First time cruiser with lots of questions

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

My first cruise I was worried about the same thing because I get car sick sometimes, but I had no trouble at all. Someone told me to go to the purser desk if I did and they would give me seasick medicine for free, I am bringing Dramamine just in case for my next one since it is a longer cruise.

Hope you and the hubby have a blast!

There is a world of difference in a deep sea fishing boat and a cruise ship! There are times when a cruise ship will have some movement and different folks are affected in different ways. Never had any problems even once when we literally had to grab glasses to keep them from sliding off the dining table! But, that was a very rare thing. If you are nervous about it, just take some motion sickness medicine starting the day before your cruise and keep taking it throughout.

Whatever you do, relax and enjoy your cruise!!

As others have said, cruising is nothing like being on a fishing boat, lol! Boats bob up & down like crazy. Ships are huge and very stable. You may not even realize you're on the ocean at all.

I only cruised NCL once, and that was over 30 years ago but room service should be free unless NCL is an exception. You would be charged for alcohol & certain beverages, and you should tip the person delivering your food a few bucks. On a 7-night cruise there's generally 2 formal nights, although NCL is a very informal cruise line. There will be places you can go if you choose to not dress up. In fact, they might not even have a dress code - hopefully someone who cruises NCL will chime in. I am not a fan of them at all, but from what I've seen & heard, the Breakaway is definitely better than most of the line. They have a nice outdoor eating area, which is something most ships don't have (where you are served - not taking your food out by the pool <g>), and they have some sort of adult area up on deck that friends of mine swear by. You have to book it immediately onboard, or risk not getting a spot.

Sue/WDW1972

Oosterdam 11/27/15

DCL Dream 1/15/16

NCL is freestyle with no formal nights. The best place to ask your questions and read about the Breakaway is here, on the NCL board. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=107

Thank you so much everyone. I appreciate all of the advice, comments and suggestions. I think I am going to get the patch for sea sickness and maybe try a day without once we get going. I am looking forward to it the closer we get and also trying not to be too nervous!

Please do NOT assume because you were seasick deep sea fishing that you will be on a cruise ship.

Very good chance you will NOT!

Good forward to having a WONDERFUL cruise! :)

LuLu

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

 

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

RE: Seasickness - I recommend ginger pills ...

As a first timer I highly recommend doing the ship excursions. There are too many considerations regarding going independently that a first timer would not even know about. All of NCL's formal nights are optional. You do not have to get dressed up.

Thank you so much. I will pick up the ginger pills! Can I find them anywhere? Happy to hear about the optional participation in the formal nights. I'm glad I can just be myself!!!

Thank you so much. I will pick up the ginger pills! Can I find them anywhere? Happy to hear about the optional participation in the formal nights. I'm glad I can just be myself!!!

Ginger pills can be found at drug stores (Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens ...).

Thank you so much. I will pick up the ginger pills! Can I find them anywhere? Happy to hear about the optional participation in the formal nights. I'm glad I can just be myself!!!

Actually, there are no formal nights at all on NCL. There is a night called Norwegians Night Out when some people choose to dress up and the photographers have settings for portraits or dressy pictures. That is the closest thing to a formal evening that NCL has.

For excursions, another option besides ship excursions or your own is to join the Roll Call for your cruise and see if anyone there is organising an excursion with a private tour. Private tour operators are usually very careful to get passengers back on time since their livelihood depends on good recommendations.

A motion sickness remedy that works for one person might not work for the next, and could make a third person sick.

If you take any prescription medication, you might want to ask your doctor what types he'll recommend you try or not use in order to prevent any interference or problems (for example, if you're on a blood thinner, you won't want to take any ginger products).

Try out a few things ahead of your cruise to make sure you don't get side effects, especially if you're like me and many OTC pills makes you drowsy. Then take a few with you as you may need to see how effective they are in actual practice.

As for packing tips, you'll find some threads on this site where people will post all sorts of items they swear by, and many of them you'll never need.

As for ports, I try to get a guidebook (or three:o) and read up on the possible things my family might want to see or do. I'll also google each port and get more ideas. If we do decide to do an excursion, we've found we enjoy more ones that we've booked through the cruise line. I've often checked prices of booking a similar tour from the same operator and not see much of a difference in price. But maybe it's the ones I've compared and it might be different for other types of excursions. I've even been on ship-booked excursions that had ten people, so it's not always a cattle call as some people will claim. Again, it might just be our luck.

Can't answer you about dinners on NCL as we want the traditional dinner experience on a cruise (we disliked our one time with anytime dining for a number of reasons) which you can't get on that line. But I would recommend you go on the NCL website and read up on their FAQs. Many of the questions that will pop into your head before your cruise should be answered there.

