weather forecast for your cruise

[DavidJrandRichard]

I am a meteorologist that is considering a new business venture. A website that will show a detailed weather forecast for your cruise. There may be a site that does this for you already-I am not sure. It would be a free service, hopefully making money on advertisement on the site.

 

The forecast would be posted one week before your saildate and an email would be sent if there any changes up until sail date.

 

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated!

[sk8teacher]

I suppose that a cruise specific site might be interesting to some. Personally, I use http://www.wunderground.com/ to research the weather at each port I will be at. Works quite well and so far as proven to be as accurate as any weather predictions.

 

Cheers,

[DavidJrandRichard]

Thanks for your reply...

I am familiar with that sight...but do you know a website that has a website specific for your itinerary? For example, it would include forecast for sail days and even include wave and swell heights. Plus I would include a "what to pack" index giving you an idea of how much range there will be during your cruise. This would give you an idea of how many shorts/t'shirts days vs. heavy coats days-based on ports of call forecasts and while at sea weather.

 

Also, if I see any storms in the ships path I could give you an idea of what the chances are of an itinerary change.

Edited November 17, 2008 by rlsrlj

[JaiJaiW]

I would be interested, especially as a free service. Sounds great to me.

[caber]

Sounds interesting but how accurate could it be a week in advance?

In Scotland, the weather in Glasgow can be totally different from Edinburgh, 40 miles away.

[Sea Born]

Sounds great to me! I definitely would use it. Good Luck!

[DavidJrandRichard]

Sounds interesting but how accurate could it be a week in advance?

In Scotland, the weather in Glasgow can be totally different from Edinburgh, 40 miles away.

 

As you know, all forecasts have some inaccuracy. There is no way it will be 100% right....thats a fact from any weather website. However, it would give you the forecast for all ports on one page-plus forecasts for sea days.

[ovccruiser]

I use the weather forcaster on MSN home page, just type in the next port of call and see the weather forcast. This can be done on board ship so will probably be more accurate than a weekly forcast. Best of luck anyway.

[len best]

I think its a great idea and if you could get it up and running will have loads of hits-dont let the idea drop,i am supprised no one has thougth of it before,none of the other websites are specific to cruising

[ILoveScotland]

I use weather.com, and it has worked just fine. I probably would check out a cruise specific weather site, but I have to say that except for transatlantic or transpacific cruises I'm not sure I'd find anything I can't find elsewhere.

[fann1sh]

I'm one of those busybodies :rolleyes: who loves to answer queries on these boards. I'm always surprised at the high percentage which are weather related. So, I think there's a niche for this idea. In answering questions, I haven't found a site which would compete with your concept.

 

Another frequent query here is, "Will the seas be rough?" While not a purely meteorological question, would you be able to include predictions? If not, what about contributing factors such as likely wind speed?

 

I'd expect your greatest number of hits will occur in summer-fall Caribbean hurricane season. While CruiseCritic has a hurricane watch, your notification feature would be a big plus.

 

Very,very few people have "cancel for any reason" cruise insurance, so deciding not to go because of weather issues is not an option for the vast majority. But, that means you won't have a disgruntled horde complaining "I canceled my cruise because you said the weather would be horrible, and it was sunny and smooth every day!" :D

[madge57]

I say go for it!! Some people will say why waste your time but hey you will never know unless you try it. I would use it because I like to try things that are different. I did a home business and did very well with it but then I had kids and put it aside now I'm thinking about starting it back up again and the good news is nobody picked it up after I quit!!!

[Peregrina651]

Let me point out the fate of two popular cruise information websites that could not make it on the ad revenues alone. These are/were two sites where one could look up which ships would be in which ports when. In the past year, cruisecal.com went to a yearly fee scheme to access its information while another similar venture porttime.com closed up shop when the owner got a better deal for a paying job that would take up all of his time.

 

And these are two sites that have a very long window on information that rarely changes once it is added to the database. Your information has a very short window and is constantly changing.

 

 

[DavidJrandRichard]

That is the true nature of my business! A weather forecast has very short "shelf life".

 

I am still thinking about the idea..wouldn't cost that much to start up..it would just require a lot of time! Thanks for the responses everybody!

[Kearhartkbds]

be interested if forecast is free ...advertisers should pay for this service.

[mom says]

Is this service going to be provided on request only? Will you limit it to certain geographic areas? Because providing marine forecasts for every itinerary all over the world, and keeping them current, would be a daunting task for one person.

 

DH had a career as a naval aviator, so now he just goes online for our forecasts, and can access much more detailed and up to date info (aviation and marine reports) . Heck, I don't even trust our local forecasts a week out.

[JaiJaiW]

This post is 9 years old

 

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[mom says]

This post is 9 years old

 

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Well, crap! Got sucked in by a zombie thread again!