How cruise ship captains keep you safe in bad weather

Sometimes a ship does have to sail into bad weather but only when that's a safe decision.

Transcript

00:00Hello, cruisers. I am Dan Klein, executive editor of Cup Cruises B.

00:04Next to me is burgeoning meteorologist Dennis Poston.

00:06As you can tell, we are on the deck of the Celebrity Silhouette, and it is windy.

00:11We have just passed through a storm. There was a lot of water on the deck.

00:14We have brought over dry chairs.

00:15But Dennis, we are going from Florida, really from Curacao, that was our last port, all the way to New York.

00:21So normally when you're sailing in Florida, in the Caribbean, they can sail away from bad weather.

00:27What options does the captain have on a sort of longer trip like this where we have to get someplace that's kind of far away?

00:33Well, they do weather predictions, as you know.

00:37They're looking out four, five, ten days in advance on their trip to where they're going,

00:41and they'll try to make predictions on when to go and where to go.

00:44But like Dan said, we have to get there.

00:46So they're going to push through some heavy weather if they have to.

00:49But a lot of times in the Caribbean, there are smaller storms,

00:52and they will deviate port or starboard to get around it to make it a little bit better for the passengers on the ship.

00:58So the last time I did this, I did a New York to the Caribbean.

01:02And on the way back, we were sort of following a storm that already happened.

01:06And basically, they take safety into concern.

01:09They'll turn you around and bring you right back to Florida if they have to.

01:12But as long as it's safe, they closed the pool deck in that ship.

01:15They had one night where they put on air sickness bags.

01:17So it could get a little rough.

01:19You could see, you know, water was washing around in the pools.

01:22So this might be a rough trip the rest of the way.

01:24But remember, the captain will never put you, or perhaps more importantly, his billion-dollar cruise ship in danger.

01:31He is Dennis Post.

01:32I am Dan Klein.

01:33Come cruise with us soon.