On our only cruise we had some very rough water. But it helped that we had an inside cabin so we didn't have to see the horizon going up and down.

The chances of your being seasick on the Breakaway are so low that I (myself) would never pre-medicate. Prepare, yes, so that if you start to feel queasy, then you can start with the lesser remedy and work up as needed. Having nursed my MIL and my DH several times, I have NOT seen that NOT premedicating makes it worse or impossible to shake. You can find ginger "candies" (I can't remember if they are chewy or hard...) in the Asian section of larger or specialty grocery stores. Dramamine/Bonine/meclizine is cheap, so it wouldn't hurt to get a package (OTOH, it is what the ship will give you for free if you get sick), while TransScop (scopalamine patch) is quite expensive... on the other hand it is far less than your cruise and if you are still very worried, get your physician to prescribe two patches (each is worn for 3 days)... My DH got some for two cruises ago and we still have them, he didn't need them a bit, on both a large-ish ship (smaller than the Breakaway) and then on a medium-small ship the size he'd been sick on before -- it had been retrofitted with better stabilizers and gosh do they work! If you don't need them, you can always save them for your next deep sea fishing trip.

Packing advice. Google "wardrobe capsules" or "travel capsules" to get some ideas! Ha, I just googled "cruise capsule wardrobe" and got thousands of hits. There is a board on CC for Fashion and Beauty.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=182

where you may find some ideas specific to Caribbean cruises, without the discussions of whether over-the-door pockets are crucial or a waste of space! (My take -- the latter, if it's just the two of you.)

If someone hasn't already suggested this to you, small bottles of tylenol, ibuprofen, and benadryl (good for stings and bites, as well as other allergies and even head colds) from the dollar store (you can fit two bottles worth in one bottle, or take out the cotton and add extra from your home supply) and a few bandaids can save you a trip to the infirmary. Add small amounts or trial sizes of other things you sometimes use at home, but don't think you have to bring the whole medicine chest!

That's all I got.

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

 

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

We are on the same boat being first time cruisers. I’ve read through FAQ for the line/ship I’m traveling in and have been reading through the board for additional information and guidance from those that know the ropes.

This thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2167242 contains listing of items some take and often the reason why they take those items. You can’t pack everything mentioned or there would be no room for clothes; however, I found it to be a good guide for me to pick the items I believed our family would benefit from.

Happy cruising! :)

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

 

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

http://www.dcfagowees.com/usefulinfo/Cruise_tips.pdf

Good cruise tips for a newbie

On our only cruise we had some very rough water. But it helped that we had an inside cabin so we didn't have to see the horizon going up and down.

Sometimes when you travel, the motion that your inner ear feels does not match with what your eyes are seeing and may be one of the causes of motion sickness. Typically, this form of motion sickness occurs when you are enclosed in either a cabin (such as on a ship) or else you are enclosed in a passenger compartment (such as on an airplane or a train). In these instances, your vestibular system may actually feel motion (i.e. Side to side or up or down) but you may not actually be able to see the movement either because the windows are closed on an airplane or you are inside a ship without any port holes. When we are inside a cabin or a passenger compartment in such situations, your eyes are telling you that you are in a stationary space. However, your vestibular system is trying to tell your brain that you are moving. The disconnect between the two senses may be the cause of your motion sickness.

http://www.motionsickness.net/how-do-you-get-motion-sickness/motion-sickness-causes

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

 

 

 

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

 

 

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

For motion sickness, I used to take one Bonine each morning. It is a 24 hour NON drowsy pill, and it has always worked great for me. HOWEVER on my last cruise, my DH and I discovered Sea Bands. They are amazing! They are little bands, almost like sweatbands, that you wear on your arm, three finger lengths up from the first crease in your wrist. They have a small plastic piece that pushes on an acupressure point for motion sickness. I'm serious, these things worked wonderfully, and I didn't have to take any Bonine on a seven day cruise. That's a first for me because I always get seasick! I've heard you can get them at CVS or other chain pharmacies, but we just ordered ours off of Amazon.

As for packing, don't over pack! I'm so guilty of this, but you really won't need all the close you think you need! But I'll add a few items I have learned to pack over the years. Pack some hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes. The hand sanitizer is great while you are in port or around the ship to keep those germs away. And while I've always experienced very very clean rooms, it doesn't hurt to wipe down the door handles, light switches, remote, etc with the Lysol wipes to try to avoid getting sick (especially with the Noro virus). We bring empty reusable water bottles to fill up with around the ship, especially before we go in port. We forgot to bring one on our last cruise, and we had to buy two travel mugs so we didn't have to keep buying bottled water in port! And lastly, if you plan on buying souvenirs, pack an extra empty bag to carry them off the ship in! Again, from experience, we have forgotten the empty bag and ended up purchasing one on the ship for all the extra items we purchased.

