Food Poisioning

We were on our 15th cruise with NCL, my daughter ate at Bamboo on the Dawn and got food poisoning. She was taken off the ship via ambulance violently ill. We missed over 1/2 our vacation.

 

I wrote to NCL.... they were not helpful and did not care. I was basically told to stop writing to them.

 

We have one more cruise booked and I will not book wiht them again..... I once was there biggest fan. Now I wish I cold cancel my future cruise.....

 

They were rude and uncaring.....

 

NOT GOOD NCL:(

on your next cruise, make sure you purchase travel insurance. travel insurances covers these kind of things depending on the policy have purchased.

i highly doubt it was food poisoning. had it been, others would have been affected as well. these types of things are usually just one person's reaction to a food or something entirely unrelated.

Not sure what you want from NCL, but if it is compensation and they are not offering any, why not get the medical records that clearly say food poisioning and take them to small claims court.

There are many virus'a that cause severe vomiting, did they test a stool sample?

"Food poisoning" is a lay term used to generalize reactions to ingesting bacterial or virus infected food. The 8 most common and easily detected/diagnosed are Campylobacter enteritis, Cholera, E. coli Enteritis, Ciguatera, Listeria, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, and Shigellosis.

If you are seeking compensation you need to have a real diagnosis of the culprit causing the reaction. If it is truly a form of "food poisoning" there should be dozens or even hundreds of passengers infected.

I was a part of a group food poisoning Thanksgiving dinner once.... not on a cruise ship, but just to give an idea, it hit all 17 people who were there, and all of us exactly 36 hours after the meal. So it wasn't that night right afterwards, but Friday night. It was assumed to be Salmonella, from the turkey, because turkey was the only thing ALL 17 ate. It lasted about 12 hours, with vomiting every 20-30 minutes for that time. It was not subtle.... though of course neither is the experience described by the OP.

If there was not a large group of sick people, it is unlikely that the food on the ship was bad. Maybe something that did not agree with her. Maybe a virus picked up on shore or on board.

We were on our 15th cruise with NCL, my daughter ate at Bamboo on the Dawn and got food poisoning. She was taken off the ship via ambulance violently ill. We missed over 1/2 our vacation.

 

I wrote to NCL.... they were not helpful and did not care. I was basically told to stop writing to them.

 

We have one more cruise booked and I will not book wiht them again..... I once was there biggest fan. Now I wish I cold cancel my future cruise.....

 

They were rude and uncaring.....

 

NOT GOOD NCL:(

so you are telling us she got food poisoning from the ship: you know this for sure and NCL blew you off: Sorry I don't buy that. First of all if she had gotten it so would several others on the ship, and NCL treats people who suffer injuries or sickness from the ship with kid gloves I know I have personal experience. :o Of course the next quesion: did you have cruise insurance?

First, as noted, there is no guarantee the food poisoning came from one restaurant. Depending on the type of illness, and even strains you can have incubation periods from hours to days. Could have been something picked up in a port or in the terminal, etc. Unless there was a mass outbreak at the time or you can identify the common thread you simply won't know.

 

With that in mind, NCL can certainly be professional about it, but without knowing what you asked of them there's no way to tell if they were fair. For example, if you requested medical expenses, unless you can prove they caused the illness (see above) they are going to say no just to avoid setting precedent. Same if you requested credit for missed days. These are functions of travel insurance (and remember always if you don't buy travel insurance you are still insured - self-insured that is). If you had asked for comped room service or beverages etc before the medevac that might have been more reasonable, or for assistance with dealing with port medical services.

 

So the question is, what did you expect them to do other than provide care on board and arrange for shore medical, and did they not do those properly?

No direct proof, no compensation. That's how at fault claims work. Sorry.

So sorry that happened. What a horrible thing to happen on vacation!

You will probably never know what made her so sick, but that doesn't make it any less awful.

Would you please quote the entire text of NCL's reply letter to you?

The issue of what was the true nature causing your daughters ailment aside, the reaction of NCL would be of paramount concern to me.

If they investigate and assist local authorities with a determination, I'd feel assured processes are in place to address issues such as this but a blanket FU is disconcerting to say the least.

If she is the only person who has issue with the food, that’s not food poisoning, at worst food allergy.

 

 

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The issue of what was the true nature causing your daughters ailment aside, the reaction of NCL would be of paramount concern to me.

If they investigate and assist local authorities with a determination, I'd feel assured processes are in place to address issues such as this but a blanket FU is disconcerting to say the least.

