My wife and I are going to Maui and plan on taking the ferry to Lanai to spend a couple of days. I have two questions...
1. What is the ferry like for someone with motion sickness. I heard that there is a ferry trip from Kauai where everyone is "losing their lunch". Is this Lanai ferry that bad?

2. Does anyone have any experience with the band or patch. Which is better (do either work)?

Or am I just Maui bound?

James> my wife gets VERY car sick/sea sick..First time we took the road to Hana, had to stop about every mile for her to lean out the door..no fun at all!! She swore she would NEVER go again,,I had heard of the "sea bands" years before but could never get her to try them..well......the next time we went to Maui I talked her into using them..and we got ALL the away there, and almost all the way back before she started to feel a little quezzy, but nothing like the first time.

while the Lanai ferry is nothing unusual for open ocean ferries, some people can't handle any boats.
My husband gets seasick also. We took a 2 hour cruise off Oahu a while back and he used the wrist bands. They really helped, but didn't totally eliminate the queasiness. He tried the patch another time and found it worked very well. Some hints though:
a) Try it at home first. Some people get an allegic reaction. You don't want to find this out an hour from land.
b) take it a little bit in advance. If you wait till you feel sick, it wont work.

I am a certfied massage therapist in MD and learned about Seabands in an elective on acupressure - My local drug store carries them for about $10. You need to put them on 1/2 hour before sailing. Stay on the upper deck, and keep your eyes up - on the horizon or higher! My Mom gets sea sick looking at a picture of an inner tube and did fine between Maui and Molokai using the sea bands. Directions are included in the packet. Some travel agents can also direct you to them... Aloha! Debbie

Aloha James. We took the ferry over to Lanai about 6 weeks ago - it is pretty darn choppy to be completely honest. The captain said it is generally that way in the channel because, well, that's the way it is!! I definatelt ten toward the quesy side of things and have been known to provide chum on other boat trips. I took 2 bonine and was fine - admittedly I slept for about 10 hours that night but felt great on the boat. Bon Voyage, HTH

THe patch has actual medicine. The band just puts pressure somewhere and, supposedly, that makes you less disoriented, but I think it's a crock. I get quite motion sick and the band did not one thing for me. Scopolomine (the patch drug) leaves me a little too woozy. For ferry travel, the best advice is to stay on deck, stay oriented with the horizon, try ginger (it helped my stomach) or gingerale (but don't end up with a full bladder you can't empty without going into an enclosed place), breathe, and if you need to barf, go ahead an barf. Don't try to hold onto it.

In the same vein, has anyone gotten sick from taking the prop plane from Honolulu to Lanai?!?

Put me down for one vote for the wrist bands. Was in the Gulf of Alaska last year and the water was very rough. I figured I could handle it, but decided to dish out the ten bucks to buy my dad a wrist band. He is known for getting sea sick. But, as I was puking my guts out, dad was enjoying the trip! Definately get out on deck for fresh air and look way out on the horizon. Do NOT look at the waves and the bouncing boat!

I am a total wimp when it comes to motion sickness. What I have learned in the last few years is that it is mind over matter. Tell yourself you will not get sick, focu focus focus and you won't. It worked for me.

I have use dramamean (sp) before but it makes me extreemly exhausted and ruins my time.

My wife gets motion sickness very easy and we have found ground ginger root capsules to work the best taken 30 minutes before activity. You can get them at any health food store or most discount stores that sell vitamins. When we ride ferries, my wife stays on the lowest level and does not look out over the water.

Sometimes it's mind over matter. Sometimes it's not, Sal. Some astronauts cope but most have to have help dealing with the disorientation. Some people can use a treadmill without any sensation of motion; others have to be very careful to look at something stationary (like a TV), slow down carefully, and dismount carefully. This is not a failure of mental hygiene, it's physiological mismatches of visual and somatic cues.

In my case, my eyes do not track motion together -- they work separately, and no amount of mental focus is going to change that. You're right, I have to work hard to "focus focus" but it's literal not mental.

In addition, there are some people who take much longer to regain orientation once they lose it. There are reported cases of people taking as much as a couple of months, but in my case it's about 24 hrs., while most "normal" people take only a few seconds.

There are some things people can do -- and the "focus" thing is helpful to keep people from panicking that they _might_ get dizzy. Dancers learn to fix on a single distant spot while they turn, and looking at the horizon is much the same thing. But that doesn't work for everyone (I had to quit dancing), and sometimes there's no horizon.

In James's situation, I'd probably opt for the bouncy but shorter plane ride assuming I could look out the window (and barf if I had to) over the longer ferry ride. What it would take for me would be some marazine, some pepto-bismol and/or ginger for my stomach, and arrangements to lie down or sit still for about an hour on the other side.

The WORST possible idea is to stay inside (below decks or in the plane but with no window) where you feel lots of motion but see everything stationary.

I had a horrible seasickness experience with the patch on a cruise to Bermuda. Succumbed to some kind of shot the ship nurse gave me. First thing she said was...this sea is like a milkpond and all the people who are getting seasick are ones wearing the patch. She then told me to stop by pursers desk next day to pick up 'meclazine' (also known as 'antivert'), a medication for balance difficulties associated with inner ear problems. They were handing it out like candy. You will have to get a prescription from your doctor to get it in the states, but well worth it.

the travel sickness patch can be very effective,but try it out a week before you go,if you do have ill effects these will continue after you remove the patch .if you have no ill effects from the patch its great,i managed ten days on a liveaboard diving boat in the red sea with mine.

The patch is the only thing that works for me. I've never had any adverse reaction and was able to really enjoy the boat ride from Maui to Lanai and back. Saw bottlenose dolphins and flying fish!