Aft? Forward? Much difference in motion? Are there really any BAD rooms??!

[miatamel]

Okay, so...When I booked last year I specifically booked a midship due to reading it's better for motion sickness (which I suffer from) and starboard for its better views on docking. I got a Cat. 6 room with a very bad stateroom report. Was waitlisted all year for better 6 with no luck. So, here's my question--I am thinking of just upgrading to a 4 or 5. All the 4s left are COMPLETELY forward or very far aft. (The starboard/port isn't as big an issue as the motion). Is being that far forward (or even back) that much worse for motion sickness? The Cat. 5s left are mostly also all very, very forward. There are a couple of midship, starboard 5s but they are right across from the laundry which might also be iffy. The 6s left that are midship are ALL connecting rooms or completely aft starboard. So am I better off staying put in a room that had that report rated "1", pay $$ for a room that might make me sick, or be near a laundry?
I'm really curious as to whether the first forward rooms are rough on motion.
Any opinion on any of this would be VERY appreciated--we leave next week!
Thanks!

 

[DisneyZell]

I just replied to your upgrade question and here is my answer for this question. We upgraded and ended up very aft. We were right around the corner from the back stairs to topsiders (which by the way is very convenient!) We did not have any problems with the rocking motion so I don't think that would prevent me from getting another either aft or forward room. For our next cruise, I have booked a forward room just because of the smoking on the veranda issue. It wasn't too bad for us, but we did have someone smoking on their veranda a couple of times a few rooms away, and had we been forward, there is less likely a chance you'll have the smoke coming your way.

 

[atakaratemom]

We have been both very aft and very forward on our cruises with DCL. We had an aft oceanview room on deck 2 on our first cruise and we felt very little movement, however, it was a bit noisy when we docked. On our second cruise with DCL we were very far forward in our deck 2 oceanview cabin and the movement of the ship was markedly more noticeable. We had one particularly rough night and boy were we feeling it. Fortunately my family doesn't tend to suffer from motion sickness. We preferred the forward room as it was very quiet. No engine noise at all.

However, if you are susceptible to motion sickness I would recommend choosing aft over forward. You definitely feel the movement of the vessel more if you are near the bow of the ship.

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

What stateroom are you booked in? Maybe a fellow diser has stayed in that room and can ease your fears. Just a thought...

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I was so nervous over a room given to us because it was the very first cabin on deck 2. It was considered a noisy room. We went through some BIG swells on the PC cruise due to Hurricane Hillary and didn't feel very much in the room at all. Now walking around we could certainly tell the difference. Plus our friends were directly across from deck 7 laundry and said that the laundry room never really was an issue to them. They said it wasn't that noticeable.

 

[Disney-For-Life]

Try and get a room as close to the middle of the ship as possible.

 

[aprilgail2]

We stay towards the aft but not far enough back that we get stuck with one of those solid metal verandahs again! (learned my lesson the first cruise on that one!!). I get seasick spinning myself in a circle two times so its pretty back but I was fine on the cruise, I just took Bonine every night before bed and was fine the whole cruise.

 

[LisaBi]

We loved aft! Much less motion and very convenient to most locations.

 

[Hanover]

We were in 6508 (category 8, 4th room from the front on deck 6) on the Magic in May...never again. I felt like I was on the end of a diving board. Compared to the mid- ship category 6/deck 6 room we had on our first cruise, the motion was much more noticeable. I also did not like our bed facing backwards. When looking outside and seeing the waves backwards, it made me even queasier. Even with a motion sickness patch I got sea sick our 2nd day at sea while in the room. We are going deck 6 mid ship on our next 2 DCL trips.

 

[tvguy]

Basic law of physics......for the least movement get a cabin as close to the middle of the ship as you can, and as far down as you can, deck one or two.

Really depends how sensitive you are to motion. My first cruise was on a 400 passenger ship without stabilizers. Compared to that, there is no movement on the Magic or Wonder with their stabilizers. But, comparing the Magic and Wonder to dry land, yes, there is some movement.

 

[miatamel]

Bumping in case someone else might have an opinion to weigh in with. It looks like I could get room 7584--anybody know anything about that area?

 

[Tinkmom]

I absolutely agree with the statements that aft is the best place if you have any issues with motion sickness. Movement is so much more noticeable at the front of the ship. Let me clarify: most of the time you won't notice any motion. If the ship is moving quickly and/or the ocean is rough you will definitely feel it more towards the front of the ship.

I think many who have sailed have memories of stumbling in the Disney Theatre or seeing those huge curtains swaying.

 

[tvguy]

Bumping in case someone else might have an opinion to weigh in with. It looks like I could get room 7584--anybody know anything about that area?

We were in 7604, very little motion there except when going from St. Thomas to Castaway Cay, on Thursday night/Friday morning it got a little rough about 3 am.

 

[captaincrash]

Basic law of physics......for the least movement get a cabin as close to the middle of the ship as you can, and as far down as you can, deck one or two.

Really depends how sensitive you are to motion. My first cruise was on a 400 passenger ship without stabilizers. Compared to that, there is no movement on the Magic or Wonder with their stabilizers. But, comparing the Magic and Wonder to dry land, yes, there is some movement.

TV Guy puts it very nicely....

... however I might add that I've been in seas where the front of the ship was truly like a roller coaster (Alaska) and the ship was the NCL SKY ... a similar sized huge cruise ship. So I would generally discourage you from taking a forward cabin if possible. And follow the advice of TVGUY above.

If you or anyone in your party are sensitive to seasickness then you do have the usual remedies like - the patch, ginger capsuls, accupressure bands and electric relief bands. Plus once you're ill there's supposedly clear soups like chicken broth and getting up on deck.

