Princess Cruise Terminated due to Noro

[cdamion]

I know this is Carnival's board, but I think this is unusual enough that people would want to know about it here.

 

Crown Princess has terminated it's current sailing to return to port because they can not control a Noro outbreak on board.

 

Here is the cc link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1567001

 

I don't ever remember hearing about a cruise being terminated because of a Noro outbreak.

[golfadj]

Must be a huge outbreak for this to happen.

[halos]

:eek:

Wow...what a nightmare...and it gets worse!

You have in excess of 3,000 people getting off in FLL...going off to hotels/planes where they will just spread the dang noro all over the place.

Holy crap! :eek:

 

Will be very interested to see how Princess handles the logistics and how happy (or pissed) people are with how they deal with this.

What a shame....2012 is proving to be a bad year for cruising so far.

[sjn911]

OP over there sure is handling it well..thanks for info here, boy this has been a year for the seas...Sarah

[halos]

OP over there sure is handling it well..Sarah

 

I agree!!

[msstarr22]

This happens about every other year or so. This is a stomach flu like outbreak that happens in schools.

 

Cruiseships have a bad reputation for being the source of a diarrheal disease caused by a family of viruses called Norwalk viruses (also called norovirus, Norwalk-like virus, caliciviruses, and small round structured virus [sRSV]).

 

Sometimes referred to colloquially as “stomach flu” (despite not having anything to do with the influenza virus), noroviruses are one of the viruses responsible for causing a diarrheal disease called viral gastroenteritis.

 

Did you know? Noroviruses (Norwalk viruses) were originally named for a town in Ohio, where a school outbreak provided the first viral strain to be characterized.

[Martini Mom]

It's my understanding, at least at the schools around here, that February has historically been the worst month for the virus.

[Guest LoveMyBoxer]

I think they need bathroom police to make people wash their hands!

[mamatrouble]

This is from Princess...

http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na1210

[katiel53]

There are so many people, both men and women, who use the restrooms and never wash their hands. I can't understand their reasoning, and to me, it's disgusting, but that doesn't stop people from doing so.

 

Also, there are people, I don't know how many, that even if sick or that have been sick up to the cruise who believe that they have waited for x many days, paid x much money and by darn are going on a cruise no matter what----The me, me, me mentality. The fact they chose NOT to buy insurance is irrelevant.

 

There are people, who fly to the port who have picked up something on the plane and get sick on the cruise. Unfortunately, all the above can give the rest of us Noro.

 

The first two could prevent the rest of us from getting it, but the first group is lazy and the second group -------no conscience, not a care except for themselves. Sorry, but it annoys me when I PAY and am inconvenienced because of selfish people.

 

End of rant!

[Alliezona09]

Look at how many were crew members on the last 2 cruises that were affected:

 

On the current sailing 114 passengers (3.70% out of 3,078) and 59 crew (5.01% of 1,178) have reported gastrointestinal illness. On the previous cruise, 364 passengers (11.73% of 3,103) and 30 crew (2.57% of 1,168) were affected.

 

Seems like they need to remind the CREW also to wash their hands~!

[zqvol]

Look at how many were crew members on the last 2 cruises that were affected:

 

On the current sailing 114 passengers (3.70% out of 3,078) and 59 crew (5.01% of 1,178) have reported gastrointestinal illness. On the previous cruise, 364 passengers (11.73% of 3,103) and 30 crew (2.57% of 1,168) were affected.

 

Seems like they need to remind the CREW also to wash their hands~!

 

 

If the crew wasn't having to clean up after the passengers who don't practice proper hygiene, they would not be getting sick. They are getting sick because they can't avoid exposure to the sick passengers.

[nm lobos]

I will be sure to be packing Clorox wipes for the plane, car, hotel and cruise for the Dream in March.:)

 

Hopefully a quick wipe of everything I can think of will help.

