Jump to content

Cabin location for motion sickness


Recommended Posts

Hi there! I'm new to the forum and looking to book my first Royal Caribbean cruise and my second cruise overall. I am planning to book Symphony of the Seas, during its European run but we are having a bit of a hard time deciding on which cabin package to book. The concern is motion sickness. I often get sick on cars and planes but the Sea Bands have helped there (discovered those before the Carnival cruise and love them!). On my first cruise on Carnival in the Caribbean, we followed all the advice and booked a lower level, cabin in the middle. I took my ginger capsules daily and wore my Sea Bands and all was fine except for a few hours of extreme motion. 

However, there's a lot more cabin options on Royal Caribbean. We've explored the possibilities on the RC website, Expedia and Priceline to see what our best options are for choosing a cabin but have pretty much come to the conclusion we can't choose an Interior cabin on the 4/7 and 4/14 voyages. I looked into an Ocean View cabin but those are all on the end (at least what's left) so I've narrowed it down to two options:

1. Priceline Guaranteed Room: We'd take a chance on it and let them choose our room. My fear is getting a room on the end...will it make me sick? I've read it's not as bad with bigger ships and Symphony of the Seas IS going to be the biggest but I'm not sure what the risk is and what kind of rooms people end up with using this option.

2. Interior Central Park view: This is about $300 more expensive total for the two of us but research found this was the best way for us to get a room mid ship. We don't really care about the view. We could take it or leave it. It would just be to guarantee us a location.

Research on the Mediterranean Sea and motion got us mixed info but we think generally it would be ok in the Spring?

Can any experienced cruisers give us advice on selecting a cabin? Is it worth it to splurge for the Interior Central Park? Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a good question , 

As you said rightly , the best to avoid seasick is always middle lower decks, it is true for all ships.

I was doing the same route twice , once in the Liberty of the seas and last year with the Harmony of the seas .

One was in the end of August one was beginning of October. During the cruise with Liberty  there was only one night I could feel the ship , that was the last night cursing from Italy back to Barcelona but not something that made me feel bad.

During the Harmony cruise on the same route more and less I did not felt any movement , both of the cabins were in the far end of the ship.

Take into consideration that the Symphony is a very large ship which better handle rough seas.

As you said Guarantee rooms are a gamble ,When I use this option once I got a room at the front of the ship and heard noises  from the anchor, was not that bad but still ...

My recommendation , try to get mid deck cabin , but do not worry too much as its a big ship , have your seasick medications as backup and enjoy the cruise.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all, I too have some issues with motion on cars and planes.  I take something every plane ride.  As a general rule of thumb, we always try to book midship, mid deck because of me.  I can also tell you that we've sailed all 3 Oasis class ships (so same as Symphony) and our cabins have all been midship (deck 12 Oasis ocean view balcony , 11 Allure ocean view balcony, 12 Harmony Grand suite).  In the cabin we never felt a thing.  Also, on all other areas of the ship we never felt a thing.  These ships are huge and so stable.  Our last cruise in August on Harmony, we sailed through a storm, high waves. We walked around the ship that afternoon because they closed the decks and I still did not feel a thing.  So although I have never stayed in a cabin not midship, I can definitely say that I never felt motion anywhere on any of these 3 ships.

I feel that if motion is your main concern then it would probably be wise to pay the extra $300 for option #2.  That would give you peace of mind too.  Also, with a guarantee cabin, once they assign it to you, you generally cannot make changes.

I can also share that we took 12 night Mediterranean cruise on Brilliance of the Seas and we did not feel much motion on that ship either.  And Brilliance is a much smaller ship compared to Symphony.  The only times we felt a bit of motion was during dinner a few times in the dining room and during the shows in the theatre.  It wasn't every night, just a few.  And the motion was very slight.  Not enough that I had to take anything.  Hope that helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the responses so far! Something else occurred to me: Central Park Interior looks like it's on the ground floor of Central Park....is it loud? I have a feeling we'll keep our window closed all the time for the sake of privacy. 

I also learned from reading these boards that we should go through a travel agent so I'm also going to see what the travel agent can do for us in terms of getting a cabin mid-ship!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're always going to do best midship if you're prone to motion sickness. Think of a ship as a teeter totter. The closer you are to the end, the more motion you'll experience. My wife is prone to motion sickness, but has only had a problem once in 25 cruises when we had an extreme aft cabin in rough (18-20 ft) seas. When we experienced rough conditions in the North Sea, she was fine with our midship cabin. 

I've read mixed reviews on the sea conditions in the Med, but can report back after my January cruise there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Moonflower,

This is my personal opinion but I always book through a Travel Agent. Many reasons why, because of the one on one service, the assistance you get from them, it is taken out of your hands and put into theirs, to take care of everything.

I can give you an example that just happened about a week ago. I was in line at American Airlines to see if I could catch an earlier flight and a woman right next to me had booked her flight through Expedia. She wanted to change her ticket but the ticket she bought couldn't be changed. She said Expedia didn't tell her that and the agent was so nice to this woman, she tried to explain it is much better to book directly with the airline, than use a 3rd party outlet to book through because they add their own rules on. Anyways this woman couldn't take an earlier flight. She was so angry about it she started swearing at the agent and yelling.

I had one bad experience booking through a 3rd party to Las Vegas and decided to never to it again. There is so much fine print on what they sell you, if you don't read it before you purchase your ticket, you could be in trouble.

Hope this helps. Candie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks everyone. After pushing a bunch of random buttons I was able to get a 4N (4U? 4Something) Interior Mid-Ship with something like $300-400 onboard credit but yes, there was some Priceline fine print that annoyed us. We are still open to re-booking through a travel agent since all but $125 is refundable. I just wanted the cabin. lol. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...