Steerage on Horizon or Zenith

Has anyone ever stayed in "Steerage" on the Horizon or Zenith?

You know, like deck 4 or 5 all the way aft. What were the rooms like and how much engine noise and vibration was there at night?

MrTractor<------could sleep in jail, but her majesty might have a little trouble......

The lower decks are fine if you stay away from aft cabins.

The vibrations (and thus the noise) are considerable during any manuvering such as change of speed or direction. Try at least to book forward of the aft elevators.

.......have you actually stayed in an aft inside or outside on deck 4?

MrTractor<---------hasn't been in steerage in a couple of years..........

Only stay in the aft cabins if you are an early riser. We were just there on the San Juan to Norfolk cruise and the vibration when they are coming into port will serve as your wake-up call. We were in 4144 and it really shakes the whole cabin. Not a problem any other time. No general noise or vibration except when docking. And this process takes quite a while so there is really no ignoring it. Hope this helps. :)

......end up down there, we won't need an alarm clock!

But actually there are only two mornings on this Bermuda run that we might encounter the vibration and noise. First, the day when we are scheduled to arrive in St. George Island around 9AM. The ship always enters the harbor and starts maneuvering long before that, so I expect we'll get our "wake up call" around 7 am or so.

I wonder if that's local Atlantic time? That would feel like around 6AM Eastern time, right?

The other time would be the morning we move from St. Georges to Hamilton. The rest of the days we won't be moving or we'll be at sea. And of course the last morning, we will be begrudgingly leaving and have to get up early anyway. :(

Last year we spent time with a ocuple who were down there and they said it got pretty noisy. Thanks for the advice. We'll see where we end up!

MrTractor<--------could sleep in jail, but has not actually had to do it. Yet...:eek: ...

Too late to help you, I guess, but we stayed on deck 4 all the way forward and it was tolerable. Noise when they dropped anchor but not too bad. I would stay there again. The only aft cabins I would avoid like the plague are on deck 9. They are right over the disco. So unless you like to party until 2-3 AM they are awful. to X's credit, they did give us a key to another cabin for sleeping.

We stayed on deck four about midway between the mid and fore elevators. The room was very quiet. We were concerned a bit about being near the kids program room but it turned out that it is a non-issue. Our cruise has some rough seas and being on deck four was a real advantage!

Is closer to the water line better in rough seas? We are also on deck 4 and very concerned about rough seas.

Is closer to the water line better in rough seas? We are also on deck 4 and very concerned about rough seas.

Yes, the conventional wisdom is that lower and closer to midship is the best from a motion standpoint.

.......quietest ride is generally an inside cabin on the lowest deck at midship. Our concern is being able to hear the engine and maneuvering noises or the shoveling of coal (whatever) all night. But it doesn't sound like that will be a problem. moia, if you are on deck 4 amidship that's as good as it gets. All the way aft or forward, you may feel a little more pitch, and an outside may feel a little more roll, but not much.

The Atlantic between the US and Bermuda is notorious for rough seas, especially westbound. Last year on the way back from Bermuda was no exception. Not "throw you out of bed" rough, but rough enough that the dining room was about half empty and the ship ran out of ginger ale!

Luckily, we've never been sea sick. We've been in 35 foot seas on a ship about this same size as the Horizon - HAL's Noordam. Now THAT was a wild ride. The last night getting back to Tampa, we encounted some sort of tropical depression. Since it was the last night and the ship had to get back to pick up the next set of passengers, the captain just plowed right through it all. We had the dining room to ourselves! Of the few people we saw in the halls, some were walking around the ship with their lifejackets on! On that trip, our cabin was all the way forward on the highest deck. Now that was "throw you out of bed" rough. We literally slept on the floor that night!

On the Horizon last fall, the captain had to change our itinerary and leave St. George for the Royal Dockyard because of the possiblity of high winds. When you see the narrow channel going into St. George, you'll know why the captain was so concerned! Whew that's tight!Then we had to leave the dockyard and Bermuda early in order to take it slow getting back home. It gave us a little more time at sea which was OK with me, but all the mnoving around and the early departure really sort of chopped up our stay on the island.

I'm telling you all this not to discourage or scare you. I just think you should be prepared for at least some rough weather. After all you are on a cruise ship and the sea can be as calm as a mill pond or it can be Dark and Stormy! (Hey, that sounds like a good name for a cocktail!) Use the patch (Scapalomine[sp]), or at least bring some bonine with you. I'd suggest throwing a few extra cans of ginger ale in your bags, too. If you think you are likely to be effected, put on the patch or take the bonine BEFORE the ship leaves for Bermuda. There is no worse feeling than getting sick on vacation. And once you are sick the medication won't be nearly as effective - or not at all! Once the ship is docked in Hamilton or wherever, you can take the patch off or stop taking any medications. Just be sure to put the patch back on or take a pill BEFORE the ship leaves for home. Don't assume you'll be OK since you weren't sick on the way there while under medication!

I'm not sure why some people get sick and others don't, but I've always felt the secret was to "give in" to the motion of the ship. It seems the people who try to "fight it" are the ones who are most effected by the "mal de mar." I suppose it's an inner ear thing, but at least some of it is psychological. That's why they always tell you to look at the horizon so you can get your bearings. That's all fine, but if you are prone to seasickness, get the patch and you'll do fine!

MrTractor<------------appologizes for the rave............

Actually we are on an outside room a little back from the aft elevators. When we booked (last August) the only quads available were those and the forward ones. We opted for the aft because I had read on these boards that there is less motion in the back. I’m not concerned with the engine noise, I’m just a little afraid of the rough weather. This is our first time on the Atlantic. :eek:

We stayed in 5159 on Zenith to Bermuda in 2003 - very aft cabin on port side. It's the first and last time for a guarantee room for us - my husband was able to sleep through the engine noise/vibration, but I wasn't quite as lucky. The noise lasted throughout the whole time that the ship was moving. There were three good things though - it was an incredibly low price because we booked last minute (after the hurricane), you didn't hear the neighbours' TV, talking, doors shutting, etc., and we had three quiet nights in Bermuda. You really need to look on the bright side when faced with that situation. When I went to Bermuda two weeks ago, I paid more and picked my room - & thoroughly enjoyed it :)

We were on the Horizon's Thanksgiving cruise several years ago and my 3 children had this cabin 4159 aft. It was very noisey, vibrated alot and the stench of sewage was ever present. The crew was constantly in and out of their cabin all week trying to fix the shower drain that was leaking sewage odors. A couple of nights the kids all bunked in our cabin bc they were not able to fall asleep in theirs. The ship was full so they were not able to move cabins. We booked two GTY's so we were at the front of the ship and they were at the back on the other hallway same floor.

Just remember the old saying, we got a bargain for sure but "you get what you pay for!" is so true in this circumstance.

Cruizinrican:)

I will be staying in Bahamas/9th level room 9076. According to the diagram - that is near the end of mid-ship by the aft elevators. Do you think that will get noise from the club downstairs?:confused:

DW and I were in cabin 4157 on Horizon, which is (or was) the last room on the Florida deck. We won't do that again. There was engine vibration all night long and the thrusters were extremely loud. I think as far away as near midship on deck four or even only one deck up would have made a huge difference.

Rick

My husband and I were in cabin 4033 last year going to Bermuda. It was loud and quite a lot of vibration but only when docking and leaving port. We did get up early the day we got to Bermuda. But the cabin was CHEAP and we got to see the sunrise which I had never managed to see on our other cruises. I would do it again but only on a Bermuda run. I don't think I would like it on another itinerary where we would be stopping at a few ports.

Suzanne