Are Transatlantic Cruises Rough? Weather and Seas by Month and Route

Transatlantic cruises are usually not rough, but most crossings include at least a day or two when the ship moves enough to notice. How much depends mainly on two choices you make when booking: the route and the month. The southern route between Florida and the Mediterranean, via the Canary Islands, Madeira or the Azores, is the calmest. The northern route between New York and Southampton, or via Canada and Iceland, is more exposed and roughest from November to March.

Most repositioning crossings avoid the worst months by design. Ships cross eastbound in April and May and westbound from October to November, which misses the depth of winter. The main weather risk on fall crossings is the tail of the Atlantic hurricane season, which ships route around rather than through.

Sea conditions by month and route

This table summarizes typical conditions, not guarantees. A single weather system can make a normally calm month rough for a day, and a normally rough month can be smooth for a week.

The National Hurricane Center sets the Atlantic hurricane season at June 1 to November 30, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October and a peak around mid-September. Later in the season, storms tend to form in the western Caribbean, the Gulf and the western Atlantic, which is the Florida end of the crossing. That is why a late September westbound sailing is more likely to see a rerouting than a November one.

For route details, see repositioning cruises from Florida to Europe for the spring southern route, westbound transatlantic repositioning cruises for the fall, and repositioning cruises from New York and Boston for the northern route.

What “rough” actually means at sea

Forecasts at sea use the Beaufort scale, which ranks wind by force. The National Weather Service’s Beaufort table gives the wind speeds; the right-hand column is a general description of how a large cruise ship typically feels, which varies with the ship, its heading and the swell.

Wind is only part of it. What passengers feel most is swell, the long waves generated by distant storms, which can arrive on a sunny, calm-looking day. A ship heading into a swell pitches, rising and falling bow to stern. A swell on the side makes it roll. Most transatlantic crossings have some of each for a day or two.

What the ship does in bad weather

Modern cruise ships are built for ocean crossings, and the crew has several ways to reduce motion before passengers notice much:

• Weather routing. Ships get detailed forecasts and plan the crossing around them. Moving the route a couple of hundred miles south, or changing speed to arrive after a storm has passed, is routine.
• Stabilizers. Fins that extend from the hull reduce rolling significantly. They do little about pitching when the ship heads into the waves, which is why the bow still moves.
• Changing heading. Turning to take the swell at a better angle can make a big difference to comfort, even at the cost of a few hours.
• Skipping or swapping ports. On fall crossings, the Azores, Bermuda and Madeira are the ports most often dropped because of weather, since they sit in open ocean.
• Closing areas. Pools are drained, open decks roped off and shows moved when the motion is strong. Crew place sick bags near elevators and stairwells.

Ship design matters too. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 is a true ocean liner with a deeper, longer hull and a sharper bow than a cruise ship, built to hold schedule on the North Atlantic. Larger cruise ships generally move less than small ones in the same sea, although very small expedition-style ships are built for rough water in other ways.

How to reduce seasickness

The CDC’s motion sickness guidance covers both prevention and medication. The main points for cruise passengers:

• Choose the right cabin. The CDC advises avoiding places such as the bow. Cruise lines and experienced passengers generally point to a cabin low in the ship and near the middle, where motion is smallest.
• Look at the horizon. Watching a fixed horizon helps the brain match what it sees with what the inner ear feels. Fresh air on an open deck helps many people.
• Avoid reading or screens when you feel the first symptoms, and keep head movements small.
• Go easy on alcohol and heavy meals, and get enough sleep. The CDC also notes that controlled breathing can help.

For medication, the CDC lists antihistamines such as meclizine, dimenhydrinate and cyclizine, and the prescription scopolamine patch. Key cautions from the same guidance:

1. Timing: take medication before symptoms begin. Tablets need time to be absorbed, and a scopolamine patch takes 6 to 8 hours to start working, then lasts about 72 hours.
2. Drowsiness: the antihistamines commonly cause sleepiness. Scopolamine is less sedating but more likely to cause dry mouth and eyes.
3. Who should not use scopolamine: children, and people with glaucoma or at risk of urinary retention.
4. Alcohol: avoid it with any of these medications.
5. Ginger and wristbands: the CDC says evidence for them is weak.

Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before the trip, particularly if you take other medications. The ship’s medical center can help on board, but a consultation there is charged to your account.

What a rough day on a crossing is like

A rough day at sea is rarely frightening on a large ship. It is more often inconvenient. The motion starts as a slow lift and drop that you notice most in the theater, the gym and the forward lounges. Glasses slide on bar tops, doors swing, and the crew lays out extra handrails and sick bags. Walking the long corridors takes a wider stance. The spa and the pool deck close first, and the evening show may be replaced by a comedian or a movie, because dancers cannot perform safely on a moving stage.

Most passengers carry on as normal, with a lighter lunch. Some stay in their cabins until it passes, which is usually within 12 to 24 hours. The creaking of the ship’s structure at night surprises first-timers more than the motion does. It is normal and not a sign of anything wrong.

If you know the forecast is poor, plan the day around it: eat small meals, spend time in the middle of the ship on a low deck, and move activities you care about, such as a spa booking, to a calmer day if the ship allows it. Our guide to what to do on sea days has more on planning the days at sea.

Weather, missed ports and your booking

Weather changes on a crossing affect ports more than safety. The ports most exposed are the Atlantic islands: Bermuda, the Azores and Madeira, and to a lesser extent the Canaries. A westbound sailing in hurricane season might swap Bermuda for an extra sea day, or leave Europe a few hours early to stay ahead of a storm.

Cruise contracts give the captain the right to change the itinerary for weather, so a missed port is not normally grounds for a refund of the fare. Lines generally refund the port charges and taxes for a port they did not visit, but not the value of the stop. If you have booked a private tour in a port, choose one with a flexible cancellation policy, and consider travel insurance that covers missed connections and trip interruption.

For flights, weather can also delay arrival by a few hours. On repositioning cruises, where you fly home the same day, that is one more reason to book a later flight; see flights home after a repositioning cruise.

Who should worry and who should not

Most people who have been fine on a Caribbean cruise will be fine on a spring or November crossing via the southern route. They may have one uncomfortable afternoon. People who get sick on ferries or small boats should choose their dates and route carefully, pick a midship cabin low in the ship, and bring medication they have tried before.

If rough water is your main worry, the Pacific is not always the answer either. Our guide to transpacific repositioning cruises covers conditions there, and are repositioning cruises worth it weighs the long sea days against the price.

For the calmest crossing you can realistically book, pick a late April or May eastbound sailing, or a November westbound one, on the southern route via the Canaries or Madeira, on a large ship, in a cabin on a low deck in the middle of the ship.