The Crown Princess returned from a seven-day cruise Saturday and was docked at Port Everglades. A total of 140 passengers and 18 crew members were affected by the illness.
The Ruby Princess is scheduled to dock Sunday morning. Cruise officials say another 81 passengers and nine crew members were affected on that ship.
I've had this virus TWICE in the past month and I can tell you it has not been a party!! Finally feeling better. I feel for these passengers. At least I wasn't on a cruise when I got sick with it!
This virus seems to peak at this time of the year.
TM
__________________
CRUISES
Century 4/1998
Mercury 4/2000+4/2006+7/2007
Sensation 4/2002
Infinity 4/2003
Summit 4/2004+4/2005
Carnival Liberty New Year's Eve 2007
Liberty of the Seas 5/2008+11/2009
Solstice 4/2009
Oasis 4/2010+4/13/2013
Allure 1/16/ 2011
Equinox 4/11/2011
The Crown Princess returned from a seven-day cruise Saturday and was docked at Port Everglades. A total of 140 passengers and 18 crew members were affected by the illness.
The Ruby Princess is scheduled to dock Sunday morning. Cruise officials say another 81 passengers and nine crew members were affected on that ship.
In general, cruise ships carry about half as many crew as passengers. Yet in each case, the number of crew affected was 10% or so of the passengers -- one/fifth of what would be expected!
Could that be because handwashing and other sanitary procedures are constantly hammered at to the crew? Every cruise I have ever been on I have seen passengers bypass the hand sanitizers and men leaving the rest room without washing their hands.
I am OCD about hand washing - I mean, I have always been this way. I am the person that offers a bottle of germ-X to people I'm in the car with..Just in case. I still got it. I wash my hands in the bathroom constantly and then use germ-X. Still got it 2x. They say it is horrible this year. You can get it from someone who has prepared your food (which is how I suspect I got it) - or touching infected surfaces and not washing hands..
I work in a school with about 450 students, and in the past weeks, the attendance has been down to about 50% due to a similar virus, so it's not cruise ships to blame.
Anywhere like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, where people are crowded together, these kinds of viruses prosper and grow.
Keep washing those hands, and if you're sick - stay home!
I work in a school with about 450 students, and in the past weeks, the attendance has been down to about 50% due to a similar virus, so it's not cruise ships to blame.
Anywhere like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, where people are crowded together, these kinds of viruses prosper and grow.
Keep washing those hands, and if you're sick - stay home!
donna
No, no, no. Noro is ONLY on cruise ships (according to the news)
Oh Henry, I did not need to know this about hospitals and staff not being sanitary..That gives me the creeps - especially since I will be checking into one in about 3 weeks for surgery! ugh
I just came off of the Crown on Saturday. Luckily, hub and I did not get sick but I did hear from my waiter that 200 passengers and a few crew did get sick. The captain kept us well informed about the situation and we could see by the phone calls and alerts at the Guest Relations Desk area that they were inundated by the numbers. The captain said that there were two docs and ???4 nurses helping, working around the clock, and asking those who were not as sick as others to be patient and that they would get to them.
One woman passed out in the dining room, another person got sick in the casino. The casino was briefly closed. One elevator was taken out of service.
The ship was at code yellow early in the cruise, and then everything was fine. At @3 am Friday, all heck broke loose, I understand. You actually saw them washing down the walls in the photo gallery and Sabbatino's (Italian specialty restaurant) started their intensive cleaning @12 midnight Sat (when we left it). Our waiter said that the two specialty restaurants were going to be closed Saturday in order for the staff to help out participate in the cleaning of the ship. (The ship did not leave until 10:30 pm Sat anyway, so that was a mute point, but no one knew it then on Friday evening.)
They had hand sanitizers at the entrance of the buffet but people will be people and some just went right through without making use of it.
