Over the counter sea sickness tablets

[MMDown Under]

Can someone recommend sea sickness tablets, over the counter in Australia, with the least side effects?  (I take Micardis high blood pressure tablets.)

 

I don't usually take sea sickness tablets, as I rarely get sea sick, but sea sickness tablets are recommended on the small ship I'll be cruising on (100 passengers).  

 

 

[GUT2407]

Wife swears by travelcalm ginger. From most chemist shops

[MMDown Under]

10 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Wife swears by travelcalm ginger. From most chemist shops

Thanks I hadn't heard of that.

I always take candied ginger and ginger cordial.

[NSWP]

Some cruise lines provide complimentary motion sickness tabs at the purser desk, P&O UK does.

 

We take Travel Calm and ginger tabs, well in the bag, only had to partake of them a couple of times in the 12 metre seas off NZ and Cape Horn.😲

 

The ships docs normally prescribe Phenergan.   Like the stuff you give to kiddies.  Makes you dozy though and can raise BP levels, so be careful out there sports fans.

[possum52]

23 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Can someone recommend sea sickness tablets, over the counter in Australia, with the least side effects?  (I take Micardis high blood pressure tablets.)

 

I don't usually take sea sickness tablets, as I rarely get sea sick, but sea sickness tablets are recommended on the small ship I'll be cruising on (100 passengers).  

 

 

I would ask for advice from your pharmacist to what over the counter medication would be best for you. I now just use Phenergan tabs but they can make you drowsy.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

Ask your GP for a Stemetil prescription. We both take Micardis and our GP recommends that. It has the advantage that you don't have to take it as a precaution, you can take it at the last minute, even after you've started to feel a bit nauseous and it works very quickly. It doesn't make you drowsy either.

[MMDown Under]

19 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Ask your GP for a Stemetil prescription. We both take Micardis and our GP recommends that. It has the advantage that you don't have to take it as a precaution, you can take it at the last minute, even after you've started to feel a bit nauseous and it works very quickly. It doesn't make you drowsy either.

Thanks everyone for your advice.  I took Stemetil with me on my first overseas cruise from Sydney to London and return.  I didn't take it, so I'd forgotten. 

[Blue Elephant]

I asked my pharmacist when they stopped making Avomine. She recommended Allersoothe 25. It is highly effective as an anti nausea drug. I take it on a regular basis because another medication has a side effect of nausea. It also comes in the lower strength Allersoothe 10.

 

I will be doing the Ovation transPacific cruise in just over a month. I intend to try and find the US medication Bonine  while I am in Hawaii. I am still convinced it is the most effective medication for nausea.

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Blue Elephant
Spelling correction

[Russell21]

13 minutes ago, Blue Elephant said:

I asked my pharmacist when they stopped making Avomine. She recommended Allersoothe 25. It is highly effective as an anti nausea drug. I take it on a regular basis because another medication has a side effect of nausea. It also comes in the lower strength Allersoothe 10.

 

I will be doing the Ovation transPacific cruise in just over a month. I intend to try and find the US medication Bonine  while I am in Hawaii. I am still convinced it is the most effective medication for nausea.

They are still making Avomine, it is available from England on ebay. I get it in for my wife.

 

They haven't stopped making Avomine, it is still available from England on ebay, I get it in for my wife.

[possum52]

1 hour ago, Russell21 said:

They haven't stopped making Avomine, it is still available from England on ebay, I get it in for my wife.

It is just not now available in Australia unfortunately.

 

[MMDown Under]

8 hours ago, Russell21 said:

They haven't stopped making Avomine, it is still available from England on ebay, I get it in for my wife.

I will be in England prior to my cruise.

8 hours ago, Russell21 said:

 

 

[Bubbeh]

I've taken Kwells and they seem to work OK.  Mind you, I'm not normally a sufferer of sea or motion sickness.  Best to speak with your local chemist I think.

[NSWP]

15 hours ago, Blue Elephant said:

I asked my pharmacist when they stopped making Avomine. She recommended Allersoothe 25. It is highly effective as an anti nausea drug. I take it on a regular basis because another medication has a side effect of nausea. It also comes in the lower strength Allersoothe 10.

 

I will be doing the Ovation transPacific cruise in just over a month. I intend to try and find the US medication Bonine  while I am in Hawaii. I am still convinced it is the most effective medication for nausea.

 

We were in Waikiki post cruise in June, I am sure I saw Bonine in the ABC stores there, many of those stores around.  The Americans swear by it.

[Aus Traveller]

I used to use Travelcalm, but it 'let me down' on one occasion. I then switched to Avomine and am very disappointed that it is no longer available in Australia. I have been assured that Phenergan is the same, but on checking, the active ingredient is different. When I was on a trip to Antarctica, we were advised to have anti-seasickness medication. On board, they gave out Phenergan.

 

Stemetil - For our first cruise in 1983, our doctor prescribed Stemetil. I took it when the seas were very rough. I wished I hadn't. It is an anti-emetic (anti throw-up) medication. The result was that I could not throw up but wished I could. If I had thrown up, at least I would have felt a bit better for a short while.😊

 

As others have said, Americans swear by Bonine. I bought some, but haven't used it. I have used ginger in moderate seas, but if someone suffers badly from seasickness, ginger just won't do it. Luckily for me, after cruising a lot I seem to be not as sensitive to the motion of the ocean as I was in the early days.😊

[phoenixx]

Try Sea Bands

[sewgood]

6 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Luckily for me, after cruising a lot I seem to be not as sensitive to the motion of the ocean as I was in the early days.😊

 

I have been wondering about that myself.

After 8 years of cruising I feel like I don't get as sea sick as I used to.

