Looking at a cruise to Bermuda but worried the ship will be too small and not stable like big ships

[Merion_Mom]

😄 Where is Bermuda?

 

[Charles4515]

14 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

😄 Where is Bermuda?

 

 

That article is giving the distance from Cape Hateras in North Carolina. There is a difference between North and South Carolina. To say that a place that is 600 or 1000 miles away from the east coast is off the coast  is not  realistic. Bermuda is out in the Atlantic ocean many miles from major land masses. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Charles4515

[smokeybandit]

47 minutes ago, codeyell0 said:

I was standing at the back of the boat and would watch the bow rise and fall. this is maybe why
thank you.  

I'm just saying a bigger ship probably wouldn't have given you a much better ride for whatever weather you were in.

[twangster]

Even the largest ships can have motion.  Swell impacts all ships.  Stabilizers only manage roll (side to side) and have no impact on pitch (forward - aft).   
 

It’s kind of liking if it will be sunny.  No one can predict sea state way in advance.  

[SG65CB]

I read somewhere on these boards that the Oasis class ships, even though they are the largest, are not the most stable of the RC ships. Something about engineering decision tradeoffs. Maybe it also has to do with the height, the higher parts of the ship move more side-to-side and it's a tall ship. 

 

Sometimes they don't use the stabilizers, when they need to make good time and go faster they can't use the stabilizers, so your experience on a particular ship could be different than others'.

 

The Mariner of the Seas is a pretty huge ship, one of the largest in the world when it was launched (possibly THE largest) so don't discount its size. 

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Bigger than the original Mardi Gras 🤣

 

Yep

[cruisegirl1]

8 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Bigger than the original Mardi Gras 🤣

Ha ha. The original Mardi Gras was our first cruise way back in 1987. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. 
(And booked on Mariner to Bermuda in early summer. )

m
 

 

[zebra36]

 "It is not the size of the ship but the motion of the ocean" and generally true.

[adolfo2]

10 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

We recently sailed on carnival sunshine and it was horrible.  I know she is an old ship built in 96.  Not sure what stabilization tech she had but the water was not that bad but the ride was just horrible. 
I have been on oasis of the seas which was not bad.  one night it was noticeable. But I know she is a big ship and less effected by wind and waves like smaller ships.  I am looking at sailing to Bermuda and I noticed only the smaller ships sailed here.  I think it was mariner of the seas (i think it holds 3000) and another sister ship about the same size.  
The other ships i have been on have been fairly big 6K+ passengers. 
So I'm leery of booking one of the smaller ships.  My wife was taking Dramamine like tic-tacs.   

What are your experiences? 

 

You're pretty much out of options if you only thought "oasis of the seas which was not bad" Try Cunard Queen Mary 2 

 

[F27TW]

9 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

I was standing at the back of the boat and would watch the bow rise and fall. this is maybe why
thank you.  

 

... that's kinda what ships do when there are waves.  😁

 

[F27TW]

9 hours ago, MadamGorgeous said:

Totally unnecessary comment.  Rude. 

 

 

There was nothing rude about that answer .. its 100% true.

[Starry Eyes]

10 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

What counts as "North Atlantic"?  Bermuda is off the coast of South Carolina.

South Carolina is in North America😉

[boscobeans]

7 hours ago, SG65CB said:

I read somewhere on these boards that the Oasis class ships, even though they are the largest, are not the most stable of the RC ships. Something about engineering decision tradeoffs. Maybe it also has to do with the height, the higher parts of the ship move more side-to-side and it's a tall ship. 

 

 

I can just imagine the tremendous force exerted by a crosswind against a SAIL 16 stories tall and a thousand feet wide, which in effect is the same as the Oasis. 

[Joseph2017China]

If you take an Oasis ship, put it out into the ocean (not the calm caribbean) and it gets windy, and stormy, the ship will rock and roll also.

[barbeyg]

I agree with the Atlantic Ocean analysis so far.  We did a repositioning cruise from NY to San Juan on Empress a very long time ago with friends.  I don't get seasick easily, but there were 30 ft seas, and it was rough.  We laugh about it now, and see it as an adventure, but when you observe the outer doors locked down, barf bags hanging all over, and crackers/apples being delivered by room service pretty constantly, it can be quite sobering.  This is not to discourage you, but it can be rough.  Would we go again on that size of ship?  Sure, but we don't get seasick easily.  Our friends, no.  They spent two miserable days in their cabin.

[orville99]

10 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Bigger than the original Mardi Gras 🤣

Which was retrofitted as a lifeboat on Oasis🤣

[GEORGIEGIRL]

10 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Thank you for educating me.  I found an even cooler picture.

 

This is why I love Cruise Critic. Not only do I get cool information on cruising. I also can get a "Geography" lesson. (with pics.). 🙂 

[cruiseguy1016]

11 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Some ships just don't handle well because of poor design . You mentioned Carnival Sunshine. Never been on her but she is not a small ship. Mariner is a Royal Caribbean ship.Mariner has Azipods which I don't think Sunshine has. Azipods help make it stable.  I have been on all the Royal  ships in the  class Mariner is in . They are about as stable as a ship can be. 

