What makes you think you'll get seasick?

[shipgeeks]

Lots of people visit amusement parks and choose to go on the most brutal, nerve-wracking rides. Many also do white-water rafting, sailing, power boats, etc.

And yet I see more and more posts about the fear of seasickness on a big ship.

We've done 30+ cruises in all kinds of rough seas, including trans-Pacific, Bermuda, trans-Atlantic, Bay of Biscay, and have never felt uncomfortable.

So I'm curious about those of you who take meds before your cruise. Have you experienced seasickness previously? Do you know someone who has, and assume you will, too? Or....??

Or am I just getting a warped idea of how many people think they'll get seasick if they don't take a lot of precautions?

[paul929207]

Like you, we have been cruising for years and never gotten seasick

[NoobCruise]

When I was a kid, I never got motion sick. I grew up spending summers on a houseboat with most of those days spent on a ski boat or on skis or knee board. Never had any problems. LOVED amusement parks, especially roller coasters.

 

However, as I started getting older, I started having more problems. I quit doing amusement park rides because it's no fun if you have to grit your teeth from nausea the whole ride lol I get carsick if I ride in the back seat. I've done one cruise before and with all my years on a houseboat, I never dreamed I would get sea sick. I did not take meds before I boarded and even though we were on smooth seas, I was feeling pretty lousy by dinner and felt pretty bad our entire first sea day. I was never outright sick (vomiting), but I felt nauseous, light headed, cold sweaty, just blah. So my husband picked up some sea sick meds from the front desk and after about 2 Days I was feeling better. We hit some rougher seas on our last sea day - people were staggering and side-stepping across the dining room lol and I felt fine as long as I took my meds on time.

 

I get a little nauseaous on planes, trains, and automobiles now too so I'm quite sure it was sea sickness and not a bug lol.

 

Feeling sick and nauseaus can really put a damper on your trip. I WILL be proactive on this next trip and start taking meds the day before I fly (2 days before we board). I don't want sea sickness to effect even a minute of my cruise.

[GoochDSA]

My fiancee is the type who will get motion sickness from walking (ok, not quite but close enough). Sea sickness is a different beast than motion sickness.

 

On her first cruise we played the wait and see game. She got sick shortly after we left the embarkation port. At that time I got her the wrist bands and made her drink gingerale often. She still got sick. By the end of the cruise she was using Bonine to barely get by.

 

On her second cruise she started with the Bonine before we left and we brought along ginger pills to try to fight the sea sickness for her. She handled things better, really only spending the first full day and last full day sick.

 

For her third cruise, after talkign with her doctor she was perscribed the patches for behind her ear. She had no issues at all that cruise, except for the morning we embarked she had a dazed side effect from the patch.

 

She gets sea sick, as many others do. It is what it is. Just because I don't or you don't doesn't mean those who do are over reacting.

[maxandmolly]

It never occurred to me to worry about it. In the build up beforehand everyone at work asked me about it, I just shrugged. My Dad was career Navy and never had any trouble, I was just gonna trust my genetics! My roommate, meanwhile, was worried about beforehand, but being the classic procrastinator, never did anything about it before we left. She DID feel sick a few times. She took my Dad's advice, which was to lay down for a hours as soon as the cabins opened up, so she was sleeping while her body adjusted to the motion of the ship. Motion I never even noticed. The one night we did hit rough seas (even staff reached out to things to keep balance a time or two) I thought she might actually have to go to med services. But she just went to bed and was ok in the am.

I think it's the real reason she won't go along a second time.

[ger_77]

I've experienced motion sickness since I was a child. I have gotten sick in more vehicles of conveyance than you can imagine. Even today if we are driving through the mountains on curve after curve, I will get very nauseaus. Ugh.

 

On our cruises I've been able to travel well with the addition of Bonine (meclizine) to my daily routine. I take them at bedtime so if there are sleepy side-effects, I won't notice them. Thanks goodness we discovered Bonine during our first cruise, otherwise it would likely have been our last.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[CanWeGoYet?]

I am prone to motion sickness & sea sickness. As a kid I was always the one who would be car sick. I think it was a combo of sitting in the back seat and my Dad's driving tendencies - hard steering, braking, etc. It was like a ride on the wild mouse.

 

I do fine on amusement park rides though. It's only a few minutes actual ride time, if I start to feel queasy I know I'll be off the ride before I feel really awful. Then I may need to walk around or have a snack or ginger ale before I try another one. On a ship or other vehicle, if you are the passenger then you are stuck with no easy exit. If the amusement park rides lasted half an hour, let alone days (as does a cruise) then I would probably be in rough shape for those too.

