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Norovirus on Star Princess


rocklinmom
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We are supposed to board the Star this Saturday June 23rd and I just got emails saying that there are numerous cases of norovirus on the ship right now. Boarding is now delayed several hours for a deep cleaning and to sanitize the ship. We leave in the morning for Vancouver and this is not news I wanted to hear!

I am really worried about getting on a cruise after norovirus. Has anyone had any experience with that, and can I just hope that the cleaning will make it safer for us? Such a damper on the excitement I had until I got the email :-(

 

 

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Noro spreads quickly. YOU need to protect yourself. The virus is spread by hand to mouth contact. Wash your hands with soap every time you come into the cabin. Keep your hands away from your mouth and eyes. After you order at dinner, excuse yourself and make a trip to the restroom to wash hands again (you don't know when that menu was last cleaned.) Don't touch the hand rails on stairs unless you need to for a safe walk. Don't touch the elevator buttons...or walls with your hands. Use a tissue and discard as you exit the elevator. Don't lean on counters when waiting for a beverage or fast food service. Don't use public restrooms if at all possible, and when you do, use "best practices" regarding opening doors with a paper towel and such. Washing with soap and water is better than hand sanitizers, although there are a few special ones that kill noro.

 

Yes, cleaning the ship thoroughly will help, but the bigger help will come when each passenger takes responsibility for doing all that they can to prevent catching or spreading the virus. If you want to be really thorough, you can clean your cabin when you move in. Hit the areas that the steward may not have--the phone, place the TV remote in a clear plastic bag (it will still work that way), etc.

 

A cruise ship is required to report illness when 3% of its occupants are ill. In contrast, a school in the US is not required to report until 15% of its "population" is absent. It sounds to me like Princess is taking appropriate steps to avoid spreading the virus, and will likely continue these throughout the cruise. This will include increasing the cleanings of public rest rooms, railings, elevators, etc.

 

I'd much rather have a late boarding so that the entire crew can spend a few extra hours on cleaning duty than "come back ill."

Edited by moki'smommy
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Personally, I would not worry too much about it. They will do everything they can to sanitize the ship before more folks board. Then again, there are many things you can do to minimize the possibility you will get sick. There are lots of tips on proper sanitation for each individual on the various threads on cruise critic.

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We received this same email last year the day before we were supposed to board the Royal Princess in Ft Lauderdale. Definitely not what we wanted to see right before we were off to have a fun vacation. It ended up not being a big deal... supposedly they clean the ship very well. You will see changes in the buffet and dining room... they will serve your food in the buffet and salt and pepper won’t be on the table in the dining room. They will have more hand sanitizer stations as well and someone will hand you your plate as you enter the buffet. They do take it very seriously and actually we felt it was good to have those extra precautions in place. Because we didn’t know what to expect after the email, we also took some Clorox wipes and sanitized our own room the day we boarded. About 3-4 days into the cruise everything returned to normal as they said any lingering germs would have died off. We still were on high alert and kept washing our hands more and were sure not to touch any of the food we were eating but rather used a fork. We also asked our cabin attendant if any of the passengers in the rooms he was tending to had been sick and thankfully, he said no. There were also no reports of any norovirus on our cruise so whatever they did seemed to work . Relax and enjoy your vacation!

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I wouldn't worry too much about it. I received the same email for a cruise to Hawaii a couple of years ago, but didn't have a problem on the ship. They do extra cleaning and they didn't let us serve ourselves in the buffet for a few days, but all was well. Just keep washing your hands and drink plenty of water. Enjoy your cruise.

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Thank you! This all makes me feel a little bit better. I am adding Lysol wipes and sprays to our luggage right now to clean our cabins. I don’t think they can kill norovirus but it will make me feel like I’m at least trying.

 

 

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We are supposed to board the Star this Saturday June 23rd and I just got emails saying that there are numerous cases of norovirus on the ship right now. Boarding is now delayed several hours for a deep cleaning and to sanitize the ship. We leave in the morning for Vancouver and this is not news I wanted to hear!

