Worst Seas I Ever Encountered

[Joecadd]

I was on the 5 day Bermuda trip aboard the Explorer of the Seas.

We departed 10/18/08 for Cape Liberty. We were enjoying the vessel while docked and were very eager to get underway on our 20th RCCL Voyage. During the Life Boat Drill the Captain spoke briefly and let us know the we were going to go through a weather system within hours after departing. The captain had spoke of 15 to 20 foot seas. Part of my group had never cruised before and were quite nervous at the sound of that. I calmed them by telling them that I had seen 20 foot seas before and its nothing to worry about.

 

Our voyage began....

 

During the late seating dinner we could really feel it. You could almost hear the wind howling past our window. It felt much worse that 15 - 20 foot seas.

 

By the morning it had gotten worse, all out side public decks were closed due to wind. When out on my balcony the winds were amazing you felt as if you were about to get blown out to sea.

 

Later that morning around 9:00 we went to the wind jammer for Breakfast. The ship had oddly calmed quite a bit. there was still motion but no where near as bad, and the wind was now almost still.

 

During our breakfast the captain spoke and said we were in the center of a very strong Low pressure system. and would be out of it in 4-5 hours. Almost as soon as the captain was done speaking you could feel the weather gain strength again.

 

Well we made it through the system and later that night during the Capt.'s speech in the Promenade we learned just how bad this storm was.

 

We had encountered 85 MPH Winds and 40 to 45 FOOT SWELLS!!!!!!

 

I have never encountered this in 19 other sailings. (this was my first to Bermuda)

 

All in all we had a great trip. My in-laws who where 1st time cruisers will probably never cruise again but we had a great time ha ha. It was actually pretty cool to say you have been through it. On the last day of the trip I took my father in law on a bridge tour and we spoke to great lengths with the 2nd officer of the ship. He did tell us that this was the worst he had seen on a voyager class ship hahaha.

[rclcruzer]

Yuck! I am getting queasy just reading this! Glad you "weathered" the storm ok and had a good cruise! :p

The worse I was in was on HAL Ryndam, coming back from Mex. Riviera, and that's famous for encountering rough seas at times.....and yes we got em'! Mind you HAL ships are smaller than the Voyager/Freedom class so we did get a lot more motion that I am used too. It was so bad they closed the liquor store because the bottles were just about to fly off the shelves and I was pretty much thrown off the treadmill it was swaying so bad. We hit a pretty good storm. Typical Pac. Ocean junk. On our Mariner cruise this April, I am almost certain it will be bumpy on the way back, but I am crossing my fingers!

Like they say......better to be bumpy on a cruise than being bumpy at work :)

[crusinmama06]

:eek: I would have died. How sick was everyone? 40-45 feet? You should have gotten video. ;)

[MrPete]

We had seas that I would call rolling, no whitecaps, that were hitting the ship at an odd angle back in August.

 

The ship wasn't doing too well.

 

Captain eventually slowed down and we got to Bermuda 2 hours late, but I was quite surprised to find myself borderline queezy with my sea time.

 

I felt VERY bad for the first timers. All I kept hearing was "NEVER AGAIN!"

[Parkay]

I would have loved it. The rougher the seas the better for me. :D

[Joecadd]

:eek: I would have died. How sick was everyone? 40-45 feet? You should have gotten video. ;)

 

I never saw anyone get sick but the dining room was a little less crowded than usual. They had Sea Sick Bags on all the stair wells and hall ways

 

hahaha it was a bit crazy. I can honestly say if that was my 1st cruise I dont know if I would have done it again.

[CruiseKeeper]

The photography staff commemorated our Explorer 12/2/07 cruise with a special photo. Our waves weren't quite as large as yours but boy oh boy were we feeling it! The view from Dizzy's was awesome, pool carpet was being ripped up in the wind, chaises were blowing in the wind....

Good times. :D We did see people being sick. For the rest of the cruise, the floor in the liquor store was sticky...they had a mess in there.

 

[Wilda]

We experienced 30-35 foot swells on a Princess cruise in January, 2002. We were on our way back to Florida and the seas were incredibly violent. There wasn't much to do, the ship was like a ghost town, so I scheduled....are you ready for this- a haircut and color:eek: That's right, I'm on the top deck of the ship with the stylist rocking back and forth with scissors in her hands. There was one other brave soul in there with me getting a pedicure. They gave me $20 off. The haircut wasn't half-bad....what a dope:)

[rdhnd]

Cruising out of Baltimore one time through the north Atlantic our ship traveled 26 nautical miles in a 24 hour period.

[BuzzF117]

I think this is the same storm that caused Richard Branson to give up his Atlantic crossing in his sailboat he suffered through 40 ft swells as well.

[Laurie12820]

The crossing from the NE to Bermuda is most of the time pretty choppy, but what you experienced was far worse! On both of my Empress Bermuda cruises we had at lease one day of rough seas, I think it's the weather up here.

[rclcruzer]

We experienced 30-35 foot swells on a Princess cruise in January, 2002. We were on our way back to Florida and the seas were incredibly violent. There wasn't much to do, the ship was like a ghost town, so I scheduled....are you ready for this- a haircut and color:eek: That's right, I'm on the top deck of the ship with the stylist rocking back and forth with scissors in her hands. There was one other brave soul in there with me getting a pedicure. They gave me $20 off. The haircut wasn't half-bad....what a dope:)

Wow what guts you have! I hide in my cabin on stormy days:o

[QTBabyNurse]

A number of years ago, my husband and I sailed on the Dolphin....don't know if many of you remember her, but she was a pretty small ship--only about 25, 000 gross tons. We had an inside cabin in the most forward part of the ship...so forward that when you walked down the hallway toward the cabin, you actually walked uphill a bit! The weather became very bad about an hour or two after setting sail from Miami to Nassau. It became SO rocky that both my husband and myself got seasick! Because of where our cabin was you could feel all the motion of the bow of the ship riding up the waves, then down the waves....then up the waves and down the waves......UGH! :( I stopped at the purser's desk and he was handing out Dramamine from a basket like it was Halloween candy! My hubby and I just layed on the bed and didn't dare move until we got to Nassau the next morning! It was the only way we could prevent ourselves from vomiting any more! :eek: The next morning we awoke and saw seasick bags all up and down the hallway (unused, of course!) and we finally met our tablemates the next evening at dinner...no one had shown up the night before! Neither my hubby nor I had ever gotten seasick prior to OR since that cruise!

