LIVE: Dodging Hurricanes transatlantic on Norwegian Getaway

[Mike B Landlubber]

I’m heading back to the USA after an excellent cruise on Holland America. I did a live thread on it and will add a link to that later. But today I am leaving Lisbon on Norwegian Getaway. The plan was for a Transatlantic cruise stopping mid ocean in the Azores and swinging up to Canada and New York before I disembark in Florida. But the plan has already been changed for a reason that never occurred to me when I reserved this trip!

 

I’m accustomed to hurricanes making the lives of my Florida relatives miserable, and I’m generally aware of hurricanes that mess with Caribbean cruisers. But I hadn’t considered that a hurricane could mess with my trip in the Eastern Atlantic! 

 

But the inconceivable has happened! Hurricane Kirk is coming my way, beautifully positioned to mess with our plans and our Azores port call is canceled. We are told that not only will we have to watch out for Kirk, but Hurricane Leslie is going to mop up behind Kirk, and may disrupt us later! We are leaving Lisbon, roughly in the green dot. 

 

Oh the drama!

[www3traveler]

Hate to tell you this, but there is another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (Yes, the Gulf of Mexico) heading for Florida and then out into the Atlantic.  Will be an interesting week for cruises.

 

If it makes you feel any better, there is rough weather in Alaska, making the last cruises of the season an adventure.

[Mike B Landlubber]

2 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Hate to tell you this, but there is another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (Yes, the Gulf of Mexico) heading for Florida and then out into the Atlantic.  Will be an interesting week for cruises.

 

Yeah, when googling for hurricane news I saw that the “M” hurricane is tooling up for Florida. Hopefully that will be done and gone by the time we get to Florida!

[Mike B Landlubber]

Moments after I posted the original post for this thread, the captain came on the intercom. He indicated we are going to head southwest to avoid Kirk. We will try to go south of the Azores then swing north west and get behind Kirk. Hopefully Leslie will not make mischief for us then. The captain says that we can expect five meter waves, over 15 feet high And they will slow us down a bit. Should make for a slightly bouncy ride.

[mking8288]

OP, thanks for heads-up.  Friends from NY onboard the sailing along with you & others, just texted them using WhatsApp, in the unlikely event that they aren't informed - as they typically will share "important" offline news & updates with us, sometimes to pass along.  They have NCL written/prior approval to early disembark once GA reach NYC via PD and Canada first, instead of sailing onward to Miami (looking forward to stopping at walkable Sydney, NS but been to Halifax x number of times before) but now seemingly doubtful with hurricane/storms and revisions to "optimal" routes for safety & well-beings of all.  Safe travel on the crossing to all onboard ... following.  

[greensprout]

Followed your A to A on HAL.  Hope the TA doesn't end up too rocky.  

 

Am watching this storm as son's gf lives in St Petes.  

[Mike B Landlubber]

At 6:36 AM ship’s time, things seem peaceful just before sunrise, though I still feel the ship rock slightly underfoot. 

Edited October 7 by Mike B Landlubber

[Mike B Landlubber]

Backing up to before hurricane drama, I learned early in our roll call forum that our departure day was also the day of a marathon in Lisbon! I wanted to minimize risks of the marathon disrupting roads. I made a reservation at the Editory Riverside Hotel, which is a short walk (7 minutes per Google maps) from the cruise port. I was flying from Athens and arriving late, but still reserved a balcony room, hoping it might be nice in the morning before I boarded. I ended up not being that pleased with the balcony views, and wouldn’t reserve a balcony next time. My taxi driver and I didn’t communicate all that well, and he wasn’t familiar with the hotel. I was amused that he ended up handing me his smart phone and with gestures, indicating I should write the name of the hotel into Google Maps so he could follow the directions! 🙂 

The Editory Hotel was fine, but not cheap. Staff was helpful, and they included an acceptable buffet breakfast. It was not difficult walking from the hotel to the cruise port, even though the marathon passed right through the street. Lisbon police controlled things well. Things stopped going so well when I arrived at the ship. There was an intimidating line of people waiting to board. I ended up taking 3 1/2 hours from arrival till I got to my room. I understand the ship left two hours late because of the delays from the slow boarding. I didn’t note any particular holdup or cause for the delay, I suppose it was just a large number of people boarding in Lisbon. I’m sure having two ships boarding at once didn’t help.

