Seasickness

Are the patches available at pharmacies in ports such as Cozumel??

Wonder if (like many other medications) scopolamine patch can be obtained in caribbean ports of call without a prescription. Possibly cheaper too.

Wonder if (like many other medications) scopolamine patch can be obtained in caribbean ports of call without a prescription. Possibly cheaper too.

Since it is available in Canada without prescription, I would image it is also available in other countries.

I know you guys probably won’t believe me but insurance companies do keep track of what generic medicines are in back order and update their system accordingly. I have worked in pharmacy for 15 years. Most of the time a doctor stating no generics isn’t even needed most of the time. But of course better safe than sorry.

 

The pharmacy I work at is a specialty pharmacy and right now it does not show any generic Transderm patches available. But hopefully it will be available again soon.

I would have thought it would have been that easy. But the Pharmacy made me get a new prescription stating no generic. Said it was because of my insurance. So just putting it out there my experience.

Hi All,We are taking our first ocean cruise. Can anyone recommend any patch for seasickness? Hoping we don't need any, but I would rather be prepared.

Thanks in advance

Shirley

I always take something with me just in case. I have never had seasickness in the past but my last two cruises, I had a bit of nausea. I took some ginger candy on our first cruise, I didn't need but a friend did. It worked wonders for her. Last cruise I didn't have anything so I bought bonine (sp?) from the ship store. Didn't help a bit. I drank ginger ale and it helped, so here are just a few extra things.

We are just booking an ocean cruise with Viking. I’m traveling with someone who is very afraid of sea sickness and is prone to it. She does wear bands. I remembered the big ships like Celebrity where it was like a moving city so you feel nothing. I assured her it was this way, as did the Viking sales agent. Now I’m seeing it’s often not. Is this the typical experience? We are in the middle of the ship. 

I think one of the measures mentioned above should work. I don’t like sea sickness so we choose cabins midship on Deck 3 and I take meclizine daily. The sea bands and ginger are backup measures. I also know the medical staff are experts in dealing with this if all else fails.

Most importantly, Viking has a young fleet with the latest technological advances. 

your friend best be prepared with oral medication to help.  Ginger candy, green apples are two benign treatments.  Meclizine is an oral medication over the counter ( grocery /drug store and Amazon) that can be taken once a day.  I dont get any side effects with it.  Scopolamine patches are pretty heavy duty and have more potential side effects.  She will need to talk to her doctor about it.  It is contraindicated with certain medical conditions

There is a popular You Tube person who is a dedicated cruiser, a TA and very prone to motion sickness, even in cars.  She has talked about getting seasick, even  on the large ships.  It really more depends on sensitivity and the sailing conditions.  low center room will help

1 minute ago, Meander Ingwa said:

your friend best be prepared with oral medication to help.  Ginger candy, green apples are two benign treatments.  Meclizine is an oral medication over the counter ( grocery /drug store and Amazon) that can be taken once a day.  I dont get any side effects with it.  Scopolamine patches are pretty heavy duty and have more potential side effects.  She will need to talk to her doctor about it.  It is contraindicated with certain medical conditions

 

There is a popular You Tube person who is a dedicated cruiser, a TA and very prone to motion sickness, even in cars.  She has talked about getting seasick, even  on the large ships.  It really more depends on sensitivity and the sailing conditions.  low center room will help

I agree with this as retired pharmacist. Scopolamine does indeed has many side effects. I would stay with oral meds. If your friend has a hard time they can always go to the medical center and get a shot of an anti-enmetic in the butt worse case scenario 

On 9/13/2018 at 5:52 PM, lackcreativity said:

Can someone tell me if ginger candies and ginger capsules are equally effective?

I realize this was asked 5 years ago, but in case it’s still relevant to someone, I advise going with the capsules. You get more ginger than with the candies. Worked beautifully for me when we had choppy seas. Good thing because I found the wrist bands uncomfortable. 
 

Forget ginger ale; most of it has only a tiny amount of ginger, if any. 
 

I didn’t try green apples, but during our ups and downs Viking put out bowls of them everywhere. 

7 hours ago, Omax4 said:

I agree with this as retired pharmacist. Scopolamine does indeed has many side effects. I would stay with oral meds. If your friend has a hard time they can always go to the medical center and get a shot of an anti-enmetic in the butt worse case scenario 

The medical centre also has a basket of meclizine sitting on their counter to take as you need them.

Meclizine works for me and I start taking them 2 days before I start to travel.  

14 hours ago, SarahDevorah said:

We are just booking an ocean cruise with Viking. I’m traveling with someone who is very afraid of sea sickness and is prone to it. She does wear bands. I remembered the big ships like Celebrity where it was like a moving city so you feel nothing. I assured her it was this way, as did the Viking sales agent. Now I’m seeing it’s often not. Is this the typical experience? We are in the middle of the ship. 

The size of the ship has very little to do with sea keeping ability and since larger vessels have areas further from the centre of gravity, they actually experience more movement.

Least movement is experience midships, on lower decks and in the middle of the ship. Therefore, in rough seas, use the Living Room rather than Explorers. In the MDR, request an inside table closest to the Host/Hostess Desk.

