What are the roughest seas?

[UtterCaro]

I can vouch for the Tasman Sea - whooooo what a crossing. The waves were crashing into the ship so hard that the spray was reaching our balcony on deck 11.

 

Wow! I love the rough seas, so I'll definitely have to add a Tasman crossing to my wish list. (Yeah, I'm a sick puppy. LOL!)

 

Caro

[travbee]

The absolute worse seas we ever have had was on the Canada/New England cruise. Very rough and over half the ship was sick. I spend one full day literally throwing up but did not effect my husband so he just went on his merrry way to the casino, etc. That rat! Smoothest sailing was the Med. Smooth as glass.

 

Barbara

[Hamburg Avon Lady]

You could consider Canada and New England - most leave out of Boston and New York City and within a day you are in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

You have the US on one side and Canada on the other - with very little

risk of extreme weather or water movement.

These itineraries are done during the late summer and fall so as to take

advantage of the beautiful fall foliage. I think that will be our next choice.;)

[kruzseeka]

Hi - I also sympathise with your dilemma and think you are quite right to carry out your research and try to find a suitable compromise which will suit your family.

 

Since a number of other posters have mentioned European destinations as an alternative, perhaps the Norwegian Fjords are worth considering. The scenery is spectacular and if you choose your itinerary carefully, you can spend whole days cruising in the Fjords with dramatic scenery and in my experience, flat water. Of course you are out off shore for periods but always quite close to land. We recently did the North Cape and hardly lost sight of land at all. Perhaps it would be advisable to pick up such a cruise in Norway, if that's possible, avoiding the North Sea which can sometimes be a rough but I don't think the wave heights are anything like those described in some of the posts!

 

If you do think about the Med area (either Eastern or Western or the Black Sea) remember summer weather is much better than this time of year when you can't assume it will be warm, never mind calm. As others have said though, it's always unpredictable. And from a personal perspective, part of the attraction of the Mediterranean is the outdoor culture, waterfront cafes and hot weather. OK sight-seeing in Rome/Barcelonsa etc. can be done at any time of year - but it can be quite cold and wet in the winter. (Height of summer can be too hot for some though - so have to consider what suits you best but early/late summer are usually quoted as the best times to go.)

 

We've done a Baltic cruise on three occasions and had no problems with sea conditions - pick one up in Oslo or Copenhagen and again avoid the Harwich/Dover crossing over the North Sea. And it's an amazing itinery - so interesting and varied.

 

On the motion sickness - I always use Stugeron which is a travel sickness remedy available in the UK - many UK posters swear by it. (I can get sick trying to read a map in the car and it works really well for me.) Having read on another thread that some people suffered dizziness from the patches you buy in the US, I read up on Stugeron. It's not available in the US but I believe it can be bought on-line in the US - it's 15mg Cinnarizine (active ingredient - it's an antihistamine) which we can buy over-the-counter here. It does say it can cause drowsiness - but dizziness is not mentioned as a side effect. It might be worth trying something different.

 

Anyway, I wish you all the best and hope you all enjoy your next cruise! :)

[holacanada]

Hello I am taking a cruise 16 day in 3 april 2009.

Where leaving from Fort Lauderdale then hit the sea 8 consecutive days...! Firts time experience for me. Is it true that the ship will navigate in the South Atlantic..?

Someone here who experience that before..?

On my Last cruise (oct 08), On the tv in my cabin they report High seas, waves from 7,5 feet to 12 feet. For me that was not so diffiult to take.

But 8 days at sea.... :)

When we arrive near Portugal, is it gonna be rougher..?

 

Details please and thanks in advance

 

Holacanada from Quebec city

Noordam in 24 days, 17 hours, 3 minutes and 47 seconds

[agabbymama]

You could consider Canada and New England - most leave out of Boston and New York City and within a day you are in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

You have the US on one side and Canada on the other - with very little

risk of extreme weather or water movement.

These itineraries are done during the late summer and fall so as to take

advantage of the beautiful fall foliage. I think that will be our next choice.;)

 

Depends on the itinerary. We left out of Bayonne, NJ (across the river from New York City)on Sept 25, but we certainly weren't to the St. Lawrence in 1 day. We stopped in Boston, Portland Maine, Bar Harbor Maine, Halifax Nova Scotia, and St. John New Brunswick, all before reaching the St. Lawrence. We then had 1 day cruising to Quebec. We had 8 days cruising North making our port stops each day. Then 3 days of sailing at sea for the return to Bayonne, and the seas in the North Atlantic in October can get rough. Rarely used the balcony as there was just too much water blowing around to enjoy it. I don't think I'd recommend this area as smooth sailing for someone with motion sickness.

 

And as to the Med, you might want to give this link a read.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=878908

[julieanne]

Hello I am taking a cruise 16 day in 3 april 2009.

Where leaving from Fort Lauderdale then hit the sea 8 consecutive days...! Firts time experience for me. Is it true that the ship will navigate in the South Atlantic..?

Someone here who experience that before..?

On my Last cruise (oct 08), On the tv in my cabin they report High seas, waves from 7,5 feet to 12 feet. For me that was not so diffiult to take.

But 8 days at sea.... :)

When we arrive near Portugal, is it gonna be rougher..?

 

Details please and thanks in advance

 

Holacanada from Quebec city

Noordam in 24 days, 17 hours, 3 minutes and 47 seconds

The captain will take the most efficient route (the one that requires less fuel). One our TA last April, we were hoping for the Southern Atlantic and the captain chose the northern. It was quite cool on our crossing and we had typical seas (a bit rocky, nothing terrible). We hit a gale coming out of the Azores, but the ship rode incredibly well in the water (Splendour of the Seas, RCI) and I don't think we had many sick folks.......You can check typical seas for the month of April on NOAA's site as well as the one posted on this thread from wunderground.com :)

[franu]

GJClay, After re-reading this thread, I am very touched that your husband will cruise to make you happy knowing that he will suffer seasickness. He is a keeper.

 

Taking Bonine or its generic form is very helpful for me especially if I take it starting the night before my sailing and every night after that.

Bon Voyage

Fran

[Happy ks]

I think any sea can be rough, you just won't know until you're there.

 

The absolute roughest time we've had was in Hawaii, when we left Kauai cruising to Maui. I was almost tossed out of the bed, the next day the crew was saying all over the ship it was the roughest time they had ever had.

 

The Pacific Ocean can be rough, or smooth as glass, we've had both.

 

Actually, the thought of camping is a lot more scary to me than a little bit of sea sickness.