How bad can the "rocky" days be?

[MarkLem]

Anyone experience bad days ? My last and only cruise was glass every day. I want to know what to expect should our next cruise be rougher.

 

[DrCavin]

We had 12-15 footers and gale force winds across the deck.. I am hoping that was an exception and not the norm....

 

[MarkLem]

What did people do while on board? I guess swimming was out (or was it?). Is it massive sea sickness or do most people do just fine. Does the ship function normally or is there a prevailing gloom?

 

[CheapMom]

I don't know what the seas were on our cruise- I think they were 10 foot- I found it very uncomfortable. People were puking. The ship was creaking like crazy. The bonine and less drowsy dramamne made me so sleepy that I couldn't take them so I just had to deal with the motion. My kids felt pretty ill too and they had dramamine.

 

[goofyforlife]

Hi Cheap Mom,

We were fine with the rocking that last night. We went up on deck to watch the waves. It was cool. The creaking of the ship (especially in our stateroom on deck 2) however, was extremely annoying. We turned the tv way up to compensate.

 

[StuartMI]

The 11/14 Disney Wonder had 17-20 foot waves and a Strong Gale across the deck. It was pretty bad. A rock was thrown up from the ocean and smashed open a port-hole on deck 2.

DW and I coudlnt walk down the hall without smashing into the siderails. That being said, though, it was so relaxing being "Rocked" to sleep.

 

[missmulan]

we only noticed the "rocking" at night when we're in bed. in the daytime there were too many things to do to notice. have fun!

 

[CheapMom]

Hi goofyforlife- Do you know how big those waves were? I saw a lot of sick people on board that night. Two people got sick leaving the theatre and there were other places in the hallways where CMs were re-directing people around spots on the carpet.

 

[ivanova]

I was on the 11/14 Wonder too with StuartMI ... the first night was the only "bad" night after that was fine ... on the first night there were a lot of people who missed dinner (or left the dining rooms earlier) due to sea sickness ... DH and I had no problems whatsoever (except for that issue of being slammed against walls as we walked down hallways), DD was a bit queasy but the less drowsy dramamine and seabands worked for her ... at some point during the evening (I think around 9pm) they closed down the deck 4 exterior (you could not go outside and walk the deck) because it was too rough (I'm sure Capt Henry wasn't keen on losing anyone overboard) ... there was the occasional wave that made it high enough to complete engulf the deck 3 HUGE portholes (we saw it happen a couple of times from the Internet Cafe and from Guest Services).

 

[goofyforlife]

We looked at the tv to see how high the waves were.... I would say they were 10-14 ft but I don't think the tv said that.....(I think it was messed up)
We did go up on deck and looked at the quiet pool. They had nets over it to keep people out and we could see why. The water was draining all over the place and then sloshing back down with incredible force. The hot tubs were even draining into them.

We were in the theater at 6:30. It was starting to get pretty rocky then.. I was glad we left by the sides as opposed to the middle because at least we had rails to hold onto. We had second dinner... So I guess that's when the people from 1st seating were sick. I did see a guy with a carpet cleaner when we went to Diversions at 10:45. Didn't see messes though...

 

[lbgraves]

Our cruise 12/4 was relatively calm, except for the last 2 days. We finally felt the rocking. We had been talking about how it didn't seem like we were on a ship. Our last cruise 11/15/03 there were 15-20 foot swells most days & 2 days had 20-25 foot swells. We were fine, I am the only one of the four of us who took bonine but there were people we knew from the DIS who were very ill the entire week. I also like being rocked to sleep at night.

 

[JJsmama]

I read over and over, 'the ship is so big, you don't feel it rocking.' Well, if there are high seas, you SURE do. Also, if you are motion sensitive, you will feel it even on calm day and in port although it probably won't make you sick then.

On our 10/24/04 cruise, the crew reported 14-16 foot swells. It was awful for me. I was SICK all night. It started about 5:30 PM. I could not stay at Dinner in Animators. Dh tried to stay with our sons and he said that the dining room was practically empty half way through dinner.

