Transatlantic Sailings...Better in Spring or Fall? Your opinion, please.

[Lady Arwen]

We're sailing on Kdam this spring in Europe and we've been contemplating doing a TA in 2018, probably on Kdam.

 

I'm leaning toward the fall leaving from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale, spending a few days in Rome first. My DH thinks he'd prefer the spring leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and arriving in Rome and spending a couple of days there before flying home. He thinks the weather would be better in spring and an easier crossing.

 

Could someone please chime in with their TA experience and which you prefer and why. As always, your advice is most helpful and I thank you.

[cabinluvn]

We're sailing on Kdam this spring in Europe and we've been contemplating doing a TA in 2018, probably on Kdam.

 

I'm leaning toward the fall leaving from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale, spending a few days in Rome first. My DH thinks he'd prefer the spring leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and arriving in Rome and spending a couple of days there before flying home. He thinks the weather would be better in spring and an easier crossing.

 

Could someone please chime in with their TA experience and which you prefer and why. As always, your advice is most helpful and I thank you.

 

 

 

We did the Ft Lauderdale to Rome in March a few years back. We had rough seas the whole trip except for the 3 ports in Spain. Missed the Azores due to rough seas. Actually had 14-24 ft seas most of the way. Other people on board had taken this same itinerary before and said the seas were like glass. Luck of the draw I think. Rome was lovely that time of year. We stayed a few extra days at the airport Hilton. They have a shuttle into the city center

 

 

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[Hlitner]

We're sailing on Kdam this spring in Europe and we've been contemplating doing a TA in 2018, probably on Kdam.

 

I'm leaning toward the fall leaving from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale, spending a few days in Rome first. My DH thinks he'd prefer the spring leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and arriving in Rome and spending a couple of days there before flying home. He thinks the weather would be better in spring and an easier crossing.

 

Could someone please chime in with their TA experience and which you prefer and why. As always, your advice is most helpful and I thank you.

 

 

Weather and sea conditions are like rolling the dice...either season. But on our more then 2 dozen repo cruises, we have had mostly excellent weather. Many folks do prefer a Fall crossing because you are constantly getting longer (25 hour) days. On a Spring (east bound) crossing you will have the same number (5 or 6) 23 hour days.

 

Hank

[Vict0riann]

I prefer to fly west, I find that less tiring if you are going with the sun, also the cruise going to Europe means you arrive with no jet lag. That said, I'd sail both ways, if I had my 'druthers!:D

[Tampa Girl]

We have taken three E - W TA's and have had beautiful weather always. Well, almost always. The 2011 crossing did include a southern storm, but it was for only a couple of days.

 

I think your DH is wrong about the spring crossing being warmer. The weather in late October or early November is around 70. April over the Atlantic is not usually that warm. Also, I suspect there would be more crowds in Europe in April and May than in November since it is the beginning of the tourist season. The crowds are thinning out by the end of October.

[RuthC]

I've cruised both directions multiple times, although westbound more often than eastbound. Westbound gets the longer days (more sleep), and the shorter flight at the end of the trip---when I just want to get home. On a westbound trip I get the hard touring, traveling, see everything, appreciate! stuff out of the way, then get a chance to unwind and relax. Or collapse, depending on just how much appreciating I did. ;)

To me, eastbound takes all the advantages of westbound, and turns them into negatives.

I have found the weather at least comfortable, and up to warm and even hot, in October and the first half of November.

[mysticsailor]

I've cruised both directions multiple times, although westbound more often than eastbound. Westbound gets the longer days (more sleep), and the shorter flight at the end of the trip---when I just want to get home. On a westbound trip I get the hard touring, traveling, see everything, appreciate! stuff out of the way, then get a chance to unwind and relax. Or collapse, depending on just how much appreciating I did. ;)

To me, eastbound takes all the advantages of westbound, and turns them into negatives.

I have found the weather at least comfortable, and up to warm and even hot, in October and the first half of November.

 

Well said, as always. You are full of....common sense.

