Sea Lice?

[Pangie]

I am new to the boards, but learning lots about the Magic. We are cruising Feb. 16,2002. What exactly are 'sea lice' and how can I avoid them? This is making me very nervous! We have been to St. Maarten and St. Thomas, many years ago, but never heard of sea lice. Hope someone can let me know so I can avoid them!
Any other cruisers on Magic Feb. 16?

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

As far as I can tell, it's simply another name for jelly fish (also mis-named), just like "sea wasps."

Of course I could be wrong.

 

[Cruise]

Sea lice are jellyfish.... but "baby" jellyfish....very small and difficult to see, if at all. Because they're so small, they can get caught in your bathing suit and cause stings even after you're out of the water. If you come in contact with them, you'll develop a stinging rash.

There are a couple of products out there that claim to be able to ward off sea lice, but I've never tried them so I don't know if they work.

Always try to rinse off as soon as possible after leaving the water and change out of your suit, if possible. Wash or rinse out your suit well before putting it back on.

HTH,
Julie

 

[Pangie]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Jellyfish I can deal with. I was afraid sea lice are like head lice. Rinsing off quickly sounds like a good idea and I will pass it on to the rest of my family.
So, anyone else sailing 02/16/02? The ship is full so someone else must be out there on these boards! Looking forward to hearing from someone!

 

[danjulia]

DH, myself, DS(7) and DD(3) and my mother will be saling on the 16th!! Can't wait.

The mentions of sea lice kind of freaked me out too. I think we are planning to just hang out at Great Bay Beach in St Maarten and do ferry over to St John the St Thomas day. I haven't heard about those critters in connection with those places.

Do you have kids sailing with you? We're flying in on Friday and staying at the Radisson.

Sue

 

[Pangie]

Hi Sue,
So glad to get a response about fellow cruisers. I notice you are from Mass., we are too! We don't leave until Saturday, hope there is no snow!
We will be six traveling, me, my husband, our daughter and her husband and their 2 kids, ages 12 boy, and 9 girl.
We are all so excited and starting to cruise shop and pack. These boards are full of great advice.
See ya later!

 

[Pangie]

We, my daughter that is, has received our DOC's for our 2/16/02 cruise. We won't see them until next weekend, but they have arrived! Has anyone else on the same cruise received their's? We have an early flight out and an afternoon flight back, oh hate to think of the end of the cruise already! So excited!

 

[albiats]

I just returned from the Magic on 1/26 (missing it already) and I ordered the Safe Sea product over the Internet.

It comes with your choice of SPF 15, SPF 30, or no SPF at all.

It's difficult to say for sure if it indeed kept the Sea Lice away from us. We applied it in the cabin before we left the ship so it would be sure to be in place, and the label says at least 10 minutes before going in the water.

The only place we went into the water was at Castaway Cay, which is the night before you disembark, so we didn't have that much contact with other guests that didn't use it. I don't know of anyone that said they did have it. I do know that there was a man at Guest Services the evening after we left St Thomas asking if they knew anything about a red rash and that he would visit the Medical Center the next morning.

There have been other cruisers in the last 2 or 3 weeks that have said on this board that they encountered a rash after swimming.

I considered it to be inexpensive insurance. It cost me $12.95 for a 4 ounce bottle, plus shipping. Personally, I'm going to keep using it every time I cruise to that area.

The official season for Sea Lice in the Atlantic is from March to August. It's also a huge ocean and I wonder just how accurate the timing would be.

 

[wilmywood]

Would you post that email address for the sea lice product? We are travelling on March 9th and think 12.00 is a valuable insurace price against a red rash! Has anyone used it and seen it work?????

 

[Mumph39]

Hi there Pangie.

We are cruising on the 16th Magic. Me, my Husband, and 3 DS ages 12, 11 and 4. I received our documents about 2 weeks ago. Very exciting! Now, we're just working on the packing!

Happy cruising!

 

[4megs]

You can purchase Safe Sea from:

Lighthouse Sports, Inc.
> 525 South White St.
> Wake Forest, NC 27587
> p: 800-276-7705
> f: 919-562-7310

They don't have a web-site yet and are a distributor. You can buy it directly from the manufacturer, but the shipping costs were hefty.

I haven't tried it, but just ordered it - Geoff was very helpful when I placed the order. I agree with albiats - remembering the pain of jelly fish stings and fire coral (apparently it also works for sea anaenomes too) it's an "insurance policy" for us! Here's hoping!

We're on the March 30th Magic - we'd be glad to post any feed back!

 

[Cruise]

For those of you interested, a site explaining sea lice very well:
Sea Lice

Though if you're squeamish, you might want to just pass on it
However, it does show a pic of a person affected by sea lice if you'd like to know what to look for. The rash looks very similar to the poison oak I had this past summer

Julie

 

[albiats]

I ordered mine from Lifestyles Direct online, this is a link to their site: Lifestyles Direct
The Safe Sea product is shown on the home page in the lower right hand corner under 'Body Service'.

It seems to be the same price if you purchase from the manufacturer or from a distributor.

I had another website listed in my notes that I did not order from, it is www.diversdiscount.com, if you wanted to compare prices or shipping.

 

[loudmouth824]

"shutters" I remeber the Sea Lice when I went on my first cruise. It was a the Blue Lagoon in Nassau and they were pretty bad. They're these little jelly fish the size of a dime, and one actually stung me while I was snorkeling with my family. My mother didn't believe me, but then one stung her too. (both of us on the lip) It just felt like someone shocking me.
~*~Toni~*~

 

[disneyholic family]

where we live we have jelly fish the size of an armored personnel carrier.....the local sunscreen has protection against them...
as i understand it, it doesn't keep the jelly fish away, but stops the stinging from causing a reaction.....or something like that...
anyway, it works like a dream....
assuming you put it on BEFORE you get to the beach.....at least an hour before...
otherwise it won't work...