrew motion that's the worse for sea sickness. Only been in a little rough weather on ventura and she seemed to handle it quite well..

[Ranchi]

Agree with the above comment about type of motion. Quite sever rolling or pitching can be suffered reasonably well by many. It is the unusual movements ( corkscrewing being one ) which can cause upset. Whilst not strictly relevant to this post (because they are all so bloomin’ long, these days) the length of a ship ca affect performance in rough seas. Ships designed for the Atlantic had several optimum lengths and this depended on the average wavelength of the Atlantic swell (if the length was ‘wrong’ the ship was more likely to plunge of the end of a wave peak into a trough). An example of this was P&Os Victoria (Sea Princess); she was designed for N Atlantic passages and for a time she was sent to sail from Australia. She proved to be unsuitable as her length was optimised for Atlantic swells and she was very poor in handling the seas around Australia ....at least that’s what I was told one day as I rinsed through my smalls in the C Deck laundrette. Well that and some slanderous information about a couple on D Deck 😂)

Edited March 5, 2019 by Ranchi
Typo

[terrierjohn]

The big Grand Class ships can heel over in very strong winds as can any of the big new ships, and indeed Ventura did just that on our recent return from the Caribbean.  The Captain came on the tannoy a few minutes after the incident to apologise and explain that we had just passed under a weather front and the wind changed rapidly from being on the starboard aft side to the port forward side, which resulted in a very sudden and significant list to starboard, it would be rectified by pumping the ballast over the opposite side, but it would take a short while before it fully righted itself.

Not a pleasant experience but even though we had rough seas and high winds on this cruise, there were only a few who seemed to suffer any sea sickness effects.

[jeanlyon]

Would definitely agree that the higher the ship, the more windage she has and it makes the roll worse.  That's what we experienced on Azura.  Force 7 is really not that bad and she rolled like a pig.  As I said have been in a bigger gale, Force 10 on Oriana and it was fine.

[Harry Peterson]

Never had a problem, even in very rough seas over the BoB, on Azura or Ventura.  I suspect the answer to the question depends more on the particular weather conditions at the time of the actual crossing (which will vary dramatically, even from hour to hour) than the ship itself within the P&O fleet.

 

What's really important, though, is the location of the cabin.  We're always aft, but if we travelled badly we'd be middle/middle every time.

[happy v]

5 hours ago, docco said:

Never had a problem, even in very rough seas over the BoB, on Azura or Ventura.  I suspect the answer to the question depends more on the particular weather conditions at the time of the actual crossing (which will vary dramatically, even from hour to hour) than the ship itself within the P&O fleet.

 

What's really important, though, is the location of the cabin.  We're always aft, but if we travelled badly we'd be middle/middle every time.

I have always been told this, and as it does seem quite logical, believed it. However we were on Britannia, at the front when my granddaughter became ill. I went to reception for tablets and can honestly say the movement was just as bad there. i.e. in the middle at the bottom.

[Presto2]

11 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The big Grand Class ships can heel over in very strong winds as can any of the big new ships, and indeed Ventura did just that on our recent return from the Caribbean.  The Captain came on the tannoy a few minutes after the incident to apologise and explain that we had just passed under a weather front and the wind changed rapidly from being on the starboard aft side to the port forward side, which resulted in a very sudden and significant list to starboard, it would be rectified by pumping the ballast over the opposite side, but it would take a short while before it fully righted itself.

Not a pleasant experience but even though we had rough seas and high winds on this cruise, there were only a few who seemed to suffer any sea sickness effects.

 

Ventura is the worst ship we have known for this. We were right at the front and though it was August we experienced a lot of high winds. The ship was leaning most of the time -- felt like we were walking up hill in our cabin some days!

It really did not feel like a stable ship and were on D deck, so not that high up.

On sailaway in Gibraltar we were near the top deck looking down on to the pool watching the Great British Sailaway. As we left and turn the whole ship leaned to the right so much that glasses on the bar area slid to the other side and smashed to the floor. There was quiet a commotion around us and a general feeling that what had happened was not good. (I won't use the words people around were saying). From where we were standing it was a little unnerving ! Have never seen that before on any ship - small or large. The weather was calm and to us it looked like whoever was 'driving' turned too quickly. Very odd

[Presto2]

23 hours ago, BrianI said:

Compared to the original Grand Princess design, Ventura and Azura have an extra deck added. This makes them taller with a larger area exposed to side winds both of which would make them less stable.

 

Brian

 

Oh joy ! Just hope that Azura remains stable as we bob up the North Sea to Norway. Never been that far up before …. and we are in an aft cabin so she may bob around a lot :-)

[brillo]

I have been on all the ships with the exception of Arcadia and not noticed much difference.