Ship Movement on Celebrity Summit

[Evangaline]

We just got off a Nov 15 sailing on Celebrity Summit and experienced a lot of ship movement throughout the cruise. It was a southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan. Was wondering if November was more prone to rougher seas or is it more due to the ship stabilizers etc. as The Summit is an older ship?

 

Granted we may have been asking for trouble as we had an AFT balcony cabin, but there were abrupt ship movements in the night which made it difficult to sleep. Last March we were on the Serenade of the Seas in a cabin under the bridge at the very front of the ship and would think that would be asking for much more trouble, but it was smooth as silk.

 

I know these things are luck of the draw regarding wind and surf, but apart from that is it more the time of year or is it the ship that makes the difference? Any thoughts?

[bradpole]

I know these things are luck of the draw regarding wind and surf, but apart from that is it more the time of year or is it the ship that makes the difference? Any thoughts?

 

Weather is certainly luck of the draw, and can change suddenly.

 

No matter how big the ships get they are only still a tiny cork floating in a giant bathtub!

[Evangaline]

Weather is certainly luck of the draw, and can change suddenly.

 

No matter how big the ships get they are only still a tiny cork floating in a giant bathtub!

 

"A tiny cork floating in a giant bathtub!" geez thank for that thought.

[Sloop-JohnB]

Weather is certainly luck of the draw, and can change suddenly.

 

No matter how big the ships get they are only still a tiny cork floating in a giant bathtub!

 

So true.

 

As to November weather etc

 

Well, technically the Atlantic Hurricane season is not over until November 30th / December 1st

 

This Season there have not been a lot of Hurricanes, but there still have been some good sized storms and that makes for rough seas (just look at the past posts on the many TAs and how they all went during October & November)

 

The cork in the bathtub is a good analogy. The Atlantic is huge, although things may not be happening locally, there can certainly be some side effects.

 

We have cruised 2x to San Juan, once on The Solstice & once on The Summit... the waters around San Juan can be particularly rough. Even The Solstice was bounced around good on the Straits of Florida and approaching San Juan. Things were much better both cruises when we finally got into the Caribbean Sea.

 

And ya, the M-Class Ships are both smaller & older technology, so they will be effected greater than say an S-Class Ship. Add in the fact you were aft, and any movements are going to be more pronounced

 

Cheers!

Edited November 25, 2014 by Sloop-JohnB

[ace6636634]

Yikes! Rough seas can make a cruise good bad really quick. I also have a balcony aft room booked on the Summit in April. I'm hoping for smooth seas - the kids get sea sick very easily. I picked a cruise with one sea day and rest are on islands docked.

 

Anyone have experience sailing out of San Juan in April?

[junetraveler2014]

We just got off a Nov 15 sailing on Celebrity Summit and experienced a lot of ship movement throughout the cruise. It was a southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan. Was wondering if November was more prone to rougher seas or is it more due to the ship stabilizers etc. as The Summit is an older ship?

 

Granted we may have been asking for trouble as we had an AFT balcony cabin, but there were abrupt ship movements in the night which made it difficult to sleep. Last March we were on the Serenade of the Seas in a cabin under the bridge at the very front of the ship and would think that would be asking for much more trouble, but it was smooth as silk.

 

I know these things are luck of the draw regarding wind and surf, but apart from that is it more the time of year or is it the ship that makes the difference? Any thoughts?

I think your problem was probably weather related. This past 6 days the weather has been very peculiar. We had a cold front down out of Canada that gave parts of Buffalo 6 feet of snow. There were winds and snow in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee and Northern Texas. There were horrible precipitation in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida. Georgia and Florida were in Tornado watches and if you saw tv the line of bad weather went down to Cuba. Now we are in a snow watch expecting 12" after just having 69 degrees. I am sure the Atlantic had a bit of turbulence. Hope it did not ruin your cruise! I remember going to Bermuda years ago on the Song of America (RCCL)just skirting Hurricane Dorothy. We were suppose to dock in St Georges.....we could not get into the port because the wind was too strong, so we docked in Hamilton. The Cruise lines are really on top of the weather, there is no way they would purposely put you in harms way.:rolleyes:

[A Sixth?]

