How to Prevent Seasickness on a Cruise: 10 Effective Remedies

Table Of Content

• How much does it cost to see the doctor on a cruise ship?
• What’s the Best Stateroom Location to Avoid Motion Sickness on a Cruise?
• I've heard about people getting stomach bugs on cruises. How can I avoid that?
• Homeopathic remedies
• Seasickness: what to do if you get seasick on a cruise
• Planning a cruise is an exciting experience that offers endless possibilities for adventure and relaxation.
• Talk to Your Doctor

Popular cruise itineraries tend to be on routes that are less prone to rockiness, such as in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Alaska’s Inside Passage. Once you venture deep into the Atlantic and Pacific, you never know what you’ll get. You may want to keep this in mind if you are a first-time cruiser testing your sea legs. Here are nine tips to help you avoid getting sick on your cruise vacation. Lastly, avoid booking a guarantee stateroom if you think you might get seasick. Although it may seem counterintuitive at first, selecting a stateroom with a window or a veranda can actually help combat seasickness.

How much does it cost to see the doctor on a cruise ship?

It may sound simple, but keeping hydrated by drinking a lot of water will help prevent feelings of seasickness. While on a cruise you may be getting too much sun and even drinking too many alcoholic drinks, which can lead to becoming dehydrated. An over the counter medication like Bonine or Dramamine, can be highly effective to deal with symptoms of seasickness, so you can enjoy your cruise. If a mid-ship cabin isn’t available, then opt for an aft cabin or mid-aft stateroom. If at all possible, try to avoid a forward cabin, as many cruise passengers report feeling more motion in this location. In some cases, the ship can hit rougher seas and high winds, and there will be some rocking.

What’s the Best Stateroom Location to Avoid Motion Sickness on a Cruise?

Port agents will often arrange a taxi or even an ambulance to the treatment center for you. In the best-case scenario, your appointment will be quick, your issue resolved or aided by the specialist, and you can hop back on board to your cruise cabin to heal while watching the scenery go by. You'll be charged a fee for service if you need to visit a physician or nurse during your cruise. Cruise ships don't file insurance claims, so you'll have to do that directly with your insurance company once you're home.

I've heard about people getting stomach bugs on cruises. How can I avoid that?

Vitamin B-6 is often recommended to help with nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, and it’s essential in the production of serotonin. Although electric essential oil diffusers are prohibited by some cruise lines (Disney comes to mind as one that specifically doesn’t allow them), you can always carry around a small bottle to take whiffs as needed. Or consider buying an aromatherapy necklace you can refill with your favorite scent. Consult with your doctor before you take a cruise out of the country to make sure you are up to date on recommended vaccines.

Homeopathic remedies

Those who experience motion sickness in cars, planes, or roller coasters are already familiar with the feeling of being seasick. If seasickness has you hesitating to get on a cruise ship, look no further! I went ahead and tried out the most commonly recommended seasickness hacks to find the best one. Over-the-counter medications like Dramamine, Meclizine (also known as Bonine) or diphenhydramine (commonly called Benadryl) can also help prevent or alleviate seasickness. On some ships, these are dispensed freely or are sold in the sundries shop.

Is Cruising Worth The Seasickness?

In this article, we’ll explore the causes of seasickness, the signs to look for, and some tips for preventing and managing seasickness on a cruise. Here are some tried-and-true tips and advice for how to avoid motion sickness on a cruise. But of the approximately 170 cruises I have been on in my life, I have only actually been sick twice, once in particularly strong waves off the coast of Corsica and once when the Pacific was misbehaving off Baja.

Seasickness: what to do if you get seasick on a cruise

If you don’t have a wristband on you – or you left it at home when you set sail for Mexico – you can try pressing your wrist with your opposite thumb for relief. If you start to feel the telltale signs of nausea, head out onto the deck for some fresh air. This change of environment will alleviate the rise in your body temperature (save that for a day on the beach in the Caribbean), and the wind in your face will help reduce uncomfortable sweating. While there, focus on your breath to bring yourself back down to a calm and relaxed state. Choose a stateroom that is in the middle (midship) of the ship to reduce motion sickness. The midship area on a lower deck will experience the least amount of sway compared to the other sections of the ship.

Planning a cruise is an exciting experience that offers endless possibilities for adventure and relaxation.

You want your cruise vacation to be perfect, with no scratchy throat or headache to drag you down. Most people sail safely without succumbing to a sniffle, feeling seasick or having their stomachs otherwise gurgling. That said, you can always increase your odds of avoiding such problems.

Cruising on the Disney Dream with a Severe Motion Sickness Sufferer - The DIS

Cruising on the Disney Dream with a Severe Motion Sickness Sufferer.

Posted: Tue, 06 Dec 2016 08:00:00 GMT [source]

If you’re feeling seasick, a patch may be one of the easiest treatment methods, which is why so many cruisers recommend it. If you know you or a family member experience severe motion sickness, bringing a seasickness patch (or several) with you is likely in your best interest. Even if you don’t end up using it, it’s better to have it on hand if things get a little bumpy. Don’t forget to pack some seasickness medication or prevention treatments to bring along on your cruise vacation. To prevent seasickness, be sure that you choose the best stateroom location possible.

When it comes to enjoying your vacation, nothing can change things faster than being seasick on your cruise. Meanwhile, it’s said that motion sickness occurs in about 25% of people. So on a cruise with 4,000 passengers, 1,000 may be worried about not feeling their best.

Another wise option is to pick large, modern ships -- not a difficult proposition with the industry trending toward larger ships. Relatively new mega-ship that weigh 100,000 tons or more have stabilizers which are used when needed to provide the smoothest ride possible. Some cruisers swear that applying a Sea-Band wristband the minute you embark can ward off unwelcome motion sickness.

They contain a plastic stud that stimulates the P6 acupressure point to help relieve nausea and vomiting. Read your potential cruise itinerary to find out if there are any tender ports in store for you, or ask your travel agent. The other, cheaper option is to pack a reusable water bottle to fill up at the water taps at the buffet. There may be signs telling you not to fill your bottle, but you can get around these by filling glasses and dumping them into your bottle at your table. With these types of bookings, you can’t pick your cabin location, meaning you could end up in a room where the motion is more pronounced. Having a visual connection to the horizon helps your brain make sense of the movement, allowing you to better adapt to the motion of the ship.

No one is suggesting not using the handrail on a staircase, but get in the habit of pushing the elevator button with your elbow and not putting your hands on the bar when you order a drink. And just FYI, if you’re sharing these things that germ experts wouldn’t share, you’re putting yourself at an increased risk of getting sick. Royal Caribbean Group's physicians and nurses are required to maintain Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) training. The medical staff on oceangoing vessels are trained to handle emergency situations such as a heart attack or stroke and they have defibrillators and other life-saving equipment on board in case of such emergencies.

Most ship stores sell a limited supply of over-the-counter medications, usually at a marked-up rate from what you'd find at home. Cruise ship medical centers carry a more extensive selection of over-the-counter and prescription medicine, though nothing like your local pharmacy or hospital. Again, fees for obtaining pills can be quite high, and you might not be reimbursed through your health or travel insurance when you return home and submit a claim. No, the full amount of onboard medical care will be charged to your onboard account, regardless of whether you are fully insured at home. Should you require medical care in a port of call, services provided in foreign ports must often be paid in full by cash or credit card before you are discharged. If you've purchased travel insurance, it will often cover the remaining amount.