I am really worried about getting on a cruise after norovirus. Has anyone had any experience with that, and can I just hope that the cleaning will make it safer for us? Such a damper on the excitement I had until I got the email :-(

 

 

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We were on the Star Princess to Hawaii when noro broke out. One way you can tell that noro has broken out onboard, is when you see the salt and pepper shakers disappear off the tables. Wash your hands often, especially after you have used handrails, public restrooms. Stay out of the buffet. Even though they may have wash stations before entering the buffet, take a look around and you will see people practicing unhealthful things such as:

 

1. Licking their fingers while eating, then they go back to the buffet without washing their hands and touch the serving spoons.

 

 

2. Eating their food while going through the buffet line - french fries. They're usually found at the beginning of the buffet, and while eating their french fries and licking their fingers, they are touching the serving spoons.

 

3. Watch the waiters when they clean a table. They will wipe off the top of the table, but not the arms of the chairs. You come along and touch the arms of the chairs and inadvertent touch your face or mouth and you've come into contact with the virus.

 

4. Restrooms are located outside of the buffet. I've witnessed passengers leaving the restroom without washing their hands and head straight into the buffet.

 

5. I've seen passengers pick up a bread roll with their hands then decide they don't want it and puts it back.

 

Okay, you get the idea of what I have witnessed on my many cruises, I could go on with the horror stories. Bottom line is, avoid the buffet area as best you can. When noro hits, no one is allowed to serve themselves in the buffet. No salt and pepper shakers in the buffet or the dining room, they'll give you little packets of salt and pepper. No baskets of bread are on the dining room table in the MDR. The waiters will serve you. No serving yourself coffee or any beverage in the buffet.

 

Will cleaning make it any safer for you? NO! Make yourself safe though. We were on the Crown Princess and it came into port with the noro. They deep cleaned it, but next day out noro was on board. We left port at midnight and no one got to board until 4:00 pm. Princess emailed us and told us not to get to the port before 3:00 pm due to deep cleaning. Yeah right, we had flights to catch as we flew in the same day as the ship left. I think noro is the one thing that makes a Captain cringe, as it's a bad experience for everyone on board.

 

Take Clorox wipes with you and wipe your cabin down. Door knobs, telephone, TV remote, table tops (including balcony tables and chairs). I saw dirty diapers out on a balcony below us on our Alaskan cruise. They were laying on the table, chairs and deck.:eek: Bottom line, you do not know if a passenger in your cabin had noro. Stewards clean, but noro is lethal.

 

Good luck, take precautions, and have a great time! Alaska is beautiful!

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We are supposed to board the Star this Saturday June 23rd and I just got emails saying that there are numerous cases of norovirus on the ship right now. Boarding is now delayed several hours for a deep cleaning and to sanitize the ship. We leave in the morning for Vancouver and this is not news I wanted to hear!

I am really worried about getting on a cruise after norovirus. Has anyone had any experience with that, and can I just hope that the cleaning will make it safer for us? Such a damper on the excitement I had until I got the email :-(

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I’ve heard(but certainly can’t verify) that two shots of tequila every morning prior to 9am prevents Noro viruses. Of course, I’ve been wrong before, better ask the doctor in the family before giving advice. :lips-sealed:

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Noro spreads quickly. YOU need to protect yourself. The virus is spread by hand to mouth contact. Wash your hands with soap every time you come into the cabin. Keep your hands away from your mouth and eyes. After you order at dinner' date=' excuse yourself and make a trip to the restroom to wash hands again (you don't know when that menu was last cleaned.) Don't touch the hand rails on stairs unless you need to for a safe walk. Don't touch the elevator buttons...or walls with your hands. Use a tissue and discard as you exit the elevator. Don't lean on counters when waiting for a beverage or fast food service. Don't use public restrooms if at all possible, and when you do, use "best practices" regarding opening doors with a paper towel and such. Washing with soap and water is better than hand sanitizers, although there are a few special ones that kill noro.

