taconictraveler

I'm wondering what sort of remedy is best for potential seasickness on my first transatlantic crossing on the QM2 next week?
Transderm patches have been suggested? any opinions?

hetismij2

My DIL swears by wrist bands with acupressure buttons. There was also someone on the Hurtigtruten in March who used them and swore by them. She was fine, her husband, normally a good sailor was a bit green around the gills on occasion.

Something like these: http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Wristba.../dp/B000RH1RV2

GBbabe

Ginger is good, either ginger ale or ginger beer (ginger beer is non-alcoholic) for mild cases. The purser also sells pills which worked for me and there is always the sick-bay if you get very ill.

DH would say to not worry about it since the QM2 is so large and stable and you are sailing in the summer. But I can tell as soon as I am on the ship (not as easily as the QE2 though).

Have fun and it is a big ship, so give yourself at least 1/2hr to get from one place to another.

jane1144

As a life long, sea sick, small boat sailor, I have some experience. ( I also get car-sick!) I use the sea bands but sometimes have to take Gravol (OTC in Canada) (In the US try Dramamine). The transderm patches work very well but have several side effects, the most annoying being extreme thirst. I have also suffered double vision which persisted for two days when I used them. Ginger is really good as well. I always try the lowest tech solution and work up to the drug if I need it.

Pegontheroad

I like the wrist band. I used one on a whale-watching expedition and had no problem.

Dramamine tends to make me sleepy, and the transderm patch behind the ear made me so dizzy I had to take the day off from work. That's just me. Maybe someone else had a different experience.

I like Jane's suggestion of the lowest tech solution first.

taconictraveler

I'm of two minds: mostly that the simplest thing first is the best, and then, again, I want to be prepared and enjoy the trip! Decisions, decisions, decisions!

hetismij2

Well the bands don't cost much so maybe you could try those first, and maybe take some ginger with you too.

Unless it is seriously rough I doubt you will have a problem anyway. No doubt they sell stuff on board too to help.

If you do feel queasy get outside into the fresh air. DO remember to eat too.

DebitNM

Bonine is far better than Dramamine, doesn't make you sleepy and is the otc for meclizine:

http://www.drugs.com/meclizine.html

Do check warnings and ask doctor if is is right for you.

nytraveler

Patches work on about 85% of people. they do nothing for the other 15% of which I am one (found this out taking a ferry from Oslo to Copenhagen).

The most reliable method is dramimin once daily. Yes, it will make you a little sleepy - but much better than deathly nauseous.

For someone who is truly motion sick waiting until you start to feel ill is fatal - and it may take a full day or more to recover once you start taking a med. If you just think you MIGHT get seasick - then play with the bands or ginger or whatever.

taconictraveler

Thank you all for these ideas. I've actually been on one four day cruise, come to think of it, many years ago in the Aegean in the Greek Isles. Didn't have any problem, and never thought about it. Guess I'm just getting older!

nukesafe

I agree with Pegontheroad, and others, that the lowest tech solution is the most effective. I have been a sailor most of my long life, and the old salts I sailed with as a young man told me of the only tried and true, never-fail, positive cure for sea sickness is the following:





OAK TREES!

If you lie down under one, you will begin to feel better almost immediately. It really works!

jaja

Orange peel. The oils are supposed to be a cure. Haven't tried it myself but just remembered it.

bilboburgler

Given the shear size of her and the stabilisers I would be amazed if anyone could get seasick on the Queen Mary, but to help.

1) get your eats syringed before you go (yes really) anything that stops the balancing element working in your head will not be good
2) buy a proprietry drug from a chemist
3) take a little ginger root and carve it up as required
4) take some dry biscuits, no salt, no fat the sort that are designed to just be crunchy (in the UK these could be "water biscuits" or those amazing things Jews eat), these will not cure you but there is somethng nice about zero taste food when you are being ill

unclegus

I would also go with the ginger root ,I like crystalised ginger,easy and cheap to get,nice to eat too.
Mythbusters did a programme about Sea sickness and certainly said the ginger cure was pausible.(scroll about 3/4 down the page)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2005_season)

Dukey1

I would go, carrying some sort of selected "remedy" BUT I would WAIT and see just how the motion affects you. You have to realize that these ships are very well-stabilized and often people don't even GET seasick. Of course, they've slathered and lathered and dosed themselves with all the suggested remedies and attribute their lack of distress to them.

Feeling adventurous?

laverendrye

Ask the barman for a Whisky Mac--equal parts of green ginger wine (Stone's for example) and whisky. Cunard with its British heritage should be able to provide it unlike some other lines.

Works for me.

unclegus

now that sounds like my ideal sea sickness cure.

taconictraveler

I'm loving these latest ideas! How about if I order a Whiskey Mac and also eat crystallized ginger dipped in chocolate???

Avalon2

My husband gets seasick in a bathtub! He never felt a thing on The Qm2
AND WE HAD SEVERAL DAYS OF ROUGH SEAS on an October crossing. If yu need ab-nything you can get it from the pursers

nytraveler

If someone has severe motion sickness the size of the ship is immaterial.

I get sick on any ship, any plane, in the back of large cars (I have to sit in the front) and on trains if I have to ride backward. If I stand on a dock and watch the boats bob up and down I start to get nauseous. (And it IS in my head - it's a function of the specific structure of your inner ears. I went to an ENT for vertigo - he took one look iny ear - and said - you get really motion sick don;t you. And said -just use dramimine.)