Bering Strait weather and seas

Has anyone cruised the Bering Strait to Vancouver? Are the seas rough? Is the weather very cold? Sailing in early May, just curious.

Just curious, what cruise goes to the Bering Straight?

Celebrity does a relocation to and from Vancouver to Japan. It might or might not go thru the Bering Sea. On cruise lines that do the North west Passage use the Bering Strait.

Wow, that would be an interesting trip.

Not sure who cruises the Bering Strait, but several cruise lines bring ships back to Alaska from Asia/Australia via Japan. So, general area.

Kamloops, it would be nice of you to return to this thread and answer the questions posed to you...

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2610842

Celebrity Millenium, April 26 goes from Yokohama, Japan up to Petropavlovsk, Russia then to Vancouver. It actually sails south of Strait, but cruise is titled "Japan and Bering Strait". Still curious about the seas...7 days at sea is a first for me but my 19th cruise. Has anyone taken this cruise before?

Celebrity Millenium, April 26 goes from Yokohama, Japan up to Petropavlovsk, Russia then to Vancouver. It actually sails south of Strait, but cruise is titled "Japan and Bering Strait". Still curious about the seas...7 days at sea is a first for me but my 19th cruise. Has anyone taken this cruise before?

It probably will be cold. Snow is known to fall on the ship as they pass thru the Bering Seas. You'll find some crew on deck because never have experienced snow.

I was told there are 40 foot waves rocking boat so I hope that is not true. Snow I can deal with...40 foot waves, not so sure.

I was in Barrow, AK for work a couple of years back. Flew in on 1 day, spent the night and flew back the next.

There was an actual German cruise ship in Barrow for a port stop. Didn't pay any attention to what ship but all passengers had orange coats from the ship.

My last ship duty (as CO) was on a 'high endurance cutter' CGC MUNRO and I did several patrols in the Bering Sea ..... fisheries enforcement. I'm a wee bit familiar with the territory. I once saw a cruise ship up there ..... and we got 'involved' when our helo spotted an oil sheen in its wake .... but that's a different story ....

I suspect there is some creative advertising going on! I'll guess that the port is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia (there are several locations which have Petropavlovsk as part of the name, this one is at least in the neighborhood). This port is near the western end of the U.S. Aleutian Islands ... ATTU specifically (been there) and an area called the Bering Spur. The Bering Strait is nearly 1000 miles further north in round numbers and NOT on a route toward Vancouver! So the route might dip into the Bering Sea by going on the north side of the Aleutians but I seriously doubt they'd head up to the Strait just for kicks ..... but I could be wrong .....

I will say that my last trip up there was in the late spring early summer and we DID experience many days of 40' plus seas and generally cold wet weather. It wasn't the worst I'd experienced up there but it was SNOTTY. I'd expect a cruise ship to watch the weather and plan their route accordingly .... usually the real snotty stuff is north of the Al's and by staying on the south side you might miss a bunch of it. I did not usually have that luxury ... picking a route .... as I sat where the fishing was happening. But in general when things got real bad on the north side, everyone ran to an island to hide behind. And this is not an absolute as I recall my last transit from Dutch Harbor to Kodiak which is mostly on the south side, was snotty too!!!!!

SO: Could be an "E-ticket ride" ... but pretty too as I'd hope they'd stay close to the Al' islands where there are several volcanoes. And it could be pretty darn flat .... I've seen waters up there as smooth as anywhere ... difference is it can change FAST and dramatically! I was damn fortunate that when I was up there we had internet at sea and I could download satellite weather data updated hourly. Not too long b4 me, peers were lucky to get a once a day report ..... or rely on the barometer and their inner voices .....

Those trips didn't scare me off either ... we're doing Viking Ocean, In Search of Midnight Sun, this July ... it goes north of the Arctic Circle.

p.s. there ARE ships that go up to Barrow and WAY north in the Bering but IME these are 'destination trips' and not a port call in transit ....

Outside of Dutch Harbor (2 yrs ago) seas were like glass. Unfortunately the fog prevented us from docking. So.... it could be anything.

JK

We’ve done the Vancouver - Japan route twice. Once each way, spring and autumn. It was fun, and we LOVED all the sea days. The weather was pretty stormy on the last one, September 2017, but we like the motion of the ocean and didn’t mind. One of our trivia mates didn’t listen to the Captain’s instructions to keep their balcony door closed, opened it, and had it blow off the tracks! He had to call the front desk for a repair and confess that he’d disobeyed instructions. It’s not a cruise where you will be able to use the pool much, or top up your tan. The scenery was pretty amazing though, with lots of little volcanic islands.

The thing that caused us the biggest problem (which was still very mild as problems go) was the time change. There will be seven 25 hour days going west, or seven 23 hour days going east in a short space of time. By the end of the changes, we were getting up at the crack of dawn going west or missing breakfast every day and nearly missing lunch going east. You will also gain or lose a day as you cross the International Date Line. We had two Friday the 13ths on the east-bound cruise, which caused a few minor problems booking appointments. “Do you want the first Friday the 13th or the second?”

Because it’s a repositioning cruise, the price is generally good, and I’d recommend this itinerary. We look forward to doing it again one day.

Silver Sea, Heritage Expeditions and Lindbald Expeditions are cruises that cross the Bering Strait.

We’ve done the Vancouver - Japan route twice. Once each way, spring and autumn. It was fun, and we LOVED all the sea days. The weather was pretty stormy on the last one, September 2017, but we like the motion of the ocean and didn’t mind. One of our trivia mates didn’t listen to the Captain’s instructions to keep their balcony door closed, opened it, and had it blow off the tracks! He had to call the front desk for a repair and confess that he’d disobeyed instructions. It’s not a cruise where you will be able to use the pool much, or top up your tan. The scenery was pretty amazing though, with lots of little volcanic islands.
 
The thing that caused us the biggest problem (which was still very mild as problems go) was the time change. There will be seven 25 hour days going west, or seven 23 hour days going east in a short space of time. By the end of the changes, we were getting up at the crack of dawn going west or missing breakfast every day and nearly missing lunch going east. You will also gain or lose a day as you cross the International Date Line. We had two Friday the 13ths on the east-bound cruise, which caused a few minor problems booking appointments. “Do you want the first Friday the 13th or the second?”
 
Because it’s a repositioning cruise, the price is generally good, and I’d recommend this itinerary. We look forward to doing it again one day.

Good job.