Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Motion of the Ocean

Dibs on the ginger ale and the toilet, not necessarily in that order.

One day a guest approached me and though she was a much older woman, she looked exceptionally frail for her age. The reason for this was made apparent the moment she paused midway into the casino and pressed a hand to her stomach. I thought she was going to hurl right there on the Lucky 7s.

"How do you handle it?" she gasped at me. She was so pale I could have hung her in a window and seen light through her. "I've taken Sea-Calm and I still feel like I'm about to fall over."

I told her you get used to the motion of the ship after a while. Unfortunately, by 'a while' I meant in 'a month or so', and her twelve-day cruise wouldn't be enough to do anything but convince her not to cruise again. I felt bad for her because the worst part about seasickness is that there's no way to escape it. There's no solid place of calm on a ship. Everything is always moving to the point that jumping overboard seems like a viable option for relief.

But I’ve learned that seasickness isn't the only thing to contend with on a ship at sea. There are several pros and cons about traveling over the waves in a big, beautiful bucket.