Depending on how many people were affected, would depend on what NCL does. If it was just the OP's daughter, NCL wouldn't be investigating the incident, because it was most likely not food poisoning or anything attributed to the ship.

yea....no....if it was food poisoning from NCL, then there would be a ton of people sick.

 

I'm glad your daughter is better now and am sorry that your vacation was ruined. But it is more likely due to eating something off the ship or poor hand hygiene. Staph infections can easily happen from touching the elevator and then touching the utensils to eat, which can happen when you bring food/ice cream from the buffet to your room.

i highly doubt it was food poisoning. had it been, others would have been affected as well. these types of things are usually just one person's reaction to a food or something entirely unrelated.

 

Not necessarily. People react differently to the same set of conditions. What may cause severe gastric distress in one person may cause mild discomfort in another. It is also quite possible for a single portion to be improperly handled resulting in a bacterial bloom, e.g. kept at an unsafe temperature for longer than other servings.

You say it was 1/2 way through your cruise? Did you ever get off the ship? Eat anything? Drink anything? Could have even been the ice.

 

 

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People amaze me sometimes.

 

So just how did you determine it was food poisoning and not just a standard stomach virus since the symptoms are the same? How many other family members or passenger did you find that had the same symptoms which could be connected to a specific food or at least restaurant? Seems like one would at least do some of that before making the claim and asking for compensation.

If it came on very fast, right after eating, or around 15 minutes after eating the suspected item, that would be allergies. I have severe food allergies, but have also had actual food poisoning (where others have gotten sick, too). The food poisoning took about 5-6 hours to bring me to the toilet-hugging stage, and while I was an unhappy camper and lacking appetite for the next day or so, it didn't require hospitalization. I would think that if something that virulent was in the food, there would have been many people on the cruise who got that ill along with the daughter.

 

I hope you can find out what happened, for sure.

This thread gave me food poisoning...

yea....no....if it was food poisoning from NCL, then there would be a ton of people sick.

 

I'm glad your daughter is better now and am sorry that your vacation was ruined. But it is more likely due to eating something off the ship or poor hand hygiene. Staph infections can easily happen from touching the elevator and then touching the utensils to eat, which can happen when you bring food/ice cream from the buffet to your room.

 

Two things can be true at once.

 

Read about food based illness. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html or this article, http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/food-poisoning/overview.html

 

It isn't uncommon for food based illnesses to affect one person, especially a child, the elderly or those with immunosuppressive conditions.

 

 

It is likely if it were a something in the food provided on board, more people would be ill but the fact none came forward is meaningless. Someone else may have had lesser symptoms and was willing to ride it out. The lack of any additional patients is not indicative of source, cause or responsibility.

We were on our 15th cruise with NCL, my daughter ate at Bamboo on the Dawn and got food poisoning. She was taken off the ship via ambulance violently ill. We missed over 1/2 our vacation.

 

 

 

I wrote to NCL.... they were not helpful and did not care. I was basically told to stop writing to them.

 

 

 

We have one more cruise booked and I will not book wiht them again..... I once was there biggest fan. Now I wish I cold cancel my future cruise.....

 

 

 

They were rude and uncaring.....

 

 

 

NOT GOOD NCL:(

 

 

 

Im so sorry that happened to her. Are you sure she didn’t have the flu? It was going around our ship The Jade, last week.

 

 

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Two things can be true at once.

 

Read about food based illness. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html or this article, http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/food-poisoning/overview.html

 

It isn't uncommon for food based illnesses to affect one person, especially a child, the elderly or those with immunosuppressive conditions.

 

 

It is likely if it were a something in the food provided on board, more people would be ill but the fact none came forward is meaningless. Someone else may have had lesser symptoms and was willing to ride it out. The lack of any additional patients is not indicative of source, cause or responsibility.

 

although your scenario is possible, it is not likely. lots of people on these cruise lines are over the age of 65, meaning that their immune system is already slowing down, but not quite to the point of immunosuppression. It is called Immunosenescence. Also, a lot of people over the age of 65 have conditions that could take them down really easily, i.e. CHF, CKD, etc. they are very sensitive to fluid changes (like with diarrhea) and can require hospitalizations. so i would expect someone else to get sick too if there was food poisoning.

 

so, it could be that there is a single portion that got contaminated. but that is HIGHLY unlikely.

 

there is a lot of details that the OP is not telling us. I will end with this, the treatment plan is frequently dependent on cooperative you are, esp in a simple case of dehydration due to gastroenteritis/diarrhea