Norovirus on Escape (10/15 sailing)

[BGarrison]

First, thank you for sharing this information. We were on the ship last week as well. We heard there were about 20 people infected with the virus. I had no idea what they went through as far as being quarantined and missing ports! That is awful! I do have to give the crew credit for making sure others didn't get sick though. They were very thorough on cleaning the ship. Everywhere I went, someone was cleaning...handrails on steps, in elevators...everywhere! I even learned the "Washy Washy" song. This was the best cruise we have even been on and we even booked another one on this same ship for March 2017. I hope everyone is feeling better and I am truly sorry you missed out on such a great cruise. Even though it isn't NCL's fault some got the virus, I would like to think they would at least comp you a discount or free cruise in the future.

[BGarrison]

AdoraBelle I hope that you are felling better. I was on this cruise and I'm pretty sure that the next sailing will have the cleanest ship to sail on. I was impressed at how quickly things changed when the Captain announced that there were at least 20 confirmed cases on board. To answer the question on the key cards - they were sanitizing the card before they handed it back to you - and the cleaning solution sometimes made the cards not work. The amount of gel that came out of the hand sanitizers increased as well. Buffet was changed - you didn't touch food or drinks they handed you everything. The only disappointing change in the routine was MargarittaVille and the morning buffet/coffee drink station disappeared after Wednesday. I felt bad for the crew and all the extra cleaning that was being done but it was necessary.

 

 

Our cards stopped working and we had to get new ones...I bet it was the cleaning solution! I did not realize this was the reason Margaritaville breakfast shut down. :(

[Blocks]

I was on this cruise with my family and luckily none of us had any issues. I am sorry for those who were infected and it impacted their cruise. The room next to ours was infected, there was a red sticker on the door when we left and we saw staff in full protection gear about to deep clean another room beside the lifts as we departed.

 

I observed NCL take action to try to control the outbreak as well as confining people to rooms, some of which has already been mentioned:

 

Buffet - no self service, staff served all food. No sauce or cutlery on tables,

you had to pickup plates and cutlery from staff on entry.

MDRs - no salt and pepper on tables, bread served by staff

Continual cleaning of common railings, lift buttons, stair railings, etc.

Continual reminders from staff to clean hands.

Sanitising of room cards, pens, etc every time one was exchanged with staff.

No ice in the rooms after the letter was issued.

[cruizinwithkids]

 

Buffet - no self service, staff served all food. No sauce or cutlery on tables,

you had to pickup plates and cutlery from staff on entry.

MDRs - no salt and pepper on tables, bread served by staff

Continual cleaning of common railings, lift buttons, stair railings, etc.

Continual reminders from staff to clean hands.

Sanitising of room cards, pens, etc every time one was exchanged with staff.

No ice in the rooms after the letter was issued.

 

Also, all menus were on paper without any kind of cover.

Receipts didn't come in folders.

In talking to a waiter, the crew buffet was the same as far as not being able to serve themselves. This is a bigger inconvenience for the crew as they wake up and try to grab something to eat and go to work. The waiter said the queue was very long.

[TenForward]

AdoraBelle, I'm so sorry you were ill on the cruise. Thanks for letting us know how they handled things. I hope you're feeling better and you were able to enjoy most of your time on the ship.

[Backthepack4ever]

I was on that cruise! Sorry to hear that you got sick 😞. I was initially nervous when I heard the PA announcement however, I was very impressed by their efficiency with responding to prevent further outbreaks. Handrails and bathroom door knobs are known to have fecal bacteria. I'm not paranoid but as a public health employee, I'm extra cautious. Can happen anywhere. I would still recommend this cruise ship.

[Diane123boys]

I've commented about this before on this forum. We always see and hear about people "washy washy" as they enter the buffet, for example. This certainly helps prevent OTHERS from getting sick, but it does little to help prevent ourselves from getting sick. A better way is to serve ourselves (with tongs or whatever), and then go wash our hands before we actually eat anything with them. Yet people don't ever seem to do this.

 

This is one reason why we carry around those small hand sanitizers just about everywhere! Including the bathrooms in a Mall ! Uggh I shudder to think about them.. I dont know if they really work as well as they say but after washing my hands , and then getting food I always sanitize. I am sure my friends all think I am crazy with all the hand washing and sanitizing I do but after 20 yrs as a nurse its pretty ingrained!

Edited October 24, 2016 by Diane123boys

[newmexicoNita]

Sounds more like food poisoning than Noro . Noro is usually a 72 hour quarantine period. The room would be deep cleaned with hours of a suspected case of Noro.

 

I was thinking pretty much the same thing. NCL, as well as other lines are very careful now days. I will add, if indeed it was Noro those who sailed a couple of days ago will be made aware of the situation. In fact all sailing at the same time as OP would have been made aware of an outbreak. I have been on an NCL ship where there was an outbreak, it is unbelievable how far they go to try and stop the spread of the illness.

 

After reading all the comments, obviously it was or is a noro breakout. I feel so sorry for those who are affected with something like this while sailing or sick period. It does appear to be a mild breakout, lets hope those sailing now are fine.

Edited October 24, 2016 by newmexicoNita

[newmexicoNita]

That's awful!! I'm glad you're better now. To the people who said the ship will be the cleanest on the next sailing...Though you would think so and to a degree it's true, I've noticed over the years that the next sailing often still has cases of noro despite the deep clean. Then after that second sailing, it seems to be fine.

 

 

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this is true and there are rare cases which we were on one, when the virus will hang on for 3 sailings with fewer people affected the second and third cruise. It is still true, the ship will be as clean as the day it first sailed the seas. It all depends on how many were actually affected. It sounds like this outbreak was rather mild compared to some others we hear about.

