Drake Passage

[Oldnatsfan]

My wife and I are sailing January 6th 2024 on the Celebrity Eclipse out of Buenos Aires. It holds over 2800 passengers and has I believe 15 passenger decks and is 1040ft long and is about 120 ft, wide. It has 122,000GT listed as its weight. I was just wondering if anyone has cruised on this ship thru the Drake Passage and had any information to share about their experience.

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a link you can use while on your cruise to monitor the weather, to include wave action, in Drake Passage along with other nearby areas on your Antarctica cruise. The last time we crossed Drake Passage was in 2018 and it was quite the ride with 15-20’ waves in the middle of the night.

 
https://www.windy.com/-59.157/-62.212

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Oldnatsfan]

Thank you Ken, I just checked the site out. It will be very helpful.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, Oldnatsfan said:

My wife and I are sailing January 6th 2024 on the Celebrity Eclipse out of Buenos Aires. It holds over 2800 passengers and has I believe 15 passenger decks and is 1040ft long and is about 120 ft, wide. It has 122,000GT listed as its weight. I was just wondering if anyone has cruised on this ship thru the Drake Passage and had any information to share about their experience.

It will be so rough you will wish you had stayed at home, or so smooth you will wonder if the captain knows where he is going, or just an average sea day or possibly all three. At least that's a fair summary of our 5 crossings (an odd number because on out last trip we came back via South Georgia so only crossed the  Drake Passage once). Relax, stop stressing about things you can't control and above all enjoy.

[Northern Aurora]

We have sailed through the Drake Passage three times.  Twice on a M-class ship and once on an S-class (actually -- the Eclipse).   All times it was the "Drake Lake" -- smooth as could be.

[abbydancer2003]

I've done it twice, once on Princess and once on Celebrity (Eclipse).  First time it was rough, second time "Drake Lake".

[LouChamp]

Aloha. We have been blessed to sail the Drake Passage, Bay of Biscay, the South Pacific, Transatlantic and even the hydrofoil to Capri lol. There is no rhyme nor reason nor a way to predict the weather and sea conditions.  We have been in ships of various sizes and while I am very tolerant of serious rough weather conditions my wife is less so but a real trouper and continues to sail lol. I would not worry and go and enjoy!

[Ken the cruiser]

If I might make a suggestion with regards to cabin location. To minimize potential wave action consequences while onboard if you do choose to go on the cruise, try to book a cabin as close to the center (fulcrum) and as low as possible on the ship. The last place you want to be if wave action might pose a problem is in a cabin close to the front of the ship, which I commonly refer to as the diving board.