What is the worst weather have ever cruised in?

[DEEDIA]

Sailed out of Southampton October 2011 aboard Independence of the Seas, heading for the Canaries. 1st Stop should have been Madeira but we encountered 14 Meter Swells and it took 5 Hours of a detour to go round.

 

All night long all I could hear were Drawers sliding in sliding out, Bang Bang, that noise kept me awake and did not help the situation, but did not feel up to contacting the Purser.

[sjb317]

Early November, 2011, on our Navigator TA. We spent the night docked in Toulon as the weather was too bad to leave port. We had "hurricane" force winds with driving rain, at times you could barely see out our balcony window. We watched a small shed on the dock blow apart, piece by piece. Even though we were docked, you could feel a lot of movement. Quite a few people were sea sick, the MDR had lots of empty seats for dinner that night!:D

 

Some passengers were upset with the decision to stay in port as it meant we had to miss a port day in Tenerife. I think the captain made a good decision!

 

Sherri:)

[TexCruise371]

Freedom last year and the back side of Sandy. They closed all the outside decks for the last day and a half. We had 83 MPH winds across the bow. A unique experience ;)

[richard1s]

On a May 2009 Bermuda cruise out of NYC, a couple weather systems converged in that part of the Atlantic. Voyage to and back from Bermuda experienced constant gale force winds up to 70 mph and waves in the 30' to 45' foot range. Remarkably, the weather while in Bermuda was decent.

 

It was on the NCL Dawn - you know it's bad when you're sitting on a window seat in the 6th floor hallway by the casino and suddenly you're looking straight into the ocean when the ship hits a wave head on. Also, one time I was standing on my balcony (I think floor 10) and the wake created a solid sheet of white spray as high as the balcony.

It was all pretty exciting.

[rp23g7]

Last year we were a day behind Sandy on Carnival Liberty on Saturday night Sunday morning going through the Florida Straights.

 

The swells started around 11pm, and the wind. We had a aft balcony on deck 6.

 

At first it was relaxing, trying to go to bed, uppppppppppppp........and dooooooooooown, The swells got longer in duration, and I finally got up to go out to the balcony and look.

 

It was a perfectly clear night, with a moon, the wind was blowing like heck, deck 6 balcony, say 50 feet above the water. I went out just as the stern was in a trough, and the water look like it was at eye level. Yikes.

 

It started getting rougher and the ship started pounding the swells, everything rattling and creaking, too hard to sleep. long night

[KsDiver]

"Enchantment of the Seas", October 2005, in hurricane Wilma. 100 MPH winds and huge swells. Captain Per even issued a "Certificate of Achievement" for all passengers, stating "Congratulations! You sailed through Hurricane Wilma".

[bob278]

Brilliance OTS eastbound TA April 2005. We encountered a storm that was several hundred miles long north to south and we couldn't go around it. We bounded and rolled for nearly 24 hours. Our bedside tables fell over several times and I'm sure that a lot of glass was broken in the bars and dining room but it never seemed to affect the service. Here's a picture of our TV showing the 105 mph winds across the deck (101 mph actual, but I don't think it was a named storm - it would have been a Cat 2 hurricane :eek:.

 

[efiinut]

Hurricane Gustav off coast of Nova Scotia in Sept. 2002 on Carnival Triumph. Waves at the bow of the ship were coming up over the pool deck. This lasted for about 12 hrs. It was our friend's first cruise and also his last. :eek:

 

 

We were on the same cruise. I can verify the same thing. I remember the captain saying when we got onboard in Sydney, Nova Scotia that he had good news and bad news. We weren't going to Halifax but head straight east to out run Gustav. Didn't make it turned into the hurricane and bounced for 12 hours making little head way. First time crew members were sick. damaged rigging in the Theatre. We were on the 6th deck waves were over the top of that deck. That was formal night needless to say I didn't go to dinner. Had a slight headache but slept through most of it. We were onboard with about 12 family members.

[denny514]

March 2013 on Carnival Pride (ops not RCCL), we were on our way back to Baltimore and hit heavy winds, the swells were huge. The plates and glasses in dining room was smashing, we went to the comedy club (my husband said to keep me busy from thinking) and we hit a HUGE wave and full bottles of booze smashed, glasses smashed....I said "I think we need our life jackets!!":eek:

The cabinet with all the gourmet cakes.....it was empty the cakes were all on the floor...... we were 4hours late getting into port. Carnival had to phone ahead to get more dishes for the next cruise!!