When walking through the corridors, one would dump the wall on one side and two steps later, bump the wall on the other side. For those not prone to motion sickness, it was sort of adventurous and comical. Those people could go on with regular activities, although I would not let my kids on the outside decks. My 3 year old son was sitting on the top bunk in our room and was thrown off. For the people with motion sickness, it was a BAD night.

(I do think this was somewhat extreme and unusual. The Captain finally had to make an announcement that 'the ship is not in trouble' because there were a lot of unsettled passengers.)

 

[DrCavin]

The goofy pool was kind of fun to be in, it was like a wave machine attached to it. We didn't have it as bad as some of the previous posts...

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Anyone experience bad days ? My last and only cruise was glass every day. I want to know what to expect should our next cruise be rougher.

on our 11/13/04 cruise we had 8-13 ft swells and it went up to 13-20. plus all the wind we had to deal with. i didnt see to many people looking sick yet DCL was giving out sea sickness pills like free soda if you needed it. i hope this helps. and from what i have been told this isnt normal.

 

[ivanova]

I read over and over, 'the ship is so big, you don't feel it rocking.' Well, if there are high seas, you SURE do. Also, if you are motion sensitive, you will feel it even on calm day and in port although it probably won't make you sick then.

So true - but imagine how bad it would be without the stabliziers which can reducing the side to side rocking by as much as 90%!!!

 

[NHDisneyKid]

So true - but imagine how bad it would be without the stabliziers which can reducing the side to side rocking by as much as 90%!!!

DH and I were also on the 10/24/04 Wonder, for our honeymoon. The crew actually told us (and MANY others) that the stabilizers were not used. It became the talk of the ship actually. We were all told that the captain receives certain bonuses if the ship arrives in port early with a premium of fuel and that the night of 10/24, we were full steam ahead to Nassau (If the stabilizers are used, it creates more drag in the water and the ship does not travel as fast and uses more fuel, simple physics). I'm not sure if it's true, but after making announcements that the ship wasn't in any danger, people started to wonder what WAS going on (I, for one, kept walking into walls, but my DH, who was in the Navy, got his sea-legs quickly and found my stumbling a bit comical!).
I'm not really one to know if this was actually the case. Despite the rocking, we still had a wonderful time

 

[cruisenewbie2004]

They can be bad. Who are these people who say they never felt a thing? They did not sail with me last week. Rocking was bad enough to close deck 4 entirely because the wind was 40+ miles an hour across the deck. I was seriously bumping into things. I felt motion every single day. Not one minute in 7 days did I say "I didn't know we were moving."

Yes, on the bad day we had gale winds and people were throwing up. I actually had a sensation of weightlessness seated in the WD theatre as we went over huge waves.

By the way, stabilizers don't do a darn thing for front to back rocking, only side to side. The chief engineer told my DH this himself. The worst day they said the stabilizers removed 80% of the movement and I still had trouble walking.

 

[whnim64]

All right. I was sick one day on our 6/5/04 cruise and the seas weren't even considered bad. Of course I didn't know that I would get seasick, so hadn't taken any bonine ahead of time. I am planning a 'girls cruise' in November. Is this when the seas tend to be worse? Am I going to be sorry for booking in November?

Sandi

 

[tecdavidt]

There is always the infamous Spring Break cruise this past March ('04) The seas were angry in the west and east. We were on the Magic doing the eastern. Midweek we hit 30' waves at night--the waves were hitting the bow and splashing up and over onto the top deck in the front of the ship. Our stateroom was midship deck 8 and it was only about three verandah's in front of us when the sea spray stopped from the waves hitting the bow. We were rocking and a rolling. You had to grab on to the sheets just to stay in bed. The crew passed out the barf bags after dinner. Just think, it wasn't hurricane season!!! We had three rough nights. The days weren't as bad but still windy. I have been on a total of 16 cruises and that one was by far the worse. You just never know what mother nature will dish out. Kathy

 

[Dodie]

Our last night on the 12/9 Wonder cruise was quite rough. 15+ foot waves at 11:00 PM (heard that they got even higher later) with 50 MPH wind gusts. The hangers were banging in the closet so we took them out. The closet doors were banging. The ship was creaking.

You just need to know that it's possible, but don't dwell on it. Take precautions, just in case.