[Putterdude]

I have never had the problem but I have seen people afflicted with it including a honeymooning couple on a Hawaiian cruise. It wasn't a pretty sight, the bride hadn't been able to hold anything down for a week and they were going to have to fly home.

[Poppet1964]

Literally, I can't read in a rocking chair. I've always gotten motion sick. Once it starts, it's very difficult to get it back under control. I'm not anxious to 'give it a try' and then have to give up a precious day of my vacation waiting to feel better.

 

I fly with meclazine and cruise with the patch. Personally, I have no problems with either, nor do I have problems with motion sickness using those precautions. Thank goodness! If I did, cruising would be out for me!

[Keith1010]

Lots of people visit amusement parks and choose to go on the most brutal, nerve-wracking rides. Many also do white-water rafting, sailing, power boats, etc.

And yet I see more and more posts about the fear of seasickness on a big ship.

We've done 30+ cruises in all kinds of rough seas, including trans-Pacific, Bermuda, trans-Atlantic, Bay of Biscay, and have never felt uncomfortable.

So I'm curious about those of you who take meds before your cruise. Have you experienced seasickness previously? Do you know someone who has, and assume you will, too? Or....??

Or am I just getting a warped idea of how many people think they'll get seasick if they don't take a lot of precautions?

 

Got seasick one time while on a 200 passenger seaboarn ship. Was not the roughest seas we ever had but because of the particular way the ship was rocking I was not feeling well at all. By the time I took something it was too late and made it worse.

 

Now, we do take something the first day and if the captain says that we are going to encounter rough seas we do the same. We do this just as a precaution.

 

Keith

[Andee]

Before we ever went on a cruise, we knew that DH gets ill if he reads in a car or while a plane taxis, cannot tolerate many amusement park rides (although roller coasters are OK), and had gotten seasick on small boats--so we suspected that he would be prone to seasickness. And he is.

 

He starts taking Bonine before we leave, and we book a cabin as low and midships as possible.

[Yankeeinthesouth616]

Personally, I don't experience motion sickness in any form OTHER than the occasional queasiness on board a cruise ship. That having been said, I did not approach cruising with the assumption that I would get seasick. I learned the hard way! Haha.

[navybankerteacher]

Seasickness is something that sometimes happens to some people. In the U S Navy perhaps half of all shipboard personnel experience some form of seasickness their first experience with rough weather. After that, virtually all acquire a sort of immunity. The same should apply to the typical cruiser: after sailing once - with just a little rough weather - you will not be bothered again --- except to the extent that you convince yourself that you will get seasick. Essentially it is a self-inflicted problem. It is possible that all the devices, meds, etc. merely serve tio delay the first experience.

 

Especially on a large, well-stabilized ship seasickness is pretty rare. Enjoy your cruise, get used to the motion and you will come to enjoy it. Alternatively, continue to worry about it and dither yourself into hypersensitivity and make the decision to stay ashore.

[NoobCruise]

Seasickness is something that sometimes happens to some people. In the U S Navy perhaps half of all shipboard personnel experience some form of seasickness their first experience with rough weather. After that, virtually all acquire a sort of immunity. The same should apply to the typical cruiser: after sailing once - with just a little rough weather - you will not be bothered again --- except to the extent that you convince yourself that you will get seasick. Essentially it is a self-inflicted problem. It is possible that all the devices, meds, etc. merely serve tio delay the first experience.

 

Especially on a large, well-stabilized ship seasickness is pretty rare. Enjoy your cruise, get used to the motion and you will come to enjoy it. Alternatively, continue to worry about it and dither yourself into hypersensitivity and make the decision to stay ashore.

 

Sorry, but neurolgists at Stanford would disagree with you. I'm not a doctor, but I am a cellular and molecular biologist and worked in a research lab in the School of Medicine for the department of pediatrics for several years. It is an inner ear/ neurological condition with a genetic component. It is genetically linked to migraines and epilepsy. It doesn't mean if you get motion sickness you have migraines or epilepsy, but statistically, they are often found together in the same person (my daughter has all 3) and there is research evidence in ongoing studies that they are found on the same chromosome. An epileptic can not just decide not to have seizures. In the same way, a person can not just decide not to get sea sick. There are some that can psychologically induce it, but for those who regularly experience motion sickness, it is likely a medical condition. Maybe frequent sailors adjust and adapt to it (and the navy sails a whole lot more frequently then your average vacation cruiser, so are probably more likely to get used to it) but it is not "self-inflicted". If the "getting used to it" were true, I would expect people who get car sick to "get used to it" and for the most, that doesn't happen.