 

But here we are going again in January!!:p

[cruzinlady1947]

We were on the same cruise. I can verify the same thing. I remember the captain saying when we got onboard in Sydney, Nova Scotia that he had good news and bad news. We weren't going to Halifax but head straight east to out run Gustav. Didn't make it turned into the hurricane and bounced for 12 hours making little head way. First time crew members were sick. damaged rigging in the Theatre. We were on the 6th deck waves were over the top of that deck. That was formal night needless to say I didn't go to dinner. Had a slight headache but slept through most of it. We were onboard with about 12 family members.

Nice to meet again.....;)

 

I remember my friend and I were saving our money to buy souvenirs in Halifax. Needless to say we didn't get them there. Had to buy them on the ship, which didn't have much to choose from, but had no more ports to shop in. :(

 

There was a shortage of waiters in the dining room that night. Shortage of people too. :p

 

We have been in other storms, but this was the worst of them.

 

Gwen :)

[Langley Cruisers]

Hurricane Sandy with 40 foot swells and gusts up to 80 knots. We had been at dock in Boston for two extra days so it was nice to be out to sea!....

 

Jewel, right? Wasn't that unbelievable?! We happened to be up in the Viking Crown Lounge when we hit that squall... I tell you, we were rocking and rolling! Wow.

[goldgirl2]

On our first cruise we felt rocking on the first night at dinner. I thought that was normal on a ship. Lol. The next night we hit a storm. Couldn't walk a straight line. It was not nearly as bad as many of you have been through! My second cruise, never felt anything!! Taking my third in April.

[voyager70]

Relative wind of over 100mph headng back to Boston on the last night of our Canada/ NE cruise a few years ago. I actually enjoyed it, but felt bad for the many people who were sick from all the rocking.

[cruisincha]

While Kartina was taking aim at New Orleans, I cruised from Galveston on the Rhapsody. The Capt. said the waves were 50 ft during the first night, and he was probably being conservative. What made this particular cruise even worse, I was living in New Orleans at the time, and it took me 2 months to get home. I was the best dressed evacuee in Atlanta, but thank goodness I had decided to drive to Galveston instead of flying.

[kitty1]

Jewel repositioning cruise in 2011 sailing out of Boston during the October snow storm.

[MommaBear55]

Jewel, right? Wasn't that unbelievable?! We happened to be up in the Viking Crown Lounge when we hit that squall... I tell you, we were rocking and rolling! Wow.

 

Jewel repositioning cruise in 2011 sailing out of Boston during the October snow storm.

 

Oddly enough Sandy hit the Jewel exactly a year later. I am sure the view from the Viking Lounge was awe inspiring. We were getting spray over the 8th deck balcony.

[reedl]

Monarch of the Seas + Hurricane Sandy...

 

From what I was told a few years ago on the Majesty, the Monarch and the Majesty are the best two ships in the entire RCCL fleet for handling bad weather. They were built as sea-going ships instead of needing better and calmer seas like the larger ships now need.

 

I miss the Monarch. That was a great ship.

[roebud]

1999...1st cruise ever...Holland America, Veendam...Western Caribbean. Bad storms...Promenade deck and pools were closed for a few days...couldn't dock at three of the four ports...was only ably to enjoy one meal (first night) in the main DR. Scop patch...sea bands...dramamine...no effect except a hangover feeling. Vowed I would NEVER step foot on a cruise ship again.

 

2008...2nd cruise...Emerald Princess...Mediterranean...AWESOME experience

 

2013...Oasis of the Seas...Eastern Caribbean...Best cruise experience ever!!

 

Nothing can ever be worse than the first

[tispwisp]

Emerald Princess - Oct. 27, 2007. We went through a tropical storm and we were in a forward balcony cabin. When the ship would cut into one of the waves the spray sometimes went as high as the pool deck!!! Our cabin attendant said 60% of the passengers were seasick and quite a few crew members as well. It didn't affect us in the least and there was a lot of tables available in the buffet area! Saw some people looking pretty green and there were barf bags near all the stairs and public rooms. Thankfully no one was injured and the ship just rolled with it. No damage.

[Disneymomx2]

Last October our cruise on FOS was during Hurricane Sandy. The outside decks were all closed for two full days. We still managed to have a great time.

