My Wife and I have never cruised before, and are thinking about taking our first one. Our main concern is my wife is prone to sea sickness. She can be on boats (i.e. Maid of The Mist, any boats or ferry in Disney World). She has gotten sick on a ferry with choppy water and a submarine when we surfaced. We want to do a 7 day Alaska cruise in August 2021. We would appreciate any help pointers. Such as what type of stateroom, what she can do to help prevent any issues, etc. Thank you.
Lower deck and toward the middle of the ship (less motion). Balconies can help with easy access to fresh air.
Which cruise itinerary? If you do round trip, such as from Seattle or Vancouver, you will be mainly along the Inside Passage, with less open ocean water than going to/from Seward (less motion). Sailing from Seattle has you usually travel more on the ocean side of Vancouver Island, whereas sailing from Vancouver has you on the Inner Passage side (less motion).
I’ve no advice/experience with medicines or devices for seasickness.
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First off buy Dramine and take it daily. Second stay in a outside room with balcony if possible. Why? because with a inside room there is no day and night and take my word for it you won’t like it. Third room should be above the water line by at least 3 floors and in the center of the ship. Why? because you will not get the wave noise or noise from the prop. To close to the bow and you get more movement or the ship. You will find that even in the best of cases you will feel movement in the ship. Not much most often but sometime little movement is worse than a lot of movement, because you just feel off kilter. Take Motion Sickness tablets (Dramine or the like) before getting underway and each and every day there after. Another precaution. The SUN! On the top or tanning deck always use sun screen! The sun on the ocean nearer the equator is 5 times as hot as the mainland. You will burn if you are not careful. I have seen people forget this and get burned to a crisp. A trip of pure agony. Good luck and have a magical time.
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Thank you. It looks like a round trip from Vancouver.
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Thank you so much
We’ve cruised a fair amount. We did an Alaskan 7 night northbound, Vancouver to Seward, in 2017. It was wonderful. Much of the Inside Passage seemed about as tame as being on a river. I like Cruisecritic.com as a resource for lots of info on cruising, on destinations, and on specific ships. It has articles, reviews, and a discussion forum. Other people know of other resources. Have a great trip!
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Frequent light meals can be very helpful. As counterintuitive as it might be, an empty stomach can actually make you more likely to get seasick. Our first cruise skirted a tropical storm and it was pretty tough. The first food they served wasn’t until dinner the day we were underway and people were already getting queasy. The crew was going door to door urging people to go to dinner. A protein/carb snack seems to do the trick for us (ex packs of crackers with cheese spread).
Some info on meds:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1899#differences-between-dramamine-and-bonine
We’ve found “fruity” smells/tastes help our family a lot. We carry a bag of jolly ranchers when boating or driving in mountains.
If y’all struggle onboard, let the crew know. They will be quick to help.
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A seven day Alaskan cruise is a pretty big deal. Perhaps your DW could ask her doctor about a transderm scopolamine patch to wear. My DH gets motion sickness, especially on dive boats. He does better on bigger boats. He just keeps a patch on during the entire vacation and does fine.
I guess I wouldn’t want to take a chance on such a big investment of time and money, when you do have an indication there might be a problem, now’s the chance to really be as proactive as you can be. Maybe she can do fine with non-prescription remedies, but it might be worth it to have a back-up just in case.
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I’ve been researching Alaska cruises a lot. Alaska is known for having less trouble with seasickness than being out on the open water. If it goes through the inside passage instead of out around Vancouver Island that is also a plus. Disclaimer is that I haven’t been on my cruise yet, but this is something I’ve read many times.
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The one time I got seasickness was when I was dehydrated, out in the sun, and then ate too much too quickly. Make sure to stay hydrated and to eat but not too much too fast, especially at first. 
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I think that could make anyone sick, sea or no sea!
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Bonine is my choice for sea/motion sickness. Have used it on a cruise, sailing trips in the Carribean and in WDW. Popped a couple every morning and good to go! No drowsiness and could still enjoy a cocktail.
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We just returned from our cruise on the Fantasy. I was worried about motion sickness, primarily in myself. I, too have gotten sick on a ferry in choppy water. We booked a midship room with a balcony. Midship because that was the recommendation I read if you are worried about motion sickness. Balcony because any time I have been motion sick I found fresh air helped. I did bring some medication with us just in case but didn’t take anything preventatively and none of us were ill. There were a couple of times we did feel some motion in our room but it didn’t make us ill. We did notice that there were some times when we felt the motion much more when we were at the aft of the ship and once forward in the theater. I don’t think I personally would want to have an aft or foreward room for this reason.
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I’m not sure if anyone mentioned this already but you may want to consider asking your doctor for a prescription for Scopolamine patches to wear on your cruise.
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This works great for my DH. He puts a patch on at the start of the trip and leaves it there. It’s for diving and those dive boats are horrific if you’re the sea-sick types.
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