[QTBabyNurse]

A number of years ago, my husband and I sailed on the Dolphin....don't know if many of you remember her, but she was a pretty small ship--only about 25, 000 gross tons. We had an inside cabin in the most forward part of the ship...so forward that when you walked down the hallway toward the cabin, you actually walked uphill a bit! The weather became very bad about an hour or two after setting sail from Miami to Nassau. It became SO rocky that both my husband and myself got seasick! Because of where our cabin was you could feel all the motion of the bow of the ship riding up the waves, then down the waves....then up the waves and down the waves......UGH! :( I stopped at the purser's desk and he was handing out Dramamine from a basket like it was Halloween candy! My hubby and I just layed on the bed and didn't dare move until we got to Nassau the next morning! It was the only way we could prevent ourselves from vomiting any more! :eek: The next morning we awoke and saw seasick bags all up and down the hallway (unused, of course!) and we finally met our tablemates the next evening at dinner...no one had shown up the night before! Neither my hubby nor I had ever gotten seasick prior to OR since that cruise!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Very interesting to read! I think it would be fun to experience it just once, just to know what it's like! ;)

[Druke I]

40 to 45 foot swells makes for a pretty heavy seas.

 

Way back in Nov 86, on the little Golden Odyssey, a 10,000 tonner, we were trying to outrun the back end of a typhoon, in the China Sea.

 

We had green water over the bridge, screws out of the water, and the inclinometer was pegged several times. It was rough.

 

It reminded me of the typhoon/mutiny scene with Van Johnson and Humphrey Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny".

[VegasRealtor]

Very interesting to read! I think it would be fun to experience it just once, just to know what it's like! ;)

 

I WOULDN'T WISH THOSE KINDS OF SEAS ON MY WORST ENEMY! SEASICKNESS CAN BE AWFULLY DEBILITATING - SOME PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY TURN A PALE SHADE OF GREEN. THE SEAS CAN BE EXTREMELY ROUGH IN THE CAPE HATTERAS AREA; I WENT THROUGH IT MANY TIMES ON A SHIP THAT WAS TINY COMPARED TO THE NEWER CRUISE SHIPS. BELEIVE ME, EVEN AN "SALT" CAN SUCCUMB!:(

[Fury1995]

On our way back to Baltimore from Bermuda, trapped behind Hurricane Ophelia... we were delayed a day and a half traveling behind Ophelia's path off the east coast and diverted half way to North Carolina before turning north and following the hurricane up the coast at approximately 5 knots and big waves. The outside areas were closed off for the remainder of the cruise due to winds and rolling seas.

 

We were surpirsed to arrive back in Baltimore in the middle of day 7 of our 5 night cruise to sunny skies.:)

 

See attached images:

[RCCLCARIB]

WOW!!

 

On the Brilliance of the Seas in 2006 we hit rough weather down in the SW. Caribbean.....had 30-35 ft. sweels hitting us in a quarter sea.

 

Needless to say, when I got on dry land, I was all over the place.

[Fury1995]

Check out these shots of the Enchantment of the Seas crossing the North Atlantic on her way to be stretched!!!

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/342672139sfbDwz

[G'ma]

That passage is always tricky...especially near and around Cape Hatteras..Glad you weathered it fine.

 

Personally, I love rough seas.........but I don't suffer mal-de-mer.......

[jrlamour]

Uhh. All this talk of rough seas. We are headed out on the Voyager of the Seas from Barcelona to Galveston next month and are hoping for relatively smooth waters.

 

Has anyone been on that sailing before (in November/December)? What should I expect?

 

Thanks

[MavisMarie]

We were on the Brilliance inaugural transatlantic in 2002. It was my husband's first cruise and quite memorable.

 

We had 40-45 foot seas for almost 3 days. It was unbelievable. The winds were over 90mph, too. Everything was closed off and you could not go outside unless it was your own balcony. Even then, it wasn't a good idea and we were strongly advised NOT to do so.

 

One evening and night, it was particularly horrible with many back-2-back 45 footers hitting us one right after the other. It is a strange feeling to be walking and then your feet totally lose contact with the floor. You really couldn't hold on to the bed, either. It was like the worst roller coaster ride ever! (but I thought it was fun and didn't get sick at all)

 

Capt James MacDonald kept us well informed at all times. He really did his best with multiple course changes. Hurricane Gustav was determined to get us.

 

I will always remember the sounds of the ship groaning during that cruise.

[CruiserFromMaine]

People who complain about re-routed ships and missed ports should read this thread and see the pictures linked in the post above.

[CruiserFromMaine]

We had rough seas coming back from Bermuda in 2003. Fortunately it was on the way back so we didn't have to think about it except that one night. The starboard side outside decks were closed and the ship moved quite a bit. I remember being on an upper deck getting lunch in the buffet line: one moment you looked out straight into the sea with no horizon and the next minute you'd see the sky with no horizon! Not as bad as some trips but rough enough! :eek: