3 Cruises You Shouldn’t Take if You Get Travel Sick (I Tried Them and Regretted 2/3)

Some people would be surprised to find out that I do sometimes suffer from seasickness.

I am a very motion-sick person in general. I can feel ill in taxis, sitting and travelling backwards on trains, in cars, ferries or cruise ships. I am completely used to it and accept it.

In this article, we look at three cruises I have taken where my seasickness has been at its worst.

If you also get seasick, you may want to take my advice and avoid these itineraries – at least in the winter months!

#1 The Canary Islands From Southampton

The Canary Islands are lovely all year round. It’s a great place to travel to, particularly from the UK, if you want a bit of winter sunshine without going too far from home.

After the pandemic, I decided to book a Christmas Cruise. The cruise I originally booked with P&O was cancelled, so I had to find another cruise to book to save my family from being disappointed.

The ship we sailed on was P&O’s Ventura. She is 290 metres long, 36 metres wide and has a gross tonnage of 116,017. She has a top speed of 22 knots and was built in 2008

She has 18 passenger decks – and the cabins at the top of the ship really move in rough seas!

The Ventura can accommodate 3,078 passengers and 1,205 crew 

Sailing down through the Bay of Biscay isn’t for the faint-hearted, it is renowned for it’s storms.

We sailed through the Bay without too much problem but then hit storms off the coast of Portugal.

Image of my cruise from TheCruiseGlobe.com (I’m co-founder of this site)

Find out everything you need to know about the Bay of Biscay here:

Cruising Through The Bay of Biscay

Our stop in Madeira was cancelled, the ship sailed very close to the harbour, but then had to abort at the last minute due to high winds – meaning we had yet another stormy sea day ahead.

When we finally reached the Canary Islands, the weather was far better – but then we had the prospect of the return journey in equally bad weather.

I would go to the Canary Islands anytime, but in the future, I plan to take a fly cruise from the UK and just sail around the islands in the sunshine. That way, I should minimise the chance of bad weather.

Find out more about that eventful Christmas cruise here.

#2 Transatlantic Crossings

Taking a Transatlantic crossing on the last Ocean Liner at Sea has long been on my “bucket list”.

Crossing the Atlantic, particularly in the winter months, can mean rough seas and bad weather.

I knew that when I took this journey, I would only want to take that crossing with so many sea days on the Queen Mary 2.

Image of my cruise from TheCruiseGlobe.com (I’m co-founder of this site)

She is the last Ocean Liner at sea, and was specifically designed to cope with high seas.

Queen Mary 2 sails between New York, Southampton and Hamburg when crossing the Atlantic.

Other cruise ships often sail on a more southerly route, often stopping at the Azores and sailing to the Caribbean. These are known as repositioning cruises.

The cruise lines want to move their ships in the spring and Autumn to more profitable places where the weather is better. So ships may move from the UK or the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, for example. Find out more about that below:

7 Benefits of Repositioning Cruises

Queen Mary 2 is a relatively old ship, and she took her first voyage in 2004. She has 14 decks. She can accommodate 2,695 passengers and 1,253 crew members.

She has a Gross Tonnage of 149,215 tons and a length of 1132 feet / 345.03 metres.

When I sailed across the Atlantic on Queen Mary 2, we quickly hit bad weather. The Captain took a more southerly route to try and avoid the worst of the storm.

Because she is an Ocean Liner, she was still able to sail at relatively high speeds – over 22 knots, even though the weather was rough. Usually, she sails at around 26 knots – far quicker than cruise ships.

When Cunard’s newest ship, Queen Anne, undertook her first transatlantic crossing, she had to slow down because of the bad weather. She arrived in New York a day later than scheduled. Queen Anne has a top speed of only 22 knots because she is a cruise ship, not an Ocean Liner.

If you are concerned about seasickness and have the option of choosing to sail on the Queen Mary 2 rather than a traditional cruise ship, I would definitely take that option!

#3 Norway -In Search Of The Northern Lights

I took a cruise with the traditional cruise line, Fred. Olsen. The cruise was called “In Search of the Northern Lights” and sailed from Newcastle, in the northeast of England.

I have never been as seasick in my life!

This cruise went right up to the top of Norway, visiting Tromso and Alta – not the more popular week trip that visits more southerly ports on the Norwegian coast.

With hindsight, I probably should have looked for a similar cruise leaving from my local cruise port, Southampton. Newcastle is a 350-mile drive from where I live, so I felt a little travel-sick before I even boarded the ship!

Fred. Olsen does often take this trip from Southampton, but the dates of the itinerary suited my schedule. I probably really didn’t think the plan through as well as I should have done…

The ship we sailed on was Fred. Olsen’s Bolette. She is considered the flagship of the Fred. Olsen fleet.

Bolette is a new ship for Fred Olsen, but it is not new. Bolette was brought from Holland America Line in 2020.

Fred Olsen prides itself on being a “family-run” cruise line. Bolette is named after the great-great-grandmother of the company Chairman, Fred Olsen Jr.

She was one of Four R-Class ships (Or Rotterdam class ships) built between 1997 and 2000 specifically for the Holland America cruise line.

Bolette was built as Amsterdam for HAL in 2000 – again a fairly old ship by cruise ship standards. She carries around 1,400 passengers and has ten passenger-accessible decks.

She was originally named “Amsterdam.” Fred. Olsen also bought her sister ship “Rotterdam” and renamed her the “Borealis” at the same time.

(It is a little confusing that Holland America uses the same ship names over and over again – They now have a new ship called Rotterdam that was launched in October 2020.)

It probably isn’t a good idea to cross the North Sea, in a smallish, old cruise ship in February.

This was my worst ever seasickness experience, and I was very grateful when we reached the comparatively calm seas in the Norwegian Fjords.

Image of my cruise from TheCruiseGlobe.com (I’m co-founder of this site)

I saw the Northern Lights, and I had a fantastic time in Norway, but I wouldn’t choose to cross the North Sea again in winter.

Find out all about that cruise here:

Before You Go

Find out some great tips to avoid seasickness here:

13 Actionable Tips to Prevent and Treat Seasickness on a Cruise

Find out why my parents “free upgrade” on Queen Mary 2 wasn’t all they had hoped here:

Why This Cruise Cabin “Upgrade” Was Worse (Don’t Let This Happen to You)!