[montana cowboy]

We found by doing some research that Germ-x foaming Advanced Protection has

Active Ingredients

 

Benzalkonium Chloride 0.13

<H5>Inactive Ingredients

 

Centrimonium Chloride, Diglycerol, Disodium Cocoamphodiacatate, Fragrance, Glycerin, Hydrochloric Acid, Methoxy PEG/PPG-7/3 Aminopropyl Dimethicone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Tetrasodium EDTA, Water</H5>This is suppose to kill or prevent Noroviris( because of the chloride and glycerin ??) We use this when ever we go on cruises or airplanes. So far so good. :rolleyes: Plus my DW sprays everything with lysol.;)

[katiepe]

Oh dear..we dont get this type of widespread illness where we live at all..

Mind you we have very cheap or even free depending flu shots..

I hope this isnt still happening in March..fingers crossed:(

[spleenstomper]

I dont know if it was Norovirus, but my sister brought some virulent, horrific stomach virus to the family over Christmas, and within 9 days, 16 members of the family had it. We were all compulsively washing our hands, too, as we saw each member go down one at a time.

 

It was NASTY!

 

Poor cruise ship passengers.... especially the ones who didn't get sick and still lost out on their cruise!

[kingoftheicedragons]

Oh dear..we dont get this type of widespread illness where we live at all..

Mind you we have very cheap or even free depending flu shots..

I hope this isnt still happening in March..fingers crossed:(

 

Just curious, what does flu shots have to do with noro virus? They are two completely separate things. But I do hope that you don't have to deal with any problems on your cruise.

[ViolaSwamp]

It's my understanding, at least at the schools around here, that February has historically been the worst month for the virus.

 

 

My DD was home sick one day last week with the sickie bug - I had it this weekend, then DH! Better now than next week though!! :p

[katiepe]

Well I guess I am just thinking that Norovirus is like a flu?? probably wrong..sorry.. but as I said we dont have a lot of people sick with the same thing- not just on a ship-we dont hear about whole schools or towns or families of 16 unless it is a flu virus..hence the encouraging of getting flu shots..

there was another thread about the norovirus that talked about whole areas of a state being affected..that is what I meant..

[CanadaJulie]

Oh dear..we dont get this type of widespread illness where we live at all..

Mind you we have very cheap or even free depending flu shots..

 

Sadly, there is nothing a flu shot will do for Norovirus - totally different bugs. Flu virus (Influenza) vs Noro (viral gastroenteritis, calicivirus family).

 

Curiously, cats are vaccinated for calici...

 

There is a vaccine for one type of "traveller's diarhea" but it's not Noro (Dukoral, works for cholera and Ecoli)

 

Hand washing (20 seconds, warm soapy water) and keeping your hands out of your mouth seems to be the best way to avoid it. Hand sanitizers are not very effective against it either as the typical sanitizer (62% ethyl alcohol) takes a full minute of contact to inactivate the virus. Seeing as how most people do a quick squirt of sanitizer, there is not enough to keep the alcohol wet and in contact with the virus before it is killed off. Bleach works but at a 1:50 concentration (compared to 1:100 for the cold virus and other common viruses). I wonder what the Clorox wipes concentration is ?

 

I too am cruising in March... Fingers crossed and Imodium packed... ;)

[CanadaJulie]

.. but as I said we dont have a lot of people sick with the same thing

 

Just curious - where are you from ? With the mention of cheap/free vaccines, I am guessing a fellow Canadian ?

[iceleven]

My DD was home sick one day last week with the sickie bug - I had it this weekend, then DH! Better now than next week though!! :p

 

Getting a virus once does not prevent it from happening again. One must still be diligent. Hoping you do stay well and enjoy your trip.:)

[katiepe]

Just curious - where are you from ? With the mention of cheap/free vaccines, I am guessing a fellow Canadian ?

You bet..east coast..

[TxChick]

Compulsive hand washer here and I always use the papers on the doors but I do wonder if there is a Noro outbreak on my March cruise will my insurance re-imburse my expenses if I have to be quarantined? Interesting...

[werdisney]

The crew on the Triumph never once asked us to wash our hands . We had several in our party who had never cruised before and we had to tell them to use the hand cleaning dispenser when we wine into the eating areas . Some of the dispensers were not in open sight .