Which ship is most stable?

[Clodia]

I do think Oceana suffers in anything over force 9 as she was designed for the Caribbean rather than the Atlantic; perhaps this is why she's been moved to Malta in summer and Dubai in winter! Coming back to Southampton on the December pre Christmas cruise to the Canaries was interesting to say the least, especially when you tried to walk the length of Deck 7 (inside; outside was closed). There were about 20 people at breakfast the morning after the rough weather started about 2am. I don't get seasick but I had some moments of fear between about 3 and 5 am; it's always better when it gets light and you can see the sea!

[ts2004]

P&O on the cruise personaliser states that all ships are fully stabilised so this means that all ships are as stable as eachother

[Harry Peterson]

25 minutes ago, ts2004 said:

P&O on the cruise personaliser states that all ships are fully stabilised so this means that all ships are as stable as eachother

That’s not the way it works in practice!

[john watson]

It also depends on who's in the bridge at the controls. Ventura/Azura are very similar to Crown Princess and everybody knows about the incident and various videos of different locations on the ship which were affected.  The basic problem is described:

 

 

Regards John

 

[jeanlyon]

Blinkin' eck - that's some heel!!

[jeanlyon]

On 3/8/2019 at 8:19 AM, ts2004 said:

P&O on the cruise personaliser states that all ships are fully stabilised so this means that all ships are as stable as eachother

I am afraid that is rubbish. 

[Presto2]

Good grief ! And we thought the way that Ventura 'leaned' on our holiday was bad. That was caused by turning too tightly ...

Well, we are on Azura soon and hope we have a good Captain and we enjoy friendly seas !!!!

[Ranchi]

We had a very similar incident on Arcadia (the one which is now run by CMV). It was a very interesting cruise. In the first place we had a heeling incident. It was mid afternoon an we were sailing in calm seas in the Mediterranean. The ship started to turn and to heel slightly and few people took any notice. The ship  continued to quite an alarming degree. After what seemed like quite a time, the ship started to go back to its normal position. The captain told us over the loudspeaker that the auto navigation system had malfunctioned and sent the ship into an unscheduled high speed turn. The officer on the bridge had responded quickly and switched of the auto steering and taken manual control of the helm. It was quite frightening at the time. 

The second incident was that as we sailed near the heel of Italy into the Adriatic, we sailed through an area of water spouts. We were sunbathing on the sun deck and I noticed the anemometer suddenly start spinning at a very high rate. Towels on deck started to blow ( see, you shouldn’t have used a towel to reserve you sunbed !)and get picked up and blown around the deck. If you looked over the ship’s rail you could see water vapour being picked up and forming a moving waving haze above the sea. Every so often the waving haze suddenly settled into a whirl and flew skywards as a water spout. This was an amazing site. I ran down to our cabin to get my camera bag. When I got back on deck the spectacle was still continuing but the camera lens was fogged and immediately re-fogged as I cleaned it. Presumably due to the cold lens from the air conditioned cabin and the very warm and humid Mediterranean conditions. 

[john watson]

If you look on YouTube and search for "crown princess  incident 1", "crown princess incident 2" and so on you can view the end result in each case.  It is amazing how calm the children were in the clubroom and how well the staff "move in" to protect them as soon as it is realised what is happening.

 

My idea of a cruise is evoked by Enya singing Orinoco Flow.  Great videos and lyrics on the same site.

 

Regards John

Edited March 10, 2019 by john watson

[Presto2]

18 hours ago, john watson said:

If you look on YouTube and search for "crown princess  incident 1", "crown princess incident 2" and so on you can view the end result in each case.  It is amazing how calm the children were in the clubroom and how well the staff "move in" to protect them as soon as it is realised what is happening.

 

My idea of a cruise is evoked by Enya singing Orinoco Flow.  Great videos and lyrics on the same site.

 

Regards John

 

Just watched those clips ---- ouch ! (Well that is a polite reaction !!!) I was impressed with the man in the shop who looked after the lady. He gave her a hug .. bless.

[happy v]

31 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

 

Just watched those clips ---- ouch ! (Well that is a polite reaction !!!) I was impressed with the man in the shop who looked after the lady. He gave her a hug .. bless.

I won't watch. Some things it's better not to know!🙂

[Presto2]

3 minutes ago, happy v said:

I won't watch. Some things it's better not to know!🙂

 

Yes but she stayed afloat ;-)

[petenlynn]

On 3/5/2019 at 8:31 PM, Presto2 said:

 

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

On an early morning sail into Gibraltar on Ventura in 2016 we woke up to everything, including our cases, falling off shelves etc. The Captain later suggested it weas an autopilot 'issue'!

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, petenlynn said:

On an early morning sail into Gibraltar on Ventura in 2016 we woke up to everything, including our cases, falling off shelves etc. The Captain later suggested it weas an autopilot 'issue'!

 

Am now hoping that Azura is more stable as we are on her through the North Sea in not many weeks now !!

[yorkshirephil]

We have recently returned from crossing the Atlantic on Ventura and found the ship bobbed about a bit, especially going out from Southampton to Bermuda where we had 6 days of moderate to rough seas, we coped OK but quite a few people struggled and said never again to an Atlantic crossing. We were on E deck central which wasn't too bad, however deck 15/16 was rocking and rolling at the back, the pool on deck 14 was netted a few times. We did a similar cruise on Oceana 2 years ago and felt she was smoother in similar sea's.

[john watson]

P&O tend to have larger ships which are fairly stable.  Other cruise lines have much smaller ships.  People generally say they prefer smaller ships like Adonia for example but even this was comparatively big in comparison to a Star Clippers Transatlantic

 

Regards John

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWXjpHvKPXU&t=12s