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It was our first cruise, and the waters off Catalina Island were not being kind. I watched as my normally elegant friend dragged herself around our stateroom, on hands and knees, like some slow-moving lizard; I watched as the wretched woman crammed expensive clothing into her suitcase, stopping now and again to groan helplessly, or to upchuck in the tiny washroom.

She looked really funny, and I would have laughed if only my own head hadn't felt so thick, and my own stomach hadn't been rolling and lurching along with the waves slapping up against our porthole. Yes, the sight of two first-time cruisers, pitifully coping with their first bout of seasickness, can look very funny, but seasickness is no laughing matter.

Seasickness (sea sickness, sea-sickness, motion sickness), no matter how you spell it, still spells misery. And this common malady can steal your enjoyment of that long-awaited cruise ship vacation. But with a little precaution, you should be able to ride out even the roughest seas, with little discomfort. But you must plan in advance.

The best advice for avoiding seasickness on a cruise? Treat it, BEFORE it happens. That's the lesson I learned following my Catalina Island adventure. I've cruised many times since then, and have pretty much avoided getting sick, while my fellow passengers, the folks who didn't plan in advance, found the ship's courtesy "barf" bags, a must.

Seasickness, or motion sickness, is caused by our body's inability to balance itself, in accordance with messages coming in from our senses. The rolling motion of the waves throws off our inner ear equilibrium leading to terrible symptoms which include: wooziness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, sweating and loss of balance. And the, "Just kill me now!" feelings of abject misery.

In spite of stabilizer systems used by modern cruise ships, seasickness among cruisers is a fact. Even in larger ships, the back and the fronts of the boat are like the ends of a seesaw; passengers situated in these areas, who are prone to motion sickness, will get sick. Experienced cruisers know that seasickness must be avoided because once a person is afflicted with motion sickness; it takes quite a while to recover. But a pre-armed cruiser can avoid this nasty illness, by taking action in advance.

Seasickness Preventative Drugs:

Remember this: Only a drug taken BEFORE one gets seasick is effective. There are drugs and shots that can be had following the onset of seasickness, but these

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