Cruise Travel: Won't weather winter NY departures

Regarding "Big Apple To The Tropics," Cruise of the Month, Cruise Travel, August 2004: I know that modern cruise ships have side stabilizers to reduce roll, and a bulbous bow to reduce pitch, but the North Atlantic in the winter is still the North Atlantic.

My very first cruise (out of 24) was Christmas of 1959 on Norwegian-America Line, which no longer exists. It was New York to the Caribbean. We spent two winter days going and two winter days returning. Many of the passengers were seasick, and a few fell in the corridors and broke an arm or a hip. The lesson I learned was to fly to Florida and take the cruise ship from there.

It surprises me that Norwegian Cruise Line is gambling on these "innovative year-round sailings." The Cruise of the Month article ends with a discrete paragraph: "If your departure from New York is delayed longer than 12 hours due to weather, you receive an onboard credit of $100 per person...." But it doesn't speculate if you would be able to use it for the first two days! Then the most ominous sentence of all: "... if you do not wish to continue the cruise, you may choose to leave the ship [where?] and receive a full cruise credit."

If the cruise ticket costs the passenger $170 per day, then that's $680 of misery and wasted money. My suggestion to the marketing department of Norwegian Cruise Line is that they lease jumbo jets during the winter and fly the passengers (with free drinks) to Florida. The former Condorde/QE2 combination could be a model for their sales pitch.

Terence Sullivan, Atchison, KS

Actually, NCL is so pleased with passenger response to its NY/Caribbean itineraries that it is adding a second year-round ship in 2005. And clearly, if your departure from New York is delayed more than 12 hours by weather and you choose to discontinue your cruise, you leave the ship in New York.