El Nino

Planning on a canal cruise from Florida to LA in later part of March, anyone have any thoughts on how El Nino might affect the waters. Do not do good in choppy waters, and don't want to spend time in my room. Any thoughts as to whether people are going that time of the year

El Nino will make the water temps higher, if it is still in effect. The is what El Nino really is, elevated sea temps. Peak is predicted in January or February.

If you have problems with sea sickness, you must be prepared every day you are on a ship. The seas are not predictable. And there certainly isn't a way to say the seas will be calmer or rougher due to El Nino.

What El Niño means is slightly higher water temps and above average rainfall. Our rainy season is pretty much over by March so I wouldn't expect El Niño to have much effect on your cruise. I haven't heard of anyone changing their travel plans because of it. Your cruise is very popular--I've done it twice and plan to do it again soon. And as CruiserBruce points out, the sea is very unpredictable; you don't necessarily need bad weather to have rough seas. Just be prepared--bring your motion sickness remedy of choice; or there is always help available onboard. But mainly, don't worry about what you have no control over. Have a great cruise.

Northbound along the West coast is always bumpier than the Caribbean.

Can usually pinpoint the Caribbean cruisers when we are going northbound.

The Panama canal isn't affected, really...it's a canal...very narrow...no waves.

we are just concerned if the west coast area, coming up from central America might be choppier than usual. we did this cruise going the other way and had no problems but not sure what March will bring

El Nino can impact seas and actually could impact a stop at port. This happened to us in the past.

But even without El Nino you never know what the seas will be like and history means nothing.

I have sailed seas that historically were choppy and sometimes are not and have sailed where it's normally calm but sometimes it is not.

The key is to plan for the worst and hope for the best. In other words be mindful of the room you book and its location and come prepared with meds or something to help prevent nausea.

Keith

While el Nino may affect weather, causing rain, etc, and this can affect the seas, this would most likely be in the form of swells, rather than waves, so it can increase the "West Coast roll" that all ships experience going North/South along the coast. Cruise ships with their stabilizers will mitigate the rolling from these long swells. But as Keith says, weather changes day by day, and hour by hour.

I think the worst effect of el Nino on cruising that I've heard about was a ship (Princess?) that had delays in port, and loss of a/c due to fouling of the cooling water strainers, because the shellfish were dying off due to the increased sea water temperature. So, anything can happen.

we are just concerned if the west coast area, coming up from central America might be choppier than usual. we did this cruise going the other way and had no problems but not sure what March will bring

We did this cruise in March and yes, the waters in the Pacific were choppier than in the Caribbean. I had to use a Trans Derm Scop.