Dumb newbie question: How much do you feel a megaship move?

[JHCALLAHAN]

Hello all,

Surely some of you experienced cruisers can answer. I've never been on anything larger than a 30' houseboat.

 

I assume cruise ships sail around really bad weather, so assuming maybe 3 to 4 foot seas at most, how much do you really feel one of these megaships pitch and roll?

 

Your landlubber friend,

JHC

[discjoker]

Yes ships try to avoid bad weather, but only 3-4 foot seas at least in my experience isn't the norm. You will most likely experience higher seas than that.

 

Now, on to how much movement you will feel. First, anyone who says you won't feel the ship move either has never been on a cruise ship or is lying. You are on a moving vessel. The size of the ship in comparison to the size of the ocean is VERY tiny so you are at the mercy of the sea. With that said, modern cruise ships have stabilizers, and generally the larger the ship the less motion you will feel. Modern ships do a very good job of reducing the side-to-side motion (the motion that makes you feel sick). So, will you feel the motion of the ocean? Yes. Will it make you sick? Maybe, depends on how sensitive you are. There may be times when you forget you are on a ship when things are super calm but for the most part you will know you are on a moving vessel.

[Spikesgirl]

We've only done one cruise in a bigger ship - the Carnival Spirit. Most of our cruises have been done in the 600-800 passenger range. Even on the Spirit, there was enough movement to make me seasick and we had calm seas.

 

Bottom line, if you're worried about being seasick, then take along medication for it. I start mine two days before the cruise and continue a couple of days afterwards and I can get seasick (literally) in the bathtub. Yet, we're getting ready for another cruise next month. Ain't nothin' holding this girl back!

 

Charlie

[jlp20]

No matter the size, it’s still a ship in the ocean. The captain’s skill and the ship’s stabilizers will take care of 80% of the movement.

 

Remember, your location on the ship is everything. Amidships and on the lower decks will be considerably smoother than something at the extreme end of the bow and in the higher decks.

[Vampire Parrot]

The Captain & Navigator will do what they can to keep clear of bad weather, but occasionally it's unavoidable. This is true when crossing the Atlantic, and it's also true for cruises to/from the UK to the Med., which go through the Bay of Biscay. The ship will still avoid the worst of the weather, but to get from Europe to the Americas does mean crossing an ocean!

 

Caribbean cruises are generally very smooth, as if there is bad weather then the Captain may well decide to change the itinerary. The Baltic is also usually very smooth, although the North Sea can be -ahem- interesting.

 

In a gentle sea (3-4 foot), you'll barely feel the ship move at all.

 

The Atlantic ocean after a major weather system is famous for producing the "Atlantic swell", which can be waves several thousand feet apart, with 30 feet (or more!) from the peak of a wave to it's trough. A ship sailing through these will ride them up and down... even a megaship like the QM2.

 

The stabilizers are fantastic at removing the rolling of a ship, but they can't do a damn thing about the pitching. On one rough day, I was told by some passengers the Captain was saving money by not putting the stabilizers out (they create drag and increase fuel burn). However, the ship was barely rolling at all, despite the wind over the deck reaching 70mph and the waves reaching 30 feet or so! The stabilizers were doing a terrific job of keeping the ship on an even keel. It was just the pitching the passengers were feeling, and in the centre of the ship, it was barely noticable.

 

James

[socallisa]

Everyone tried to tell me I wouldn't feel the ship since it was so big. Oh how wrong they were. I wasn't on the largest ship out there, but I still felt every inch of the motion. I recommend taking Bonine, which is available over the counter. It works wonders!

[kitty9]

It's not actually the size of the ship that's the culprit for feeling the seas, it's the depth of the keel and the stabilizers. Older ships tend to have deeper drafts, but the newer ships, while shallower drafts, have newer and more modern stabilizers. I've been on the QM2, one huge ship, and I thought the seas were easily felt, but on the mid-sized Crystal ships, even when we had seas over 40ft and green water going up to deck 6, we hardly felt the movement.

[JHCALLAHAN]

Thanks for the answers. Guess I'll just have to find out for myself. I've never been motion sick in my life (not counting the time I rode the Spindletop at Six Flags three times back to back:eek:) but I do plan on taking some meds along just in case.

 

Sus amigo,

JHC

[Whimsy]

I worried also the first time we sailed. You can feel the ship but to me it was soothing. We had a cabin in the aft of the ship and it felt like we were being rocked to sleep. Now, on our last cruise we did have some seas with a bit more "motion" and we rocked a bit more. At lunch there was an older gentleman who told us tales of when he was in the Navy and they had to be tied in their beds, the seas were so bad! :eek: Walking down the hallways was fun because no matter how hard you tried to walk straight, you couldn't.

 

We have taken Bonine before we cruised and the first few days but then forget about it and so far haven't had a problem.

 

Happy travels!