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Holland West Coast (including Noordam) plagued with Norovirus


ChicagoDude
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How would the other cruise line even know you just came off another cruise line's ship?

 

 

 

Roz

 

 

 

I thought you may have to sign a declaration at the port that you have not been unwell or have any exposure to in the last 48 hours. We will be getting off the Nieuw Amsterdam from Alaska on the 23 Sept and then boarding the Princess Star later that day in Vancouver for Hawaii.

 

 

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Then don't sail Oceania. I sent a detailed, documented report to them with our issues. I basically got a PFO letter with "looking forward to seeing you on O again". Seriously?

 

I have always found HAL to be receptive to emails, etc. It might take a while for them to reply (as did O) but at least they have replied trying to address the problem / make up for it or fix it. But, that's just my experience.

For us after our March 2016 "noro" cruise on the Riviera, Oceania, after sending us the initial "PFO letter" in response to our documented concerns, had a change of heart and sent us a certificate for 25% off our next Caribbean cruise on the Riviera if we booked it by the end of 2016.

 

I'm thinking since the ship actually went into full "code red" lock down mode for 12 of the 14 days, they figured they'd better do something to make the passengers of our ill-fated cruise happy where 10% of the passengers came down with noro and were quarantined in their cabins for up to 4 days.

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A more interesting question would be how often are the air filters replaced vs. the recommended interval for replacement.

 

If they are replace on sched great. If they are not replaced until well past their best before date in order to reduce mtce cost that would be an entirely different issue.

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We are currently on the Noordam northbound from Vancouver, ending at Sitka (Anchorage) tomorrow, August 5.

This will be the third cruise in a row that the Noordam has had a huge Norovirus outbreak. The medical officer on this cruise refuses to confirm how many cases are on this current cruise.

Prior to the start of our cruise in Vancouver, we were sent an email by Holland telling us that our check-in would be delayed while they “super disinfected” the ship. This obviously didn’t work very well.

When we were checking in at Vancouver, the check-in clerk (a part-time, non-Holland employee) mentioned that the boarding was delayed due to “a couple cases of illness on the previous cruise”. I asked her who told her to say this, and she said they were briefed that day by someone from Holland.

The previous cruise has 142 reported cases! With the real number likely to be higher.

I came down with the illness overnight after leaving Skagway. I went down to medical to report my illness, and Holland wanted $95 for me to see the doctor. As there is no medication to treat Norovirus, I demurred from seeing the doctor. They told me that the only reports they take are after seeing the doctor. This is borderline fraud.

The CDC will at some point have a report about the number of cases on this cruise. But there’s clearly something systemic currently wrong on this ship. We’re previous cruisers on HAL in Europe, and we were surprised at the much different demographic on this cruise. The Lido Deck is generally jammed with cruisers while the dining rooms have been relatively empty. And there are lots of kids - and with the way children are let to run wild these days, it perhaps is part of the problem.

I’ve also found the last CDC inspection of this ship in April 2017, with a low score and NO remediation plan submitted by Holland.

I’ll have more to say after the cruise ends.

 

 

Are you kidding me??? I noticed the kids virtually ALWAYS use the hand santizers and get served while the adults, in my observations particularly senior men skipped the sanitizers. "Grandma" who we were travelling with noted the same thing. :confused:

 

Point two, "different demographic" as in families compared to couples?? The people that HAL is marketing too? They have a lot of info floating out there about how family friendly and how fabulous the ships are for kids. Get the brochure and you see a family and how awesome Club HAL is. Family excursions.

 

The Norovirus is an issue that does need to be dealt with for the safety of ALL travellers.

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Look at the CDC report. Noordam had 2 weeks, Volendam had 2 weeks, and Nieuw Amsterdam had one week. All 3 sail from Vancouver which makes me think it started in Vancouver. No reportable outbreaks on the Seattle ships.

 

We have been on cruises that had GI issues. It only takes a few people that don't wash or self quarantine properly to spread it all over the ship. We felt so bad for the crew- they all worked around the clock cleaning. We also had an outside crew come onboard and disenfect the entire ship. All in transit passengers were given a day tour with lunch to make up for having to stay ashore until 2 pm. There was a definite disenfectant smell when we re-boarded. We had regular announcements with updates and reminders about washing and avoid getting hands near our mouth, face.nose.

 

The ship does not infect people-people do it.

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we have a relative out of state who works with large company that contracts maintenance services that do various larger maintenance when ships are in port......his company serves 3 different ports in US and works with multiple cruise lines......he has provided and supervised these services for close to 17 years......he has mentioned to us several times that cruise lines and individual ships do not change their ac/heat air filters regularly, do not steam carpet until badly stained and as noted in prior post they do not address routine mold issues that are hidden out of view........while all that contributes to a ripe environment of potential sickness we do have to remember that people "transmit" the illness and expose others to whatever is being transmitted whether it is gastro or respiratory related. MY POINT: we have to be proactive as we can and go knowing there are various risks. Take precaution with public space and take related medications that you might need. We have been on less than 10 cruises with 3 different cruise lines and one of us has typically come back with a cold but I know that can originate from ship or airplane or anywhere. Go prepared and enjoy your trip!!

