Sea Sickness

Ok. You’ve been planning your vacation for months and now you’re finally going up the gang-plank. The last thing you want to do is spend part of your precious vacation time staring into the toilet. ( Sorry. There’s just no nice way to say it. ) To be honest, I’ve only felt a tinge of sea sickness one time. And it was on my honeymoon, heading for San Juan from Miami and we were in a tropical disturbance. In fact, out of the ten people at our dining table, we were the only ones to show up.

It was one of those cruises where you weren’t allowed out on the deck for a couple of days. All meals seemed to come with a side of Dramamine. Everywhere we looked people had patches behind their ears and smiles were hard to find for a while. Eventually, things got better and we had a great time.

Some people are easily affected by the rolling of the ship and others are not. And some people get seasick on one day, and then the next day they’re fine. The more the ship rolls the more people get seasick. But you CAN do something to ease reduce your chances of getting seasick.

Imagine for a moment that you are holding a yardstick upright in your hand. As you twist your wrist the stick goes back and forth. But the top of the stick moves a lot more than the bottom where you are holding it. The cruise ship is moving just the same way. It’s rocking back and forth and also sideways. If you are standing on the front of the boat you might be going up and down twenty, forty, maybe a hundred feet with each up and down cycle. And if you are on the top deck, you could be hurtling back and forth dozens of feet sideways to boot. I’m starting to get seasick just imagining it.

How to avoid getting seasick

So, what can you do? Well, there is always medication. The doctor on the ship is glad to help. They don’t want anyone to have a bad experience.

1. you should drink plenty of fluids. NO, I do not mean get plastered.
2. Try to keep something in your stomach. An empty stomach can make you feel worse, if that’s possible.
3. A lot of people swear that just getting out on the deck and breathing fresh air can help.
4. Dramamine. It’s an over the counter medication that is effective for many people. It can make you drowsy. But they even have a non-drowsy type also.
5. try a Scopolamine patch. Usually behind the ear. It can help relieve the symptoms. But you’ll have to get it from your doctor before you cruise. It’s by prescription only.
6. change your location. Don’t sit staring at the ocean if you’re getting seasick. Maybe take in a movie onboard.

What we do is book our cabin as low in the ship as we can. We also try to get a cabin near the center of the ship. This way all the rocking in any direction is greatly reduced.

I can honestly say, we haven’t been sick, even a little, since we booked our rooms this way. The downside is you are farther away from the Lido deck and all the food. The upside is that the rooms are usually cheaper the lower you go in the ship.