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Just crossed the Tasman on Solistice!


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Whew, what a ride. 8-9 meter waves which I'm told is 27-30'. Captain did great, the best he could considering the situation. Never ever want to go through 27' waves again. Waves crashing up and over the 14th floor observation room. It's been impossible to sleep for the last 48 hours. Lots of pukers in public areas, and many dishes lost in the buffet yesterday afternoon when we hit a really big swell/wave. I was showering at the time and fell, but am ok. Just a little scary. So happy we're now in Hobart and can go on land for a while, then back to the ship catch up on sleep before we head back out in route to Melbourne. What an adventure!

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Yikes! That was a rough crossing! :eek:

 

Golden might be skirting around the edges of those seas, she's on her way to Auckland from Melbourne so is further north. She might get 4-5 metre seas. Solstice would have gone from Fiordland across to Tassie right through the middle of some very nasty seas.

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They said we were in for a rough night, but it was only average.

 

 

 

Yep, well from what I was tracking, it was looking ugly, anyways capn did a great job.

Solstice had no where to go, apart from right into it.

 

Golden is dodging it now, sort of, same as Nordam. And there is a tug and special service craft, right in between them.

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We had 8-9 metres waves crossing on the much smaller Radiance from NZ to Sydney a few years back, bumpy but not overly distressing.

 

But if you are prone to sea sickness then it wouldn't be much fun I'm sure!

Yes, 8-9 metre seas produce some motion. Biggest I have been in was end of September 2007, on ye olde Regal Princess, her final cruise before becoming Pacific Dawn. Off the bottom of South Island of NZ. Ship got damaged and we got hammered, lifts out of action as was buffet. 4 people broke limbs falling down stairs.

 

October last year across Atlantic on Aurora got 10 metre seas, but she handled it well, I must say.

 

Always a risk on a ship are the big seas.

Edited by NSWP
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Whew, what a ride. 8-9 meter waves which I'm told is 27-30'. Captain did great, the best he could considering the situation. Never ever want to go through 27' waves again. Waves crashing up and over the 14th floor observation room. It's been impossible to sleep for the last 48 hours. Lots of pukers in public areas, and many dishes lost in the buffet yesterday afternoon when we hit a really big swell/wave. I was showering at the time and fell, but am ok. Just a little scary. So happy we're now in Hobart and can go on land for a while, then back to the ship catch up on sleep before we head back out in route to Melbourne. What an adventure!

 

Welcome to Cruise critic, and welcome to Australia (where everything tries to kill you).:p

Glad you survived and now have some great memories. Hopefully the seas will be kinder for you.:D

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I've been out in that stuff on a 62' Trawler, running for our lives before it and surfing down the face of the waves.

Silly part about it is that we would have been more comfortable that those on the cruise boat.

 

Yeah, mates of mine did the Sydney to Hobart race in '98, you want hairy stories they have them.

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Is it a rough season for Tasman crossings this year? I know its always a possibility but seems a few more rough rides so far.

 

Hope the rest of your cruise is a bit less rock n roll :D

 

I am hoping the seas settle for our journey across on new years eve as I want to get into the sounds.:D

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It wasn't horrible, but it was by far the worst we've experienced in our previous 8 cruises in Caribbean and Alaska. This evening we learned they lost a bunch of glassware and alcohol bottles at the ice bar, and several ceiling lights got messed up on 5 or 4 just outside of the dining room. Also appreantly some of the new Tiffanys jewelry display cases fell over, although I'm not rich enough to have been there and seen what really happened. Lol. So not the most terrible of terrible, but still a little scary.

 

I have MS, so my balance sucks, and the seas we experienced made it really bad. No ones fault, just explaining how I felt. Mostly we tried to make it fun, stay seated when possible, and enjoy the adventure. I got the quesy feeling under control with seasick patches. But walking is hard for me (in rough weather) if I can't hang on to hubby, so I felt a bit scared that I'd fall and hurt myself. But we had to eat! and room service gets old.

 

A few things we've never seen on other cruises: they drained ALL of the pools and removed all of the art work from the art gallery. Also a lot of the staff talked to us about being scared. Several bar tenders/ servers were fairly blunt. "I hate this, I'm sick and want to go home", "I'm scared to even look (server on 14)" "this is not what I thought I'd signed up for." Etc. I just felt horrible for all of them.

 

On the other hand it doesn't help passengers with anxiety (me!) feel any safer. And yes, I know I could have stayed home all together, but this was a trip for our 40th BDs and I was not going to let my worries control me.

 

Good news is the captain gave us lots of info and updates, so we at least knew what to expect. He kept reassuring us that we were safe. As someone else commented, he really had no way to avoid the storm. We stayed overnight in Dunedin (unscheduled) to avoid a similar storm, but it had 45' seas. I'll take the lesser of the 2, any day!

 

Thanks for the well wishes, pool is filled again and art rehung, I think we're past the worst of it. And every memorable adventure has to have an element of fear or excitement, or it's not an adventure. Imagine how we would have wondered if the It had been flat and calm. With my health we will probably not go this far ever again, so talk about a once in a life time experience. Im thankful!

 

Also thankful to the person on CC who mentioned Windytv.com. I found it to be extremely accurate. Ive literally been on it multiple times, every day. So thank you, CC poster whose name I can't remember. It helped a lot to prepare me for what we were headed into! :)

 

Headed to Melbourne, pools refilled and everything seems good! ;) take care, all!

