Millennium = Norovirus!

[lysolqn]

I do not blame the virus on the cruise line what I do blame Celebrity for is that they did not acknowledge the many, many passengers who were ill with the virus.

 

You already knew people were ill; what would an acknowledgment of "many, many" have done for you?

 

In a previous statement on this site, someone said they received a letter from the Captain saying that the medical services and meds were free. Has anyone else on that sailing received that message because no one I know did?

 

Can't speak for your particular cruise but we've been on two X cruises on which there were noro outbreaks (one of which was Code Red) and on each of those cruises we received a letter from the captain advising us of the problem, as well as the availability of medical services/medication being provided without charge.

[spunky01]

:cool: Never thought I would have to prove myself on a chat board but. Contact anyone on the Jolley Roger (something) pirate ship shore excursion in Aruba. We all got the letter. I did not keep the letter because neither my bf or I were sick. In many cases they tried to serve people at the buffet and I watched passengers ignore them and grab things. I also watched people walk pass the people trying to give hand sanitizer pretending to not understand or just being rude. I do not think they (staff) can say "Hey idiot please use this so you do not spread the sickness to others". I used the public bathrooms and guest would do their business and leave. (not wash thier hands) Couple times I said from under the stall as I heard the door open "Hey water is free use it".

[travelingmom37]

It is such a pity that so many passengers got ill on this cruise.

Today's post was the first mention of a Noro "outbreak" on Millie, all attention has been on the Mercury. This is a hard way to spend your long-awaited holiday. We have been on an X "bleach cruise" after a cruise with a lot of sick passengers. No fun for the staff or cruisers.

I am assuming that travel insurance does not apply to on-board illness. Wishing everyone a quick recovery.

We are scheduled for a ten-day cruise on Millie in thirty days. Fingers crossed, hands washed, not much else to do but hope for the best.

[mistletoe]

Millenium was in for refurbishment in May of last year...

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/aboutceleb/pressDetails.do;jsessionid=00003WOFCG-DMcFWUWvPXK8XIo5:12h3rnd1c?pagename=press_room_details&event_date=2009-05-13&event_type=press_release&sequence_code=A

 

Really???? I wonder what they did in the refit? My wife and I were looking at some of the small details around the ship and many things looked very worn out. There was rust and corrosion arount the cabin desk lamps and (of course) there were the VERY inadequate ice machines in the Ocean Grill Restaurant. I'm sure you might be right about the re-fit, but after 25 cruises, my experience would tell me this ship is due for another one.

 

I may be a bit cynical, but when the economy is bad, its sometimes difficult for management to chose between new ice machines on a cruise ship and their end-of-year million dollar bonuses. (lol).

[kitty9]

It is such a pity that so many passengers got ill on this cruise.

Today's post was the first mention of a Noro "outbreak" on Millie, all attention has been on the Mercury. This is a hard way to spend your long-awaited holiday. We have been on an X "bleach cruise" after a cruise with a lot of sick passengers. No fun for the staff or cruisers.

I am assuming that travel insurance does not apply to on-board illness. Wishing everyone a quick recovery.

We are scheduled for a ten-day cruise on Millie in thirty days. Fingers crossed, hands washed, not much else to do but hope for the best.

 

Travel insurance will handle this for anyone smart enough to purchase it. I've had health issues on a cruise and my travel insurance reimbursed me for every bill I had to pay.

[kitty9]

A voice of reason. Thank you. Holding Celebrity (or any other cruise line for that matter) responsible for a noro outbreak is like holding an airline responsible for encountering turbulence. It just doesn't make sense.

 

Funny you should mention an airline. When we were flying home from FLL on Sunday, our plane had to make an emergency landing in Atlanta. Seeing the runway lined with fire trucks and ambulances is not a reassuring sight. Am I going to blame the airline for us arriving home 5 1/2 hours late? No, stuff happens beyond anyone's control. It's the same for this noro stuff.

