Sea Sickness/Cape Horn

[vacationaddict]

My husband and I are at the beginning stages of planning a trip Jan 2008 on the Infinity around Cape Horn. Then only concern we have about taking this cruise is getting seasick around the Cape. We have cruised before and have never had an issue. What are your thoughts?

[greatam]

My husband and I are at the beginning stages of planning a trip Jan 2008 on the Infinity around Cape Horn. Then only concern we have about taking this cruise is getting seasick around the Cape. We have cruised before and have never had an issue. What are your thoughts?

 

If you are prone to motion sickness, the waters around Cape Horn can be very rough and you could get sick. And sometimes the waters are glass. You will never know until you actually get on the cruise.

[Keith1010]

The reality is that you will likely encounter choppy seas in this area. While some cruisers are fotunate that the seas are not choppy on a given voyage, the odds say the seas will be choppy as you go around the horn. We cruised around the horn in January, 2005 and experienced choppy seas. But, we did fine. We normally don't have a problem with the seas but I would recommend that you take something a day or so before as a precaution. You might consider bringing Bonine with you. The key is to take it before you encounter any rough seas and it may make you tired.

 

I have to tell you that a South America cruise is a wonderful experience. The scenery is breathtaking and you don't have so many ships to compete with as you do in places such as Alaska.

 

Keith

[Bookish Angel]

My doctor prescribed Phenergan should it be needed. I had it intravenously when I had food poisoning once and it really helped although it made me go to sleep - which was fine!

 

I'll take the Dramamine knock-off unless the pitching and rolling gets to be excessive - then it is on to the Phenergan!

[vacationaddict]

Thanks for your replies. In the past, we have taken Mechlizine (spelling) with us when we cruise. The only time I have taken it was when we did the transatlantic and encountered 30 foot waves. I also wore seabands the entire trip. Had no problems with being sea sick. I think we are going to go for it. Planning on taking the Infinity in Jan. 2008. Hope some of you out there join us. Sounds like a wonderful experience.

[dileep]

Thanks for your replies. In the past, we have taken Mechlizine (spelling) with us when we cruise. The only time I have taken it was when we did the transatlantic and encountered 30 foot waves. I also wore seabands the entire trip. Had no problems with being sea sick. I think we are going to go for it. Planning on taking the Infinity in Jan. 2008. Hope some of you out there join us. Sounds like a wonderful experience.

 

We also took meclizine with us on our January 2006 cruise. We were fortunate to not have any rough seas on our trip. Celebrity also had meclizine available at the Guest Services desk for those that wanted it.

 

As Keith says it is a wonderful cruise; certainly was one of our favorite vacations. Make sure to take time to visit Iguazu Falls before the cruise if possible.

[Aussie Gal]

We had the smoothest seas when sailing around Cape Horn last January but in saying that we also had the roughest seas from the Falkland Islands down to the peninsula of Antarctica 5 days earlier. We were in a Force 11 gale for 24 hours and a large amount of passengers and crew were ill.

 

It is just luck whether you have smooth or rough seas in that area. The weather changes hourly and it can be calm one minute and then blow up very quickly. If you are at all prone to seasickness, first of all book a cabin that is in the middle of the ship and take plenty of medication with you. The worst part of the ship is always the forward area.

 

Jennie

[Splinter]

We did this trip in November/December 2001. We had the roughest seas I have ever seen on a cruise ship right out of Valparisio (they don't call them the Roaring 40s for nothing!!!), and I was seasick for nearly a whole day in spite of both medication and wrist bands. I have never before or since been seasick on a cruise ship. We did have a forward cabin low in the ship, but I was sicker on the upper decks.

 

The rest of our trip we had no problems, including pretty smooth swells around the actual Cape, and smooth weather in the Falklands (unusually so), but the crew told us about a trip the previous year on the same route and ship (HAL Ryndam) when a wave washed over the top of the ship on route from Cape Horn to the Falklands, breaking windows in both the bridge and the Crow's Nest bar, so I guess it is just the luck of the draw.

[freddie]

We've just returned from an 18-day Antarctica cruise on a small ship, the Hanseatic. We were enormously lucky in our weather, having only two days with high seas (one on the way to the Falklands and the second around Cape Horn). We used a tablet called Scopace, which is a form of scopolamine, on those two days and were very satisfied with the results. (By using the Scopace, we managed to miss no meals at all, even with glasses being tossed off of tables by the heavy seas. We were even eating a huge special lunch of German sausages while the ship was bouncing around.) Scopace is preferable, in our opinion, to the patch, as Scopace is effective in as little as an hour after taking the tablet, as opposed to the patch which takes far longer to take effect; and Scopace also leaves the system very fast, contrary to the patch. We simply took the Scopace just before it appeared we'd need it and stopped as soon as the seas were better. The tablets are taken in a dose of one or two (depending on body weight) every eight hours, until no longer needed. The only side effect we encountered was the most common one, a very dry mouth and throat. That was easily remedied by lots of schnapps at lunch and wine at dinner... You can google Scopace to get to their website, which is something like motionsickness.net. We just took the physician info from the website to our doctor to get the prescription, which was not expensive. Even though the storminess around Cape Horn can be a problem, it is great to see the cape in heavy seas to understand how terrible it was for the old sailing ships.

[freddie]

Deleted duplicate post. Sorry.

[Island Cruiser]

For some reason, we cannot get my partner, Freddie's, reply post to work; so I will try with my address:

 

We've just returned from an 18-day Antarctica cruise on a small ship, the Hanseatic. We were enormously lucky in our weather, having only two days with high seas (one on the way to the Falklands and the second around Cape Horn). We used a tablet called Scopace, which is a form of scopolamine, on those two days and were very satisfied with the results. (By using the Scopace, we managed to miss no meals at all, even with glasses being tossed off of tables by the heavy seas. We were even eating a huge special lunch of German sausages while the ship was bouncing around.) Scopace is preferable, in our opinion, to the patch, as Scopace is effective in as little as an hour after taking the tablet, as opposed to the patch which takes far longer to take effect; and Scopace also leaves the system very fast, contrary to the patch. We simply took the Scopace just before it appeared we'd need it and stopped as soon as the seas were better. The tablets are taken in a dose of one or two (depending on body weight) every eight hours, until no longer needed. The only side effect we encountered was the most common one, a very dry mouth and throat. That was easily remedied by lots of schnapps at lunch and wine at dinner... You can google Scopace to get to their website, which is something like motionsickness.net. We just took the physician info from the website to our doctor to get the prescription, which was not expensive. Even though the storminess around Cape Horn can be a problem, it is great to see the cape in heavy seas to understand how terrible it was for the old sailing ships.

 

Please forgive us if these duplicate. Cheers, Pat