sea sickness & ship size & sea differences

[newbie280106]

Hi there,

I'm considering an eastern med cruise next spring and am a bit concerned about sea sickness. I've been on one cruise before in the caribbean and was ok most of the time (ok being that my stomach felt a bit off but not too bad) with the evening's being the worst (after the show). I took an anti-nausea pill daily (can't remember the name), ginger tablets and even bought one of those expensive "relief bands" - the one that gives an electrical current.

 

So my question is how different would this cruise be given that most of the ships I'm looking at are a bit smaller than the one I've been on, and given that I'd be sailing different waters?

 

How does the eastern mediterranean sea (in april/may)compare to the western caribbean (in jan)?

 

Is a bigger ship better? I was on RCL Voyager which is 139,000 tons and I'm considering the Princess Grand (109,000), Norwegian jade (formally pride of hawaii) (92,000), and celebrity galaxy (78,000).

 

Thanks for any help

[cb at sea]

The larger, newer ships do have better stabilization devices than the smaller, older ships. That being said, you can't predict what the seas will do. Wind, weather fronts... all play a part!

Continue to take your Bonine (or whatever) and book a cabin near the center of the ship. And pray for glassy seas!

[Happy ks]

Even the largest of ships will be tossed around in a rough enough ocean. The stabilizers only help the side to side rolling, not the forward and back motion.

 

But that's not the answer you are looking for. Unfortunately, there is no reliable answer, it's just something you have to wait and see. Take your precautions along, perhaps see what the weather is like a few days before leaving in that region.

 

You will feel less motion in the areas of the ship that are more mid-ship and lower level. Except, you won't be staying in your cabin for the whole cruise (I hope). Many people prefer these areas for their cabin for just this reason. I don't give a whole lot of attention to it, I'll book aft, I prefer not to book forward, close to the elevators works best for us. Kind of funny, because we avoid using the elevator as much as possible ;)

[San Diego Ellie]

Newbie, the electronic relief band has worked perfectly for me. This is probably not the reason it did not work for you, but.....are you sure you had it on so that the charge or tingle went through to the middle finger? If it is placed so that the current goes through a different finger, on one of the sides, it will not work.

[newbie280106]

latebloomercruiser.

I actually had a lot of trouble trying to find the right spot. Most times I could only find a tingle that went down the ring ringer and I'd move the device around and couldn't find any other spot that resulted in a tingle.

[kitty9]

There are a number of things that contribute to how stable a ship is. Ones with shallower drafts tend to be more unstable. Older ships with older stabilizers and less technology will be less stable. There are also two kinds of wave motions. There are waves, the ones you see with whitecaps and then there are swells. It's the swells that make ships more bouncy. Swells tend to get much higher and are much larger than waves. They contribute to more of the rolling motion of the ship. I've been on some of the biggest ships out there, namely the QM2, and it was horribly rough. And then I've been on smaller ships such as Crystal, and even in force 8 winds with seas of more than 40ft, and we didn't feel much motion at all. If you weren't sitting by the windows on deck 6 and saw the green water washing over the windows, you really wouldn't know it was as rough as it was.

[San Diego Ellie]

Newbie, I assume you used the conductivity gel? Maybe you did not make it tight enough. When I have had trouble finding the spot, it is because I have not had the band as tight as was needed. You definitely have to have the tingle go through the middle finger for the device to work. That is in the directions. Try it again on your next cruise. Hope this helps.

Ellie

[DanJ]

A lot of times at night, you feel more motion because you've been inside so long. Dinner, show, casino, another show, whatever else. Just go outside and usually a lot of that feeling will disappear. Your mind isn't used to motion it can't see.