Bad Weather Question

[chancellor]

There have been a couple of threads lately about being unable to dock due to bad weather. Personally, I'd rather be stuck out at sea in good weather than trying to make it to a port in the pouring rain (CC included), or sailing throug rough seas and getting sick. So I have the opposite question:

Has anybody been stuck on the ship in bad weather, and how bad does the weather have to be for the ship to divert to a different itinerary? Do they make an effort to cruise into good weather and scrap a port of call or two?

(I ask because we're leaving this weekend and the long-range forecasts for the Eastern Carribbean are not promising)

 

[Cruisin]

On our last cruise, during our day at sea, the ship seemed to be zig zagging across the ocean.
At the theatre that night, the cruise director said "No, we didn't have a student pilot learning to drive the ship today, that was just the captain trying to keep the deck in the sunshine for you!"
And he did a might fine job of it, we had a few little sprinkles but overall it was a gorgeous day.

Robin

 

[Stepharoonie!]

While it didn't rain this past weekend, the seas and winds were very rough. At CC, the wind was 32 knots with gusts up to 37; they can only dock if the wind is 30 knots or under. We tried to dock at Freeport, but it was even worse there. Unfortunetly, as the day turned into night, the seas and the wind grew worse, so a lot of people were having problems walking. Quite a few people were sea sick.

One of the cast members was cheerfully telling everyone the ship was so wobbly because Goofy was steering

 

[jrabbit]

I believe that you will end up in the scheduled ports even if it's raining. Very high winds and swells that close a port will keep you out too. Mostly strong tropical storms and hurricanes will be the cause of an itenerary change - not just rain and lightening.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

On our 3/29/03 cruise there was a major cold front going through the gulf. There were gale force winds along with swells in excess of 40 feet. We missed Key West on Sunday and had a day at sea instead. We did make it to Cozumel however, the sea was very rough. The ferry ride across to Playa del Carmen was an adventure I'd just as soon not do again!


We didn't have much in the way of rain during the day but it did play havoc with the itenerary. Instead of Key West, Day at Sea, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Day at Sea, Castaway Cay. We had Day at Sea Cozumel, Costa Maya, Day at Sea, Key West, Castaway Cay.

The second day on board ship got a little wild about 3 p.m. when we encountered the actual cold front. From what I understand there weren't many people in the dining rooms for dinner! We stayed in our room and had room service. Someone told me later that there were folks from decks 1 and 2 sleeping in the hallways on some of the higher decks but I didn't actually see that. One of the bartenders told us that in his 4 years on board it was the worst he had ever seen.

We doubled up on the Meclizine and went to bed. By the next day (Cozumel) things had settled down alot.