Seasickness And Boat Tours
 

We are traveling to Anchorage and Seward in August and are interested in taking one of the boat tours to see the glaciers as well as the wildlife. From reading the posts , we are concerned about seasickness. My wife and 12 year old daughter are sensitive to motion seasickness. It seems as though the Kenard tours out of Seward have a real possibility that people will get sick. Are there other tours that present a lesser risk? I seem to recall reading something about the Prince William Sound tours usually being calmer.Thanks in advance for any input.

Here are a few ideas for seasickness that work well. Hope they help.
Eat citrus before you leave on the tour. This would be anything from a glass of orange juice to a piece of fruit.
If you start to feel queasy on the boat, look as far as you can into the distance rather than looking at the water below.
You may also want to look into seasickness patches and now dramamine makes a "less drowsy" formula.
Have a great time--the tours are great.

ttt

I agree that taking some medication to prevent seasickness is probably the best bet.

Either Dramamine or Bonine are sold OTC - just make sure you take it at least an hour before your tour departs. Any queasiness, look to the horizon and stick to the middle of the boat.

They told us to take the night before and that morning. My wife gets very sick and she has done 5 cruises and four or five boat tours and not been sick yet, because she takes precautions. The ones who usually get sick are the ones who say they never get sick!!!The sea bands are worth trying but my wife said they didn't work for her.

I have terrible motion sickness - I can't even ride in the back of a car w/o getting sick. We went to Hawaii 2 years ago and I got a small round patch to stick behind my ear called "transderm scop" - from my doctor. It worked miracles: I was able to enjoy boat trips, road trips (while reading a book) and airplanes without any problem. I recommend you ask your doctor for something similar for both your wife and daughter - no side affects!

Another vote for over the counter Bonine!

Merry-go-rounds, carnival rides and Imax are too much for me, but with Bonine I am ready for the high seas. I've used it a couple of times for the Kenai trips from Seward and in much rougher seas on smaller boats for longer periods of time.

Don't know if Prince William is calmer but it has more glaciers and less wildlife.

The 26 Glacier cruise out of Whittier is on a high speed catamaran and is extremely smooth. Smaller or deeper draft boats might give a little motion, but nothing severe. For the most part that portion of PW Sound doesn't give the ocean enough "fetch" to develop swells that would be troublesome.

The Kenai Fjords tours out of Seward pass through some more exposed waters and may lead to urpy conditions for those that are prone to such. I recommend wrist bands, OTC meds, and candied ginger, which is widely used to prevent seasickness, without any negative side effects.

Bonine is the BEST!! I am a six bagger on one flight (while wearing the wrist bands) - if you know what I mean. A travel agent told me to take one Bonine the day before you leave on the trip, then one a day. I have travelled all over the US and Europe on trains, planes, big boats, small boats, cars, buses, subways, you name it. It is the only thing that works for me and I have tried them all. The trouble with the patch is I got extremely dry mouth. They are also chewable little oragne flavored pills, so very eay to take without water should you forget at breakfast. For those who use alcohol, drinking is not recommended when wearing the patch. I cut my patch in half and it helped somewhat with the cotton mouth, but still prefer Bonine. I understand...Good luck.

Bottom line with seasickness "remedys": they range from working for a few people some of the time to those that work for most people most of the time. Wristbands, eating citrus, and staring at the horizon are at the bottom of the scale, bonine is about the middle, and scopolomine is near the top. So , you are going on a trip of a lifetime and taking a single boat tour- do you take a chance that you will be one of the lucky ones for whom citrus or wristbands are effective? Or do you increase your odds by trying something clinically proven to be effective for most people, most of the time? You decide.

Ginger tablets. Get them at the health food store.

You will not get seasick on the glacier tour out of whittier. They actually guarantee it or your money back on most of the glacier tours. The Kenai Fjords trip will make a seasick-prone person real sick if the seas are choppy, which they frequently are. I have had great success with taking Bonine the night before (lasts 24 hours, but most of the sleepiness has worn off by the time you wake to go) and believe it or not an oil called MotionEaze from the Ace Hardware acrosss the the Kenai Fjords building. They swear by it and I do too. Put some dabs behind your ears and it works like magic.