 

If you are ever on a same cruise you can be sure of a box of chocolates in appreciation of all I have learned from you. High five! --Charles

[RuthC]

Well said, as always. You are full of....common sense.

 

If you are ever on a same cruise you can be sure of a box of chocolates in appreciation of all I have learned from you. High five! --Charles

Why, thank you, sir. Appreciated. :)

[AZNative2000]

We, like Ruth and others, prefer the westbound. Getting that very long flight over with, allows us to rest a day and enjoy Europe (Rome or wherever) before boarding the ship. Again, like Ruth, the cruise allows plenty of time to recover from the go-go-go of the first part of our vacation.

By the time we arrive back in the USA, we have a MUCH shorter flight home and don't feel like we have to miss work to "rest up" from our trip.

 

Cheers!

[serendipity1499]

IMO it's 6 of one & a half dozen of the other..

 

We did a Trans Atlantic MIA to Rome on NCL's Dream in April of 2002 & were scheduled to make a stop in the Azores..

 

Due to a storm at sea, they closed the port of Azores...Ships in port could not leave the Azores.. Therefore our Capt. decided to go straight through..It was a rough crossing & we could not sit out on deck but as we neared Gibralter our Capt. came on & announced "I have good news & bad news for you" .."First the bad news-We are running out of fuel" "Now the Good news-We are going to make a stop in Gibralter to get fuel & Passengers will be permitted to disembark while we are fueling up "..

 

We had a most wonderful afternoon & evening in Gibralter..Our DH's hired a taxi to take us up to see the barbary Apes & then took us on a wonderful tour around town..We even got to the border..You can't imagine the beautiful view up on the rock & looking down on our ship at sunset..We were all alone up there as all the tourists had left for the day..My Friend & my DH had an Ape jump on her & then on his shoulders to get a treat..Our taxi driver did a NO NO giving us treats, but it was exciting..

 

We did another Trans Atlantic on HAL's Westerdam from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale in Nov. of 2004 & the weather & trip were very smooth..

 

We've taken long big ship cruises in all the seasons..Have had storms &/or beautiful weather & smooth seas in all seasons..

 

To be fair though, we had a sailboat & are used to all kinds of weather.. On one of our sails my DH woke me up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night to have me put on my life jacket & come into the cockpit due to a storm...He tied us both into the cockpit & that was when we were out in the middle of the Gulf.. Weather is so unpredictable even Weather men can't get it right all the time..

 

Whatever you decide enjoy your cruise..:cool:

[Lady Arwen]

Thanks, everyone for helping out! I really think the fall crossing is what we'll do. I prefer spending time in Rome and then enjoying the few ports before the long trip home. Then, just a 3 hour flight back to Toronto. Lots of time to relax before getting back to real life.

[Lady Arwen]

IMO it's 6 of one & a half dozen of the other..

 

We did a Trans Atlantic MIA to Rome on NCL's Dream in April of 2002 & were scheduled to make a stop in the Azores..

 

Due to a storm at sea, they closed the port of Azores...Ships in port could not leave the Azores.. Therefore our Capt. decided to go straight through..It was a rough crossing & we could not sit out on deck but as we neared Gibralter our Capt. came on & announced "I have good news & bad news for you" .."First the bad news-We are running out of fuel" "Now the Good news-We are going to make a stop in Gibralter to get fuel & Passengers will be permitted to disembark while we are fueling up "..

 

We had a most wonderful afternoon & evening in Gibralter..Our DH's hired a taxi to take us up to see the barbary Apes & then took us on a wonderful tour around town..We even got to the border..You can't imagine the beautiful view up on the rock & looking down on our ship at sunset..We were all alone up there as all the tourists had left for the day..My Friend & my DH had an Ape jump on her & then on his shoulders to get a treat..Our taxi driver did a NO NO giving us treats, but it was exciting..

 

We did another Trans Atlantic on HAL's Westerdam from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale in Nov. of 2004 & the weather & trip were very smooth..

 

We've taken long big ship cruises in all the seasons..Have had storms &/or beautiful weather & smooth seas in all seasons..

