Seasickness & Remedies Poll

[Swimmergirl]

My family leaves on our 4th cruise next month. None of us have ever experienced seasickness. However, this trip will be the first time we've cruise outside the Bahamas, and I imagine the open waters of the eastern Caribbean will be rougher. So, I'm curious about others' experiences with seasickness and its remedies!

Did you experience seasickness?
If so, did you just ride it out or try something to alleviate it?
What worked and what didn't?

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Well, I can tell you I worried about this A LOT before we sailed last October. I mean, really, really worried about getting sick. I read every post here about it.

What I did for my family of four, I bought Bonine and we tried it about two weeks before we sailed. Good thing we did because we all did not do well on it. DH and I felt totally out of it the next day and soooooo tired and agitated.

Instead, I bought ginger capsules at GNC and ginger gum at CVS. We all took a ginger capsule in the morning and one at night. None of us had any issues but our seas were very smooth. For the rough motor boat ride on our excursion on GC, I chewed the gum.

Bottom line, not a hint of sea sickness whatsoever. But, I still think it was due to calm seas. I pray these capsules and gum would have made a difference if we had rougher seas.

Good luck. I know the worry you are feeling and pray sea sickness will not be a factor for your family!

 

[eyesing4u]

I get extremely seasick. I always have the doctor prescribe the scopolamine (sp?) patch. I have tried to do without and on mild days the Bonine suffices but I find that the patch is the only thing that works for me on rough sea days.

 

[squirrel]

Bonine, I voted it worked but I started taking it the night before the cruise. I'm sure I would have been sick without it. Can't ride in the back of a van, read while in a car, etc.

I have used it twice (two cruises) and will do so from now on. Some have reported feeling more tired but I never noticed anything. I always took it at night, and I didn't think I slept longer or anything. No side effects for me either.

 

[bumbershoot]

However, this trip will be the first time we've cruise outside the Bahamas, and I imagine the open waters of the eastern Caribbean will be rougher.

2 Bahamas cruises and one Eastern (St Maarten and San Juan). I've only felt a little off on the Bahamas cruises, and ONLY on the first night leaving the PC area. The ocean on the Eastern cruise was awesome and fabulous and amazing.

I was ill once on our first cruise, an Alaska sailing, but there were two factors. One, it was the night we left the Inside Passage to go up to whatever glacier we were going towards. And two, I was pregnant, but so newly pregnant the tests wouldn't have worked yet, but it was so incredibly obvious it wasn't even funny...changes in my figure, could smell EVERYTHING around me (that's difficult on a cruiseship, especially in '03 when people could still smoke in more places than they can now), I was going to sleep at 8 when I'm normally a nightowl. Anyway, I was sick that ONE morning and that's it.

So basically that's 4 cruises, one morning being sick for an hour, two woozy evenings, and everything else was just fine. And you've done even better with 4 cruises and NO sickness. I"m not concerned about being ill on a cruise and I'm not sure why you are, either, given your history!


That said, my MIL was recently on a cruise and got a bit ill one night. Her server noticed and brought out a green apple for her. She ate it and felt better almost immediately. Wasn't sick again on the cruise.

 

[Zandy595]

I am VERY prone to motion sickness and the only thing that works for me is Bonine. I take it the night before the cruise and every night I'm on the ship.
I have tried SeaBands and ginger pills, which don't work at all.

 

[nunzia]

I don't know if I'd be sick or not..took Bonine (got the generic, meclyzine, for cheap) and start it day before, take it first thing in the morning and before dinner, and did fine, then take it a day of so after the cruise. I also have a patch perscription I take with me just in case, but am kind of nervous about it as some of the side effects seem rough.

 

[MaleficentRN]

I started taking Bonine two days before we sailed, then every night, and two days afterward. I never felt sea sick or land sick.

 

[chuckm403]

I take Bonine the first 2 days of any cruise. I'm fine after that and don't take it for the rest of the trip.

 

[ludari]

I used to very rarely get seasick but after spending more and more time on small boats in rough waters cruising on a big ship is just a cake walk.

 

[cattrix]

I get really bad motion sickness, I start taking Bonine 1 day before I leave for any trip. We had pretty rough seas on our Alaskan cruise and I had no problems at all.

I only take 1 pill every 24 hours and I don't have drowsiness or other side effects.

 

[nancipants]

I have tried many motion sickness remedies: dramamine, bonine, the patch, sea bands, and ginger. The patch worked, but I hated having to go to the doctor for it, and it also made me slightly drowsy. Dramamine knocks me out cold so that doesn't work. Sea bands didn't work for me at all. Bonine works and used to be my main medication, but in recent years it's made me very groggy.

Ginger is the only remedy I've found that works without giving me drowsy side effects.

 

[Mickeys Carol]

Well, I can tell you I worried about this A LOT before we sailed last October. I mean, really, really worried about getting sick. I read every post here about it.

What I did for my family of four, I bought Bonine and we tried it about two weeks before we sailed. Good thing we did because we all did not do well on it. DH and I felt totally out of it the next day and soooooo tired and agitated.

