Mariner Boarding Late for 12/26/11

[denamo]

Most everything is packed; Christmas celebration..gifts, food, & fun to happen this evening; then we'll be off in the morning.

 

I think we are more worried about what will be open tomorrow as we head to Galveston, since it is Christmas day, rather than this virus that has hit the Mariner. It's all about the stomach! ;):D

 

We are already psyched up not to get in a hurry on Monday for embarkation. Patience will be in order. We will be on the Mariner for a week, so a few less hours on Monday will be fine.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who has given input on being on ships with similar problems. This will be our first experience with this.

 

Keeping our fingers crossed and hands washed. :)

[satxdiver]

One poster asked about the incubation period. I found this:

 

After exposure to the virus, symptoms typically appear within 24-48 hours, but you can begin feeling ill as early as 12 hours. Symptoms usually last 24-60 hours.

 

Noroviruses can survive freezing temperatures, as well as temperatures up to 140°F. The virus can also live in water with up to 10 parts per million of chlorine, which is much higher than what public water supplies have.

 

From the CDC website:

The most important means of preventing norovirus transmission and infection is exercising frequent and appropriate hand washing. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers (≥62% ethanol) may be helpful as an adjunct method of hand hygiene, but should not replace washing with soap and water.

 

The soap releases the virus from your hands and the running water washes it away. Remember the virus can survive in temperatures up to 140F so the hot water out of the faucet will not kill the virus.

 

Purell hand sanitizer was mentioned in another post. Purell contains 63% ethanol which barely qualifies for the CDC recommended hand sanitizers. Moral to the story is to wash your hands thoroughly under running water using lots of soap and do it often. Cruise safely.

[cruiser915]

Has anyone heard any reports of how things are going on the current Mariner cruise? It would be interesting to know how widespread the outbreak is, expecially given that this is 3 weeks in a row now, right?

[Cindy]

I hope everything goes well for you New Year's cruisers today and this week. Unfortunately, Noro seems to be making the rounds right now. Just in the last couple days I've read about a "Red Alert" on both a Norwegian ship and a Princess ship.:( Take reasonable precautions and have a great cruise!:D

[TEXASMUNK]

It takes but one person tocarry it onboard (they will not miss their cruise because of an upset stomach, etc)..then hit the mens room, not wash their hands, go and kick at the food on the WJ and bingo! The cruise line gets the blame.

 

This is the same guy who goes to the grocery store, grabs a cart, shops, looking at stuff. pays, goes home and guess who gets the cart next? you!

 

Use good common sense. We bring the clorox wipes, spend 5 to 10 minutes wiping down the common stuff folks touch in the cabin, a whole bunch of cruises, never had a problem.

 

Every line fears noro, primarily becuase of the nightmare it creates onboard and the press..they love the horror story!

 

Go, be smart, enjoy! Bon Voyage!

[DeepWaterMariner]

Holland America starts all their cruises as if they have Noro and continue the precautions until they are sure none of the new passengers are infected. That usually takes a couple of days and then, if no illness has been detected, things revert to normal.

[kjctc]

Just off Mariner today 12/18-26 and yes, Noro was onboard. We were delayed departing due to a deep cleaning from previous sailing. We had to stand in line for hours at the terminal to board a bus, go to convention center, check in, wait for another bus and return to board the ship (arrived at noon- boarded at 5:00 but would have been much longer but we took a taxi back). It was utter chaos. Today getting off was barely better as customs did the mandatory evry 90 day, every passenger interview- I left the lounge at 9:30 and got to my car by noon. The cruise was a good time, food mediocre, enjoyed all entertainment and had fantastic weather.

[BonTXNY]

Just off Mariner today 12/18-26 and yes, Noro was onboard. We were delayed departing due to a deep cleaning from previous sailing. We had to stand in line for hours at the terminal to board a bus, go to convention center, check in, wait for another bus and return to board the ship (arrived at noon- boarded at 5:00 but would have been much longer but we took a taxi back). It was utter chaos. Today getting off was barely better as customs did the mandatory evry 90 day, every passenger interview- I left the lounge at 9:30 and got to my car by noon. The cruise was a good time, food mediocre, enjoyed all entertainment and had fantastic weather.

