Transatlantic Sailing & Arrival Times?

[Tom O.]

I cannot find anywhere on the Cunard website what time the ship leaves and arrives. It gives me the date, but not the actual time of day. I am not familiar with Cunard, but can I assume they operate as most cruise ships and leave their embarkation port around 5pm and arrive at the disembarkation port around 7am?

Are times similar either direction?

[pepperrn]

I cannot find anywhere on the Cunard website what time the ship leaves and arrives. It gives me the date, but not the actual time of day. I am not familiar with Cunard, but can I assume they operate as most cruise ships and leave their embarkation port around 5pm and arrive at the disembarkation port around 7am? Are times similar either direction?

Hi Tom O,

 

In my experience arrival times in New York and Southampton tend to be around 6-7 am and departure times from both ports around 4.30-5.30 pm.

This can vary by an hour or so (sometimes earlier arrival, or later departure).

I've had much earlier arrivals into New York, and some later departures from Southampton for example.

 

With seven days at sea to make up for an hour's late departure (and, unlike a port-intensive cruise, no port-of-call timings to worry about (unless calls at Halifax are scheduled of course)), there is not the pressure to depart to the minute.

 

And, unlike cruise ships, ocean-liner QM2 has huge reserves of speed should she have to make up time on the crossing.

 

There are many photos of QM2's interiors, and pictures taken on several transatlantic crossings, in good weather and bad, including departures and arrivals, via the link below.

 

Hope this helps. If you've further questions please ask, someone here is bound to be able to assist.

 

Best wishes to you :)

Edited November 8, 2015 by pepperrn

[Ab Ovo]

Yes, pretty much yes to your questions, Tom. Pepperrn has it right. And the photos are fine! My QM2 westbound experiences have it we sail six-ish pm, sometimes even later by one-two hours if need be due to weather conditions. NY arrival is six-ish am. A bit after 7 am the ship is usually cleared and ready for Self-Help departures, which I prefer. I take my time, but usually am at the taxi stand by 8:15 am.

[Tom O.]

Thank you for the replies. The reason I was interested in this, is that I was trying to figure out the exact amount of time to make the crossing. If anyone is interested, it works out to be about 177 hours - New York to Southampton or vice versa. This would, of course vary with sea conditions.

[rafinmd]

Thank you for the replies. The reason I was interested in this, is that I was trying to figure out the exact amount of time to make the crossing. If anyone is interested, it works out to be about 177 hours - New York to Southampton or vice versa. This would, of course vary with sea conditions.

 

I'm having trouble with your figures. Most crossings are 7 days, 7 full days would be 7*24 (168) hours, but then you subtract the 11 or so hours for turnaround, leaving an average duration of 157 hours. After that, you lose 5 hours on an eastbound crossing giving 152 or add 5 for a westbound crossing yielding 162.

 

Roy

[Island2Dweller]

We crossed recently, departed NY on 11 October. If I convert all times to UK time, we sailed at 2300 UK time (1800 NY time) and arrived at 0600 UK time.

Six full days is 144, plus one hour on departure day and six hours on arrival day gives 151 hours at sea.

[majortom10]

Does it really matter just enjoy I know we did on our recent roundtrip Transatlantic.

[Tom O.]

As someone said this is not really important, but I realize now there seems to be a difference of 10 hours between Eastern and Western crossings. I was just figuring the Eastern crossing (leaving from New York). Here are my figures:

There are actually 9 days involved. 7 full days on the ship and 2 partial days.

7 full days is 7x24=168 hours.

Departure day (5pm to 12am) = 7 hours

Arrival day (12am to 7am) = 7 hours

Subtract 5 hours for time zone difference = -5 hours

168+7+7-5= 177 hours

But now I realize that everything is the same for a Western crossing, except that you need to add 5 hours for the time zone difference instead of subtracting. This would make the Western crossing 187 hours.

So, I expect the ship just slows it speed slightly when traveling to New York, so that it will arrive in the morning instead of the middle of the night.

[pepperrn]

Well one of us is wrong (and it could be me) 'cus I get a different total to you...

 

(I'm not saying I'm correct btw. Just that I looked back on several WB crossings that I've taken on QM2 over the years, and worked out the days/hours at sea. I get a lower figure to yourself. Am willing to be corrected of course, and my apologies if I am in error :o ).

Edited November 9, 2015 by pepperrn

[BobBranst]

As Island2Dweller mentioned previously, on a QM2 TA there are actually only 6 full days at sea. Saturday is the first full day and Thursday is the last full day. The Fridays are partials. Note that Cunard advertises their TransAtlantic crossings in terms of nights rather than days at sea.

 

Bob