Cruising from Southampton?

[oldfatgreycat]

I suddenly decided that perhaps a summer cruise would be a good idea. 4 children aged 8-17. My in laws cruise a lot and will not longer go from Southampton as they says the sea can be rough and that you have 3 days of just being a sea feeling unwell. Obviously this puts me off.
Any experience of cruising form Southampton or of cruises to suit our large family?

I have only ever gone from Southampton, as I live 15 minutes away from the cruise terminals and I'm scared of flying. I have only ever had to resort to travel sickness pills once at the end of October on my way back from Bruges. The Bay of Biscay can be a bit lumpy. I had no problems heading from Southampton to Norway last summer. I only ever go for 7 nights & typically have a sea day at each end of the cruise.

I don't often come on the "cruises" board (and obviously not many others do, considering this is one of the most recent threads!) but I had to comment.

I've done 4 cruises out of Southampton now. 2 Mediterranean, 1 Norwegian and 1 Canaries. 2 in May/June time and 2 in September.

Obviously the Med and Canaries cruises involved the Bay of Biscay. Bearing in mind I've crossed the Bay 6 times now, I've never experienced it rough!

Worst seas have been in the Med near Barcelona and in the English Channel on the way home on one cruise. That was the only one that's ever made me feel queasy.

The North Sea was very, very windy but the ship movement wasn't too bad.

Top tip though which certainly is true for Royal Caribbean cruises (not sure about the others), but they give out free sea sickness medication if you need it.

Do you get sea sick on other boats? I don't generally but have been known to feel sick on smaller boats that bob up and down. On our Med cruise that was really rough loads of people were sick but I felt absolutely fine. If you're OK on, say, a ferry, then I think you'd be fine on a cruise ship.

Cruise ships have stabilisers to stop the worst of the pitching from side to side, but they don't work on the front to back waves so it's luck of the draw really where the seas are coming from.

Hi @oldfatgreycat, There are some good cruise options departing from Southampton heading north to Hamburg, the Baltic and Scandinavia as well as heading south to the Canaries and the Mediterranean.
Another option would be to fly to Barcelona, Rome, Nice or Venice and sail from there.
Cunard also do a 7 day Transatlantic from Southampton to New York and flights back with BA and you can get really good deals.
I'm a big fan of Celebrity Cruises becasue they have a great mix of ages and entertainment and Royal Caribbean are, in my view, the best of the family cruises.
Sickness depends on weather and sea conditions and the cruise ships usually put on their stabilizers to reduce the rolling movement. However, I agree with @NC0301191141 about the effects.

We always cruise out of Southampton. We've been transatlantic and to Europe and Europe was far worse, but out of Southampton is fine. No problems and I'm a crap sailor.

I’ve done 3 cruises- 1 from Southampton, 1 from Venice & 1 from New York. I was sea sick on all of them so wouldn’t say I have a preference, I just take the tablets and put up with it because I love the ships so much!

I also get fairly bad mal de debarkment which is horrible! Do any of you have ear problems?

Think we are going from Southampton next time but sticking to North Europe. My dad really suffers with sea sickness and mild mal de debarkment and he found going from Venice the best - hardly ill at all. We also found going from Venice a bit special.

I love both Cunard & celebrity but for different reasons. Would recommend celebrity for a family.

Thanks really useful. I did feel sick on the small fast ferry crossing from Portsmouth to France but gave bever been on a cruise ship so I’m guessing it’s a lot different! Will definitely look more into this.

I’ve cruised a lot in the past but not since my honeymoon 15 years ago... I would love to take the dc on a cruise but just wondering if I can pick the brains on this thread to see when people to tend to book to get a good price? Previously I was working, dh and I would do our homework, find several we were interested in and book last minute for cheap deals - we were both lucky enough that we both worked places where if we needed to nudge our holiday dates a couple of days they were fine about it.

These days we are restricted to school holidays and would expect the dc to be in a cabin with us.

Is it possible to get bargains when cruising with kids - does booking really early or late make a difference?

Regarding roughness sailing from Southampton, I’ve found the channel to be ok, as was sailing from Harwich for the Baltic which was also beautifully calm. Bay of biscay has been rough a couple of times. We have also started from Barcelona and Cadiz - both times getting an overnight train down as I don’t fly. Check seat61.com for great info on train travel.