 

How bad was it?

When did the ship depart?

Sounds like you had a good cruise in spite of all the waiting/chaos :)

[gvladybug]

We arrived home today from the 12/18-26th Christmas cruise.

We were delayed in boarding as previously reported, but for us it was not a big inconvenience and was onboard around 3pm.

Let me say they are doing lots of stuff to try to kill this virus!

We saw them steaming clean the stateroom door handles in the middle of the night. I thought someone was messing with my door and I got up and checked.

I also saw them swabbing down all the cabin doors with sanitizer foam in the middle of the night.

 

All the glass in the elevators and in our promenade cabin was streaked. My husband commented to a crew member it looked like they took a fire hose and sprayed sanitizer on everything. The crew's comment was "basically yes".

 

You could definitely not go into any food area without crew squirting you coming and going with hand sanitizer. And we were regularly recommended to wash our hands.

 

So far all 4 of our family members are fine. We did see a guy going down to the infirmary in the elevator saying we probably don't want to ride with him :) Nope -- we just let him use the elevator all to himself ;) Don't know if it was the Noro or something else.

 

We had a great cruise and I can't imagine even more cleaning than they were doing on our cruise.

 

Really hope that the Christmas Cruise gets a credit to the account as well. We heard some people had to wait in lines up to 5-6 hrs to get on the ship. Thankfully we didn't; probably a total of 45 minutes from checkin to in our cabin!!

Oh and getting off the ship was slightly delayed as all the luggage wasn't all unloaded to start disembarking at 8:30am. So we started around 9am and we were through customs, rode the shuttle the car at the San Luis parking lot and were on the road before 10:30am.

 

Looking forward to planning our next cruise as we just qualified for C&A Emerald status and wonder what additional perks if any we will receive.

[pspercy]

My husband and I were on the Mariner - 16 days Rome to Galveston Transatlantic and arrived back on November 11. We both got the Noro along with 2 other of our tablemates. We were never told how many other passengers had it.

 

Wow, we never heard a peep about that !

[pspercy]

.... sanitize their hands when entering the WindJammer and the crew insisted.

 

I thought the hand sanitizer gel was useless against viruses ?

 

(Later) Checked CDC site:

" Alcohol-based hand sanitizers (≥62% ethanol) may be helpful as an adjunct method of hand hygiene, but should not replace washing with soap and water."

 

It also said the virus can withstand 10ppm chlorine - about five times stronger than a backyard pool's water in good condition.

[baabtx]

How bad was it?

When did the ship depart?

Sounds like you had a good cruise in spite of all the waiting/chaos :)

 

We too just finished the 12/18-26 Cruise and yes they had cases of Noro on board ... or was it!! As posted on another post, it might have been sea-sickness as the first couple of days at sea were very windy and there was a bit more "motion in the ocean"! Also As the previous poster stated, the chrome on all parts of the ship looked so dull because of all the sanitizer, but my wife and I didn't care since they were taking the proper precautions to ensure everyone travelled safely. I felt bad for the crew since some of their down time had to be forgiven so they could sanitize.

 

Yes the sanitizer was far more prevalant than past cruises, but this never bothers me and I wish it would always be this way. What was disturbing was listening to some folks (especially the younger cruisers - teens) walking around saying "I'm not going to have them spray that stuff in my hands" ... well this is how it gets started!

 

Yes the embarkation was somewhat of a nightmare, but what's the cruise line to do - board 3400 people on a ship and hope that none of them gets sick - stuff happens, Galveston has always been somewhat of a boarding nightmare (especially if fog is around), but once on-board the cruise was fantastic - so many good memories, meeting super nice people all week and the RCI crew really working to make a difference on the Holiday Sailing! Great shows, loved the Micky Utley Band and Phil Andersons Christmas show and all the activity on the promenade, especially seeing the little kids taking pics with Santa in front of the Christmas Tree - memorable!

