How bad is the waves cruising from amsterdam to the med in October?

[Tan1415]

Just had a cruise on spectrum of the seas and we encountered seriously choppy weather. Didn’t expect the ship to sway as much. Matter of fact it scared us to cruise in Asia during tyfoon season when wins and waves are even worse.

 

my friend said that the ships stabilizers was not deployed because we were not in deep seas.

 

I was planning to take a cruise between September and November. From amsterdam towards the Mediterranean. Basically North Sea , then the Atlantic. How rough are the seas then? Will the ships sway a lot?

how smart is having an interior room than?

[CruiserBruce]

The ocean moves, so seas can be rough ANY time. Just have to be prepared every time you are on a ship.

[wowzz]

And you will be going through the notorious Bay of Biscay !

Seriously,  I don't think cruising is for you.

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, Tan1415 said:

Just had a cruise on spectrum of the seas and we encountered seriously choppy weather. Didn’t expect the ship to sway as much. Matter of fact it scared us to cruise in Asia during tyfoon season when wins and waves are even worse.

 

my friend said that the ships stabilizers was not deployed because we were not in deep seas.

 

I was planning to take a cruise between September and November. From amsterdam towards the Mediterranean. Basically North Sea , then the Atlantic. How rough are the seas then? Will the ships sway a lot?

how smart is having an interior room than?

If you tend to have motion sickness, the last thing you want to do is to get an interior room. For most folks, in order to avoid motion sickness, your eyes and ears need to have the same cues.

[mom says]

So what is it about the ship pitching or rolling that bothers you? Are you afraid? Of what? Are you sea sick?  If you have problems with seas sickness, have you tried remedies for it? An interior cabin is the last place you want to be, since being able to see the horizon can be a great help.

 

Regarding this fall cruise; normally no one could predict what the ocean would be like. It's calm until it's not. But in your case, you will be travelling through the Bay of Biscay which is notorious for usually being rough.  This may not be the cruise for you.

Edited March 27, 2023 by mom says

[chengkp75]

12 hours ago, Tan1415 said:

my friend said that the ships stabilizers was not deployed because we were not in deep seas.

This is absolute nonsense.  What does your friend consider "deep seas"?  What reason does he/she give for why they can't be deployed in shallow water?

 

When you look at the size of the stabilizer fins, and the size of the ship, one fact becomes glaringly obvious:  stabilizers are not designed to, nor can they stop rolling.  Nor are they capable of even reducing rolling.  The one thing stabilizers do, is to slow how fast the ship rolls from one side to the other.  A cruise ship is inherently "stiff", meaning that it will roll from side to side in a very fast, snapping, motion, which is very uncomfortable.  The stabilizers slow this roll down so that while you may still be veering from one side of the hallway to the other as you walk along, you are not being thrown across the hall.

 

And, as for "pitching", or the bow of the ship rising and falling with the waves, stabilizers can do absolutely nothing for that motion, nor for "swaying", which is lateral motion of the ship as it is thrown by the waves (most commonly when wind and seas are from behind the ship).

[MBP&O2/O]

Could you define "Seriously Choppy"? Are we talking rolling through an arc of 60+ degrees or pitching that gets big green ones over the bow?

 

I have been in F8 / F9 in the BoB, and have encountered some really really nasty weather in the Med. Different movement / motion but thoroughly unpleasant.

 

Asia and the typhoon season? Could be rough and TRS's do not read the manuals and are not limited by the official season as defined in the those books.

We once caught the back end of a typhoon of Japan, and we were rolling 40 degrees each way for two days ... and that on a laden oil tanker that was not prone to excessive movement. Challenging😵‍💫

 

 

[edinburgher]

Perhaps river cruising would suit you better than ocean cruising as there is minimal motion on rivers.

[sleepingcat]

If you want to do the Med in the autumn which is a lovely time because it is still warm but not hot, why not fly to Rome or Barcelona and start from there, thus avoiding the Bay of Biscay which as others say above, and I have also experienced, can be very rough, even in the middle of summer.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, sleepingcat said:

thus avoiding the Bay of Biscay which as others say above, and I have also experienced, can be very rough, even in the middle of summer.

As a case in point, Sky Princess is currently trying to outrun bad weather in the Atlantic,  and is arriving in Southampton on Thursday this week,  rather than Saturday as originally scheduled. 

[wcook]

Speaking just for myself, Meclizine works wonders keeping me from feeling seasick, even in the roughest of seas. I’d rather take medication and not have to worry, rather than trying to plan a cruise or pick a cabin hoping to minimize movement. 

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, wcook said:

Speaking just for myself, Meclizine works wonders keeping me from feeling seasick, even in the roughest of seas. I’d rather take medication and not have to worry, rather than trying to plan a cruise or pick a cabin hoping to minimize movement. 

At the moment there is a strong anti-cyclone with up to 49 knot winds due to be in the South-west approaches by mid-night on Friday. That's Storm Force with waves up to 9 m but reaching up to 12.5 m, which is why Sky is running straight to Southampton.  

I agree with you - when you get weather like that, nowhere on the ship is going to be comfortable. 

[MBP&O2/O]

The current scenario looks like fun to me  🙂

 

Wave heights.

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by MBP&O2/O

[wowzz]

16 minutes ago, MBP&O2/O said:

The current scenario looks like fun to me

Understatement of the week !