 

Yes, cleaning the ship thoroughly will help, but the bigger help will come when each passenger takes responsibility for doing all that they can to prevent catching or spreading the virus. If you want to be really thorough, you can clean your cabin when you move in. Hit the areas that the steward may not have--the phone, place the TV remote in a clear plastic bag (it will still work that way), etc.

 

A cruise ship is required to report illness when 3% of its occupants are ill. In contrast, a school in the US is not required to report until 15% of its "population" is absent. It sounds to me like Princess is taking appropriate steps to avoid spreading the virus, and will likely continue these throughout the cruise. This will include increasing the cleanings of public rest rooms, railings, elevators, etc.

 

I'd much rather have a late boarding so that the entire crew can spend a few extra hours on cleaning duty than "come back ill."[/quote']

 

So Noro can't be spread by breathing when others projectile vomit and it gets in the air?

We had that once at a large dining table, wasn't nice.

 

And you can't catch it by eating salads etc which an infected worker has prepared?

 

Or drinking contaminated water?

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Thank you! This all makes me feel a little bit better. I am adding Lysol wipes and sprays to our luggage right now to clean our cabins. I don’t think they can kill norovirus but it will make me feel like I’m at least trying.

Add some "exam" gloves, they're cheap. I carry them and wear them when I climb stairs (we do stairs when possible, but I need to hold the hand rail), if they're back to self-serve in the buffet...wear a glove. I also carry a spray that's effective against Noro and spray liberally after using a menu or anything else where gloves are a nuisance. Plus hand washing.

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So Noro can't be spread by breathing when others projectile vomit and it gets in the air? Nope, germs can't fly. The ones that are air borne ride on dust particles or aerosols. Sneeze, cough, etc. Sneeze particles can travel several FEET.

We had that once at a large dining table, wasn't nice.

 

And you can't catch it by eating salads etc which an infected worker has prepared? Yes you can get it that way, plus many other types of food poisoning.

 

Or drinking contaminated water?

Water is another way to catch any type of food poisoning or other diseases. If there's Noro in the water, you can get it.

Hand to mouth is a simplified way of saying if it gets in your stomach you're going to get sick.

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Water is another way to catch any type of food poisoning or other diseases. If there's Noro in the water, you can get it.

Hand to mouth is a simplified way of saying if it gets in your stomach you're going to get sick.

 

oh thank you so much for explaining it in simplified terms to someone you think is non-medical.............

 

you are in fact incorrect

 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/vomit-machine-shows-why-norovirus-spreads-so-fast-n412721

Edited by Griller
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Noro is the 2nd most common illness in the USA with the common cold being the first. There are around 20,000,000 million cases a year per the CDC.

 

The extra sanitizing by Princess will do a good job of greatly reducing the risk of infection from the previous cruise.

 

If there is noro on your cruise, chances are it will because a new passenger will have boarded with it and probably does not even know it, having caught it while traveling to the cruise. Noro is contagious for several days after all symptoms have gone away.

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Just a couple of comments.

 

While I agree with mokismommy that cruise ships must report to the CDC at much lower levels of infection than other places, it is even more pronounced than she mentions. The only report published is when the levels of reported cases reaches 3%. However, the cruise ship is required to report to the CDC every time it enters US waters from foreign even if there are no cases of GI illnesses to report. The ship must also report to the CDC when the levels of reported cases reaches 2%, within 24 hours, and every 24 hours there on.

 

Given the level of chlorination in cruise ship water, noro infection by water is virtually nil.

 

Given the sanitation required for "ready to eat" foods like salads, and the hand sanitation trained into the crew, and yes I know there are mistakes made in this area, noro infection from food is very small. Even if a crew member has noro, but is unaware (asymptomatic at the time, but still infectious), unless that person's hand sanitation is also poor, then there would be no spread from this source.