 

Azipods are part of the propulsion system. How do they make the ship more stable than a traditional propeller?

[PTC DAWG]

12 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Sheesh. Mariner of the Seas is not a small ship!!! It is almost 140,000 tons. I have sailed to Bermuda on 28,000 tons. I have sailed on Mariner of the Seas. Quite stable. 

Was going to say this^^^^^although I haven't been to Bemuda on a ship that size..sounds fun.  

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, Joseph2017China said:

If you take an Oasis ship, put it out into the ocean (not the calm caribbean) and it gets windy, and stormy, the ship will rock and roll also.

I have been on the Allure, about 80 miles south of a borderline Cat 1 hurricane..it was rocking and rolling for sure.  Water splashing out of the pools, etc...was a fun ride.  20 foot + seas.  Captain warned us the night before, and was able to get further south of the storm than he first thought, he said we missed the rough stuff.  

[LB_NJ]

We sailed to Bermuda on a 700 passenger ship (Oceania Insignia) and loved it.  Would absolutely do that cruise again if it were the right time of year (for us, Bermuda can be too hot in July and August although water temperature is wonderful).

[Another_Critic]

9 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

We sailed to Bermuda on a 700 passenger ship (Oceania Insignia) and loved it.  Would absolutely do that cruise again if it were the right time of year (for us, Bermuda can be too hot in July and August although water temperature is wonderful).

I sailed Lisbon to San Juan (10 days non-stop) on Insignia's birth sister, Azamara Journey.  One of my favorite cruises.

[chengkp75]

16 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

Not sure what stabilization tech she had but the water was not that bad but the ride was just horrible. 

You do realize that fin stabilizers and anti-roll tanks do not stop a ship from rolling?  Rolling is a function of the ship's transverse stability, and stabilizers are only there to slow rolling motion down from the whiplash motion that a stabile ship generates.

16 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Azipods help make it stable.

Really?  I would say the opposite, since the azipods require a cut away, flat bottom above the azipods, while a ship with shafted propellers has the hull continue aft down near the keel to provide the stern tube bearings, and likely a skeg between the propellers for directional stability, and stern thruster placement.  You lose a lot of buoyancy when you go to azipods.  Azipods will also contribute the "azipod shimmy",  a side to side vibration caused by the water flow into and out of the pod propeller sweeping back and forth, port to starboard, as the pods steer the ship.

 

For the OP, more than the height of the seas, things like the period of the waves (time between) compared to the ship length, the direction of the seas, the speed, and direction of the wind, the speed and direction of the ship, have a greater effect on whether a ship starts rolling or not.  Also, a larger ship, while it has more mass, also has more "sail area" (surface of the ship presented to the wind), so is more affected by wind than a smaller ship.  Until you have two ships sailing next to each other can you tell which is going to react better in the exact environmental conditions that exist at that time.

[RedIguana]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

You do realize that fin stabilizers and anti-roll tanks do not stop a ship from rolling?

When a sensor detects that a wave is pushing the ship one way, the ship’s systems automatically pivot the stabilizers so as to exert pressure in the opposite direction.  Captain William Wright of Royal Caribbean reports: “they eliminate about 85% of the roll of the vessel.”

 

As chengkp75 stated, you cannot eliminate roll, the best you can do is reduce it. And below a certain speed, active fin stabilizers have little to no effect, as they require motion over the stabilizers to generate lift.

Edited March 4, 2022 by RedIguana
added more.

[chengkp75]

30 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

Captain William Wright of Royal Caribbean reports: “they eliminate about 85% of the roll of the vessel.”

I've had a lot of respect for Bill Wright over the years, but this is a bit of an exaggeration.  As I say, what the stabilizer will do is react to a roll moment (as you correctly state), but the force that the fin stabilizer exerts is not quite "in synch" with the ship's roll motion (since it had to have some roll motion before the system reacts).  This puts a counter-force that is slightly delayed from the ship's roll period, hence making the roll take longer to right itself.  Cruise ships, contrary to popular belief, are extremely stable ships, being very "stiff" (meaning that a little roll motion creates a very large moment arm to counter the roll and bring the ship upright).  A very stiff ship "snap rolls", resulting in throwing things, and people, from one side of the ship to the other.  By slowing the roll period, you create a motion that people find more acceptable, and less damaging.  But to say that a fin stabilizer eliminates the force generated by tens of thousands of tons of ship rolling is to exaggerate.  It merely makes the rolling more comfortable.

 

As you say, the ship needs speed through the water to make stabilizers work, so even if the ship is going 14 knots (over the ground), if there is a 4 knot following current or swell, the ship is only doing 10 knots through the water.  The fin stabilizer works like an airplane wing, creating lift, and needs fluid flow over the surfaces to make that lift.  Further, most stabilizers are designed to self-retract below 5 knots, to save the stabilizer if someone forgets them while docking.