[eandj]

How did the cruiseline become responsible for the noro virus? If someone walks on board as a carrier, how does the ship get the blame? We have done 7 X cruises and saw signs of an outbreak ( new steps taken in cleaning and taking away self serve), but in no way did the amount the OP mentioned get it. Considering flu, colds, norovirus are contagious, if everyone took some common easy precaustions things night not spread to you and yours.

Oh, and the OP needs to stay out of hotels, schools, hospitals, resorts,churches,restaurants etc. if the OP wants to avoid those viruses.

[d5480]

Calm down, folks. It's not Celebrity that's making people sick, it's the passengers who are coming on board (knowingly or unknowingly) with Noro who are passing it on. As others have said, there are Noro outbreaks all the time on land, but they're not required to report them.

 

Why do you believe it was a passenger rather than a crew member?

[lysolqn]

Why do you believe it was a passenger rather than a crew member?

 

I guess for the same reason many always choose to believe it was a crew member rather than a passenger!

[lysolqn]

There seems to be an abundance of threads re this round of norovirus outbreaks on X ships and I can't help but feel the whole thing is getting blown way out of proportion. I totally understand the concern but get turned off once the subject turns to the matter of compensation. I'm just not sure why anyone expects cruise lines to compensate pax who succumb to norovirus whilst on a cruise other than it being the result of incredible media hype. No one expects to be compensated for a sore throat, bronchitis, sinusitis, headcolds, coughs, pneumonia, ear infections or a multitude of other maladies humans routinely contract whether at home or away. Nor do we ever hear about people expecting compensation for noroviruses picked up on planes or in restaurants or hotels. The media has done a stupendous job (and IMHO an enormous disservice to the cruise industry) by chomping at the bit to almost gleefully report outbreaks of what it more often than not refers to as the "cruise ship illness." I often wonder why reports of far worse noro outbreaks in schools, businesses, hospitals, camps and/or nursing homes around the country are presented in a totally different context and with a much less sinister and accusatory tone. Just read that Celebrity will be compensating anyone currently doing battle with the bug on its ships to the tune of one day's future cruise credit for each day of illness. Clearly a PR response but nonetheless gracious on X's part - and IMHO an understandable but nonetheless bad precedent to set. Thanks for letting me vent.

[Denny01]

For the poster who is mad that Celebrity didn't inform everyone and insists they'd wait 6 months to cruise on a ship after an outbreak, here is an interesting statistic:

 

In the last 6 months, there have been 19 breakouts. So there are, at a minimum 19 ships not to cruise on. As to the Cruise Lines that have had outbreaks in the last 6 months for the poster who said they'd not go on Celebrity:

RCL

Fred Olsen

HAL

NCL

CCL

Regent

Celebration

Cunard

P&O

Princess

Disney

 

The only major line I see missing is Carnival - enjoy the party crowd! And from what some posters insist about Carnival (enjoyed it myself), they get 'sick' for other reasons on those cruises.

 

Just a bit of perspecitive. It's funny, all we talk about is getting reimbursed, or free Med's or free...... Next time you come down with a cold or flu, try to pinpoint where you picked it up and go there and demand compensation because that building, office, church, theatre, restaurant, friend's home....make you sick.

 

Denny

[tls630]

Thier ships are far from the cleanest out there. We sailed the Horizon out of Tampa several years ago and it was filthy.. We sailed several times on the Century and it got really run down before it's refurb. Dirty as well. In my opinion Carnival is by far the cleanest cruise line out there. NCL Is also pretty good. But RCCL and Celebrity are DIRTY!!!

[gillianrose]

Travel insurance will handle this for anyone smart enough to purchase it. I've had health issues on a cruise and my travel insurance reimbursed me for every bill I had to pay.

 

Yes, travel insurance will reimburse passengers for onboard illnesses, but so will regular medical insurance coverage, in most cases. I am absolutely positive that at least some HMO's will cover illnesses, including outside the U.S., because I have had to submit claims and they were paid quickly and easily.