The prescription Transderm Scop patches work great, and usually only require a phone call to your doctor to get the script. However, be aware of side effects and remove the patch immediately if you experince any adverse reactions. We used them during our 2 week trip for boat tours, fishing trips, and flightseeing, and never experienced the slightest nausea. BUT, we noticed on the 3rd day of wearing them (they are good for 72 hrs) that our teen daughter's pupils were extremely unequal. One was constricted while the other was grossly dilated. This was a side effect of the patch. After removing it, her pupils and vision returned to normal within 24 hrs, but it was quite scary until it corrected itself.

Cola Syrup is sold at most drugstores. Doctors "prescribe" this to combat morning sickness for pregnant women because...it is safe for the child.

Ginger, too, works to restore one's equilibrium.

There is a patch that a person wears behind the ear (...the name escapes me now...) and it is truly effective. It must be applied the night before (the day trips we normally take when ocean fishing). If a person applies it upon departure, or upon awakening that morning - it will not work.

Of five women aboard our last trip, only our female guest who applied that patch the night before did not do the technicolor yawn. The others were selling Buicks for a few hours. This is worth researching.

Bon voyage!

If your wife and daughter really are subject to seasickness I would never suggest they go on any sort of boat on the sea (lakes are usually OK - unless they're so big they have waves) without some sort of med - Dramimine, Bonine or Scopalomine - which ever one works best for them.

Also - the smaller the boat the quicker/worse the seasickness.

I know all the meds have side effets - but IMHO they're much better than vomiting over the side for the whole trip.

I know a lot of people talk about ginger, wrist bands etc - and they make work well for people who have a little queasiness if the water is rough - but if you are truly subject to motion sickness (I get sick on any boat or plane, in the back seat of cars and riding backwards or even reading on a train) the only thing that helps are meds.

(And I did consult a specialist on this - he said it's primarily a function of the anatomy of the inner ear - and if yours is bad - even the typical exercise programs do little to allieviate it.)

I work on a barge off the AK coast, and nearly everyone on the crew takes Bonine, including myself. Good stuff.

Also, I second the motion for ginger tablets, which help calm an upset stomach. I usually prefer to grate it into some tea, but if you have less time than I do, the tabs should work fine.

Another tip for viewing from the deck is the same as what dancers do: Focus your eyes on a single far-off object and don't look down. Have a good time!

We took the 9 1/2 hour Kenai Fjord Cruise and I took Bonine before leaving and ate sugared ginger during the trip. I would highly recommend that you do not take this loooong, looonnnggg cruise if you are prone to sea sickness. It is in open water a good portion of the time and I sat on the "sea sickees" bench most of the trip, along with 4 others who were wearing "the patch", wristbands, and yes, one Bonine user - me. None of us fed the fish although we had to watch one little old lady who hung over the edge the entire trip. I think she was tempted to jump overboard just to end her misery! It just goes on and on and on!!!! In fact, probably a third of the people on the boat were sleeping much of the time. We did see a few whales, many puffin, sea lions and a few otter, but then so did the people on the 6 hour trip that doesn't go out in the open water so much. Both cruises go to one glacier, (ours went to the Northwestern glacier - hence the name) so that is not an issue either. It does help to keep your eye on a distant mountain top and also helps to talk to someone to get your mind off the feeling. The crew on the boat were terrific!!! Everyone was friendly and helpful with crackers and ginger ale, but unless you just love to roll with the swells and bounce on the chop, don't take the 9 hour cruise - in my opinion.

I am a physician prone to motion sickness on dive boats - the most reliable drug is scopolamine. It is available in the "patch" which is Transderm Scop. I would be a little concerned about a 12 year old - you cannot adjust this dose very easily. My personal preference is Scopace. It is scopolamine in a 0.4 mg tablet. You can take 1 or 2 or half of one, dependent on weight or tolerance. It does require a prescription, but is cheaper than the patch. It causes less dry mouth or pupil dilation than the patch. It is taken every 8-12 hours, so 1 dose probably would cover the boat tour then would wear off - so it's easier to use and not use as you truly need it [the patch lasts 3 days and you can't take it off and put it on as you need it]. You can read more about it at www.motionsickness.net

I personally use and prescribe this, and as a disclaimer, I do NOT own any financial incentive in this company

Our kids are 10 and 4 years old !!
Coming from Europe for 2 weeks vacation next month for seeing glaciers would you then now not recommend this full day cruise ?? Better on a Glacier Bay NP boat tour ??

Why is it EVERY TIME someone posts asking about which boats or cruises or routes are likely to be less rocky than others, 90% of the responses are ALWAYS remedies for seasickness instead of answers to the question? They didn't ask what to do about seasickness, they asked about tours that might be calm.