Route With Calmer Water?

[marcia014]

Hi all,

One of my coworkers is looking to plan her first cruise with her husband "after football season is over" and is looking for a route that tends to be more calm. I am leaning toward recommending the Western Caribbean, but wanted some input - anyone have any suggestions? She is open to number of days, route, embarkation port, etc. and would like at least as many port days as sea days! I know everything is subject to Mother Nature, but what are your opinions? Thanks!

[Catrin]

We can only compare our three western routes vs the two eastern routes (will leave off the southern)....

 

Overall, I found the Western routes to be much more calmer. Some days the seas were like glass.

 

Of course, like anything else.. it is the time of year, mother nature, etc.

 

Catrin

[halos]

No matter what the route, you can't always be sure of calm water. Heck, we were going on a whale watch a couple weeks ago and it was cancelled due to high seas, so we took a Harbor Tour instead....even the water in the Harbor was extremely rough due to the storm that was out there.

I'd tell her to choose the itinerary that suits her and bring Bonine. The stuff works GREAT. :)

[RatherBFishin]

I know everything is subject to Mother Nature, but what are your opinions?

 

I'm definitely no meteorologist, but I would think that the local weather on a given day has a lot greater bearing than the differences between one route and another. (Assuming you've ruled out trans-Atlantic trips)

 

This comes from going on a fair number of deep seas fishing trips. It's amazing how different the exact same patch of ocean can be from one day to the next.

[seashell36]

Marcia I agree with you. Going to the Eastern Carrib. you have to cross the gulf stream (I think) the current that goes up the East Coast. We had a bumpy ride when we sailed out of Pt Canaveral a couple of years ago. The crew said it was crossing the current. It only lasted the first sea day - but it was rougher than sailing in the Gulf.

[big_duck]

The smoothest ride I've had was the Destiny out of San Juan. All the ports of call are so close the ship can go real slow (stabilizers out).

 

The worst ride I've had (Western hemisphere) was actually the Conquest out of Galveston (but that was mostly weather).

 

The overall worst was the Splendor Genoa-Dover.

[BND]

We found our cruise on the Mexican Riviera to be the smoothest of the three we've taken so far in total. That said, we followed a tropical storm into Cabo and the seas were rough the closer we got to Cabo for about 24 hours, but nothing horrible. The worst seas I've found are crossing the gulf stream in and out of Port Canaveral, but nothing out of the norm. The fact is, you can never tell where the seas will be rougher due to changing weather conditions. Season also has a lot to do with it. This time of year the Caribbean and Gulf can be really rough due to it being their stormy time of year. I would never recommend a cruise based on what I thought the seas would be like. It's asking for trouble when they return and let you know how bad the seas were. It's a no win and it's why I always take my Less Drowsy Dramamine and Ginger root the entire cruise.

[lvtotrvl1]

I really would not plan a cruise based on calm water....you just never know. I think the ports, ship , activites etc are much more important. They are going after football season which would be February.....pretty safe from hurricanes at that time....I would definatly plan the date first....be careful of President's Day (lots of families) or spring break. (that is if they are travelling without little ones:) )

[GaryWT]

One never knows as others have said but we do the Eastern or the Bahamas the most. Our one Western was very rough and a friend of mine always has rougher waters in the Western.

[onceagain]

We're cruising in January, a group of 24. Several are nervous about motion sickness so we chose to cruise out of San Juan. We have cruised 13 times and have never had rough seas when leaving from San Juan. Leaving from Miami can be risky, we've had some pretty rough first nights on the ship.

[Kurbanfan]

The smoothest ride I've had was the Destiny out of San Juan. All the ports of call are so close the ship can go real slow (stabilizers out).

 

 

I will second this. Sailing the southern out of San Juan was by far the smoothest.........

Other then that I would have to say the Queen Mary in Long Beach:p

Mexican Riviera has always been the roughest for us......