Seas on a British Isle Cruise

We would like to do a British Isle cruise and considering the Princess cruise in June of 2015 but worried about the chance of really rough seas. One of us is prone to sea sickness if we hit high seas. Does anyone have experience ??

Seas can be rough, or calm any time, any where. So if someone comes on and says it was calm when they sailed the area, that is great, but it has absolutely NO relationship to when you will sail there. It is simply not predictable.

As someone on these boards so astutely said once, the plural of anecdotal evidence is not data. Very appropriate in this case.

If you have issues with sea sickness, you must be prepared every day you are on a ship, regardless of I tell you is usually calm in a given place, or a given time.

We were on Crystal in late August. It's summer, right? The seas were so rough in Londonderry that we had to curtail our visit. Some people got ashore in the tenders, but we had to stop mid=day. Galway was so rough, we didn't anchor at all, as we had intended, because the tenders were bouncing around so much. That was the worst. I, of course, got seasick that night going from Galway to Cork, but got a pill from the Stewardess and was fine next day.

Europe has had one of the coldest summers in recent years and I don't see it getting better in the Fall.

We did a Ireland, Scotland and Norway cruise mid August. Apart from 2 evenings with some more movement, seas were calm all the time.

We tendered in ports without problems.

Fact is, nobody knows how calm or rough the sea will be.

I agree with CruiserBruce but would note the North Sea is not known for its calm waters.

Europe has had one of the coldest summers in recent years and I don't see it getting better in the Fall.

The OP is considering a British Isles cruise, not a mainland Europe one. In fact, the UK Meteorological Office records for this summer show that only August was cooler than usual. May, June and July all enjoyed above average temperatures. And we have just had the driest September since records began 114 years ago!

Yes, it has been one of the warmest summers on record in the UK, not coldest. The Met office is forecasting a very good autumn with the trees looking as colourful as anything you will ever see in New England.

As I was driving along in my car in the sunshine this afternoon, at 4pm the temperature was a very pleasant 22C.

I have never done a cruise around the British Isles but frequently cross the Channel and have done the Irish Sea and North Sea on occasions. it can be very rough or as smooth as a mill pond regardless time of year.

We did an around the U.K. cruise August 25 until Sept 8. It was calm except at Waterford which was a tender port. The port master advised against landing so we had a sea day. Other than that it was very calm. Went to Kirkwall, Orkney which I thought would be rough but it was not. It was a great cruise would do it again in a heartbeat.:)

The answer is no one can predict certainty what the seas will be like for your voyage. Could be calm, some roughness or periods of a lot of roughness.

We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

We book a room that is mid ship and also bring with us medication to prevent sea sickness.

I think a British Isles cruise is a great cruise.

Keith

Im the OP.....I have been on enough cruises to know you cant predict the seas but some areasof the world are known for rougher seas. Most of our cruises have been Caribbeanin the spring, then we tried the Med cruise and hit a horrible night and I was sure my partner would never cruise again....then last week I got her to do the NCLGem to Canada/NE and she had two seasick nites......Just asked the question because if it an area known for rougher seas....it would be my last cruise ever. thanks KIRKNC your comment helped me decide a land tour to Britain might be my best bet

Did a round Britain end of August and the seas were just fine, only Waterford where we could not tender, only 2 sea days out of 14 so not much sailing at all.

The weather has been great here all summer but this time not hot weather but pleasantly warm with very little rain, just a few showers here and there.

You could not do a land tour of UK like the one we did in 14 days and see all the diverse places we got to.

My parents did a two-week cruise one May, in a small ship (90 passenger) and landings by Zodiac (rubber dinghy) in most ports. The only port they missed was Fair Isle. Calm seas everywhere else, including St. Kilda, Staffa, Arran, Orkney, Shetland, and other ports with a reputation for being a bit difficult.

We would like to do a British Isle cruise and considering the Princess cruise in June of 2015 but worried about the chance of really rough seas. One of us is prone to sea sickness if we hit high seas. Does anyone have experience ??

I am a UK offshore yachtsman and whilst I totally agree with all folks who say that you cannot predict the weather, I would offer you the following information.

The seas around the southern part of the UK and in the North Sea are relatively shallow. As a result they quickly chop up and the seas become confused and potentially uncomfortable. However, because the waters are shallow, we do not really get 'high seas' but instead we get 'short seas' (probably 3 metre waves in a near gale but with steep sides and a short distant between peaks) which can make life uncomfortable in small boats and ships.

Larger ships will not roll or pitch in these short seas, as they would in the high seas off Biscay, though the motion will feel different and, in bad weather, you will probably experience more of an irregular vibration / juddering sensation as the bow hits a steep sea. Certainly that is the sensation I notice when I cross the English Channel on ferries in the winter months when gales are more frequent.

Even in winter, when I cross (both ways) roughly every six weeks, I have seen no sign of anyone being seasick on a five hour crossing from Poole to Cherbourg on a 20,000 tonne ferry and whenever I take the overnight crossing from Portsmouth to St Malo on a 25,000 tonne ferry, the main dining room, which is at the back of the ship is always popular, even in bad weather.

You however will be over here in June and, in the English Channel, statistically we get 0.5days of gales in June. In other words one day of June gales every two years.

I cannot comment on what the seas are like in the north west or off the west coast of Scotland, as I am not familiar with these waters, but as you seem to be concerned mainly about the risk of 'really rough' and 'high' seas I wouldn't be too concerned. It may happen, but you will be unlucky if it does.

too bad there is no "thank you" or "like" button here, if there were, I would have hit it @Corfe Mixture.