The trades blow a bit harder in the winter down there and 6-8 foot seas are the norm

 

Spent a lot of time on small boats in the Islands that WERE little more than corks in a big sea. :D

 

Edited November 25, 2014 by A Sixth?

[phoenix_dream]

As someone who is very prone to seasickness, I thought I would add my experiences.

 

I have sailed out of San Juan multiple times, primarily in either the week after Thanksgiving (which I am doing this year) or mid-to-late March at spring break time when my kid was in school. I honestly saw little difference overall between the two times. It really is luck of the draw. We have had sailings where the seas were smooth as glass each day, and other sailings where we had seas up to about 15 feet (7-10 feet were more common, although both were fairly rare). Summit, being smaller, does handle the seas a bit less well than the S class ships but the difference is not all that great. I understand the weather on the sailing mentioned was much worse than the norm, which I'm sure impacted the seas.

 

I have found that at times in rougher seas when you are at the very back of the ship you get not only the rolling motion, but also side to side shaking (depending on the direction of the waves). I find this more pronounced on M class but have felt it on S class as well. If you are sensitive to motion, this can be a double whammy. Not fun.

 

The nice thing about sailing out of San Juan (at least on the 7 day cruises) is that you spend a lot of time in port - only one day at sea and long port times. If the seas are bad, at least you know that come morning you will have a day to recover. But when all is said and done, nothing beats a mid-ship cabin lower on the ship for stability. Very far aft or forward will be rockier if there is motion on the cruise.

[shrimp56]

Had an aft inside cabin on Century and I would describe the movement back there as "twerking." We had a lot of motion without storms in February.

[divechick]

We have sailed on the Summit out of San Juan 4 times and only had rough seas once was the first week in Jan and we had Cabin 1140 aft beautiful view but the DH will not sail in a aft cabin again we were both sea sick all but the last day and nothing helped neither of us have been sea sick before or since then.

[hulamoon]

Had an aft inside cabin on Century and I would describe the movement back there as "twerking." We had a lot of motion without storms in February.

 

Very funny!

[Texed]

Yikes! Rough seas can make a cruise good bad really quick.

 

But, some of us enjoy some motion. :)

[Gracie115]

And ya, the M-Class Ships are both smaller & older technology, so they will be effected greater than say an S-Class Ship. Add in the fact you were aft, and any movements are going to be more pronounced

 

Cheers!

 

The fact that they were aft might have had an impact but they did NOT sail previously on an "S" class...it was Serenade of the Seas which is a Royal ship and is built on the SAME hull as the Summit.

 

We just got off a Nov 15 sailing on Celebrity Summit and experienced a lot of ship movement throughout the cruise. It was a southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan. Was wondering if November was more prone to rougher seas or is it more due to the ship stabilizers etc. as The Summit is an older ship?

 

Granted we may have been asking for trouble as we had an AFT balcony cabin, but there were abrupt ship movements in the night which made it difficult to sleep. Last March we were on the Serenade of the Seas in a cabin under the bridge at the very front of the ship and would think that would be asking for much more trouble, but it was smooth as silk.

 

I know these things are luck of the draw regarding wind and surf, but apart from that is it more the time of year or is it the ship that makes the difference? Any thoughts?

 

I think it was probably a bit rougher seas, certainly the Caribbean would be more prone to that in November than in March, but I suspect the aft stateroom had something to do with it too. The Summit and Serenade are built on the same hull and really not that different in age (a couple years at most) so it's more the time of year than anything I would think.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Gracie115

[ShadowzBtlr]

The correct name for the side-to-side motion, usually felt at the stern of a ship, is YAW. In an enclosed space, like an aft cabin on any cruise ship, even moderate yaw can cause a “queasy” stomach in experienced sailors, especially when combined with the “normal” pitch and roll of a ship. A cabin that is mid-ship to forward will in most cases experience less yaw.

