January sailing--weather conditions?

[TMTIP]

My family has always sailed in the summer months but we have booked one for January 17, 2004 (Western) and was wondering about the air and water temperatures. Have any of you found the water to be extremely cool or the seas choppy at this time of the year? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tracy

 

[disneygal58]

Tracy,
We sailed this past January 4th on the Western itinerary. The weather in Key West was cool and breezy - upper 60s/ we were not able to dock in Grand Cayman due to rough seas/ Cozumel was sunny and low 80s. Our Castaway Cay day found low 70s and (too) cool (for my group) water. January is always questionable, yet still a great time to sail. We still enjoyed some deck time soaking up the sun, albeit a bit more brisk than we usually enjoy.
Go prepared for a variety of weather conditions and you won't be surprized or disappointed.
Happy Sailing,
Dawn Hope

 

[MFan]

Our Eastern trip a couple of years ago was at the end of Jan and beginning of Feb. From what I remembered, the ambient temperatures were perfectly comfortable, certainly much more so than the hot, humid weather on our 5/10 Western. However, the water temperatures were all a bit cool for us (and our young kids). St. Thomas and St. Martin were a little bit warmer than Castaway, where our toddlers weren't able to spend much more than 15-20 minutes in the water before getting shivers.

 

[prymsu]

the times we have gone in January have always been excellent nice warm weather. However, we are from Iowa, so in January, 60 degrees or above would seem like a heat wave to us.

 

[eeyorekjs7]

We were on the Wonder in mid-January. The seas were very calm. It was overcast some and cool, but still enjoyable. The pools on the ship are very warm, so swimming was nice. I was thankful I brought along some light sweaters for after dinner, but shorts were fine during the day. I would definitely bring a light jacket. Castaway Cay was cool in the morning. We went snorkeling and the water was comfortable, but we were a little cool when we got out. That afternoon we took a bike ride and I remember it being very warm. Overall, I was happy with January.

 

[jrabbit]

We were on the Eastern cruise the 3rd week of January. The temps were in the low to mid 80's, low humidity - absolutly perfect. Granted we are from the north and in the winter anything over 65 feels great. The water was fine in St. Marteen and St. Johns. At Castaway Cay the water was a litte cooler, but we stayed in for a couple of hours at a time anyway. I think that it is a great time to cruise. We heard that in the weeks leading up to our cruise the weather was not so great.

 

[aprilgail2]

January is way to cool to cruise for my taste....the water is usually to cool to comfortably swim in and I just didn't care for Jan cruising at all.

 

[d'Isigny]

we found Jan a little cool for our taste...but...being from Arizona -it appears to be cool anywhere we travel.

we've taken a 4 and 7 day in Jan 2000 and 2003...we've had a gambit of weather...sunny...rain...wind...smooth and rough seas.

our biggest gripe - on both of our Jan cruises...we were unable to dock at Castaway Cay.