But I'm not ready to throw away the tablets just yet.

 

I know I don't get that swaying feeling anymore after coming home from the cruise.

[Aus Traveller]

57 minutes ago, sewgood said:

I have been wondering about that myself.

After 8 years of cruising I feel like I don't get as sea sick as I used to.

But I'm not ready to throw away the tablets just yet.

 

I know I don't get that swaying feeling anymore after coming home from the cruise.

I still take the tablets with me. 

[Porky55]

On 8/9/2019 at 6:35 PM, Blue Elephant said:

I asked my pharmacist when they stopped making Avomine. She recommended Allersoothe 25. It is highly effective as an anti nausea drug. I take it on a regular basis because another medication has a side effect of nausea. It also comes in the lower strength Allersoothe 10.

 

I will be doing the Ovation transPacific cruise in just over a month. I intend to try and find the US medication Bonine  while I am in Hawaii. I am still convinced it is the most effective medication for nausea.

 

You can buy Bonine on EBay - buy it there all the time, just check the expiry dates in item description. I buy the boxes of 16.

[Porky55]

MMDown Under

I take blood pressure tablets and after a cruise on Silverseas Silver Shadow, I swear by Bonine. (crossing the Bering Straits)

Nothing else works as well, or safely for me as this sea sickness tablet. Take one each night so don’t get the minor side effects (sleepy) and this way can still have a drink if I wanted to.

Again, you can pick them up on Ebay, or in the shops on the popular cruise lines - RCI, Princess if you know someone? That’s my call anyway.

Rose 🌹

[Aus Traveller]

5 minutes ago, Porky55 said:

MMDown Under

I take blood pressure tablets and after a cruise on Silverseas Silver Shadow, I swear by Bonine. (crossing the Bering Straits)

Nothing else works as well, or safely for me as this sea sickness tablet. Take one each night so don’t get the minor side effects (sleepy) and this way can still have a drink if I wanted to.

Again, you can pick them up on Ebay, or in the shops on the popular cruise lines - RCI, Princess if you know someone? That’s my call anyway.

Rose 🌹

I have some Bonine I bought on one of our visits to Hawaii (Hawaii-Tahiti cruise). So far I haven't needed to take it. After I run out of Avomine, I might try the Bonine. Thanks for your recommendation.🙂

[GUT2407]

Green apples can help too.

[Aus Traveller]

11 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Green apples can help too.

Green apples with the skin on and ginger can help with very mild symptoms, but is someone is seriously motion sick, only medication will help.

[MMDown Under]

49 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Green apples with the skin on and ginger can help with very mild symptoms, but is someone is seriously motion sick, only medication will help.

Yes green apples and ginger does help.  I had been told sea sickness was mind over matter and if one felt nauseous to just go up on deck and look at the horizon.  I found that this usually works to a degree.  After cruising through very rough oceans from Australia to Europe, I believed I didn't get sea sick.  However the conflicting currents in the Bay of Biscay en route from UK to Australia caused most of the passengers, including me, to be sea sick, much to my surprise.  Of course, it was far too late to take medication.  Still I didn't take any in Antarctica either.

Edited August 11, 2019 by MMDown Under

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes green apples and ginger does help.  I had been told sea sickness was mind over matter and if one felt nauseous to just go up on deck and look at the horizon.  I found that this usually works to a degree.  After cruising through very rough oceans from Australia to Europe, I believed I didn't get sea sick.  However the conflicting currents in the Bay of Biscay en route from UK to Australia caused most of the passengers, including me, to be sea sick, much to my surprise.  Of course, it was far too late to take medication.  Still I didn't take any in Antarctica either.

A friend who posts on this forum often told me that sea sickness is 'mind over matter' but I  can assure you that it not always so. With me, I am convinced that it relates to the inner ear. I can easily feel queezy on winding roads, and dare not sit in the back seat of a car on such trips. Many years ago, conflicting movement on a catamaran trip to the outer Barrier Reef caused me intense seasickness for hours.

 

You mention about it being too late to take medication when you are already sick. I thought that too, but found it wasn't so. The first time I tried Avomine was on a cruise ship. I can't remember which ship, there have been so many! We had 10 metres seas and I had taken Travelcalm (the proper one, not the herbal one). I was very sick and staggered to the medical centre for an injection. The nurse said she would only give it to me if I had taken Avomine and was still sick. I bought the medication and took it - managed to keep it down by lying down. Half an hour later, I was well enough to get up and that was the end of the throwing up.

 

On my Antarctic trip we had 7 metre seas coming back across the Drake Channel. Being on a fairly small ship (12,000 tons from memory), the movement was extreme. I took my Avomine and felt fine. I was literally thrown out of bed during the night as I moved to catch my clock that was going to go flying. I skidded right across the room on the carpet.There were very few people in the dining room for breakfast. If the chairs hadn't been chained to the floor, they and the people in them would have gone over. The people who were there had to keep grabbing glasses and whatever else was on the table even though the tables were covered with the anti-slip sheets used in caravans.

[OzKiwiJJ]

There are some medications that you can take even when you are already feeling nauseous. We found Stemetil works very for us in that situation. We had a very bad tender trip back to the ship once as a squall had blown up while we were ashore. Then something went wrong when we tried to dock against the ship so we ended up lurching around in choppy seas for another 20 minutes. We were both feeling quite ill by the time we finally got back on the ship. We took Stemetil as soon as we got back to our cabin and rested for a while. I felt fine after about 15 minutes so went and did some laundry. Dh snoozed off so isn't sure how long it took for him to feel better (he's more prone to seasickness than me) but he was fine when he woke up.