[cruiserking]

Hurricane Earl chased us around on the Celebrity Summit in August 2010 during a Canada/New England cruise.

 

We had to skip Saint John, but, that was the least of it. We were awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a crashing sound in our cabin as plates, glasses, loose items went flying off of tables and landed on the floor.

 

Throughout the ship statues toppled from the pedestals, glasses were crushed. In the dining room breakfast was a particular adventure. We kept sailing into these enormous sea troughs. The ship would plunge and rise and each time everything on the table would careen backwards in an avalanche of silverware, juice glasses, salt shakers, plates, rolls, butter.

 

I felt like I was on some sort of bizarre game show where you had to defend a goal from allowing stray breakfast detritus from entering your area. Still had a great cruise, but, a horrific storm for certain.

 

Jonathan

[Ourusualbeach]

Nothing as bad as the hurricanes hat have been reported by many but 2 years ago on New Year's Eve we hit some bad weather just outside of Barbados. The next day the Captain made a comment that the only people that were walking a straight line were the ones that had been drinking.

[cruising to paradise]

Last year on a TA on the Celebrity Equinox still in the Med between Barcelona and Cartagena we had 100 mph winds.A very scary night. One of the crew lifeboats fell and opened, many of the balconies got there glass broken, and people had things broken in there cabins. The captain said we were rerouting to avoid the storm some, I can't imagine if we hadn't.

[DEIx15x8]

The worst weather (in terms of impacting our cruise) was probably on the Carnival Victory in 2001. While heading back to NYC from Canada we hit a solid bank of fog. Couldn't even see the water from the ship. It was freezing out and raining constantly, to top it off though it was early July and snowed for several hours while we were off the coast of Maine. Rough seas can be a bit fun, but snow in July is just wrong, lol. They didn't really have a hot lot going on and no one could go out obviously so it was not the greatest cruise. It was our second and didn't stop us though (but we'll never return to Carnival as a result, Grandma was on Celebrity the same week to Bermuda and they sailed all the way south to avoid the storm while we hugged the coast right through it in order to stay on route).

 

The worst weather in terms of stats though had to be the Independence of the Seas westbound transatlantic last year. Their was a huge storm moving through England at the time causing flooding so many passengers had trouble making it to the ship on time. They delayed departure by several hours and then when it was time to leave the wind had picked up to the point that the upper decks were all closed and the ship struggled to free itself from the pier. It took several attempts and a visit to deck 5 by the captain, but when they finally managed to get away they had to do so at full speed. It was quite impressive to see so much power. Starboard side of deck 5 was closed but port side was open, I made the mistake of going to the stern. It was easy getting their but once we were moving trying to walk back around the MDR in the dark with those winds was the most terrifying thing I've experienced at sea. Video:

The bad weather continued through the night and the next day. During night 2 things picked up as we passed along the Bay of Biscay. According to the captain a series of unexpected weather events occurred and several storms converged on us creating a super storm. None of the radars or weather stations were apparently able to predict or even see what we were experiencing until after it was occurring. The waves were reported to be reaching 65 feet with winds in excess of 100mph. Luckily it was night so I woke up for a moment to look out the balcony, saw the huge waves and caps in the pitch black night and rolled back to bed. Things calmed significantly by morning but the outside decks were still closed off. Morning Inside video:

By the afternoon things started to calm even more and we were able to turn to go with the wind. It created the weirdest feeling as we could see the big waves and it looked stormy but their was no movement in the air. Afternoon Outside video:

It was an incredible experience that I'm glad I had. Not often you get to hear these big ships roaring out like that as the waves try to twist them about.

Captain Announcements video:

A whole lot more pictures and videos are available at the links in my signature.

[DEIx15x8]

Last year on a TA on the Celebrity Equinox still in the Med between Barcelona and Cartagena we had 100 mph winds.A very scary night. One of the crew lifeboats fell and opened, many of the balconies got there glass broken, and people had things broken in there cabins. The captain said we were rerouting to avoid the storm some, I can't imagine if we hadn't.

 

I believe that's the same storm I posted about. I think the Celebrity Reflection was a day ahead of the Independence of the Seas and the Celebrity Equinox was a day behind us. The Reflection seemed to make it out ahead of the storm. It swept in from the north across England and converged with stuff from the east.