 

Your comment about "anyone smart enough to purchase" travel insurance implies that people who do not purchase it are less intelligent and that is inaccurate. I have saved many thousands of dollars over the years by NOT purchasing travel insurance. I do think it is wise for some people to buy it, and quite possibly when I get old enough to be covered by Medicare, and if I have no other insurance, I will purchase travel insurance for out-of-the-country travels. It is something I consider for each trip and I check to be sure I will be covered by my own medical insurance, and then I "self-insure" for the rest. I think some people who travel a lot or cruise frequently, especially to places where the medical care may be substandard, might want to get an annual policy for medical evacuation.

 

I think that people should keep in mind that travel insurance is one of the most profitable things a travel agent sells. The profit margins are unreasonably high.

 

Two days ago The Sydney Morning Herald carried the following story about the travel insurance industry, saying "UNREASONABLY high commissions, misleading policies and small print have sparked calls for travel insurance to clean up its act.":

 

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/travel-insurers-urged-to-halt-policy-carryon-20100220-omps.html

[mistletoe]

:cool: Never thought I would have to prove myself on a chat board but. Contact anyone on the Jolley Roger (something) pirate ship shore excursion in Aruba. We all got the letter. I did not keep the letter because neither my bf or I were sick. In many cases they tried to serve people at the buffet and I watched passengers ignore them and grab things. I also watched people walk pass the people trying to give hand sanitizer pretending to not understand or just being rude. I do not think they (staff) can say "Hey idiot please use this so you do not spread the sickness to others". I used the public bathrooms and guest would do their business and leave. (not wash thier hands) Couple times I said from under the stall as I heard the door open "Hey water is free use it".

 

I was on that pirate ship excursion in Aruba too. And I still do have my letter. I also noticed several of those "idiots" you spoke of who refused the hand sanitizer in the restaurant. But (under the circumstances), I think the cruise ship SHOULD have done more to enforce the hand sanatizer rules. This problem was prevalent on the ship long before Aruba and sometimes you need to be a bit more forceful when the circumstances dictate it. I actually feel that EVERYONE on the cruse ship should have received a similar letter and LONG before Aruba. One of my cruise companions who spent 4 days in bed will attest to that!

 

The cruise line also posted a warning about Norovirus on the onboard cruise channel. Unfortunately it was not posted until very late in the cruise. Probably Saturday or when we were in Aruba. The cruise line knew of the problem long before that. I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but it still would have been nice to know.

[DDWW]

For the poster who is mad that Celebrity didn't inform everyone and insists they'd wait 6 months to cruise on a ship after an outbreak, here is an interesting statistic:

 

Did not say that. We would not go on that ship as they had at least 3 straight weeks of it on board previous to our cruise. There were many sick crew members on board, and while we were in the infirmary several were sent right back out to work after thier shot to keep them from throwing up. We have sailed on 7 cruises since, mostly RCL & Princess.

DDWW

[lysolqn]

Thier ships are far from the cleanest out there. We sailed the Horizon out of Tampa several years ago and it was filthy.. We sailed several times on the Century and it got really run down before it's refurb. Dirty as well. In my opinion Carnival is by far the cleanest cruise line out there. NCL Is also pretty good. But RCCL and Celebrity are DIRTY!!!

 

Then I suggest you continue cruising with Carnival and steer clear of the filthy, dirty, run down ships of Celebrity!

[ellbon]

We found that when the noro virus strikes a vessel ,it takes 3 sailings to rid the ship of the bug .

 

We are booked on Millie to Alaska May 14th .Interesting thing is we never heard of the noro virus attacking a Alaska cruise ship

 

 

on CC last May or so -there was a thread that the virus was on the first Alaskan sailing.. it was talked about for days.. it had been in drydock right before that.

