Roughest seas?

[camarodrivenrs]

Which Princess Itinerary has the potential for the roughest seas? I'm thinking either a late Northern Transatlantic or a late Around the Horn in South America. What do you experienced cruises say?

[karatemom2]

We have experienced some fairly rough seas on our Pacific crossings from LA to Hawaii and back. We love it, but it can be a bit tough on those who get sea sick easily if they aren't taking something to help.

 

I prefer a cruise where I can really feel the motion. It makes me feel like I'm really at sea. We have been on a couple of cruises where I hardly felt the ship move at all. I prefer a wilder ride!

[Dorset Cruiser]

We have done the transatlantic twice (once each way) with calm seas and the Bay of Biscay twice with calm seas. We have traversed the Tasman Sea with horrendous seas:eek:

[Shogun]

Hi all,

 

Bay of Biscay can be rough once was so rough we made the news on TV,

 

OK cruise ship was old and small and that was a going back a few years

 

but the bow was still breaking the surface, we were ordered to bed and told to hang on.

 

yours Shogun

[Druke I]

Our roughest was in the China Sea, Nov 86, on the little 10,000 tonner Golden Odyssey, trying to outrun the back end of a typhoon, between Hong Kong and Manila. We had green water over the bridge, screws out of the water, and inclinometer was pegged several times.

 

Our three times on the Tasman Sea have been smooth!

 

When we went 'round Cape Horn, Mar 06, on Regal Princess, it was surprisingly smooth - just some mild chop and strong winds.

 

We did have a fairly rough trans-Atlantic, Golden Princess, West of the Azores, Aug 02.

 

Any body of water can get rough, given the right (wrong) conditions.

 

It all contributes to making travel an adventure.

[camarodrivenrs]

I agree, my two princess cruises havent been very exciting in this sense was looking for something a little more exciting then the caribbean sea. What gives me the best chance?

[upontheCs]

the roughest i experienced was on the Grand leaving greenland. hit a big storm. had to turn into the wind and hold position for over 24 hours. lost an anchor and some exterior doors. some light fixtures poped out of the ceiling and panels fell off the walls. it was fun :)

[WeBeGone]

I don't think you can ever "predict" rough seas.

On our transatlantic, between Cannes and Barcelona, we were hit with force 12 winds/seas and for 9 hours it was just terrible!! It even took the Captain by surprise. The ship had not prepared for rough seas and pretty much everything not attached to the wals were on the floors. What a mess!

[MBP&O2/O]

Force 8 - Pacific Ocean - in a 30 foot lifeboat. Wet & windy!

(See avatar)

 

Mike

[HKM]

I think you sort of "pay your money and take your chances" when it comes to predicting seas. We went around Cape Horn when it was like a lake but it's famous for rough seas. The worst weather we've seen at sea was in the "roaring 40's" enroute to New Zealand. The ocean right off the coast of California can also be very rough. Some people recommend Alaska cruises for people trying to avoid rough water, while others complain about getting very seasick on Alaskan cruises. We experienced very calm seas there. There's just no predicting Mother Nature.

[DougH]

the roughest i experienced was on the Grand leaving greenland. hit a big storm. had to turn into the wind and hold position for over 24 hours. lost an anchor and some exterior doors. some light fixtures poped out of the ceiling and panels fell off the walls. it was fun :)

 

If this was the Sept 2007 Grand TA cruise I was on it also and can say it was pretty rough! Recently did the Star to Antarctica and the Drake also had us bouncing around quite a bit.

[Nancy53]

I prefer a little rough seas once in a while. We did the Horn in South America and it was only about 6-8 ft waves. Our other cruises mostly in the caribbean has been rough sometimes.

We are going this coming November and crossing the Tasmian Sea between Australia and New Zealand and have heard that it can be very rough. Like said before with Mother Nature you never know.:D

[caribill]

See pictures below

[jagsfan]

we did QE2 New York to Southampton with 50 foot waves most of the way. No one out

on deck that didn't have to be. This was 2 weeks after the giant wave that hit head on

at the base of the bridge windshield. How would you like to have seen that coming?

Commodore Warwick said he wasn't on the bridge.....he was sleeping.

[need2travel]

This is an interesting thread. If possible, could those of you who respond include information on where the "rough seas" rated on the Beaufort Scale? It would certainly help me get a better feel for the word "rough". I appreciate all your posts.

[Colo Cruiser]

See pictures below

 

Was that Sydney?

[Pam in CA]

This is an interesting thread. If possible, could those of you who respond include information on where the "rough seas" rated on the Beaufort Scale? It would certainly help me get a better feel for the word "rough". I appreciate all your posts.

