First time Cruiser

[Cruiser2012]

Cant wait for our cruise in 30 days..... we have so much to get ready for, our thing is, is that people have told us to get dramamine for the motion sickness just incase so we do get sea sick? is it better to use the patch before you board the ship, how does everyone go about that... me and my boyfriend dont know if we will get sea sick or not we have never been on cruise before to even know that

[Cruiser2012]

Was wondering about all the dinners how should we dress, Esp the Captians dinner im excited that i actually get to dress up for dinners :-)

[MCPayne]

It depends whether it's casual, smart casual, or formal. I'm a male, and for formal dinners, I normally wear a suit. Like you, I like to dress up (for me that means a suit) for the formal night dinners. For casual, for guys, khakis and a button down sport shirt I think would be fine, since it's a Caribbean cruise. For the smart casual (as Royal Caribbean calls it), I wore khakis and a button down shirt, no tie or jacket.

Here is a link to Royal Carribean's dress code page. The only thing is that they may turn you away if you're wearing shorts or jeans. I know their website says for smart casual, shirts and ties, but like I said, I was just in khakis and a button down shirt, and I was fine.

[Dave]

I've never taken anything for motion sickness or worn a patch. Most people do not need to take anything. Modern cruise ships are quite stable and seas are usually calm (although not always). Typically the roughest part of going from Florida to the Bahamas is when you pass over the gulf stream off the coast of Florida.

[Jim1012]

For the motion sickness; my wife has had great luck with an over-the-counter pill called Bronine, or something like that spelling. We have it in our local grocery or drug stores here in Illinois (Osco or Jewel) but you can also get it onboard in the general store shop. It's very reasonable (about $6.00 on the ship) and there is usually 10 pills in a small box. I've seen many people use the patch, and some sort of wrist band thing that they say works fine. As Dave said, I've been on 7 cruises, and have never been seasick as the captain can usually direct the ship out of bad waters if needed. Have a great time!!

[LisaP]

I swear by green apples for motion sickness. Something about the pectin they contain. I usually don't get seasick when on a cruise, yet I do suffer a bit of the mal de mer when on a small boat. It just so happened that I was on a very small boat this past weekend (a 20-footer) and I was absolutely fine, but only after one green apple.

As others have said, it's unlikely that seasickness will interfere with your cruise. And, as far as remedies, everyone's different.

[denjoker]

We've sailed out of Port C. many times. Since we live in Virginia, it's about an 11 hour drive. I agree that it's always a good idea to go down the day before to allow for traffic problems etc. There's really no point to doing the entire drive in one day. Yes - there are hotels in Port C. that have a park and shuttle service if you stay there but you'll pay top dollar for the room. We drive about 8 hours to Kingsland,Ga. (just north of Jacksonville) - get a hotel through one of the search engines for about half the $, have a nice dinner and drive the 2.5 hours to the port in the morning - refreshed and ready to cruise! We also have found an off site parking facility with excellent reviews that's about half the $ as the port (thanks to a referral from one of this sites members) - Cruise Parking of Port Canaveral. I still remember my first cruise and how I couldn't wait to go back - hope you get hooked too!

[Cruiser2012]

Originally Posted by denjoker

We've sailed out of Port C. many times. Since we live in Virginia, it's about an 11 hour drive. I agree that it's always a good idea to go down the day before to allow for traffic problems etc. There's really no point to doing the entire drive in one day. Yes - there are hotels in Port C. that have a park and shuttle service if you stay there but you'll pay top dollar for the room. We drive about 8 hours to Kingsland,Ga. (just north of Jacksonville) - get a hotel through one of the search engines for about half the $, have a nice dinner and drive the 2.5 hours to the port in the morning - refreshed and ready to cruise! We also have found an off site parking facility with excellent reviews that's about half the $ as the port (thanks to a referral from one of this sites members) - Cruise Parking of Port Canaveral. I still remember my first cruise and how I couldn't wait to go back - hope you get hooked too!

Yes where we live in Va too we just want to make sure we have enough time to do so... where is the parking facility that is about half the price... we are so exicted we have 19 days till the cruise..... our cruise leaves out on a monday so i guess sunday morning would be okay to leave and rest close to the state line of FL and be able to make it in enough time, we have already check in for our cruise so i know that we dont have to wait at the terminal i dont believe..

[denjoker]

If you leave only a few hours drive for the day the ship departs you'll have more than enough time to board as the ship probably doesn't sail until 4 or 5pm. They won't let you board much earlier than noon as they have to clear the ship first. Although you've pre-registered, you'll have to go through the processing at the port but that is usually very fast. Just confirming information and issuing your sea passes (ship credit cards/room keys). The parking service (Cruise Parking of Port Canaveral) needs to be reserved on line before you get there. Don't forget to take a backpack or something like that for your off the ship activities. Happy cruising!

[Cruiser2012]

i just seen where tropical storm issac is makin its way from cuba up to the u.s., in this case if it rains on the days that we are suppose to go islands what happens are we able to get off the ship or are we on the ship the whole it shows rain for all the days but im hoping it changes and that the storm is already gone before monday when we depart