[NoobCruise]

Here's a couple of research papers on the topic. If you're really interested, do a search on Medline (Pubmed) to see how much work has been done in these fields and the many papers discussing the conections

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6866603

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16316307

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17054690

[Jimnbigd]

I got sick on my first cruise, but I think it was more from overeating and not drinking enough water.

[geoherb]

DH has a history of motion sickness, including car sickness. He doesn't do amusement rides. He has been fine on our cruises with the help of bonine. I think it's partly the placebo effect. But I'd rather him take a pill each morning and not worry about the thought of getting seasick.

[calliopecruiser]

There's a particular kind of movement that causes me to get nauseated - a roller coaster doesn't have that same smooth back-and-forth motion that makes me feel ill. There are some amusement park rides, like some motions in a plane flight, that make me feel very ill. I haven't gotten sick on a cruise ship in the past, but I can see that with some rough seas how I might.

[navybankerteacher]

Sorry, but neurolgists at Stanford would disagree with you. I'm not a doctor, but I am a cellular and molecular biologist and worked in a research lab in the School of Medicine for the department of pediatrics for several years. It is an inner ear/ neurological condition with a genetic component. It is genetically linked to migraines and epilepsy. It doesn't mean if you get motion sickness you have migraines or epilepsy, but statistically, they are often found together in the same person (my daughter has all 3) and there is research evidence in ongoing studies that they are found on the same chromosome. An epileptic can not just decide not to have seizures. In the same way, a person can not just decide not to get sea sick. There are some that can psychologically induce it, but for those who regularly experience motion sickness, it is likely a medical condition. Maybe frequent sailors adjust and adapt to it (and the navy sails a whole lot more frequently then your average vacation cruiser, so are probably more likely to get used to it) but it is not "self-inflicted". If the "getting used to it" were true, I would expect people who get car sick to "get used to it" and for the most, that doesn't happen.

 

Of course there are some with a physical condition which makes them liable to motion sickness and they will never get used to it - however they are the exception and not the rule: experience has shown that the vast majority do get aclimated to the motion -- and usually within a few days. Of course, any effective placebo effect is welcome - from as simple as a rubber band around the wrist to as sophisticated as prescription motion-sensitivity deadeners --- the fact remains: the majority of cruisers should not have a problem -- unless they decide to convince themselves that they do have one.

[Warm Breezes]

Lots of people visit amusement parks and choose to go on the most brutal, nerve-wracking rides. Many also do white-water rafting, sailing, power boats, etc.

And yet I see more and more posts about the fear of seasickness on a big ship.

We've done 30+ cruises in all kinds of rough seas, including trans-Pacific, Bermuda, trans-Atlantic, Bay of Biscay, and have never felt uncomfortable.

So I'm curious about those of you who take meds before your cruise. Have you experienced seasickness previously? Do you know someone who has, and assume you will, too? Or....??

Or am I just getting a warped idea of how many people think they'll get seasick if they don't take a lot of precautions?

 

I don't get sea-sick cruises, but my DS has been known to turn a little green a few times on a cruise (although he refuses to take any type of medications) and my DM was sick for more than half of the cruise we took with her (trying everything she could while sailing to get rid of it).

 

We just did Cedar Point last week and DS(18) and DD(15) walked on Top Thrill Dragster 4 times in a row with no wait and then went on to ride most of the other rides in the park in 90+ degree heat...DS didn't get sick at all. My mother never had motion sickness before or since our cruise with her. I have only gotten sea sick once on the Ludington Car Ferry to WI, never on a cruise. My point....who knows when or why, but if you think you are prone to it, IMHO it's better to be safe than sorry and take some meds before you cruise. I wouldn't wish what my DM went through on her cruise on anybody.

[lady_cruiser]

I got extremely sick while taking a train trip from New Orleans to Connecticut years ago. I was so sick going and on the return trip that I was dehydrating. Later I was told by my doctor that it was motion sickness.

 

Fast forward about 20 years to 2005 when I took my first cruise and you will find that I was very well prepared against motion sickness by using the patch. And I have been using it ever since.