We ate breakfast at the Int'l Cafe, lunch was pizza (in both venues, the food was handed to you by the staff and there was not the mass of humanity surrounding you as there was in the main buffets), and dinner was Sabbatino's nightly (again, not as large a venue as MDR).
On Friday, I happened to pass buffet and they were handing out the dishes, salt/pepper packets, and you would go to the food which you wanted and pointed, and the staff served you. Unfortunately, they should have continued this when it was code yellow and perhaps the effects would have been less.
The captain told everyone to use their own bathrooms and I walked around with antiseptic wipes and Purell bottles in my pocket. We used tissues to push the elevator buttons, did not use the handrails, and did not shake hands. When we saw sick people, we got off the elevator or wherever we were and went the opposite direction.
At no time was there panic or disruption on board. Princess handled this in a calm and professional manner. I give the captain and crew credit for conducting it in such a fashion.
Since the hand sanitizers do nothing to kill the virus what difference would it have made?
Not much, just on bacteria, then it takes minutes to work. People think it kills on contact, not so. Sanitizers don't touch virus, as much as people think so.
Noro is a virus.
I'm one who passes the sanitizers because I know I've scrubbed my hands. Others think we non users are being careless, not so. Should we use the squirt just to please people around us?
Not much, just on bacteria, then it takes minutes to work. People think it kills on contact, not so. Sanitizers don't touch virus, as much as people think so.
Noro is a virus.
I'm one who passes the sanitizers because I know I've scrubbed my hands. Others think we non users are being careless, not so. Should we use the squirt just to please people around us?
Washing our hands is the last thing we do before leaving our cabin & never touch a thing before eating except the plates & tongs at the buffet which during a code red are not used by pax. We've been on maybe 6 ships with the Noro & have yet to get sick. (lucky?) maybe. I feel if you treat all surfaces of the ship as being infected during a breakout you can almost avoid it especially without using something like the ineffective sanitizers. This especially includes elevator buttons, chair arm rests, public railings, ships computer keyboards, etc.
That being said, watch us get sick on our next trip in April.....lots of kids means lots of germs.
Not much, just on bacteria, then it takes minutes to work. People think it kills on contact, not so. Sanitizers don't touch virus, as much as people think so.
Noro is a virus.
I'm one who passes the sanitizers because I know I've scrubbed my hands. Others think we non users are being careless, not so. Should we use the squirt just to please people around us?
YES, you should. Not to "please" people around you, but to establish that everyone needs to use them all the time. It is for the same reason that everybody should always wash their hands in the restroom all the time.
It won't hurt you to use the sanitizer, and it might encourage the person behind you to use it. It is true that it won't kill noro but it will kill lots of other things, e coli being the most significant.
What disgusts me is that Princess has hand sanitizers all over their ships - but, they don't have toilet seat covers in their public restrooms. Doesn't make sense, does it? No wonder norovirus runs rampant on their ships.
My DW has complained several times about lack of toilet seat covers. I don't think that any of the cruiselines have them.
TM
__________________
CRUISES
Century 4/1998
Mercury 4/2000+4/2006+7/2007
Sensation 4/2002
Infinity 4/2003
Summit 4/2004+4/2005
Carnival Liberty New Year's Eve 2007
Liberty of the Seas 5/2008+11/2009
Solstice 4/2009
Oasis 4/2010+4/13/2013
Allure 1/16/ 2011
Equinox 4/11/2011
My DW said the Celebrity does have toilet seat covers.
TM
__________________
CRUISES
Century 4/1998
Mercury 4/2000+4/2006+7/2007
Sensation 4/2002
Infinity 4/2003
Summit 4/2004+4/2005
Carnival Liberty New Year's Eve 2007
Liberty of the Seas 5/2008+11/2009
Solstice 4/2009
Oasis 4/2010+4/13/2013
Allure 1/16/ 2011
Equinox 4/11/2011
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200 cruise passengers struck by norovirus
Noro
Using sanitizer?
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