Instead, I bought ginger capsules at GNC and ginger gum at CVS. We all took a ginger capsule in the morning and one at night. None of us had any issues but our seas were very smooth. For the rough motor boat ride on our excursion on GC, I chewed the gum.

Bottom line, not a hint of sea sickness whatsoever. But, I still think it was due to calm seas. I pray these capsules and gum would have made a difference if we had rougher seas.



Good luck. I know the worry you are feeling and pray sea sickness will not be a factor for your family!

We too, take ginger capsules to prevent sea sickness. We start taking them 2 days before we sail. We also drink Canada Dry Ginger Ale. So far so good. On our first cruise, we did not have anything and my stomach felt queasy on the first night. I had to learn the hard way.. lol

I also took ginger capsules during a cruise with Hurricane Sandy. The waters were really rough...no problems at all with sea sickness.

Have fun on your cruise..

 

[TAK]

I had bad luck with seasickness. I didn't expect to have a problem because I go in small boats all the time and it never bothers me. But the sway of the big ship did a number on my equilibrium and I had "land legs" ("Mal de Debarkment syndrome" they call it) for a month after the cruise. Once it started I took Dramamine, used the bands, etc., but none of it helped.

What I've been told -- and is being reitereated in this thread above -- is that you need to start the treatment *before* you get on the ship, and that it makes all the difference. I'm going to be sure to do that next cruise!

 

[lovin'fl]

First off, I think you will be fine. We have cruised in the Bahamas and in the Caribbean and felt no real difference. Just depended more on weather and speed (one cruise we had to get a medical emergency dropped off and the boat hauled butt...I felt that).

I do get motion sickness, though it has gotten better after 8 cruises. I don't like taking the meds, they make me just want to lay around. So, I take ginger pills (got at CVS and start them a couple days before the trip) and wear Seabands on my wrists (also at CVS). That worked for me. Last cruise, last Aug, I didn't need any of that though. Eating a green apple may help too (might be on buffet).

 

[darkwing818]

As with PPs DW takes Bonine a couple days before a cruise & has had good luck. One side note, on one of our 1st cruises, our DD got sick as a dog , during some extremely rough seas. Our cabin host recommended "green apples" as that was what many of the crew used. He got her a couple & she got better fairly quickly. For the rest of the cruise there were no green apples to be found anywhere.

 

[Gigi22]

We have been on over 30 cruises, a few on DCL, most on HAL. Most of our cruises have been in the Caribbean. DH and I very rarely experience any nausea. That said, we find that persistent rough seas (over 12 hours long) is the hardest for us to get through.

We believe it pays to be prepared. We always take our favourite OTC seasickness remedies with us, as well as some OTC mitigation meds. to rehydrate, and Sea Bands. We avoid 'the patch' because it has so many side effects.

That said, we find that our cruises aboard DCL have been remarkably smooth, very little "motion of the ocean" at all. We think that DCL captains work hard to go around all the bad weather they possibly can.

 

[muse7mom]

My family leaves on our 4th cruise next month. None of us have ever experienced seasickness. However, this trip will be the first time we've cruise outside the Bahamas, and I imagine the open waters of the eastern Caribbean will be rougher. So, I'm curious about others' experiences with seasickness and its remedies!

Did you experience seasickness?
If so, did you just ride it out or try something to alleviate it?
What worked and what didn't?

We did the Fantasy cruise June 7 and none of us have experienced seasickness before so I wasn't very concerned about it. During our three port evenings (Mexico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica) the ship was moving quite a bit. The first night, my DD asked me if I could stop the table from moving. It was like that the next two nights. None of us got sick, though.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I voted for no seasickness, but I want to expand on it.

My husband has always had motion sickness issues. Cars, boats, theme park rides. Generally, he just "toughs it out" on the little ones, but for our first cruise he got the patch from his doctor.

It was exactly what he needed. There were a few days on the cruise that he could tell that without the patch he would have taken up residence in the toilet. But, with it, he could still enjoy the cruise.

He continued to use the patch on subsequent cruises. Although, by our 4th cruise he was getting more side effects from the patch then help. Most of that cruise was actually quite calm (Westbound Transatlantic), so he took the patch off to see how it went. He did fine, but he did buy sea bands in the gift shop that he wore one night when the ocean was a little rough. He now just uses the sea band, but brings along his patch, in case.

When we took our kids on their first cruise, I packed pretty much everything - ginger tablets, Bonine, sea bands, MotionEaze oil, just in case. But nobody took anything before departing.

I know that "prevention is easier than curing" but, since we were on a longer cruise, I felt that there was time to deal with any motion sickness issues IF they arose (most people don't have a problem). If anyone needed to take something, we could give up doing much that day, until the meds kicked in, if necessary. However, on a short cruise you don't really have the luxury of being able to forfeit a day if you need to start taking/doing something for sea sickness.

 

[ahain]

DH and I both use the TransDerm Scop (scopolomine) patch. Yes, we get dry mouth rfom it, but we don't get nauseous!