Business Insider has an article with this title:
The most dangerous cruise routes, ports, and destinations are in parts of the world where conditions are unpredictable — and help is nowhere nearby, travel analysts say
The DrsC have done a lot of ocean cruising, including a fair number as almost-employees (lecturers traveling nearly for free). So I wanted to see whether we’d been to the places they believe are most dangerous.
They specifically list three destinations as risky: Antarctica, the Northwest Passage, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. I’m here to tell you we’ve experienced tough conditions in both Antarctica and Cape Hatteras.
Most Antarctica cruises depart from Ushuaia, Argentina and cross the notorious Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula. We did that on a 100 passenger expedition ship and were required to purchase serious insurance for medical emergencies. One of our fellow passengers fell and broke her elbow in extremely rough seas and had to be medivac’ed with her husband from the Chilean Air force base on King George Island.
Another time, on a Norwegian cruise ship sailing out of Baltimore for the western Caribbean, we smoothly sailed down the Chesapeake Bay, out into the Atlantic, and turned the corner at Cape Hatteras. At that point all hell broke loose: the ship was nearly on her beam ends, 30 ft. waves, furniture thrown around, the buffet closed because food wouldn’t stay in the steam trays, literally thousands of pieces of crockery broken, and cases of full liquor bottles smashed.
We were so messed up the ship had to skip a port day in Miami and limp along until we caught up with our schedule in Key West, the rest of the cruise was fine. Cape Hatteras can be no-joke dangerous.
We haven’t cruised the Northwest Passage, relatively few pax have done that trip. But given how on-target their other two high-risk destinations are, I’m prepared to believe the same about the Northwest Passage. I’d avoid Cape Hatteras if possible but Antarctica is definitely worth the risk and will reward careful cruisers who basically stay in their bunks while crossing the Drake.
