How Was My Weather?!

[OffTheRails]

First of all, thank you to all the posters who've shared their insights and experiences on here, either directly when I asked questions, or in any of the multitudes of threads I've been dipping in and out of. I've just come back from my first ever trip on a ship and some of the info on here, as well as being exciting in the planning stage, made a definite difference!

 

And although one of the things I learned was that there's really no way to accurately predict the weather in any given timeframe (possibility of glass smooth sailings in winter, storms in summer, etc) I wondered if I could call on your collected experience again.

 

I absolutely loved my QM2 crossings (Southampton to NYC 13 - 20 July & back again 3 - 10 August) and as a non-flyer, I feel like a lot of different travel experiences are now re-opening to me. I did have a few times, however, when I noticed the motion of the boat more than I'd have liked to, although looking back on it now I'm sure I was overreacting - but who can help that?!

 

For the most part, the ship information channel on the TV showed that seas were slight. During the outbound voyage, we had a day or so when seas were moderate, with winds at force 7, which I have to confess I did not enjoy! Coming back seas seemed mostly to be slight, although we did have one rocky night (the purser told me seas were expected to get "rough with high winds" overnight), and often I seemed to notice more movement when the seas may have been slight but the winds were higher. Generally we were about force 4 or 5, although sometimes lower.

 

Based largely on advice on here, I had an inside cabin, midships, low deck, to try to minimise any movement. Coming home, we were almost exactly midships on deck 5 and beds were aligned toes to the front of the boat, heads to the back, which I felt better in than going out with cabin just behind stairway C and beds aligned left to right on deck 6. I almost never felt nauseous, although sometimes when I was very aware of movement I felt it creep up on me, mostly I think on account of the overactive nerves! I had seabands on at all times and gave in and took 2 Sturgeron on the way home when we had the worst night, having overheard staff tell another passenger it was "going to get worse".

 

There was also, apparently, some kind of rogue wave which slapped into the window of the Golden Lion just as I go up to leave, which the rest of my party made sure not to tell me about till much later, as I was the only one who didn't see it!

 

We were travelling with others who, on the way out, noted that there was more movement on the ship than they had experienced previously, but that it was nothing to worry about, so I just thought I'd ask (in an exceptionally long winded fashion as it turns out!) if anyone else was on either of those crossings and how they found it in comparison to usual, and if from your general experience, crossings tend to be around those measurements and feelings of movement, worse, better?

 

I've had labyrinthitis previously so it might just be that I'm sensitive to movement and need to update my perception of how risky that is to be less anxious about it when it does happen, but interested to hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice. I might try to get round to posting a first timer review if anyone's interested, and if anyone is thinking of booking QM2 and has any questions, fire away!

[Host Hattie]

I'd love to read your first timer review, it's always good to read what people thought.

I wasn't on either of those crossings so I can't help with whether they were better or worse than usual - I've only done one crossing (in January) and the movement of the ship was less than the sailing from the Caribbean to New York immediately before it.

[laktex]

 

 

We were travelling with others who, on the way out, noted that there was more movement on the ship than they had experienced previously, but that it was nothing to worry about, so I just thought I'd ask (in an exceptionally long winded fashion as it turns out!) if anyone else was on either of those crossings and how they found it in comparison to usual, and if from your general experience, crossings tend to be around those measurements and feelings of movement, worse, better?

 

!

 

Well I was not on the ship for that crossing but was encouraged to reply because of your words " in comparison to usual".

 

I am not sure if there is an actual "usual" - the majority of my TA's have been in the winter months (particularly January) and I don't think there is a "usual" - the Atlantic Ocean can be anything at any time - and for me that really is the JOY of an Atlantic crossing - the unexpected!!

[KHAPicard]

I was on the 13 July crossing. Found it very calm and do not recall much movement if any at all (it is the QM2!). Agree with laktex - difficult to speak of anything being usual. On that roundtrip crossing we had beautiful sunshine, fog, rain, hail, and gale force winds - all within 14 days. Have been on her during a winter storm - you could feel that for sure and made you thankful you were not on a cruise ship.