Best time to do transatlantic crossing

[Baz-t]

Looking at the Riviera transatlantic crossing in March 2022. A good time? Or October/November better? 
A crossing is a first for us.
All comments gratefully received!

[sitraveler]

Typically a spring crossing is west to east. Fall crossing is reversed. I prefer going west, going east makes the dinners too close together.  

[Robjame]

Dinners can never be too close together for me. 😉

 

We prefer the west to east crossing.

 

Most people find that jet lag is worse when traveling east than it is when traveling west. Jet lag differs based on the direction of travel because it's generally easier to delay your internal clock than advance it. 

That one hour per day adjustment made jet lag a non-factor.

[ToxM]

I am doing west to east in March. Clearly specifically planned so dinners can be closer together 😉

 

Guessing the route taken (North vs Mid Atlantic) will also have a bearing. We are doing Barbados > Barca, so weather/seas could be better than Soton say to NY. 

 

I like a bit of rough weather so I am hoping we buck the trend. 

 

Curious to hear what others have experienced 🙂

[Belfastman]

I like west to east best as it means after the cruise we have a shorter flight home. We have done many transatlantic cruises in both directions. Generally the worst (rougher) weather was in late October / November.

[lj77346]

We enjoy the east to west transatlantic cruises in the autumn.  Prior to the transatlantic we either go on another cruise or do a land tour because October/November is a very pleasant time of year to explore Europe.  We've sailed 5 east to west transatlantic cruises and only on one did we have major itinerary changes due to weather - a northern route that was supposed to be stop at Belfast, Reykjavik, and Halifax on the way to New York ended up as a more southerly route with ports in Spain and the Azores because a storm in the North Atlantic made the original route too dicey.

[ORV]

I'd say anytime, but I prefer fall for a number of reasons. With fall it's east to west. You get quite a few extra hours going that way. As mentioned above the ports in Europe are not crowded nor is it hot that time of year. As another poster mentioned they have a closer flight home, and that applies to those of us in NA with a fall TA. 

[clo]

9 hours ago, sitraveler said:

Typically a spring crossing is west to east. Fall crossing is reversed. I prefer going west, going east makes the dinners too close together.  

I keep thinking about this and truly have no idea what it means. ???

[clo]

9 hours ago, Robjame said:

That one hour per day adjustment made jet lag a non-factor.

That's my experience.

[ToxM]

9 hours ago, clo said:

I keep thinking about this and truly have no idea what it means. ???

I think they mean because you lose an hour a day (and depending on when they change the hour) it can make dinners too close together. 

 

Lunch and afternoon tea would be an issue if the time changed at midday. 

 

I would soldier on, however. 

[Robjame]

4 hours ago, ToxM said:

and depending on when they change the hour)

On the TA we did, the time change was always done overnight - - like daylight savings etc. is done.

[ORV]

52 minutes ago, Robjame said:

On the TA we did, the time change was always done overnight - - like daylight savings etc. is done.

Yep, but you still get those extra hours somewhere.