RCI - Bed Bugs

[Krazy Kruizers]

Did you hear about the couple on an RCI cruise that got bit by hundreds and hundreds of bed bugs?

They both had to be medically treated.

RCI refunded their $2800 they paid for the cruise but didn't pay for their medical or hotel bill.

[Classynfun1]

Where did you see this?! Was it posted on the boards or is there and article I can read? I missed it. Thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Got it from the cruisejunkie website.

[KAJOKG]

Where did you see this?! Was it posted on the boards or is there and article I can read? I missed it. Thanks!

 

It's also posted on the RCL message board. YUK!!!!!

[dakrewser]

There's a long thread about this over on the Celebrity boards...

[Scrumpy]

Is anybody else starting to itch?

Scrumpy

[Himself]

Oh say can you see, any bed bugs on me? Itch, Itch, Itch.

 

I am going to violate my principles and go the the other board and read the long aritcle

 

Himself

[elmorejj]

WOW! and I (Naievely) thought that bed bugs had gone the way of crystal radio sets!!......jean :cool:

[watchdiva]

The couple are from Boca Raton, FL and were interview on our local news station. The woman had to be treated at one of the islands (can't remember which one) and was prescribed Benadryl for the allergic reaction to the bugs! The station showed a picture that had been taken of her and the amount of bites were incredible:eek:. The couple have instituted suit against RCI.

 

When the couple realized what was happening, the headboard was removed from the wall in their cabin and (according to the husband) there were literally hundreds of bugs visible! They were moved to another cabin (if I recall correctly) but the damage was done.

 

Lin

[arsws]

great....we're going on the Splendour next month. How do you prevent this? Can you see them if you check the bed and can they be sprayed?????

 

Help....:(

[jhannah]

WOW! and I (Naievely) thought that bed bugs had gone the way of crystal radio sets!!

Watch it, Jean. Your age is showing! ;)

 

This is awful. Just like being in a seedy motel somewhere. Yuck, indeed!

[bepsf]

I looked up an article on this - I have no idea how a steward wouldn't notice the infestation before it got so bad...

 

http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef636.htm

 

 

Apparently it happenned on the old Noordam too...

http://www.cruisereviews.com/HollandAmerica/Noordam2.htm

[Charliesmom]

It can happen on a new ship, too. All is takes is a passenger who is carrying the bugs in a suitcase or on their person to infest the room. Bedbugs hide until their prey is there for them to bite. They hide behind pictures and in the seams of the rooms and in the seams of the dresser drawers. A couple of years ago there was a lot written about people picking them up in fancy hotels.

 

I thought my husband had brought them home from a business trip, but it turned out that my itching (and apparent bug bites) were from an underactive thyroid. I was so convinced that we might have bugs that I fumigated our bedroom, took everything off the walls and out of the drawers and closet and off the bed and cleaned it. All we found were a couple of spiders.

 

Roberta

[Ziggy7]

ughhhhh !!! Besides itching all over I'm stunned this was not reported sooner by other pax who slept in that bed. :)

[tomc]

If you subscribe to CND, there's quite a write-up in Wednesday night's issue. We're not allowed to quote the article, but they did well by RCI (despite what they said to the press).

[wander]

Unless Bed Bugs have changed their behavior since the early 60's, neither the cabin steward nor passengers would be likely to ever see them unless they were specifically hunting or checking for them. In the early 60's I traveled for several months with a few friends in Europe. We stayed some nights in what might now be called "backpackers' hotels. After acquiring some bed bug bites we began to check for them. How you say? Well, when you go out for dinner you leave the bedcovers pulled all the way up and turn out the lights. When you get back, with only a flashlight you wet a cake of soap, go to the bed (room still dark and flashlight out). You rapidly pull back the covers AND at the same time aggressively hit the bed in several places with the wet bar of soap. Bed bugs would stick to the soap. (Of course, you had to turn on the lights to see the bar of soap.) If you had the lights on or it was daylight, the bugs would not be visible nor would they congregate where the soap can pick them up. Have not through about doing that test for years, but maybe I have to practice the technique again. By the way, how do you cope if you find them - keep the lights on in the room and use a few covers as possible - they do not like light of any kind, or at least they didn't in the 60's.

 

Anyhow, I find it hard to understand how someone could get that many bites without waking up or noticing something happening. Getting them feels like flea bites, and while a few can get you while sleeping, such an attack as they claim to have had would certainly wake-up the average person unless they were sleeping under sedation.

[stormyc]

I don't know if it would be a deterent to bedbugs specifically, but I wonder if there is any routine pest treatment performed on ships ...seems that recently there was a posting in which a person claimed they had ants in their cabin on a HAL ship, although I felt rather skeptical about this report at the time. Does make me curious about what routine measures are taken to prevent bugs in general??

 

BTW, I can just see my DH's face if he were to catch me performing the wet soap test! :D ...and then I'd have to explain to the cabin steward why I needed fresh, dry linens... hmmm:o

[tomc]

I wonder if there is any routine pest treatment performed on ships.

You can ask to be changed to another table. Oh, you don't mean that kind of pest.

[zdude]

I would betcha that bedbug bites are like chiggers and noseeum's.

 

Just a couple can bite a bunch of times and you never notice until it is too late.

[stormyc]

You can ask to be changed to another table. Oh, you don't mean that kind of pest.

 

LOL!!!:D Should have been more specific?!? :)