TA Crossing in March

[Lorabelle]

We're looking at a TA cruise in March. I've never done anything like that before and am wondering what the weather will be like. Will it be too cold to enjoy a veranda? Will the sailing be rough?

 

Lori

[marilynfaye]

We did a TA crossing last year that departed Miami on March 30. We found the weather delightful, the trip relaxing and a whole lot of fun. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we are sailing on Insignia's TA this year departing Barbados on March 30.

 

Which cruise are you looking at?

 

Marilyn

[Lorabelle]

Marilyn,

That cruise on the Insignia is one of the ones we are considering. The other is the Regatta sailing from Miami on 3/22. It is a Miami to Barcelona voyage.

 

We've never sailed Oceania before, and we've also never sailed on the Atlantic.

 

My DH is concerned that the weather would be too cold to enjoy being outdoors at all and he loves being outside either on deck or on the veranda.

 

We love sea days, so one of these cruises would be great for us.

 

Lori

[marilynfaye]

Well, you can never predict the weather, of course, but we spent a good part of every day sitting on a lounge chair by the pool reading. Some people were in bathing suits in the afternoon.

 

We tried to balance the wonderful cuisine by taking walks around the track, which is a level above and overlooks the pool. It was quite windy up there, but with proper clothing, it was fine. Layering is a good idea. Sun glasses helped, but I still found my eyes tearing due to the wind. You don't feel it on the pool deck because of the windows. We didn't use our veranda much because we prefered the lounge chairs by the pool, so I can't comment on that.

 

My recollection is that we had only one day where it was a bit rocky and that was as we neared Portugal.

 

I'm just hoping our luck holds on the upcoming trip. I think I read somewhere that the weather is better on the Spring, eastbound trips than the Fall, westbound trips.

 

Marilyn

[Lorabelle]

Thanks for the info. It's pretty encouraging to know that there were people out by the pool in swimsuits.

 

Hopefully the weather will be just as great for you on this trip.

 

Lori

[Druke I]

As noted above, ocean state/weather always a "crap-shoot".

 

We did a March trans-Atlantic, back in 98, on the late great Royal Princess, Buenos Aires to Barelona, and the ocean was very smooth all the way.

 

We've done several other trans-Atlantics, in the late summer/early fall, and none have been that smooth - with some being downright rough! Roughest was probably Golden Princess, 8-02, Venice to NYC, when we hit two Atlantic storms West of the Azores. We had bow slap spray raining down on our balcony on Caribe deck (deck 10), and windows were shattering along Prom Deck as the ships was fighting for head/seaway. The shops sustained a lot of damage when goods spilled from shelves, etc. The ship was really rocking and rolling. Quite a trip, that!

[LHT28]

I think spring crossing would be a lot better than fall crossing. Fall you can get the effects of hurracaine season and you are heading into the storms at that time of year.

[mjmme]

we took a march crossing out of Miami and had a few days where you wanted a jacket. There were a few days where you could get burned by the sun. Only 1 day of rough seas.

The selling point on this type of cruise really has to be the sea days. If you enjoyed your sea days better than your destination days on a past cruise, you will love this trip.

We only book repositioning cruises now.