 

They're not perfect and yes it's certainly something to improve upon at the Galveston port, once on-board all that should change!!

[BecciBoo]

way. What was disturbing was listening to some folks (especially the younger cruisers - teens) walking around saying "I'm not going to have them spray that stuff in my hands" ... well this is how it gets started!

 

 

They're not perfect and yes it's certainly something to improve upon at the Galveston port, once on-board all that should change!!

 

If that had been within my hearing, I'm afraid I'd have had to say "Oh h-ll yes you certainly will!" and pointed them out to the guards at WJ.

If Galveston wants all these new ships to remain, then she MUST do something about her port arrival system. She should study Port Canaveral's, such a pleasure to sail from there. So efficient with the parking right at the terminal. Those railroad tracks need to be reworked or removed entirely and placed somewhere else on the island for it to be even half way efficient. It can be done, just like the building of Harborside drive was, and if they want the continued revenue, then they have to come up with the improvement. If they don't, I predict some of the new lines will leave when their contract is up. Bad enough with the occasional fog, but with the increased traffic and the noro stuff, just a nightmare.

[jkspringtexas]

If you have ever had Noro, you will know that in no way can it be confused with being seasick. Noro for us was a very violent illness - much more flu like. I'm not going into the details, but definately not like being seasick.

[crazy4themouse]

.... sanitize their hands when entering the WindJammer and the crew insisted.

 

I thought the hand sanitizer gel was useless against viruses ?

 

(Later) Checked CDC site:

" Alcohol-based hand sanitizers (≥62% ethanol) may be helpful as an adjunct method of hand hygiene, but should not replace washing with soap and water."

 

 

That's exactly right. In fact, studies have shown that the gel actually *increases* the spread of viruses such as the noro-type, because people use that instead of washing their hands. Hand washing with soap in as hot of water as you can stand is the only thing that even somewhat helps -- the soap and hot water loosen the viruses from your skin, and the friction of rubbing your hands together sends them down the drain. The gel does not kill the virus -- it smears it around your hands, that's it. If they really wanted to be effective, they'd have temporary hand-washing stations set up at the WJ entrance and other such places!

 

 

-gina-

[charlesjoy]

There was no sickness that I was aware of on our sailing.We departed on time and I heard no mention of such the entire cruise.

 

 

I can only report what was told to us by a lady at C&A. I have her name if you would like me to post it and you can call yourself.

[05mak05]

If you have ever had Noro, you will know that in no way can it be confused with being seasick. Noro for us was a very violent illness - much more flu like. I'm not going into the details, but definately not like being seasick.

Violent is the perfect way to describe Noro. As I posted on another thread, I had it years ago in Honolulu during the Christmas season. I knew I needed to go to the emergency room but I was too sick and that is a factual statement. The head waiter in the Main Dining room also told us that it was not Noro but instead seasickness. (We were on the 12/18 cruise.) There were 6 in our party and none of us got sick. There was no way to ignore the threat at first and we were rather spooked but forgot all about it after the first 2 sea days. And, I agree about updating the cruise terminal in Galveston being a must-do. It simply is not adequate to accommodate the large ships. Apparently, they've figured out that busing people back and forth to the Convention Center didn't work and have now reverted to giving people onboard credits for a lunch in Galveston. By the way, we parked at Easy Cruize around 10:30 to 11 am on Dec. 18th. There was already so much traffic and so much congestion that we pulled our luggage to the baggage dropoff rather than driving through the terminal. The grandchildren are 6 and 7 and had 22" rollaboards ... they are little troopers. Thank goodness we didn't have downpours on the 18th or on the 26th as that would have complicated the situation even further. Is is true that the Houston ship channel is too shallow for cruise ships to go out of Bayport?

