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Seasickness / Motion sickness


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Hello All,

 

I will be traveling on Indy OTS within the next 2 weeks, and while I have been on a few cruises, this will be my girlfriend's first cruise. 

She does get motion sickness or car sickness from time to time, but it's not that severe.  

 

I am preparing for our cruise and I wanted to ask the community which types of seasickness or motion sickness remedies you recommend for us to bring in case she does feel seasick. I am trying to stay away from the drugs, bonine or the patch because I don't know what types of side-effects she might have. 

 

I currently have ginger candy chews, ginger honey crystals (for tea), and am considering buying those Sea-bands. 

 

I know it's relative to each person's level of motion sickness, but is there anything else you recommend I should buy?

 

Thank you!

 

-Jeremy 

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My wife wasn't too sick but was uncomfortable at times. We bought some drops (on ship $) that you put behind you ear. Sounds weird but she said it helped a lot, 'Motion ease' I believe, natural oils.

I Herd people with problems get a prescription from doctor pretty easily, I'd do that just to have your bases covered.

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NorCalJL - 

 

Seriously, over the counter Dramamine works fine.  Those huge ships are so heavy they have very little rocking, if any.  It's like you are in a giant shopping mall (unfortunately).  You feel almost no movement.

 

For reference, if I'm on a small fishing boat I can get queasy.  But I've never been sick on a big cruise ship.  I was even on a small sailing boat with 30 passengers once (for over a week) and we hit rough seas way south in the Caribbean. But I took a Dramamine and never felt a thing.  Frankly, I wouldn't experiment with wrist bands and all that stuff.  It might work for some people.

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Bonine is great but it will make you drowsy.  I dont mind afternoon naps but it's worth noting.

 

A solid strategy is focus on the horizon.  Even with a good deal of motion, looking out at the horizon really helps me because it helps get back your equilibrium 

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I think that it is important to note cabin location as well.  My wife is prone to motion sickness, but has only been sick on one cruise and queasy on one or two others out of nearly two dozen.  Our strategy is to always book a midship cabin; typically, the lower you are situated the better.  She's always found relief by going back to the cabin except for the time she got sick as we had an after corner suite on another line and hit 18-20' seas sailing to Alaska.

 

If you don't have a midship cabin, do as Matt has suggest and move midship and look at the horizon.  Ultimately, motion sickness is caused by the inner ear telling your body that your in motion but your visual system doesn't register the motion.  By looking at the horizon, you'll get the two systems in sync with one another. 

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I think that it is important to note cabin location as well. 

I agree.  On Navigator of the Seas our stateroom was all the way forward and I definitely felt more motion than when I was elsewhere on the ship.

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Jeremy - Also, just a note on the "non drowsy" formulas.  They might keep you awake at night.  Everyone reacts differently to medicines, so you need to judge for yourself, but I always take the regular dramamine.  The non drowsy one wires me up and I can't sleep.  The regular version doesn't make me feel sleepy at all - just maybe a little more mellow.   And definitely not seasick!   I don't leave home without it, but again, keep all that individual reactive stuff in mind.   

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Hello All,

 

I will be traveling on Indy OTS within the next 2 weeks, and while I have been on a few cruises, this will be my girlfriend's first cruise. 

She does get motion sickness or car sickness from time to time, but it's not that severe.  

 

I am preparing for our cruise and I wanted to ask the community which types of seasickness or motion sickness remedies you recommend for us to bring in case she does feel seasick. I am trying to stay away from the drugs, bonine or the patch because I don't know what types of side-effects she might have. 

 

I currently have ginger candy chews, ginger honey crystals (for tea), and am considering buying those Sea-bands. 

 

I know it's relative to each person's level of motion sickness, but is there anything else you recommend I should buy?

 

 

if she does get seasick, go to the on board doctor. They can give you a shot & symptons gone in about 30 min. About $75 if normal, $125 if after hours. Somewhat pricy but priceless to not ruin your vacation!

 

Thank you!

 

-Jeremy

 

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I am so glad I have no issues with this. Maybe it has to do with growing up and travelling often on ferry's across rough seas, I don't know.

 

But I am glad I don't have to worry or plan at all around that for my room selection or medication etc. Not sure how much I would enjoy cruising if I was worried about this each time, or worse yet sick each time I cruised.

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But I am glad I don't have to worry or plan at all around that for my room selection or medication etc. Not sure how much I would enjoy cruising if I was worried about this each time, or worse yet sick each time I cruised.

As I've gotten older I get nervous about sea sickness and not sure why.  I bring bonine with me as backup but it is rare that I will actually use it. Obviously it's not to the point I wont cruise but I'm willing to deal with some discomfort because I really love the cruise experience.