We were on the Amsterdam for a 56 day segment of the world cruise. On the third week of the cruise a a number of cruisers came down with a respiratory infection. This infection stayed onboard the ship for the entire cruise. More and more people got sick including my husband and I. I think more than half the ship was sick. During a Q&A the chief engineer admitted he felt that he needed to change the 1200 ac/heating air filters and needed to get approval from Seattle. There was no increase in cleaning noted. I ended up so sick,I didn't enjoy the cruise. It took 3 courses of antibiotics, 2 courses of prednisone and three visits to doctors once I got home. HAL is doing cost cutting like shutting of heat and air in public places after midnight and postponing things like changing air filters.

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We were on the Amsterdam for a 56 day segment of the world cruise. On the third week of the cruise a a number of cruisers came down with a respiratory infection. This infection stayed onboard the ship for the entire cruise. More and more people got sick including my husband and I. I think more than half the ship was sick. During a Q&A the chief engineer admitted he felt that he needed to change the 1200 ac/heating air filters and needed to get approval from Seattle. There was no increase in cleaning noted. I ended up so sick,I didn't enjoy the cruise. It took 3 courses of antibiotics, 2 courses of prednisone and three visits to doctors once I got home. HAL is doing cost cutting like shutting of heat and air in public places after midnight and postponing things like changing air filters.

 

I won't comment on whether or not HAL is changing the air filters or not, as I'm not on their ships, but I can't believe that this is a serious "cost cutting" measure, as I know that at retail prices (and HAL doesn't pay retail for these kinds of things), you can buy the filter media for all 1200 cabins for less than $1000. Not sure why this would require corporate approval. As to the familiar claim that the A/C is shut off at night, there is no cost savings to continually have to reheat or recool a large space like the ship for short periods like a few hours each night. It actually takes more energy to reheat or recool than to maintain a constant temperature. The only true savings would be to raise/lower the setpoint a couple degrees permanently, so the system works less.

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  • 4 months later...

We were on the cruise going North to South the week before you boarded (on the Noordam). There were a ton of people sick on the ship. This is what I observed -

1 - A very dirty ship. It felt like nothing was getting wiped down or cleaned on a regular basis. We started avoiding certain bar/lounge areas because they were so dirty.

2 - The hand sanitizer stations were often empty (as in not even stocked). Stations that were stocked were often out of sanitizer or not working. There were employees literally holding the bags of sanitizer at some locations and manually squirting it into your hand.

3 - Many older people coughing without covering their mouth. These same people often using the hand rails (which we never touched - nor the buttons on the elevator).

4 - Filthy tables/chairs throughout the ship. Literally, I don't think anything ever got wiped down.

5 - To avoid the outbreak, we often tried to order room service. Often, nobody would pick up. If they did pick up and you were lucky enough to order, it took over an hour to get the food. If someone was in their room sick and couldn't get food delivered, it would force them out to the Lido to get something to eat. I think this could be a huge part of the issue. Also - they would often pick up our dirty dishes as they delivered your food. Hmm... I think there needs to be 2 systems in place.

 

It got so bad that I didn't even want to leave my room and if I did, I would take my sanitizing wipes (which I bring on every cruise to sanitize our room the minute we step foot in it) with me and wipe down the chair I was sitting in as well as the table I was using. The ship was disgusting. The staff acted put out if you asked them to clear dirty dishes (let alone wiping down a table). We did not get sick (thank god), but I too think it's ridiculous to have to pay to see the doctor if you think you have Noro. It sounds like a way for them to keep their official numbers down. We will never cruise on HAL again.

 

 

We are currently on the Noordam northbound from Vancouver, ending at Sitka (Anchorage) tomorrow, August 5.

This will be the third cruise in a row that the Noordam has had a huge Norovirus outbreak. The medical officer on this cruise refuses to confirm how many cases are on this current cruise.

Prior to the start of our cruise in Vancouver, we were sent an email by Holland telling us that our check-in would be delayed while they “super disinfected” the ship. This obviously didn’t work very well.

When we were checking in at Vancouver, the check-in clerk (a part-time, non-Holland employee) mentioned that the boarding was delayed due to “a couple cases of illness on the previous cruise”. I asked her who told her to say this, and she said they were briefed that day by someone from Holland.

The previous cruise has 142 reported cases! With the real number likely to be higher.

I came down with the illness overnight after leaving Skagway. I went down to medical to report my illness, and Holland wanted $95 for me to see the doctor. As there is no medication to treat Norovirus, I demurred from seeing the doctor. They told me that the only reports they take are after seeing the doctor. This is borderline fraud.

The CDC will at some point have a report about the number of cases on this cruise. But there’s clearly something systemic currently wrong on this ship. We’re previous cruisers on HAL in Europe, and we were surprised at the much different demographic on this cruise. The Lido Deck is generally jammed with cruisers while the dining rooms have been relatively empty. And there are lots of kids - and with the way children are let to run wild these days, it perhaps is part of the problem.

I’ve also found the last CDC inspection of this ship in April 2017, with a low score and NO remediation plan submitted by Holland.

I’ll have more to say after the cruise ends.

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