 

To be fair though, we had a sailboat & are used to all kinds of weather.. On one of our sails my DH woke me up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night to have me put on my life jacket & come into the cockpit due to a storm...He tied us both into the cockpit & that was when we were out in the middle of the Gulf.. Weather is so unpredictable even Weather men can't get it right all the time..

 

Whatever you decide enjoy your cruise..:cool:

That sounds very exciting, but a bit scary, too! We will be vising Gibralter on our Koningsdam cruise this May. Very excited about our first European cruise and we thought next year it might be fun to try a TA cruise. If we love Kdam, we'll probably book this one. If not, Oosterdam's TA looks good, too.

[OlsSalt]

We did a westbound TA on the Maasdam - Rome to FLL - late Fall and had very good weather.

 

However we heard later the Nieuw Amsterdam, who was trailing us only by a few days, ran into perfectly dreadful weather and a rogue wave that knocked out their power for a short time.

[Sue from Canada]

We're sailing on Kdam this spring in Europe and we've been contemplating doing a TA in 2018, probably on Kdam.

 

I'm leaning toward the fall leaving from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale, spending a few days in Rome first. My DH thinks he'd prefer the spring leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and arriving in Rome and spending a couple of days there before flying home. He thinks the weather would be better in spring and an easier crossing.

 

Could someone please chime in with their TA experience and which you prefer and why. As always, your advice is most helpful and I thank you.

 

I sailed from Barcelona to Tampa in the Fall and we had the best weather and calm seas for 9 days. Temps were in high 70s and everyone was suntanning.

[knittinggirl]

We did eastbound once and had those six or so 23 hour days.

 

We also did Voyage of the Vikings and had eastbound first and westbound coming back. We really liked the fall back time change on the night before we disembarked.

 

Voyage of the Vikings was nice, because we had a port day every couple of sea days.

 

Rough seas on both cruises.

[NMLady]

We're sailing on Kdam this spring in Europe and we've been contemplating doing a TA in 2018, probably on Kdam.

 

I'm leaning toward the fall leaving from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale, spending a few days in Rome first. My DH thinks he'd prefer the spring leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and arriving in Rome and spending a couple of days there before flying home. He thinks the weather would be better in spring and an easier crossing.

 

Could someone please chime in with their TA experience and which you prefer and why. As always, your advice is most helpful and I thank you.

 

We"ve done ta's in both directions. We prefer westward so that as we cross each of the seven times zones we gain an hour rather than losing an hour.

We've been fortunate in that the weather hasn't been too rough although on one crossing we missed port in Funchal because of a storm and we dropped down to more southerly route.

[Lady Arwen]

We"ve done ta's in both directions. We prefer westward so that as we cross each of the seven times zones we gain an hour rather than losing an hour.

We've been fortunate in that the weather hasn't been too rough although on one crossing we missed port in Funchal because of a storm and we dropped down to more southerly route.

Yes, I didn't think about gaining an hour for every time zone. Good point! Sealed the deal for us....westward it is.

[AZNative2000]

Yes, I didn't think about gaining an hour for every time zone. Good point! Sealed the deal for us....westward it is.

Yes, the six or seven 25-hour days allow for even more relaxing on an even longer cruise.:):)

 

Others have reported that having six or seven 23-hour days create MAJOR jet-lag by the time you get to your first port in Europe.

 

Cheers!

[Sequim88]

Our two TAs have been eastward and for the most part great weather. The first one we lucked into a heatwave (relatively speaking) in Paris and London but had run through a windy patch near Bermuda that stirred things up a little. Second was more southerly via Canary Is. and was great weather. BUT... there is a lot of appeal to westward and doing ports first then recovering for 6-7 days. Only hesitation has been worry about early hurricane season and although ships will route around they can't always get far enough out of the way.