 

Both of these above statements are from the CDC itself, which studies the incidences of noro on every cruise ship, even those that report one case in a cruise, and can determine the vector that introduced the virus onto the ship quite well, and can determine this by tracking the trend of reported cases, and other methodology, and will state that the primary means of infection on a cruise ship is by an ill passenger bringing it onboard, and by contact with contaminated hard surfaces.

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we were on a Princess cruise a couple of years ago when noro broke out. Only 17 people got sick. I think Princess handled it very well in general - we did see a lot of changes in the buffet service and other food related places, etc.

 

However, some kid threw up in the pool! Yikes. I do think the Princess staff handled that poorly, because they threw a small net on top of the pool (which was about 25% of the size of the pool) and didn't put up any signs. I didn't know it was closed so I sat on the edge and put my feet in it. Another passenger informed me that it was closed - but it was not clear and no staff approached me to tell me this. I didn't get sick, though, so I don't know whether the kid threw up because of noro or just sea sickness.

 

I always bring Lysol wipes with us and wipe down the ENTIRE cabin right away.

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We were on the Star for our very first cruise in April 2015 when a nasty case of noro broke out. Both my daughter and her roomie got it. My daughter blames her roomate for refusing to use the sanitizer and thinks she caught it from the mutual bathroom bar of soap.

 

It really seems like the Star gets it frequently. I don't know why.

 

Just keep smart and clean.

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We were on the Star for our very first cruise in April 2015 when a nasty case of noro broke out. Both my daughter and her roomie got it. My daughter blames her roomate for refusing to use the sanitizer and thinks she caught it from the mutual bathroom bar of soap.

 

It really seems like the Star gets it frequently. I don't know why.

 

Just keep smart and clean.

 

I take Dial antibacterial soap on board now, wont kill viruses like Noro but will maybe work on bacteria like E Coli. 2 bars for $1 at $Tree stores.

 

Its an easy decision to take your own soap considering the tiny harsh Princess soap they now supply

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Sorta sad to hear this. We had such a great trip on the Star’s southbound AK June 2nd trip. I only heard one time anyone say anything about someone being sick, and it was a random person who was going on one of the ship’s tours in Juneau with us say that her husband was in the cabin with tummy troubles. I made a mental note not to get too close to her after that.😉

 

I think sometimes people just think they just ate something that didn’t agree with them or maybe being on a ship doesn’t agree with them, so they keep going out in public when they are contagious. After all, they paid for the trip and want to enjoy it. (I am not excusing them just pointing it out.). I agree with previous posters that it is up to you to be vigilant. Just remember, part of the vigilance is staying in your room when you are sick until you know for certain you are not contagious.

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A guy of our dinner table got quarantined on Golden Princess a couple of years ago after visiting the medical centre asking for immodium.

His wife maintained after 24 hours he felt fine but he wasn't allowed out of the cabin for 3 days.

Certainly put me off going anywhere near the medical centre if I had gippy guts. Just stop eating for 24 hours and drink loads of water.

 

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Sorta sad to hear this. We had such a great trip on the Star’s southbound AK June 2nd trip. I only heard one time anyone say anything about someone being sick, and it was a random person who was going on one of the ship’s tours in Juneau with us say that her husband was in the cabin with tummy troubles. I made a mental note not to get too close to her after that.😉

 

I think sometimes people just think they just ate something that didn’t agree with them or maybe being on a ship doesn’t agree with them, so they keep going out in public when they are contagious. After all, they paid for the trip and want to enjoy it. (I am not excusing them just pointing it out.). I agree with previous posters that it is up to you to be vigilant. Just remember, part of the vigilance is staying in your room when you are sick until you know for certain you are not contagious.

I got noro on the Crown and it hit me so fast and is so violent that I can not even imagine wanting to leave the cabin, nor would I have had the strength.
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