Generally, I think the roughest seas are around Cape Horn or the Tasman Sea. I've been fortunate to have smooth passages twice around the Horn and also the Tasman Sea, so you never know. But those have reputations for being fierce. The HAL Prinsendam encountered two rogue waves of 72' - 75' near Cape Horn just a couple of weeks before we were there on the Golden. The Southern Atlantic in September or October could also be rough, particularly if there's a hurricane in the area (which there often is.) Here's a link to the Beaufort Scale definitions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

[DrivesLikeMario]

I haven't been to some of those places mentioned above like the Tasman Sea, but I can tell you the Coast of California can get really rough at times. Even though it's called the "Pacific" Ocean (pacific, as in "calm"), it can be wild.

 

My first cruise was in a 39,000 GRT ship in 25' seas. I don't know what we were in as far as the Beaufort Scale goes because they didn't put it on the TV back then (Nov. of 1999).

 

Seems to me, it's the wind that is much worse than the waves - especially with Princess ships. When we were in the Caribbean in 18' seas, it wasn't the sea that was annoying - it was the 50mph winds.

[DeepWaterMariner]

See pictures below

 

I've never been sea sick but these pictures have me feeling a little queasy.

[California Native]

Two Scenarios

about 2 weeks ago ... Kenai Fjords Shorex...

i've never EVER gotten seasick in my 30 years of cruising

i was shades of gray and green that my mom had never seen before

you need to be on open ocean for a long time, before you get to the good part

and then in Baltic in 2005, Gdynia refused us access to the port the seas were so bad and we had massive flooding outside the theatre

on the Star Princess

and the Captain forbade us to go outside.

and for the record I thought that ride was quite fun...

I now have the utmost sympathy for people who get seasick!

[caribill]

Was that Sydney?

 

Bay of Biscay

[captainron]

Hi Folks,

Back on 9 Dec 1973 on P&O's old ORIANA (42,000 tonnes), we were leaving HNL at 11pm enroute to Suva through the tail end of a hurricane.

 

About an hour out of HNL we really started getting battered about with Force 10-11 winds and 30ft plus seas. It was so rough that the nets were already placed over all the pools prior to leaving HNL.

 

One of the aft bars (Dragon Pool Bar) adjacent to the Dragon Pool of course and where the nightly disco was held was literally awash with water from the pool that was sloshing in between the doors that led out to the pool deck.

 

The girls looked rather elegant in their long gowns in the disco hiked above their knees barefooting it on the dancefloor as the water rolled from one side of the disco to the other. No problems as we kept on partying, albeit indoors til the disco closed at 2am.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[Just zis guy]

I haven't been to some of those places mentioned above like the Tasman Sea, but I can tell you the Coast of California can get really rough at times. Even though it's called the "Pacific" Ocean (pacific, as in "calm"), it can be wild.

 

My first cruise was in a 39,000 GRT ship in 25' seas. I don't know what we were in as far as the Beaufort Scale goes because they didn't put it on the TV back then (Nov. of 1999).

 

I cruised the California coast back in 1981 for three days. The ship was somewhat smaller, a SSN displacing 6,500 tons. Due to fog we had to loiter north of the Golden Gate, running surfaced, until the weather cleared enough for us to safely enter port.

 

Nothing like 25' seas on a 32' beam boat with no keel. Stabilizers? Heck no. We just took 30 degree rolls for a couple days straight.

 

Hey, and the buffet served sausage for breakfast and pork chops for dinner! Yum!

[abbydancer2003]

I haven't been to some of those places mentioned above like the Tasman Sea, but I can tell you the Coast of California can get really rough at times. Even though it's called the "Pacific" Ocean (pacific, as in "calm"), it can be wild.

 

 

We've mostly sailed the California Coast, and I agree. We've had a couple of very rough trips - last coastal the seas were "rough" and the winds gale force (we watched Seven Pounds at MUTS during the wind - my husband's comment was that it was an idea that probably works better in the Caribbean.)

 

Worst weather we were in was off the west coast of Canada on the way to Alaska - nobody slept that night and the captain turned the wave indicator off, but told us well over 25 ft. At 2:00 I turned on the tv, saw the wave and wind indicators off, but noticed the speed - 8 knots. Told my husband our visit to Sitka was going to be canceled - sure enough - it was. It was only a 4 hour stop to begin with. Instead the ship went whale watching.

 

They closed the elevators for a while too. I met a lot of people who were saying they were going to leave the ship at the first stop. (PSA violation - so NOT).

 

We thought it was great fun.

[h3rjp]

Well we did the Cape Horn route. It was so rough that we didn't even make it round the horn and tried to "outrun" the storm instead.

 

What happened is we spent a thoroughly unpleasant day languishing about barely moving in massive seas. The TV was showing the wind speed alternativing between Force 11 (Violent Storm) and Force 12 (Hurricane) during the middle of the day. I belive the 24 hour average was "just" a 10 though.

 

Out aft cabin was completely unhabitable for the majority of the day. I am glad I experienced it, but I have no desire to do it again.

 

However as someone else pointed out, the Cape Horn route is unpredicatble. This was the only decent storm the Star ran into the whole season.