My spouse is somewhat vulnerable to excessive ships motion while I am not. Even so we carry 2 or 3 electric relief bands as they help almost immediately AFTER the onset of sea sickness where other remedies generally do NOT help. Especially true of the Patch or any chemical remedy.

Hope this helps somehow...

 

[miatamel]

TV Guy puts it very nicely....

... however I might add that I've been in seas where the front of the ship was truly like a roller coaster (Alaska) and the ship was the NCL SKY ... a similar sized huge cruise ship. So I would generally discourage you from taking a forward cabin if possible. And follow the advice of TVGUY above.

If you or anyone in your party are sensitive to seasickness then you do have the usual remedies like - the patch, ginger capsuls, accupressure bands and electric relief bands. Plus once you're ill there's supposedly clear soups like chicken broth and getting up on deck.

My spouse is somewhat vulnerable to excessive ships motion while I am not. Even so we carry 2 or 3 electric relief bands as they help almost immediately AFTER the onset of sea sickness where other remedies generally do NOT help. Especially true of the Patch or any chemical remedy.

Hope this helps somehow...

Captaincrash, what exactly are electric relief bands? Last year I started taking ginger a week before and did Bonine the day before and day of and still got very seasick the first day/night. I also had on the bands on the wrists. I hate to miss out on everything the first night again. However, I'm in a small rural area and not sure where I could buy such a thing. Can you clue me in on those?
Thanks, Melanie

 

[ibouncetoo]

Melanie, 7584 actually sounds good, as it's more mid-ship than aft. Also, you are still about 4 doors down from the laundry, so that shouldn't impact you at all.

I just saw your post on our thread about the room being 'refurbished'. Boy, this is a hard call. The one thing to keep in mind is that the cruise IS NOT sold out. So if you keep your room and it is unbearable, you can probably get DCL to move you. IF you are moved after boarding, you can notify all the DIS TAG folks with just a quick phone call to their staterooms, so no worry about missing out on the game.

 

[tiadeg]

In reply to the quote referencing room 6508:

OK, now I'm nervous. We have rooms 6516 and 6518 booked for this month on the Wonder. I've been on 2 cruises and have gotten sick both times. Both times, I didn't take anything at the start of the cruise. I'm prepared to take something before I board, but this post makes me soooo nervous cause our rooms are so close. Also, as far as my kids - do I just give them something before we board, or wait to see if it affects them (its such a short cruise, even 1 day of seasickness matters). It doesn't bother my husband. My oldest son went on a whale watch and was fine. Any comments or suggestions to help me feel better. Much appreciated!!!

 

[Hanover]

Both my ds5 and I tend to get very motion sick. He and I ALWAYS get sick on small boats if we do not take any seasickness meds and I get sick on anything that spins sideways. On a Carnival cruise in 2004 I took Bonine before boarding and still got sick in the middle of the night right out of sound sleep. Our room was as aft as you could get. I wasn't taking the Bonine as often as I should have been taking it so it was my fault. I got the patch for a Wonder cruise in 2005 as not to worry about taking pills so often. I did get a dry mouth and blurry eyes, but no seasickness at all. Our room was mid-ship and we had a balcony to get fresh air. Our last cruise was and Eastern in 5/2006 and we decided to skip the balcony to save some $$. I wore my patch but still got so ill I had to skip formal night's dinner. I actually went and sat down in AP and the smells made feel like I'd get sick again. I left and went to my parents mid-ship room and laid down for a couple of hours and got fresh air on their balcony. I took the patch off and used Bonine the rest of the week and was perfectly fine. My DH and boys were completely fine too. I've never given ds5 or ds9 anything on either DCL cruise except on one excursion. My ds5 did get sick on a really rocky boat trip to a dolphin excursion to Anguilla so I gave him half a Bonine on our St. John snorkel/beach excursion the next day and he was fine. We are cruising again in a month and went back to a midship room and verandah. I will be using Bonine as a precaution. I really think the Eastern had much more motion than the Wonder cruise we took. We were out at sea for the first 2 days and you could feel the motion in our room much more than mid-ship. We weren't in the room a lot other than sleeping, but I think the worst mistake I made was when we were in the stateroom, I looked out of our porthole often at the waves while sitting on our sofa and shouldn't have since the sofa faced backwards from our direction we were traveling. It made me feel pretty queasy but I just loved to look at the ocean. I honestly think that your room will be better than what we had. I really think a few rooms back would have been less bouncy. We even tried to get 6516 (we had that one booked when we had a hold with Disney but went with DU and couldn't get it). I guess my bottom line suggestion would be to take Bonine just-in-case before boarding and see how much motion you get and how you feel. Have a great cruise.

 

[tvguy]

If you or anyone in your party are sensitive to seasickness then you do have the usual remedies like - the patch, ginger capsuls, accupressure bands and electric relief bands. Plus once you're ill there's supposedly clear soups like chicken broth and getting up on deck.

...

I would strongly suggest you check with your doctor before taking ginger. For some with certain medical conditions it can be a big problem.

 

[gimpeaux]

We went on our first DCL cruise on the Magic in late March 2006, and by the time we booked (9 months before we cruised), we didn't have much choice on rooms, ending up with 5002 (cat. 8) -- the second room from the fore end of the ship. DW is a little motion-sensitive, and all of us had read about the fore rooms having more motion, so we came prepared with bonine, ginger, you name it...and never needed anything at all. While we felt motion at times, and while the first night at sea took a little getting used to (getting "sea legs"), motion never caused any of us (DW & me, age 49, and DD12) to feel queasy or worse. We had no storms, so that may have made the difference. Some nights, in fact, it was positively cozy going to sleep with what felt like a gentle rolling. Maybe we're just lucky or crazy. In any case, we're probably going to book the same room for our next cruise, in March 2008.