Recently on board "ZEUS PALACE" I have experienced one of the most severe storms during these last twenty years that I have been living on Cruise Ferries. The GRIMALDI ship was covering for the CRUISE ROMA that went for her annual refit, we sailed from Barcelona to Civitavecchia direct with no stop at Porto Torres, I believe this call will resume in spring next year. The normal ship's departure is daily at 22.45 from Barcelona with expected E.T.A. in Italy at 18.15 the following day, soon we were notified by a text message that the departure due to bad weather would be 3.30am, in the end the ship didn't sail until 5am, the crossing in terms of weather went from bad to worse with the ship facing force 11 and 6/7 meter swells, we got to a stage where the captain changed the course of the ship, the starboard side of the "ZEUS PALACE" was a total washout, I did venture where nobody else did but to be honest do not recommend it with this sort of weather, how the decks were opened I will never understand, the ship behave remarkably well against such atrocious weather and to my astonishment we kept sailing between 22 to 23 knots. One trip to remember no doubt on board the ship that has been announced to re-start the Newcastle/Bergen route in April next year. Photos taken 22/23 of November 2013
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