 

To get an idea of waves in various times of year check out WindyTV-Waves from time to time. Drag map to Atlantic and use mouse scroll to zoom in/out. There is a selector at right side for different types of wave action. Also at right you can select temperature and altitude for the temp - be sure to select surface because there's no cruise ships at FL180. ;p

[Lady Arwen]

Our two TAs have been eastward and for the most part great weather. The first one we lucked into a heatwave (relatively speaking) in Paris and London but had run through a windy patch near Bermuda that stirred things up a little. Second was more southerly via Canary Is. and was great weather. BUT... there is a lot of appeal to westward and doing ports first then recovering for 6-7 days. Only hesitation has been worry about early hurricane season and although ships will route around they can't always get far enough out of the way.To get an idea of waves in various times of year check out WindyTV-Waves from time to time. Drag map to Atlantic and use mouse scroll to zoom in/out. There is a selector at right side for different types of wave action. Also at right you can select temperature and altitude for the temp - be sure to select surface because there's no cruise ships at FL180. ;p

Thank you! I'll try that out for sure! Since we're retired now, any delays caused by re-routing will not be an issue. We're also very sea worthy, so rough seas are not really going to bother us.

[kazu]

OP has decided so all is good.

 

but for the fun of it, we have done several TA's both ways.

 

While the time change losing an hour is a PITA going over, it's not a big deal to us. You're on board relaxing so we have never felt jet lag like on a plane.

 

Coming back the other way, yes, you get to rest after the ports.

 

but, strangely enough as of late, we've noticed the better itineraries seem to be going to Europe - especially on Collectors cruises, so that seems to be the way we are going this year and next.

 

Seas and King Neptune are non predictable. We just all hope for smooth seas. We avoided a huge rough sailing on a crossing coming back to North America but all the other ships that crossed the same day or a day later had very rough seas. Our captain diverted the ship 200 miles to avoid the issue.

 

I hope we are lucky again this time and enjoy reasonable ocean rocking. Whichever way you go, TA's are kind of a special time when the ship becomes the focus, you get into "cruise" mode, take time to watch the oceans, the sea birds that appear out of nowhere and now and then some real sea life that can be quite exciting.

 

Have fun :)

[josper]

We have done 3 crossings each way and have been extremely fortunate in having great weather on each trip. If we had a preference, it has nothing to do with the weather, but prefer a spring crossing so as to fly home in the daylight

[Lady Arwen]

OP has decided so all is good.

 

but for the fun of it, we have done several TA's both ways.

 

While the time change losing an hour is a PITA going over, it's not a big deal to us. You're on board relaxing so we have never felt jet lag like on a plane.

 

Coming back the other way, yes, you get to rest after the ports.

 

but, strangely enough as of late, we've noticed the better itineraries seem to be going to Europe - especially on Collectors cruises, so that seems to be the way we are going this year and next.

 

Seas and King Neptune are non predictable. We just all hope for smooth seas. We avoided a huge rough sailing on a crossing coming back to North America but all the other ships that crossed the same day or a day later had very rough seas. Our captain diverted the ship 200 miles to avoid the issue.

 

I hope we are lucky again this time and enjoy reasonable ocean rocking. Whichever way you go, TA's are kind of a special time when the ship becomes the focus, you get into "cruise" mode, take time to watch the oceans, the sea birds that appear out of nowhere and now and then some real sea life that can be quite exciting.

 

Have fun :)

Thanks, Kazu! This spring we're sailing Koningsdam for two weeks, from Rome all the way up to Amsterdam, crossing The Bay of Biscay. We've heard this crossing can be very unpredictable and sometimes extremely rough. We just accept it as part of our adventure, but I know a lot of people would be unhappy.

[Takes Notes]

I've done 5 crossings, all Spring FLL to Europe. I "splurge" on a business or first class ticket home (using mileage points) to enjoy the long day and pampering on the plane. The 23 hour days on board tend to be sea days and don't bother me at all. I like being a bit "antsy" for the ports after the sea days. I suspect that the night flight and jet lag would make the Fall crossings a bit less fun for me. But......each of us has our preferences.

 

By the way, on my last crossing, the time change happened at NOON. It made for some wacky, short lunch service. It's 11:50 am and one minute later, it is 1:00 pm. The reason given for this is that it makes things easier for the service crew. Again, didn't bother me.

 

I'm on the Koningsdam crossing in April. just like the Original poster!