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My wife suffers occasionally from motion sickness so we never cruised until she tried seabands which are available at CVS, Walgreens, etc. Also available on board but will cost more there. We have now been on three cruises with no ill effects to her. Wear them all the time and they really work; no drugs, no pills, no side effects! Strap 'em on and enjoy your cruise!!

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Thanks everyone for the replies and advice! As an experienced cruiser, I know the ships are huge and it's rare to feel much, but I think my girlfriend is concerned because all she can compare her experience to is standing on smaller boats. I am sure we will be fine! Thanks again!

 

Wow, 8 days for us....weird I haven't felt that "YOU'RE GOING ON A CRUISE" feeling yet, maybe it'll hit me when I start packing and getting everything ready! 

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What a cute idea for a new thread. How do you get into your "goin on a cruze" happy place ?

 

Our family has a little tradition that we do to get ourselves hyped up. We all get in a conga line and chant "goin' on a cru-uuz" to the samba beat: da-da-da-da-da---DA ! ...and you kick your leg out when you hit that last "DA!", alternating left and right legs. I know it sounds dorky but it's our little "thing" and it always works ! We now have a whole bunch of other people that cruise with us doing it...so when we go on a group cruise, we often have 20-30 people in a conga line singin' "goin' on a cru-uuz !" and winding our way through whatever location we happen to be at...sometimes the airport. It's pretty funny.

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks everyone for the replies and advice! As an experienced cruiser, I know the ships are huge and it's rare to feel much, but I think my girlfriend is concerned because all she can compare her experience to is standing on smaller boats. I am sure we will be fine! Thanks again!

 

Wow, 8 days for us....weird I haven't felt that "YOU'RE GOING ON A CRUISE" feeling yet, maybe it'll hit me when I start packing and getting everything ready! 

Have your girlfriend( hope thats not her in picture with you) take a dramamine now.  She wont know if it works for motion sickness but you will be able to tell if it has any side effects and 8 days to get over it

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Something I haven't seen suggested here, and which definitely work, are "Sea Bands". These are elastic cloth bands that go around your wrists, and which have a small round plastic bead that you place on the inside of the band, so it presses on the inside of each wrist. The idea is that it triggers an acupressure point which has actually been demonstrated to relieve nausea.

 

I heard about these when my wife was pregnant for the first time. She had horrible morning sickness, and we saw Sea Bands promoted by many moms to relieve it. She tried them out and they worked amazingly well, even though their original intent was (as their name implies) to help with seasickness.

 

Give those a try along with the other options people have mentioned, especially ginger. If you can find candied ginger in your supermarket, that's another great option as you're getting actual ginger root and the full effect of the compounds in it, vs the tiny amount in your typical ginger ale (although there are natural ginger beers in a lot of organic stores that have a much higher concentration of ginger in them).

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my husband gets motion sickness in airplanes and can't do any simulation theme park rides--he had zero motion sickness on OTS. However, if we were on the top decks, he could not look down at the water while we were moving (going on ATS in May with an ocean balcony should be fun lol) 

 

with that said, I could only feel the boat moving when I sat on the toilet  :P -i didn't even feel us leave port

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Just wanted to add my two cents.  Larger ships absolutely better, cabin location makes quite a difference, we take 1 Bonine in the morning, just in case, and bought sea bands to sleep with.  Years ago I also have candied ginger, but was fine.  We have never really had any problems except last year we had a cabin at the very back of the ship and could feel the motion of the ocean.  Drink and eat enough and you will be fine!  Seriously though, if you start to feel bad try a green apple!

We mostly cruise the Caribbean and have really had no problems.  However, when we cruise to Alaska we really felt it, which seemed odd as it wasnt really open waters.  A lot of people were quite sea sick on that one.

Anyway, I think you will be fine.  Bonine and sea bands, you will be good to go!

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On my one and only sailing (Radiance, Jan 2013, South Pacific) the medical centre had seasickness tablets available for use anytime, free of charge. They were highly effective but resulted in extreme drowsiness. I assume they were similar to Dramamine. No consultation needed, you just had to ask. I presumed this was common practice across the fleet?

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On my one and only sailing (Radiance, Jan 2013, South Pacific) the medical centre had seasickness tablets available for use anytime, free of charge. They were highly effective but resulted in extreme drowsiness. I assume they were similar to Dramamine. No consultation needed, you just had to ask. I presumed this was common practice across the fleet?

As I recall it is a generic form of meclizine, which is the active ingredient in over the counter medicines like Bonine.

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