 

Taken after three hours in line. The line of people at far left are behind us waiting to board.

 

I took the first photo standing in the slanted line of people above ground in the building.

 

Editory Hotel

 

 

 

Editory breakfast buffet. A selection of fruit at extreme left, and an omelet station behind dishes at right,

 

 

 

balcony views.

 

Edited October 7 by Mike B Landlubber

[islandwoman]

18 hours ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

 

I’m heading back to the USA after an excellent cruise on Holland America. I did a live thread on it and will add a link to that later. But today I am leaving Lisbon on Norwegian Getaway. The plan was for a Transatlantic cruise stopping mid ocean in the Azores and swinging up to Canada and New York before I disembark in Florida. But the plan has already been changed for a reason that never occurred to me when I reserved this trip! 

 

My sister and brother-in-law are on this cruise.  I have been tracking the ship's progress on cruisingearth.com and cruisemapper, but both seem to be slow to update.  So thank you for starting this post.  It's more informative than anything else I've been able to find.

If you haven't found Storm Surf yet, have a look at it.  It will show you the wave heights in the North Atlantic currently and forecast.  http://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display.cgi?a=natla_height

[islandwoman]

following

[Mike B Landlubber]

It appears things won’t be bad for us. Apparently Kirk and Leslie are weakening, though not going away. We are near the white dot in this photo. The ship is rocking a bit, but it is sunny with partial cloud cover and almost pleasant outside.

[zalaba]

my husband George and son Chris is on this ship too, I hope you will be ok!

[Mike B Landlubber]

Windy but not bad.

 

 

[zalaba]

but why is the ship moving so slow on the map?I'm tracking it on cruisemapper and it looks like you are not moving at all:-)

[quillwercruisers]

cruisemapper shows it going 20kn.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Sounds like fun times ahead! But then we periodically enjoy rough seas when were on a cruise. If this helps, I usually like to use windy.com to monitor the weather anywhere in the world we happen to be cruising. It comes in quite handy and also offers a 10-day "weather movement" forecast just by clicking the arrow in the lower left-hand corner once you launch the below link.

 

Windy: Atlantic Ocean map & weather forecast

 

Have a safe cruise!!

[Mike B Landlubber]

1 hour ago, zalaba said:

but why is the ship moving so slow on the map?I'm tracking it on cruisemapper and it looks like you are not moving at all:-)

I’ve also seen 19 or 20 knots. I believe in rough water the ship slows down a bit to avoid too much stress on the construction from hitting strong waves.

[zalaba]

2 hours ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

I’ve also seen 19 or 20 knots. I believe in rough water the ship slows down a bit to avoid too much stress on the construction from hitting strong waves.

is it getting worse? maybe tomorrow will be so calm and the captain will change his mind and you will stop in Azores! Actually I live very close to your position in Madeira island:-) let us know how it goes Thanks!

[Mike B Landlubber]

My impression is that it is a bit calmer tonight than last night. From general news, I understand Kirk is getting weaker, so I am hopeful things will improve.

[Hogladyrider]

2 minutes ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

My impression is that it is a bit calmer tonight than last night. From general news, I understand Kirk is getting weaker, so I am hopeful things will improve.

Be thankful you are not in Florida...Milton is currently a category 5!

[9tee2Sea]

Went thru the tail end of a hurricane on a cruise ship once.  I will NEVER sail in hurricane season.  End of Oct for trans atlantic from now on.  prices are cheap for a reason.  My cruise months are March-May  ( there are places on land I spend summers in).

[Mike B Landlubber]

2 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

Be thankful you are not in Florida...Milton is currently a category 5!

I have an aunt and uncle and cousin there who will be affected. We have noted the irony of being under threat by different hurricanes at the same time!

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 10/6/2024 at 10:47 AM, www3traveler said:

If it makes you feel any better, there is rough weather in Alaska, making the last cruises of the season an adventure.

Cool. 😎  Can you share more?

[www3traveler]

49 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Cool. 😎  Can you share more?

Check the webcams for both The Encore and The Bliss.  The Encore is on her last cruise to Alaska and I think The Bliss has one more.

[ChiefMateJRK]

Encore looks calm and rainy.  Bliss in port with overcast and maybe rain.  I'm not sure that there is much to be seen here.