[Denny01]

For the poster who is mad that Celebrity didn't inform everyone and insists they'd wait 6 months to cruise on a ship after an outbreak, here is an interesting statistic:

 

Did not say that. We would not go on that ship as they had at least 3 straight weeks of it on board previous to our cruise. There were many sick crew members on board, and while we were in the infirmary several were sent right back out to work after thier shot to keep them from throwing up. We have sailed on 7 cruises since, mostly RCL & Princess.

 

 

DDWW

 

And every one of those ships you cruised on (RCL and Princess) had some crewmenber and passenger come down sick for the past 3, 4..10 weeks prior to your specific cruise. Just as every ship you plan on cruising on will have sick crewmenbers and passgengers before, while and after you cruise. But we all should be concerned over large outbreaks, and that is why the CDC tracks those. that didn't occur on your ship prior to your cruise. There is a high chance, a lot more probable, that a passenger brought it on.

 

Denny

[Cassarino]

You already knew people were ill; what would an acknowledgment of "many, many" have done for you?

 

 

 

Can't speak for your particular cruise but we've been on two X cruises on which there were noro outbreaks (one of which was Code Red) and on each of those cruises we received a letter from the captain advising us of the problem, as well as the availability of medical services/medication being provided without charge.

 

I have nothing else to say on the subject except I wish all of you smooth sailing and hope you never have to encounter the illness we experienced and miss out on visiting ports of call and dining and entertainment for which you paid handsomely.

[dkjretired]

I was on that pirate ship excursion in Aruba too. And I still do have my letter. I also noticed several of those "idiots" you spoke of who refused the hand sanitizer in the restaurant. But (under the circumstances), I think the cruise ship SHOULD have done more to enforce the hand sanatizer rules. This problem was prevalent on the ship long before Aruba and sometimes you need to be a bit more forceful when the circumstances dictate it. I actually feel that EVERYONE on the cruse ship should have received a similar letter and LONG before Aruba. One of my cruise companions who spent 4 days in bed will attest to that!

 

The cruise line also posted a warning about Norovirus on the onboard cruise channel. Unfortunately it was not posted until very late in the cruise. Probably Saturday or when we were in Aruba. The cruise line knew of the problem long before that. I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but it still would have been nice to know.

 

Just so you are aware, there are many of us "idiots" who do not believe in the use of hand sanitizers but who probably wash their hands better than most people. There is a great deal of discussion within the medical community as to whether these sanitizers are really effective and some who believe that they are detrimental. Just because you believe in them does not mean that everyone does and there are many out there. Personally they are a feel good measure put out by the cruise lines....

[mistletoe]

Just so you are aware, there are many of us "idiots" who do not believe in the use of hand sanitizers but who probably wash their hands better than most people. There is a great deal of discussion within the medical community as to whether these sanitizers are really effective and some who believe that they are detrimental. Just because you believe in them does not mean that everyone does and there are many out there. Personally they are a feel good measure put out by the cruise lines....

 

Actually I agree with you Don. I was just quoting the words of another person. That Purell hand sanitizer does NOT work very well for the noroviruses. I understand they do have a new one that is more effective however. The new (commercial) one is 72% alcohol as opposed to the normal (62%-63%) stuff that is available to the public. I'm not sure what type is being used by this cruise ship. But no matter what type is being used, it is still better than nothing. Nothing beats a good hand washing however!!!!!

['The Bear']

I sailed on the Millenium on a B-2-B January 11 - February1, and we encountered Noro about day 7 or 8 on the first cruise and, as expected the crew served in the Lido including all beverages , salt and pepper etc. This continued until approximately day 3 or 4 in the second cruise when everything returned to normal. Fortunately DW & I weren't infected!!

 

I was amazed at how hard the staff worked at cleaning, and was especially impressed with the dilligence in cleaning with the 1% Hypo solution (10,000 ppm) during the turn-around day, even the entertainers were cleaning !! The smell of hypo was intense ---- but there was little else they could do!

 

None of the staff would tell us how many people were infected/quarantined, perhaps it is company policy; but it must have been considerable since they enacted the 'Code Red' protocol.

