Silver Cloud

[glenda]

New to Silverseas,we are going on the Cloud in Sept,is it like the Whisper I have been reading obout?

 

glenda

[Talisker92]

No, Glenda, the Cloud and the Wind are sister ships, as are the Shadow and the Whisper. The Cloud is smaller, holding only 296 guests, while the Whisper holds about 100 more.

Having been on the Cloud, Wind, and the Shadow, our personal preference is the smaller ships.

[meow!]

Is the larger ship steadier in rough waters than the smaller ones, or are they about the same? Thank you.

[unfathomable]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by meow!:

Is the larger ship steadier in rough waters than the smaller ones, or are they about the same?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>They're about the same. Both sizes are small by modern standards and any 3,000-passenger behemoth will be steadier. But both have stabilisers to reduce roll. Supposedly, roll is what makes you feel sick: pitching merely bounces you off the ceiling.

[goeurope]

>>Supposedly, roll is what makes you feel sick: pitching merely bounces you off the ceiling.<<

 

But if I turn 90 degrees, doesn't pitch feel like roll? :-)

 

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Durant Imboden

Europeforvisitors.com

[unfathomable]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by goeurope:

But if I turn 90 degrees, doesn't pitch feel like roll? :-)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Good question, but the answer most of the time is no. That's my experience, anyway. I imagine that this is because ships are much longer than they are wide. In most places on a ship, roll is a more disorienting experience than pitch: roll has a nasty, twisting action, whilst pitch is mostly up and down. I guess if you were about two-thirds of the way back along the centre line of the ship, you might experience equal amounts of twist from pitch and roll, but at different rates. However, anywhere else, especially forward, pitch is mainly up-and-down with relatively little rotation.

[goeurope]

I guess I'd never thought about it much, but I can understand how roll would be more disorienting simply because of the visual cues (never mind whether the motion is twisty or nasty). I can remember being on ships where I could see portholes appear to fill up and empty as the ship rolled. The effect was even more disconcerting in the dining room, where passengers in the center of the ship saw the equivalent of a front-loading washing machine's fill cycle if they looked toward the windows. In contrast, pitch has no dramatic visual clues unless you're looking out over the bow and see the ship plunging up and down as it plows through the swells.

 

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Durant Imboden

Europeforvisitors.com

[meow!]

This is a wonderful technical discussion, very informative, and the best I have seen in a while. It is cordially appreciated.

 

May I add that the angle of roll, if without stabilizers, will probably be larger than the pitch. Even if the depth of the roll is smaller than that of the pitch, the angle of the former will likely still be larger than the latter because the length of the ship is some 6 to 10 times the width. The relative intervals of the roll and the pitch may also have something to do with it. I don't know which (roll or pitch) is more frequent, do you?

 

Also, it may have something to do with the height of the ship, is it top heavy, etc. The shape of the hull also matters, is it deep or shallow. Some ships may have deliberately shallow draughts to get into some shallow harbours. Are the two types of Silversea ships designed mostly for coastal operations or for the high seas?

 

In our Mediterranean cruise aboard the Regatta just a month and a half ago, I learnt that the roughness of the sea is not only a matter of how big the sea is. It depends even more on the wind. It the wind is calm, the Pacific can be peaceful, but if it is strong, any significant patch of water, even Lake Huron, can throw up a tempest.

 

It is so nice to have the opportunity to discuss such a topic with you experienced sailors!

 

[This message was edited by meow! on 06-08-04 at 12:16 PM.]

[meow!]

Now back to Glenda's original question. The Cloud is smaller than the Whisper not only in ship size but also in cabin size. (I have not been on either and this is from Silversea's brochures). It is mostly in the bathrooms -- there is only a single sink and no separate tub and shower on the Cloud, unlike the Whisper. The closet is also somewhat tighter, so I have read from other posters on this board. Both should be very nice and the difference is not that much. Thank you.

[unfathomable]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by meow!:

May I add that the angle of roll, if without stabilizers, will probably be larger than the pitch.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yes, quite right, though normally the ship will put out its stabilisers anytime it is not in port. If a real speed run is needed, they may pull them in, because they sap speed (and fuel). On Silversea, this should be rare. One other variable is the depth of the sea or ocean. In relatively shallow water (I'm thinking of the Aegean and the Baltic) you can get relatively rough weather fairly routinely, which would be more unusual in the middle of the Atlantic. Hence the expression "storm in a teacup"?

[glenda]

Thank-you for the information you have given,any other things you can think of that would help would be appreciated, Glenda

 

glenda

[goeurope]

Nearly all modern cruise ships have relatively shallow drafts, high superstructures, and thin hulls. The QUEEN MARY 2 is an obvious exception (having been designed for transatlantic service), as is Orient Lines' MARCO POLO (the former ALEXANDR PUSHKIN, which was a Soviet ocean liner on the Leningrad-Montreal route in the 1970s).

 

Modern cruise ships could be built like the ocean liners of yesteryear, but passengers would have to give up cabins with balconies, and more cabins would be tucked down in the hull. Fortunately, modern computer-controlled stabilizers can help to smooth out motions that, on older ships, could be controlled only through hull and superstructure design. (Think of stabilizers as being the equivalent of "active suspension" on today's better cars.) Also, cruise ships have more flexibility in changing routes and ports than transoceanic liners did--and they spend very little time in the North Atlantic and other areas where seas may be rough for days on end.

 

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Durant Imboden

Europeforvisitors.com

[meow!]

On our Mediterranean cruise, at one of the ports, our Regatta was docked exactly side by side with the Marco Polo! Our ship "looked" nicer than the Marco Polo, but perhaps their ship might be steadier? It is good to see different ships on the way. Thank you all for your helpful replies.

[goeurope]

>> Our ship "looked" nicer than the Marco Polo, but perhaps their ship might be steadier?<<

 

In theory, perhaps, but the difference probably isn't noticeable most of the time. The MARCO POLO's real strength (literally) is the hull, which was designed for northern waters. Not that its owners are likely to schedule Baltic cruises in winter--the "bong" of ice chunks crashing into the hull might be distracting to passengers who are trying to sleep. :-)

 

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Durant Imboden

Europeforvisitors.com