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It wasn't horrible, but it was by far the worst we've experienced in our previous 8 cruises in Caribbean and Alaska. This evening we learned they lost a bunch of glassware and alcohol bottles at the ice bar, and several ceiling lights got messed up on 5 or 4 just outside of the dining room. Also appreantly some of the new Tiffanys jewelry display cases fell over, although I'm not rich enough to have been there and seen what really happened. Lol. So not the most terrible of terrible, but still a little scary.

 

I have MS, so my balance sucks, and the seas we experienced made it really bad. No ones fault, just explaining how I felt. Mostly we tried to make it fun, stay seated when possible, and enjoy the adventure. I got the quesy feeling under control with seasick patches. But walking is hard for me (in rough weather) if I can't hang on to hubby, so I felt a bit scared that I'd fall and hurt myself. But we had to eat! and room service gets old.

 

A few things we've never seen on other cruises: they drained ALL of the pools and removed all of the art work from the art gallery. Also a lot of the staff talked to us about being scared. Several bar tenders/ servers were fairly blunt. "I hate this, I'm sick and want to go home", "I'm scared to even look (server on 14)" "this is not what I thought I'd signed up for." Etc. I just felt horrible for all of them.

 

On the other hand it doesn't help passengers with anxiety (me!) feel any safer. And yes, I know I could have stayed home all together, but this was a trip for our 40th BDs and I was not going to let my worries control me.

 

Good news is the captain gave us lots of info and updates, so we at least knew what to expect. He kept reassuring us that we were safe. As someone else commented, he really had no way to avoid the storm. We stayed overnight in Dunedin (unscheduled) to avoid a similar storm, but it had 45' seas. I'll take the lesser of the 2, any day!

 

Thanks for the well wishes, pool is filled again and art rehung, I think we're past the worst of it. And every memorable adventure has to have an element of fear or excitement, or it's not an adventure. Imagine how we would have wondered if the It had been flat and calm. With my health we will probably not go this far ever again, so talk about a once in a life time experience. Im thankful!

 

Also thankful to the person on CC who mentioned Windytv.com. I found it to be extremely accurate. Ive literally been on it multiple times, every day. So thank you, CC poster whose name I can't remember. It helped a lot to prepare me for what we were headed into! :)

 

Headed to Melbourne, pools refilled and everything seems good! ;) take care, all!

 

I am glad the seas will be kinder for your journey to Melbourne.:D

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It wasn't horrible, but it was by far the worst we've experienced in our previous 8 cruises in Caribbean and Alaska. This evening we learned they lost a bunch of glassware and alcohol bottles at the ice bar, and several ceiling lights got messed up on 5 or 4 just outside of the dining room. Also appreantly some of the new Tiffanys jewelry display cases fell over, although I'm not rich enough to have been there and seen what really happened. Lol. So not the most terrible of terrible, but still a little scary.

 

I have MS, so my balance sucks, and the seas we experienced made it really bad. No ones fault, just explaining how I felt. Mostly we tried to make it fun, stay seated when possible, and enjoy the adventure. I got the quesy feeling under control with seasick patches. But walking is hard for me (in rough weather) if I can't hang on to hubby, so I felt a bit scared that I'd fall and hurt myself. But we had to eat! and room service gets old.

 

A few things we've never seen on other cruises: they drained ALL of the pools and removed all of the art work from the art gallery. Also a lot of the staff talked to us about being scared. Several bar tenders/ servers were fairly blunt. "I hate this, I'm sick and want to go home", "I'm scared to even look (server on 14)" "this is not what I thought I'd signed up for." Etc. I just felt horrible for all of them.

 

On the other hand it doesn't help passengers with anxiety (me!) feel any safer. And yes, I know I could have stayed home all together, but this was a trip for our 40th BDs and I was not going to let my worries control me.

 

Good news is the captain gave us lots of info and updates, so we at least knew what to expect. He kept reassuring us that we were safe. As someone else commented, he really had no way to avoid the storm. We stayed overnight in Dunedin (unscheduled) to avoid a similar storm, but it had 45' seas. I'll take the lesser of the 2, any day!

 

Thanks for the well wishes, pool is filled again and art rehung, I think we're past the worst of it. And every memorable adventure has to have an element of fear or excitement, or it's not an adventure. Imagine how we would have wondered if the It had been flat and calm. With my health we will probably not go this far ever again, so talk about a once in a life time experience. Im thankful!

 

Also thankful to the person on CC who mentioned Windytv.com. I found it to be extremely accurate. Ive literally been on it multiple times, every day. So thank you, CC poster whose name I can't remember. It helped a lot to prepare me for what we were headed into! :)

 

Headed to Melbourne, pools refilled and everything seems good! ;) take care, all!

Welcome !!..Nice post, thank you. Safe travels.

Edited by NSWP
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Also thankful to the person on CC who mentioned Windytv.com. I found it to be extremely accurate. Ive literally been on it multiple times, every day.

 

I've just been on to this website, and it's amazing!! Thanks for sharing.

 

And thanks for your post- I am travelling to Melbourne and back in Feb/March on 2 separate cruises, and I'm a little bit nervous about crossing the Tasman! (eeek!). Any tips on how best to deal with 9m waves, should I encounter them?

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