 

Considering the future cruises' issues, we were indeed fortunate!

[nails62040]

After reading all the replys in this thread - I sat back and thought to myself...truly, what is it that people are upset about? Are they upset at Celebrity for not handling things the way they thought should have been handled?....are they upset at the thought of someone bringing the virus on board? In all reality, it boils down to people being upset because their long awaited, much anticipated, vacation was ruined by an unfortunate incident.

 

Also, being sick while away from home is awful! Not having the comforts of home, the ability to get in to see your "own" doctor, being so sick and feeling that you may need an ER, the thought of being sick enough that you may need to be in a hospital in a foreign country - all these things run through your head when you're ill and stuck on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

 

We just got back from the Eastern Caribbean aboard the Magic and I had worried myself terribly before we left because the Wonder had a bad bug.

We took alot of extra precautions onboard to protect ourselves and thankfully noone in our party of 8 came down with anything.

 

My heart goes out to those who were ill and missed out on what could have been a wonderful vacaton. Wishing all those getting ready to leave on their cruise a safe and happy trip!

[Toothfairy754]

Thier ships are far from the cleanest out there. We sailed the Horizon out of Tampa several years ago and it was filthy.. We sailed several times on the Century and it got really run down before it's refurb. Dirty as well. In my opinion Carnival is by far the cleanest cruise line out there. NCL Is also pretty good. But RCCL and Celebrity are DIRTY!!!

 

We were on an NCL noro ship a couple of years ago...they only needed 3 more cases to quarantine the ship it was so bad.

The worst thing I saw though was someone from the medical facility taking a sick passenger down to sick bay in an elevator with regular passengers! (and then they wondered why it was spreading!)

[SeaBlu]

I find it hard to believe that anyone would want the Norovirus - especially if they have any knowledge of how much it sucks to have it.

 

Our family (Husband, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, grandson and myself) had taken a trip to Disney World about 4 years ago. We live in Maryland and our daughter and her family were visiting us then. A week after flying home from Disney the Virus started with one of the grandchildren and eventually everyone of us. Due to its' timing our Doctor felt that we either got it on the plane or in the Airport Restaurant where we all had lunch during our layover.

 

The way to stop the spread of this TERRIBLE disease is SO SIMPLE!

WASH YOUR HANDS - AND YES I MEAN YOU TOO!

• How many people have you seen in the breakfast buffet line in their pajamas, with uncombed hair?
  
• If they could not take the time to brush their hair, or put clothes on, WHAT makes you think they washed their hands after they went to the bathroom??
  
• When you are behind "one of these people" and they reach in the roll basket ahead of you - what do you think? what do you do?
  
• REMEMBER when you are too well mannered and/or too shy to say something they may be giving YOU the NoroVirus!!
  
• When a crew member is standing outside of the Buffet Area with a container of Hand Sanitizer trying to get everyone to sanitize their hands before going to the buffet - what do you do when you see fellow passengers push by without using the sanitizer?
  
• Have you ever thought of saying something?
  
• Should we all take a stronger approach?
  
• IT IS OUR CRUISE TOO
  
• IT IS OUR HEALTH TOO
  
• IT IS NOT FAIR TO BLAME THE CRUISE LINE
  
• THIS IS ALMOST ALWAYS THE FAULT OF AN UNCLEAN PASSENGER!
  
• HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A PUBLIC RESTROOM AND SEEN PEOPLE LEAVE WITHOUT WASHING THEIR HANDS - WELL????
  

PERHAPS IT IS TIME WE ALL STARTED TELLING FELLOW PASSENGERS THAT IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO THE REST OF US WHEN THEY "ROLL OUT OF BED" AND COME TO THE BREAKFAST BUFFET" LOOKING DIRTY!

I really don't care if they get pi**ed off at me - just so they wash up and get dressed before they come out it public! Didn't their Mother's teach them ANYTHING!