Experienced a couple of Tropical Revolving Storms and a deep frontal depression on a single cruise and the Viking ships handled the seas well.

FWIW, in 2016, I experienced my only one big ship cruise (Princess R/T NYC to Halifax) and had more turbulence than any of the 5 Viking ocean cruises I have taken since then.

I have used the scopolamine patch and it worked. (Drake passage was a good test). There are also prescription pills (dramamine).

I thought the ginger thing was bogus but it turns out there are actual published studies that say that it works.

As far as the other ones- unless I see an actual study my suspicion is of a placebo effect. And the placebo effect works only if you think it's going to work. So it you decide to try these other things make sure you believe it's going to work. That is, don't go looking for studies and don't read this reply.

21 minutes ago, pavementends said:

I have used the scopolamine patch and it worked. (Drake passage was a good test). There are also prescription pills (dramamine).

 

I thought the ginger thing was bogus but it turns out there are actual published studies that say that it works.

 

As far as the other ones- unless I see an actual study my suspicion is of a placebo effect. And the placebo effect works only if you think it's going to work. So it you decide to try these other things make sure you believe it's going to work. That is, don't go looking for studies and don't read this reply.

I don't think one needs a prescription for Dramamine.  We can buy it over the counter, but prefer Bonine (meclizine) as it doesn’t have the side effect of drowsiness that Dramamine has.

26 minutes ago, pavementends said:

As far as the other ones- unless I see an actual study my suspicion is of a placebo effect. And the placebo effect works only if you think it's going to work. So it you decide to try these other things make sure you believe it's going to work. That is, don't go looking for studies and don't read this reply.

Oh no, too late!   LOL

Actually, I use the patch.  It's the only thing that works for me.  I place no trust in ginger or wrist bands, or other non-medical "treatments".

I get wicked dry mouth.  A small price for me to pay.

I am usually prone to motion sickness, but on our recent Viking, I was fine while my husband had one day of not feeling well.  We were midship, deck 5, but the seas were really rocky.  We had friends on the top deck, forward.  They were really seasick.  There were green apples in baskets and some sort of medication for the asking.  One didn't have to go to the medical office to get it.  I found Viking very accommodating trying to help alleviate everyone's suffering.

I wear sea bands and take non-drowsey Dramamine (no prescription).  I also take a few Yogi lemon ginger tea bags and have a cup in the evening.  Worked well so far🤞

I hadn't been worried about this -.....until reading all of this. This will be our first ocean cruise - but we have done catamarans, zodiaks, even our own boats. I had never had an issue until one time in Kauai on a catamaran where I did not take anything, but also could not eat anything while sailing. We will be upper deck forward on our Alaska and next year's Mediterranean cruise. I guess I will bring everything (except the patch) and hope it isn't needed.

2 hours ago, Murt22 said:

I hadn't been worried about this -.....until reading all of this. This will be our first ocean cruise - but we have done catamarans, zodiaks, even our own boats. I had never had an issue until one time in Kauai on a catamaran where I did not take anything, but also could not eat anything while sailing. We will be upper deck forward on our Alaska and next year's Mediterranean cruise. I guess I will bring everything (except the patch) and hope it isn't needed.

Catamarans have a large GM, so any rolling would be the polar opposite of the normal slow gentle rolling on a cruise ship. Catamarans list then snap back quickly.

15 hours ago, millybess said:

The medical centre also has a basket of meclizine sitting on their counter to take as you need them.

 

Meclizine works for me and I start taking them 2 days before I start to travel.  

Meclizine is available at most pharmacies in the US  (behind the counter) and from Amazon. We recently paid $5.98 for a bottle of 100 on Amazon.

4 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

Meclizine is available at most pharmacies in the US  (behind the counter) and from Amazon. We recently paid $5.98 for a bottle of 100 on Amazon.

Yes, when we had a place in Florida I would buy the Rugby brand from Amazon.  I prefer it to Bonine as it makes me less drowsy.  Unfortunately, it's very difficult to buy it now here in Canada and in the States.  I'm well stocked for our next several cruises, but it's mostly expired stock.🤷‍♀️

Bonine is meclizine - same drug. If you take the same dose, should do the same thing. Dramamine ingredient does cause more drowsiness, usually. Meclizine is also used for people who have vertigo.(retired pharmacist).

4 minutes ago, Murt22 said:

Bonine is meclizine - same drug. If you take the same dose, should do the same thing. Dramamine ingredient does cause more drowsiness, usually. Meclizine is also used for people who have vertigo.(retired pharmacist).

Yes, I know.  I am wondering if it's the inactive ingredients which makes it more agreeable, less drowsy?  It would be nice to know that and your expertise would be appreciated.  My experience is that Bonine meclizine makes me tired and Rugby meclizine doesn't.

Only thing is that maybe more of the active drug gets in your system with brand name, but that is not supposed to be the case with approved generics. There are no other active ingredients to cause drowsiness. If you get the chewable Bonine, you would get it in your system quicker than swallowing a tablet - but that shouldn't make much of a difference. Check the dose of each - because meclizine comes in 12.5 and 25mg, not sure about  Bonine.