Seasick in December??
 

I'm presently planning a family cruise in the Western Caribbean for late December'09, but have been told that the waters are very choppy at that time of year and that sometimes ships can't dock at certain ports.
Have you sailed during that time and was it a problem?
Also, I've used the wrist-bands in the past and I think they help- did they work for you and do they have them for kids?
Thanks for your feedback!

NGail:

I have not been on line for awhile and saw your posting about India. Then I found this recent posting about your caribbean tour for late 09. You sound like us...planning ahead.

Is it possible we'll be on the same OATs trip the first part of November?

We are attending the Pushkar Festival...leaving the states on Nov 5.

What about you? It's always been fun to meet someone in advance on the same tour. We (my husband and I) live in Washington state.

We just booked Costa Rica for Feb and Greece and Turkey for May....we are so hooked on OAT. When I think of all those tours we took with 50 on a bus; why didn't we all know about OATs sooner?

There are a few negative postings but we always meet someone who finds everything unpleasant and probably not happy at home either.

Hope to hear from you. Write direct please or I'll never find this posting again. This is my email:

[email protected]

NGail,

We took a holiday cruise out of Miami in December '06. The seas in and out of Miami were 10'-12'. But, that was within the capabilities of the stabilizers and we heard no reports of seasickness. (My wife once got famously queasy on the Queen Mary Tour!)

When the ship got down to the latitude of the Turks and Caicos, there was no further problem. No ports had to be skipped because of weather.

Jeff-
Thanks for your reassuring feedback. We'd heard some bad stories from friends who'd travelled last December and others who'd traveled in December about 5-6 years ago.
On the other hand we had heavy seas late January a few years back out of Miami en route to Panama. Three people at the table for 8 that first night out, 5 the second night, etc. It did get better.
Normally I wouldn't worry, but there'll be 14 of us including some squeamish kids.
Thanks again for posting.

Anyone else?

I haven't sailed in that area, but going to Alaska we had 2 days of violence in the ocean. Ginger capsules kept me healthy. I am the type that gets sick just by looking at the boats!

Ngail, I've heard no such thing. We've sailed in the Caribbean every year for the past 5-6 Christmases and have never missed a port.

We've encountered stormy weather at sea but never anything that a large cruise ship couldn't handle and nothing that prevented us from docking/tendering.

Of course a storm could come up at any time of the year and cause you to miss a port, but I don't think it's any more likely in late December than any other time.

I'd think that prior to Nov 30, during hurricane season, you'd find the waters a lot more choppy.

Thanks so much for your replies!
Can now look forward to next year's cruise without fretting.
Anybody know if the wrist-bands are available for kids? They work really well for me.

Ginger works much much better for sea sickness. The Chinese have used it for thousands of years. In a recent Mythbuster episode, they tried all kinds of stuff and found that ginger (including gigner pills) works best.