Tips to avoid getting sick onboard (including norwalk virus)?

[JFontaine]

I avoid public restrooms on the ship - I rather take the extra time to walk back to the cabin. Also, I try to avoid touching doors with my hands - if I can push the door open using my arm I will, or I might hold the door nob with my shirt or sweater.

[AFT_LOVER]

Our post office was closed for 3 days with the entire staff sick for 48 hours & then they came back to work. The delivery gal who is a friend of ours & birdsits when we are on vacation in Maui (Thursday) or a cruise, had a 12 hour shift since another 10 folks call in sick. So she gets major pay or 2 days off next week.

 

Schools are closed due to illness, even people in a mall hacking it up............yuk!

[Kami's pal]

The poster that said cabin stewards do no wear gloves etc. when cleaning, then she certainly has not sailed on Celebrity because we notice that they always do this. Perhaps it was her cabin steward/ess that did not wear gloves but the majority do.

Remember to wash wash and wash again those hands and try not to touch your mouth or nose once washed.

 

I won't mention again the name of the other ship where I watched cabin stewards cleaning , dusting, changing linens with bare hands, BUT I will repeat, I saw my cabin steward take off her thick rubber gloves after she had used the bleach solution to clean my bathroom. I couldn't speak Spanish, and she couldn't speak English, (most employees on Xpedition are from Ecuador), so when I tried with hand motions, and so on to indicate that she should use gloves while changing my bed, she made a face to indicate that those gloves were dirty. After all she had just used them to clean the bathroom! They were not disposable, so I had to hope that the bleach solution had sanitized them, otherwise they were going into the next cabin's bathroom. And she had no disposable gloves to do the rest of the cabin. She used her bare hands, even reaching into a waste basket to pick out the disposable cover from the thermometer where the ship's doctor had thrown it. To her, that made sense. Why change the pristine plastic bag liner, when all she could see was that tiny cardboard cylinder? I understood her thinking. She didn't understand. (I had shopped in Quito, where the artist/shop owner had nothing in which to wrap my purchase.)

 

I've since wondered if I had broken into my emergency first aid kit and handed her the latex gloves, if she might have used them. My travel clinic sold me that kit, explaining that if I were to need care in a third world village, I should make certain to supply my own disposable needles, gloves etc. However, I hadn't considered that Xpedition (or any cruise line ) employs workers from third world countries. These people do not understand throwing away items used only once. So it is the responsibility of the cruise line to educate them and supply the gloves and supervise to make certain they are removed and disposed of properly.

 

Yes, we passengers must take responsibility for washing our hands after using the toilet, (I'd say before and after because mucous membranes are not good protection as skin), and before eating, (after using the menu, salt and pepper, chair arms) but the cruise line is also responsible.