TracyC Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 My first transatlantic cruise. I am so excited but wondering what to take. How is the weather? so many things on decks are swim attire. Do we take 5 days to hit some warm weather? I have over 15 cruises under my belt but all to tropic weather. I do not get sea sick but heard waters can be choppy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Welcome to the message boards! Any transatlantic will have temperatures that are very close to the temperature of the sea. Absent of any nearby land mass, the temperature of the air will be very close to sea temperatures, day & night. Research sea temperatures and that will be the temperatures you will have on board. Find a map of sea temperatures, draw a line between NYC and Southampton and that will be an indication of what to expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boston Babe Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 36 minutes ago, twangster said: Any transatlantic will have temperatures that are very close to the temperature of the sea. Happy New Year @twangster. I know you did the Transatlantic, I'm curious how rough were the seas? And when would be the best time to take one (that's available)? I guess it's all a crap shoot though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyC Posted January 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Thank you this is great to know.. I will look that up.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 3 minutes ago, Boston Babe said: Happy New Year @twangster. I know you did the Transatlantic, I'm curious how rough were the seas? And when would be the best time to take one (that's available)? I guess it's all a crap shoot though. Happy New Year! There are two types of sea conditions that come into play in any large body of water like the North Atlantic. There are waves like one experiences when sailing into a weather system. These are generally wind driven waves. Oasis on her maiden crossing to America empty of guests experienced high waves. So much so the waves reached the lifeboats and damaged one of them. They try to avoid sailing into these types of weather systems. On the Symphony crossing we deviated south and took a longer route to avoid sailing through the tail of a weather system. In some cases if the wind is head against the ship's heading waves of this nature might not even be felt. The other thing that can impact the North Atlantic more than the Caribbean is swell. Swell is more subtle but can produce motion on a ship that for some people is bothersome and can lead to seasickness. Swell is a form of a wave but the crests are further apart and the crest height is often only a few feet. Close to land or in smaller bodies of water like the Caribbean Sea swell is diminished because of the land. In a large body of water like the North Atlantic there is no land mass to interfere with swell - it can travel for thousands and thousands of miles. There could be swells coming from different sources in different directions with different characteristics. Some people feel the ship move and call it rough seas when the seas are not really rough. Swell from a storm a thousand miles to the Northeast may be reaching the ship from that direction and a secondary swell from a different system hundreds of miles to the South is reaching the ship from that direction. The swells collide with each other and in some cases an occasional higher crest or lower trough can be the outcome. This can move the ship in an unexpected fashion which is felt on board even the biggest ships. Crossing on Symphony we had this effect as we dodged a system. We still got some swell from that system though and the ship had some motion as a result. Consider this picture from Symphony: No real waves to speak of, no whitecaps. Almost calm, right? Now look at this timelapse in motion. When captured in a time lapse the swell and the motion of the ship because of the swell is more evident. The time lapse makes it look worse than it really is. The swell was coming from that system to our North we deviated away from. We had sunny skies and calm seas so while we didn't sail through the weather system and we were a thousand miles away from it, it still impacted us. That is the North Atlantic. In this video from the Captain on Symphony he describes weather in the North Atlantic: In the next installment he addresses the swell again. Here is the Captain's first address that I'm including because it talks about the concept of the great circle route versus a rhumb line. On this October crossing we had hurricane remnants but the North Atlantic can always have low pressure systems producing similar sea conditions. Royal Cruiser 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 BTW - I am doing the Allure Eastbound crossing in March a month before Anthem does her crossing in April. I might blog some of that in the live blog section so keep an eye out for that. TracyC, WAAAYTOOO and Zeashore 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royal Cruiser Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 32 minutes ago, twangster said: There are two types of sea conditions that come into play in any large body of water like the North Atlantic. There are waves like one experiences when sailing into a weather system. These are generally wind driven waves. Oasis on her maiden crossing to America empty of guests experienced high waves. So much so the waves reached the lifeboats and damaged one of them. They try to avoid sailing into these types of weather systems. On the Symphony crossing we deviated south and took a longer route to avoid sailing through the tail of a weather system. In some cases if the wind is head against the ship's heading waves of this nature might not even be felt. The other thing that can impact the North Atlantic more than the Caribbean is swell. Swell is more subtle but can produce motion on a ship that for some people is bothersome and can lead to seasickness. Swell is a form of a wave but the crests are further apart and the crest height is often only a few feet. Close to land or in smaller bodies of water like the Caribbean Sea swell is diminished because of the land. In a large body of water like the North Atlantic there is no land mass to interfere with swell - it can travel for thousands and thousands of miles. There could be swells coming from different sources in different directions with different characteristics. Some people feel the ship move and call it rough seas when the seas are not really rough. Swell from a storm a thousand miles to the Northeast may be reaching the ship from that direction and a secondary swell from a different system hundreds of miles to the South is reaching the ship from that direction. The swells collide with each other and in some cases an occasional higher crest or lower trough can be the outcome. This can move the ship in an unexpected fashion which is felt on board even the biggest ships. Great read!!! Thanks for that information. twangster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 The Windy app can help to give you an idea of what the North Atlantic does. Weather systems or low pressure areas tend to move West to East. This sped up wind forecast is for the next few days. The color is more dramatic compared to reality. They'll do their best to place the ship in between weather systems as they move across the Atlantic. North_Atlantic_Winds.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Twangster, you bot-ness is beginning to emerge again. twangster, JLMoran, Boston Babe and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 The Windy app also features waves and swell maps like the wind map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boston Babe Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 3 hours ago, twangster said: I might blog some of that in the live blog section so keep an eye out for that. I hope you do! I actually find it fascinating watching the videos. Swells don't bother me. Mountains in the Ocean! I think it would be a completely fabulous experience instead of the usual Caribbean, etc! Interesting Captain is American? Don't see that much! Thank you so much @twangster!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyB Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 My wife and I have just booked the return trip in November for the Transatlantic back to NY and cannot wait to be aboard Anthem. We have done two other TA crossings (Indy and Carnival Vista Maiden trip), a transatlantic crossing is brilliant and worth every penny. Ogilthorpe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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