I hope this helps! You're gonna love cruising!

My husband and I are going on a cruise for the first time. This is something my husband has wanted to do for a long time but not something I have really wanted. I am concerned about seasickness. The last time I went deep sea fishing I got so so sick. It was the worst thing ever! Any advice anyone would have regarding sea sickness and the likely hood of it happening? I should say, I went deep sea fishing before and never had a problem, but it does have me nervous.

 

Ok, next questions. Packing advice. What are things you would bring that someone who is a first time cruiser might not think about? Would you do excursions through the cruise line or go on your own? We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

Ok I think that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I really appreciate any and all advice. :)

Make sure you pack comfortable shoes. You need comfy shoes for walking around in port and also on the ship. The ships are huge and you will be doing a lot of walking and standing. I even wear comfy shoes on formal night. Sometimes I'll wear heels to dinner and for photos and then change into a cut flat sandal.

Get an idea of what you want to do in port or for a tour or excursion. Make sure you bring clothing and items that are appropriate for that particular tour. For example if you are going to the beach make sure you have your sun screen, waterproof pouch, beach shoes. If you are going to the ruins or rainforest bring bug spray and a sun hat. Check the weather before you leave. You might need a rain poncho.

Formal Dinner: I'm not sure but I think NCL is all free style. There isn't actually a formal night like Carnival. You are free to wear and dine how you choose. If there is a formal night don't opt out. People tend to wear anything from business casual to actual formal gowns. Most people wear dressy casual clothes for formal night on Carnival.

From a long family of people who get car sick, we cruise and never have a problem. One daughter takes a Bonine on the first day and for the rest of the cruise has no problem. We try to pack light now paring down what we need, using the itinerary as a guide. If we have a day at sea, we know we will be in a swimsuit and carry a cover-up that can be worn to the dining area for lunch (such as a t-shirt dress). If we have an excursion that includes water/boat, we use the same guide. Always take 2 swimsuits if you are on a Caribbean cruise. One to wear while the other one dries. I can wear a top and carpri pants for dinner and wear the top another day for an excursion where I would be shopping or on a tour with a pair of shorts. You can re-wear something from dinner for a tour. Always carry a jacket/sweater/wrap for evenings as the a/c inside the ship can get chilly, especially in the dining room and theaters. Coordinate your clothes so that you can mix and match. Enjoy.

http://www.dcfagowees.com/usefulinfo/Cruise_tips.pdf

 

Good cruise tips for a newbie

Lots of good advice for carnival cruisers, however, too much emphasis on boozing and one item is very disturbing, the theft of a chair hog's towel. Chair hogs are annoying, but stealing their towel as a souvenir and to teach them a lesson because the towel costs $ 22 that they will be charged ???

We are going on NCL Breakaway at the end of March. Do they have a formal dinner? If so, can we opt out? Is room service free?

 

. :)

I'm a first time cruiser going in May, but on NCL's Getaway. Room Service is included in your fare, but you should tip a few dollars. Pizza via room service is a $5 charge.

Thank you so much for the wonderful advice! I am taking screen shots like crazy so I can look back on all this wisdom. I am thankful we don't have a formal night on NCL Breakaway. I'm not one for dressing up and am happy I won't need to put money out for a dress that will only be worn on the ship. I have been looking over the excursions but I am still at a loss since there is so much to see and do. I went shopping today and bought some travel size items to take a long. I am also looking for a travel mug for my hubby for his coffee in the morning and for a water bottle for myself (one that will actually keep the water cold!) I am beginning to pull things out, not clothes, but other things like the makeup, sunscreen, wipes, etc. very excited but overwhelmed too. :) Looking forward to our first cruise!

If your husband likes the metal kind that fits a "can" holder in a car, they sold them on the N.Star a year and a half ago. I don't like 'em, find them top-heavy. We bought souvenir NON-insulating cups instead but never used them when we got them home! So on recent cruise, my mom and I took the original (retro/made recently) Thermoserve cups, which are available on eBay from seller 'spoeth' -- or search 'thermoserve 12' and then "See other items" to see all the available colors.

We packed them with clean socks (can put in a plastic bag first if that is Ewww to you!).

For yourself, google "insulating water bottle" and see some prices and places to get them. You should have plenty of time to get from Amazon or REI or similar. I would get one that fills through a somewhat larger opening, to be able to pack some smaller things inside (like jewelry?).

Of course, we are carry-on-sized bag travelers; with a larger bag you might not be worried about packing stuff inside every nook and cranny!

We are carry on travelers too :) I like to pack as light as possible, when I can. Typically I have access to a washer and dryer though, so I can do laundry throughout the vacation. This time I won't so packing lightly will be a bit more difficult.

Thanks for the advice about the cups. I will look into both.