[wreckem2013]

Violent is the perfect way to describe Noro. As I posted on another thread, I had it years ago in Honolulu during the Christmas season. I knew I needed to go to the emergency room but I was too sick and that is a factual statement. The head waiter in the Main Dining room also told us that it was not Noro but instead seasickness. (We were on the 12/18 cruise.) There were 6 in our party and none of us got sick. There was no way to ignore the threat at first and we were rather spooked but forgot all about it after the first 2 sea days. And, I agree about updating the cruise terminal in Galveston being a must-do. It simply is not adequate to accommodate the large ships. Apparently, they've figured out that busing people back and forth to the Convention Center didn't work and have now reverted to giving people onboard credits for a lunch in Galveston. By the way, we parked at Easy Cruize around 10:30 to 11 am on Dec. 18th. There was already so much traffic and so much congestion that we pulled our luggage to the baggage dropoff rather than driving through the terminal. The grandchildren are 6 and 7 and had 22" rollaboards ... they are little troopers. Thank goodness we didn't have downpours on the 18th or on the 26th as that would have complicated the situation even further. Is is true that the Houston ship channel is too shallow for cruise ships to go out of Bayport?

 

Bayport can handle all but probably Oasis/Allure/Epic size ships atleast in terms of them fitting, not sure about passenger load. They spent a **** ton(over $100million) to make the cruise terminal. The problem is no one wants to leave from Bayport because the canal and most of the way to the gulf is lined with various types of refineries. Plus it takes several more hours to get to the gulf, which equals more fuel.

[05mak05]

I find Bayport/Houston baffling. I've read several articles but can't seem to get a handle on why on earth they built it? At one point when ground was first broken, I heard it was for Disney. It is totally vacant or has it turned commercial? And, back to Norovirus, the Captain made several announcements daily to wash hands in hot soap and water which we did. And, we did not touch our faces, avoided handrails, etc.

[wreckem2013]

I find Bayport/Houston baffling. I've read several articles but can't seem to get a handle on why on earth they built it? At one point when ground was first broken, I heard it was for Disney. It is totally vacant or has it turned commercial? And, back to Norovirus, the Captain made several announcements daily to wash hands in hot soap and water which we did. And, we did not touch our faces, avoided handrails, etc.

 

The Bayport terminal has always had cruise and container berths. IIRC it has 3-4 cruise ship berths and like 13 container ship berths. The thought was, if they build it (a nicer facility than Galveston), they(cruise lines) would come. Didn't work out that way and now they are looking to re-purpose the cruise part of it.

 

Once the Panama canal expansion is completed, the Port of Houston and the Bayport Container terminal will be hopping, but neither will ever land a major cruise line unless they give HUGE incentives.

[Tucker in Texas]

I find Bayport/Houston baffling. I've read several articles but can't seem to get a handle on why on earth they built it?

 

As local (10 minutes from the port) and we could be dead wrong, our thoughts were the Port wanted to build more container ports but needed to pass a bond issue to get the funds for it. The people up in Houston weren't real excited about raising their taxes for the bond issue and the people down here were really upset about possible damage to our wetlands plus ugliness so there was no way people down here would vote for it.

 

So, the Port Authority started courting the people up in Houston who have more Harris County votes than we do anyway by touting all the additional tourism it would bring in packing hotels and restaurants, etc. and tax dollars along with it. AND it was NIMBY for them. In fact, they said they were going to build THREE terminals to handle all the cruise ships that would be coming in. Never mind that the port is six miles from civilization, 50 miles from the airport, no public transportation, no nice hotels, restaurants, or tourist attractions you can get to without a car and no car rentals available nearby if you want to rent one at the airport and drop it off at the port.

 

The bond issue passed.

