Tourists have dubbed Greece’s high-speed ferry the “vomit comet” — sharing horror stories of rogue waves, flying barf bags and seasick kids turning green mid-crossing.
The stomach-churning rides have become an unfortunate rite of passage for island-hopping visitors, with a flood of social media posts documenting brutal crossings on the Aegean Sea.
“A week ago I was on a so-called ‘vomit comet’ from Athens to Naxos and then back to Naxos — my advice to anyone who gets seasick easily — choose the largest ferries,” one X user, Alek Asaduryan, wrote.
Some passengers said their dream vacations were wrecked as they fought to keep their lunch down, calling the speedy vessels their “worst nightmare,” earning the boats the “vomit comet” nickname.
“They were going around fanning people, handing out barf bags left and right,” Austin Croteau, 38, told The Wall Street Journal of her trip from Syros to Athens with her husband and four kids.
“It wasn’t even worth trying to get to the bathroom.”
Conditions seemed calm at first, but just minutes after leaving port, huge waves began crashing into the ship, rocking it violently back and forth as water engulfed the windows, she said.
When Croteau looked over at her children, she was horrified by what she saw.
“I’ve never seen my kid’s face go completely green,” she told the Journal, adding, “I realize now, that’s where the cartoons get it from.”
The high-speed ferries can rocket across the Aegean at almost 60 mph, allowing tourists to bounce between Greece’s postcard-perfect islands in a fraction of the time it takes slower vessels.
But when the summer Meltemi winds whip up the sea, those speedier boats can turn into floating roller coasters, the Journal reported.
One passenger, Emily Savage, 25, saw her trip to Greece with her best friend turn into a six-hour fight for survival on a ferry from Naxos to Milos.
“The waves would make the boat jump, and you would fly up a couple inches,” Savage told the Journal, describing passengers desperately closing their eyes and passing around Dramamine, the anti-nausea medication.
“It was kind of a bonding experience,” she joked.
The culprit might not necessarily be the ferries themselves, but rather the combination of speed, smaller vessels and Greece’s notoriously fierce summer winds, according to the report.
The Cyclades, home to tourist magnets including Mykonos, Naxos and Milos, can get hammered by the seasonal Meltemi winds, churning the Aegean into a washing machine just as millions of tourists descend on the islands.
And because there are a lot more tourists getting on those boats — 21% more travelers from January through May compared with the same period last year, according to the Bank of Greece — experts believe that may be why there has been an increase in reports.
“People like to throw those chaotic videos online,” Sophie Jansen, a frequent Greek traveler who said she has taken nearly 100 island ferries and only had one truly bad experience, to the Journal.
“It makes it look as if that happens every day, but that’s definitely not true,” she said.
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