Worst time I’ve had on a boat was coming back to Barcelona from s Italy - really rough and unpleasant - would not like to be in a storm like that again, especially with kids!

@oldgrey - I think its hit and miss going down to the Med from Southampton even in August ( my friend had an awful few days traveling back in 2017) where they didn't get the opportunity to get on the upper deck...going North to Fjords tends to smoother (we did Fjords in 2018)..In many ways, its great to board in Southampton but I'm the itineraries limited -although would do a transatlantic cruise. With a large family I think you would probably enjoy a larger ship like Independent of the Seas which does sail from Southampton or if you do a fly/cruise maybe Ovation of the Seas which is the Med. MSC have Seaside and Bellissima in the Med which are new ships on the fleet and has great facilities for kids. I can't comment on any other companies.

We have cruised from ports - Dubai/Miami and the Med - favorite was the Caribbean this February although seas were still choppy at times - we did see a pod of dolphins which was lovely. We didnt find cruising from Miami any more expensive than the Med but we did get cheap flights.

In terms of cost - we booked a cruise on a brand new ship early on and got a very good price (booked directly with cruise line)- now I tend to use a specialist site available to the travel industry and they tend to have silly prices on some ships - last minute (because they are obviously filling cabins). I do know that Expedia.COM (not UK) tends to have better prices for some cruise - mainly US etc.

excuse typos!

We’ve done 2 cruises out of Southampton. Took some Stugeron with us in case the kids wanted it but had no trouble with sickness at all.
We did the parking at the port where you park, the porter takes your luggage from the boot straight to the cabin and you just check in and walk onto the ship with just your handbag. Honesty the easiest holiday we’ve ever had by a mile!

@worldwandering that's exactly what we like about cruising from Southampton. Car to holiday in about 20 minutes! Also, coming home is a breeze. Wake up and walk off. We live about 90 mins from the docks and normally try and be some of the last off at about 9am to miss the rush hour traffic (plus it's easier to find your cases later!). We're normally home by 10.30.

Re deals - we're really rubbish at getting deals! I saw a great deal on our Norwegian cruise but didn't book it. Five months later when we did book it, it was significantly more expensive.

Unfortunately I don't think deals exist in the school holidays. We got a quote for some family for a 2 week med cruise in an inside cabin. £7k!

We tend to book with Iglu or direct with the cruise line if I have some Tesco clubcard vouchers to use.

It depends how prone to sea sickness you are. I often feel a bit sick going around the Bay of Biscay. However, it is so easy to drive to Southampton and walk straight into the ship rather then having to negotiate airports and transfers. We quite like having a few days relaxing on the ship at the beginning and end of the cruise but that’s probably because we tend to have long busy days when we are ashore. The fly cruise does have the advantage of getting quickly to the sun. Also if you fly with companies like P&O you have a fly cruise charter which means the bags are checked in at the airport then taken direct to the cruise ship which makes things easy.

If you are prepared to go to inside cabins, you can sometimes get good deals in the summer holidays. Scandinavian cruises often have better deals for families in the summer as they are less popular for kids. HTH

The Bay of Biscay (sp?) can be hella rough!

Fond memories of sick bags tucked into internal handrails and the poor cleaners cleaning up dotted piles of puke. I was floored for a day.

I've cruised from Southampton, we left May day bank holiday Sunday for Madeira. Crossing the Bay of Biscay wasn't too bad, I only had one seasickness tablet. We didn't see land until the Wednesday, it was a bit wobbly at mealtimes & the dancers in the theatre did lurch around a bit but that was all part of the fun.

I have only cruised from Southampton. I felt bad once on a rough crossing on a small ferry from Poole to Cherburg but have not felt sick on a cruise.
On one cruise to the Med we had a very smooth crossing on the Bay of Biscay on the way out but really rough on the way back- but we were fine. Swimming pools closed and fewer people at dinner. As PP have said going North eg Baltic was fine.
We usually book very late and usually get a bargain. We were sometimes unkind and booked them an inside cabin while we had a balcony one- although they spent most of their time with us! However when they were both U16 ( I think) we had to be in adjacent cabins.
We use cruise.co.uk or go direct.