3/27 Solistice delayed boarding

[bear17]

Just read that 3/27 Solistice boarding is delayed due to norovirus. For full email on this, see UPDATES on Celebrity website.

[22Vines]

Not seeing this update on the website?

[rhuntington3]

http://www.celebritycruises.com/aboutceleb/travelAlert.do?pagename=incident_3

[bear17]

03-20-2011 - (For the Celebrity Solstice guests sailing on Sunday, March 27, 2011: ) - We would like to inform you of a delay in your boarding in Port Everglades.

 

During Celebrity Solstice's last sailing, a number of guests onboard experienced some gastrointestinal illness. In an abundance of caution, we are conducting some enhanced sanitizing onboard the ship and within the cruise terminal to help prevent any illness from affecting your cruise.

 

Because of this additional sanitizing, your check in and boarding is now anticipated to begin at approximately 3:00 p.m. We apologize for this delay to your boarding process and we thank you for your understanding. Despite the later departure, we do not anticipate any delays in your arrival to the first port of call. We began notifying guests of these changes on March 23 directly and/or through their travel agents. We apologize if this information did not reach you in a timely manner.

 

In addition, we would like to provide you with some important information regarding how best to deal with colds, flu, or gastrointestinal illness. According to health experts, as many as 300 million people worldwide are affected by norovirus each year. Only the common cold is more prevalent. Therefore, we ask for your assistance in following the advice of medical experts who tell us that the best way to prevent gastrointestinal illnesses is to simply wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after using the bathroom and before eating anything. We also recommend that you use the complimentary sanitizing gel that we have available at various locations onboard as often as possible. The gel should be rubbed thoroughly and continuously until your hands are dry. However, the gel is not a substitution for thorough hand washing.

 

Should you experience symptoms such as nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, commonly associated with a gastrointestinal illness, at any time during your cruise, we request you contact the ship's medical facility for a complimentary consultation and treatment. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and assistance in keeping everyone on the ship healthy.

 

If you have experienced any gastrointestinal symptoms within the last three days, we ask that you please consider rescheduling your cruise. Please bring this to the attention of your pier agent who can assist you and/or arrange for a complimentary medical consultation with a member of our medical facility. Similarly, if you are uncomfortable taking your cruise at this time, for reasons related to personal health or otherwise, our staff can assist you in rescheduling your sailing for another time.

 

We hope all the information in this letter helps you understand the importance Celebrity Cruises places on the health and safety of every one of our guests and crew members. Like you, we want to ensure that every guest’s cruise is a fun, relaxing and healthy experience. This is why we are taking these additional measures. Welcome onboard and enjoy your cruise vacation.

 

Sincerely,

 

Celebrity Cruises

 

Found on Celebrity.com. Upper-right hand corner has IMPORTANT UPDATE logo

[JENHERE4]

We sail on the 3rd and I called to check today...the CR rep said that this letter does not exist and that I was misinformed. He told me that I was referring to something that happened weeks ago. I finally had to get a manager on the phone who did verify it and said it was a "cruise by cruise" basis.

 

However- a good piece of information that he gave was that even if you were past final payment (which everyone would be, by the time they send this out), that if they delay boarding due to "illness" cleaning, you are allowed to transfer to another date, without losing any money. Of course, if the new sail date is more expensive, you'll have to pay the difference, but hopefully not. ;)

 

My thoughts are this (and I am sure X is counting on it too)- even if you did want to change- how many people are willing to disrupt their travel plans 2 days before the ship boards? Most are already en route, etc.

But, what can they do?

 

If I am correct this is at least the 4th or 5th time this year they have delayed for extra cleaning. May be time to take a whole day or two to eradicate this?

 

I understand that all ships have this issue but....

While I am new to the boards, this reoccurring illness seems very specific to this ship (Solstice). Can someone point out another ship (on any line) that continues to have problems for months?

 

In any event, too late for us to change! We have three kids, grandparents that have taken off work to watch them, time off our own work, travel expenses, etc. We will be there with bells on! :cool:

[illusion]

It seems that so many people from ALL OVER have been affected this year from the Noro/Gastrointestinal problems.

 

If anyone recalls the Noro was active in January on the Solstice which delayed our sailing on Feb 6th. We also started boarding at 3. Were we bothered No as we hoped all the extra work they did to eliminate the Noro would make our cruise uneventful. Our cruise was great as a result and the Feb 13th cruise did not have late boarding or any other changes that we had seen on ours.

 

Since we have been home all we heard of were people getting this nasty bug. So it does happen on land not just on cruise ships. Enjoy your cruise, wash your hands often as we did and relax.