[Negrilgirl]

We sailed out of San Juan on the Summit this past April. The entire week was a little rough. It got so bad that we joked about the movement of the ship with the crew. We were in a C1 cabin (6144) which is aft. I wore a patch all week -did not get sick but could definitely feel the motion.

 

 

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[notsomadhatter]

If it helps we were on Reflection this past week (eastern which is kind of an eastern-southern, but I digress) and we felt plenty of motion. We're used to it after a decent number of nights at sea but we were aware of it more than normal.

 

I'd say it was weather/sea conditions this particular week.

[ace6636634]

We sailed out of San Juan on the Summit this past April. The entire week was a little rough. It got so bad that we joked about the movement of the ship with the crew. We were in a C1 cabin (6144) which is aft. I wore a patch all week -did not get sick but could definitely feel the motion.

 

 

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We're going to be in C3 cabins. Like someone said in an earlier post, were only at sea one day of the 7. Were the seas rough as soon as you left port last April?

[Negrilgirl]

We noticed the motion about day 3. And continued thru the end of the cruise. It was really bad heading back to San Juan. We stayed in San Juan for 3 days post cruise and still felt the motion.

 

 

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[dodger1964]

We were also on the summit that week and didn't even know we were cruising. Never felt anything close to rough seas. The ship moves so slowly it is like being on a pontoon boat (at least on our trip. I remember one night we were at 8 knots..).

 

I guess ymmv.

 

We were on deck 8 middle of ship.

 

 

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Edited November 27, 2014 by dodger1964

[Negrilgirl]

I wonder if it has something to do with cabin location. We were on the Reflection in a middle cabin and it was smooth sailing the entire cruise. Never aft again.

 

 

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[Evangaline]

Sounds like there were a number of contributing factors. It is interesting that The Summit has the same hull construction as the Serenade as we experienced no movement at the extreme forward of the ship.

Must say, though, that I would be sad to give up the AFT balcony. The view is soooo beautiful!!. But maybe March or April would be okay.

Personally I don't mind movement but the DH is a light sleeper and he can't cope with the movement. It is interesting about the YAW because that was the killer. The ship kept jerking sideways. Am I correct to understand that this is an Aft thing and more something experience at the Forward end of the ship?

[seapointer]

Having been on that cruise, I can confirm that there was noticeable ship movement several nights. There were moderately rough seas with waves of 6-9 feet, which was the probable cause. At a Captain "s Club cocktail party, one of the officers did tell us that things were "a little rough." I want to stress that the motion was slight to moderate and did not c ause anyone to lose their balance or fall.

[NorthernOntario]

A couple years ago at a similar time we experienced a lot of ship movement as well.

[crazymom107]

The summit is an older ship. Even though they have updated it , it's still old.i just got off the summit and the seas wee fine but we felt a lot if motion. A couple of times it felt like we ran something over. U have sailed 15 times and my favorite cabins are the aft balconies . I felt more movement on the summit then any other ship

[tnfcruise]

The correct name for the side-to-side motion, usually felt at the stern of a ship, is YAW. In an enclosed space, like an aft cabin on any cruise ship, even moderate yaw can cause a “queasy” stomach in experienced sailors, especially when combined with the “normal” pitch and roll of a ship. A cabin that is mid-ship to forward will in most cases experience less yaw.

 

 

This is why I love Cruise Critic...often learn something new and interesting. As described, yaw plus pitch and roll reminds me of the types of amusement park rides that make me urpsy...I enjoy Ferris Wheels, Merry-Go-Rounds, Roller Coasters, but, rides that go up and down AND round and round make me dizzy, disoriented and sick.

 

ShadowzBtlr, is YAW an acronym?

 

 

 

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