 

Ground was broken for the new terminal and it was immediately put on the back burner since no cruise lines had contracted to use it and container ports were the main aim and being built as fast as they could build them. It took them three years to finish the terminal. They didn't even bother with sufficient parking for the passengers which was found out when they had to use the terminal for several weeks when Ike blew Galveston away. I guess they figured if they ever did get a cruise ship in, they would address the lack of parking at that time. In the meantime, there would be more space to store containers. I heard containers are now being stored where the parking lot was.

 

Wetlands have gone to he** in a hand basket as predicted by the environmental people. Rusty containers line SH 146 for miles. People with houses near them have noise you couldn't believe when they are being shifted around.

 

I heard they want another bond issue to build even more container ports. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out. Hopefully, the people in Houston are of a "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" mindset.

 

Tucker in Texas

[prc]

As local (10 minutes from the port) and we could be dead wrong, our thoughts were the Port wanted to build more container ports but needed to pass a bond issue to get the funds for it. The people up in Houston weren't real excited about raising their taxes for the bond issue and the people down here were really upset about possible damage to our wetlands plus ugliness so there was no way people down here would vote for it.

 

So, the Port Authority started courting the people up in Houston who have more Harris County votes than we do anyway by touting all the additional tourism it would bring in packing hotels and restaurants, etc. and tax dollars along with it. AND it was NIMBY for them. In fact, they said they were going to build THREE terminals to handle all the cruise ships that would be coming in. Never mind that the port is six miles from civilization, 50 miles from the airport, no public transportation, no nice hotels, restaurants, or tourist attractions you can get to without a car and no car rentals available nearby if you want to rent one at the airport and drop it off at the port.

 

The bond issue passed.

 

Ground was broken for the new terminal and it was immediately put on the back burner since no cruise lines had contracted to use it and container ports were the main aim and being built as fast as they could build them. It took them three years to finish the terminal. They didn't even bother with sufficient parking for the passengers which was found out when they had to use the terminal for several weeks when Ike blew Galveston away. I guess they figured if they ever did get a cruise ship in, they would address the lack of parking at that time. In the meantime, there would be more space to store containers. I heard containers are now being stored where the parking lot was.

 

Wetlands have gone to he** in a hand basket as predicted by the environmental people. Rusty containers line SH 146 for miles. People with houses near them have noise you couldn't believe when they are being shifted around.

 

I heard they want another bond issue to build even more container ports. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out. Hopefully, the people in Houston are of a "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" mindset.

 

Tucker in Texas

 

I think you're 100% correct. There was never any REAL effort to market the terminal, it was purely built as a loss-leader to get the container facilities bonded. Everyone from the area know how corrupt the Port of Houston authority is, and the people in the eastern half of the county saw it for what it was all along. The people who voted for it were from the city and western Harris county...most of whom have never even seen the area.

[Tucker in Texas]

I think you're 100% correct. There was never any REAL effort to market the terminal, it was purely built as a loss-leader to get the container facilities bonded. Everyone from the area know how corrupt the Port of Houston authority is, and the people in the eastern half of the county saw it for what it was all along. The people who voted for it were from the city and western Harris county...most of whom have never even seen the area.

 

Never thought of the "Port of Dreams" in a loss-leader context. Love that expression.

 

Tucker in Texas

[05mak05]

What a sad, unfortunate circumstance. I've wondered for years and now suspect I have the true backstory. An abandoned and elaborate cruise port made no sense whatsoever.

[Tucker in Texas]

What a sad, unfortunate circumstance. I've wondered for years and now suspect I have the true backstory. An abandoned and elaborate cruise port made no sense whatsoever.

 

The ships that used it during the Ike aftermath said the port was excellent other than parking issues. However, the long trek down the ship channel using fuel, limited booze sales, and the possibility of the channel being closed down, sometimes for days, due to an accident have discouraged them from using it permanently.

 

If we ever do get a ship there, it will probably be Costa or MSC or, maybe, NCL but they have "been there, done that." It won't be one of your better lines as they all have contracts down in Galveston set up for a long time in the future.

 

Tucker in Texas (who like the rest of you would love to see a ship year around other than Carnival in Galveston)