Costa Rica and Panama Canal - motion sickness

[anadi]

We are thinking about this cruise in the future and I am wondering if anyone has experienced rough seas enough to cause motion sickness on this route? I only ask because on our last Windstar cruise, Barcelona to Lisbon, the last night heading into Lisbon was so bad that we were unable to leave our cabin for dinner and 2 of us who practically never experience motion sickness, were very sick despite medication. Turns out that this is a common spot for rough seas.  So....I just want to be forewarned if this is a regular occurence on this route. 

Thank you!

[Strenz]

You should have no problems with the canal passage especially in the winter when the Caribbean and the Pacific are their calmest. Going from the Straits of Gilbrator into the Atlantic is always choppy and it can get severe. It is the confluence of one body of water, the Med. going through a narrow strait meeting up with another body of water, the Atlantic. Can be wicked. The canal is a great trip and  is fascinating. Be sure to read The Path Between Two Seas by Davd McCullough. Gives you a great history of the canal and I think one appreciates the engineering feat more. You will be so hapy you are on a small ship. Happy Sailing

[anadi]

Thank you Strenz, that is reassuring!  That particular night was definitely wicked - the crew even said it was worse than usual and many of them were sick. 

[new_cruiser]

I'll let you know how our trip goes. We board Wind Star tommorow!!!

 

We did Spanish Serenade spring 2017. In our case, we had pretty smooth sailing from Lisbon to Gibraltar. We had more motion from Malaga to Porta de Mallorca - not terrible but a lot of chop. There was too much wind for us to get into Al Meria so the captain kept the ship at Malaga an extra day. So I guess you never know.

[new_cruiser]

We got back home last night. 

 

Most of the time, the motion on the ship was mild. There were a few short periods when there was enough roll going on to make it difficult to walk a totally straight line, but the nature of the motion didn't make me feel internally uncomfortable and I didn't take any of the Bonine or ginger pills that I'd brought along just in case. 

 

All the ports other than the embarkation and debarkation were tendered. Most of the tendered ports were wet landings. Balboa and Quepos were tenders to a dock (i.e. dry landings). Bahai Drake was zodiacs to a dock so a dry landing much of the time, but we were warned that at low tide it can be a wet landing as it can be too shallow for the zodiac to get to the dock (it was dry at the times I used the dock). 

 

There was enough motion in two of the ports that one had to time stepping from the ship on to the tender as the tender bounced up and down. 

 

The marina was open in Puerto Jimenez so it is working. They had said it might open in Bahai Herradura, but it didn't. That was one of the days where there was a lot of chop boarding the tenders so it may have been too rough for the marina. 

 

I had Keen water sandals for the wet landings. I think I'd get aqua socks / dive booties for future wet landings. The problem with the sandals was that sometimes a lot of sand or pebbles would get into the sandal between my feet and the sole. The pebbles made walking uncomfortable and the sand had to be cleaned away before switching to socks and hiking shoes. For sandy or tiny pebble landings, I might as well been barefoot. The people with the dive booties didn't have that problem.