Most of the time, life on the ship is quite comfortable. You can certainly feel the ship move through the water, but it’s 600 feet long so the motion is kind of subtle. Less than 10% of the time, the sea is rough enough for the ship’s motion to become uncomfortable. By far most of the time it’s no big deal, and seasick days are most likely during long crossings far from land. Our experience has been that tropical waters tend to be much calmer. We had a bad stretch in the middle of the Pacific, and our Spring 26 voyage features a couple of very long crossings in the open Atlantic.
Like most cruise ships, MV World Odyssey is equipped with stabilizers to smooth the ride through rough seas. These are like wings or "flippers" below the water line that are manipulated by the Captain to minimize the rolling and pitching of the ship. Perhaps even more important are gigantic dynamic ballast tanks on either side which pump water back and forth to redistribute weight and compensate for ship roll.
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| Wearing the patch |
Some people are especially sensitive to motion sickness and if that’s you, you need to talk with your physician about it before you leave home. You can get scopolamine patches by prescription that fasten with adhesive behind your ear which slowly release motion sickness medicine through your skin for a few days at a time. When I’m on the patch I do NOT get seasick, but I found these to be almost too effective. They make my mouth uncomfortably dry and they make me feel kind of spacey. Against medical advice, I find that cutting them in half is better than using a whole one.
When Jennifer and I boarded the ship on New Years’ Day in 2020, we’d never been on a cruise or even an oceangoing ship. The very first thing we did was to sail from California to Japan in January! In the west Pacific we passed through a big winter storm and encountered huge waves. Our dresser drawers slammed open and shut all night long as the ship rolled. As I taught in the bow the next morning it felt like I was going to float off the stage every time we crested a big swell and swooped down into the next trough. The projection screen was swinging back and forth and students were clutching their midsections! I was SO GLAD to have the scopolamine patch during that storm!
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| Wave height map on Windy.com: Those yellow spots are 35 feet! |
During our 2023 voyage, we had the patches but never used them. Instead, I prefer taking Meclazine pills (available from a jar outside the Medical Center on Deck 3). Meclazine is like Dramamine but doesn’t make me drowsy. It only works for maybe 6 hours, but that’s a good thing. You can just take the pill when it starts getting rough and then stop when the weather improves.
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| Always available at the door of the Medical Center, just in case |
You can get up-to-date satellite maps of wave heights from www.windy.com. Don’t spend too much time staring at the maps, because they change all the time! Below are the current wave heights for the regions we'll travel on our voyage. Note that sailing is typically smoothest in the tropics.
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| Wave heights on Windy.com April 27, 2025 |