[Deptacon]

I got it for a brief spell on a royal cruise last year. Thousands in close quarters... It happens. Hope you feel better.

 

 

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[CRAFTCRUISER]

We have been on many ships with the Noro virus....knock on wood we have never got it. If you go to buffet and nothing is on tables like roll ups and condiments sure give away virus is on board......[emoji22]⚓️[emoji22]

[TheDougOut]

New report on FB of a mother & daughter getting ill Sunday night and being quarantined to room for 48 hours. Hopefully an isolated incident, and not an ongoing issue.

[sjnyc323]

New report on FB of a mother & daughter getting ill Sunday night and being quarantined to room for 48 hours. Hopefully an isolated incident, and not an ongoing issue.

 

 

 

Sometimes it takes several cruises to completely get rid of it

 

 

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[Vyhanek]

Next week's cruise will also be a big Noro problem.

 

It's not about how clean the ship is because they are constantly wiping down the same surfaces. It's about the health of the crew! Living and working in tight quarters, the crew is cooking the food, washing the dishes, stacking the dishes, mixing drinks, wrapping silverware in napkins, swiping your key card.........

 

The virus has to make its way thru the crew before the passengers have a better chance of escaping it. This will take a couple weeks.

[sjnyc323]

Next week's cruise will also be a big Noro problem.

 

 

 

It's not about how clean the ship is because they are constantly wiping down the same surfaces. It's about the health of the crew! Living and working in tight quarters, the crew is cooking the food, washing the dishes, stacking the dishes, mixing drinks, wrapping silverware in napkins, swiping your key card.........

 

 

 

The virus has to make its way thru the crew before the passengers have a better chance of escaping it. This will take a couple weeks.

 

 

 

You are absolutely correct

 

 

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[chengkp75]

Actually, the CDC is pretty good at determining who brought a virus onboard, and whether a subsequent cruise outbreak is caused by crew or new passengers. It all has to do with the trends of the reportable cases. If the trend remains flat at a level of cases, and starts the next cruise at nearly the same level, then the crew has been the transmission vector. If the trend drops towards the end of the cruise, and then rises on the next cruise, it is most likely a new passenger. The ship could be (theoretically) virus free when the last passenger gets off, but a new passenger touches something after sanitizing is done, and the whole cycle starts over.

 

The crew are very much aware of sanitation procedures, as they have to follow them daily, and then add to them when noro surfaces. They live on the ship for months, not just a week, so if they are not vigilant of personal sanitation, then the diseases would run rampant for months at a time.

 

Cruise passengers would benefit from reading the USPH Vessel Sanitation Program Operations Manual, and then trying to follow all of the required sanitation procedures at home, and they would get a better idea of what the crew does every single day.

[AdoraBelle]

OP here checking in. I'm still a little confused about what I had and Norwegian's policies. I see some reviews on another site with a lot of people saying they were quarantined for 3 days, but I was definitely in isolation for 24 hours and still have the piece of paper saying so. It's academic because I didn't feel well enough to leave the room for the rest of the cruise other than occasionally going to the (well guarded) buffet a few times for a little soup and I was fanatical about washing my hands. I only used the restroom in my own cabin.

 

Some other weird blips:

 

I mentioned my key card being deactivated. I got it reactivated, but at about 48 hours after initial symptoms I had a big downswing and got very weak, and I called room service to get some toast and a pitcher of water. I was off isolation, so my room service was no longer free, which I told them was fine, but then they called me back to say my account was closed so they couldn't charge me. So no room service period. So I would have to go to guest services. I tried calling, but of course guest services was not answering the phone.

 

To recap, I'm traveling solo, I still feel too weak to leave the room, I have access to nothing but tap water from the sink, and I can't get room service because for some reason my onboard account has been closed.

 

I pondered this for a while, then called room service back and tried to explain the above, and somewhere in the middle of asking if they would please just send me a pitcher of ice water I broke down crying, and they relented and said they'd contact someone in "financial". I guess they sorted it out, because my food showed up a while later.

 

My suspicion is that they close the onboard accounts of people in isolation to help make sure they're not out wandering the ship? But it sure got me into a nasty catch-22 as a solo traveler.

 

Meanwhile, on day 3 or so after symptoms, my steward was still collecting my towels in biohazard bags.

 

The timeline of my illness was that all active symptoms (90% of it vomiting, sorry) occurred in the first 6-7 hours. Everything, without exception, stayed "down" after that. But I was weak for days, and my appetite came and went. My stomach has been upset after every meal until today, literally a week later.

 

So how long was I really contagious for? I guess no one can say.

 

I have larger ethical concerns; I left that cruise and boarded another cruise. I filled out the new health questionnaire honestly--I HADN'T had any vomiting in the past three days. I've still kept myself more or less in isolation on this new cruise (and don't use public restrooms, no pool use, and wash my hands constantly). I'm honestly not sure what I should have done and I understand I might get some flaming for boarding the next ship. At the time, my initial thinking was "if NCL only quarantined me for 24 hours then it's fine", but since then I've read a lot more about noro, and read a lot more reports of people being quarantined on Escape for much longer.

 

Meanwhile, whatever it was sure beat up my stomach badly. (Lower GI, so to speak, seems fine.) Least I've ever eaten on any vacation. Thinking of ANY of the foods I ate the day I got sick still makes me queasy.

Edited October 25, 2016 by AdoraBelle

[Gershep]

Sorry to hear you are still not feeling well. Feeling ill on both cruises is not a vacation you want.

[disneyg1rl]

I have larger ethical concerns...

 

At least you asked the question... that's more thought than most would do.

 

On a silly note, you might be the first person cruising for two weeks that comes back slimmer then when you left. I hope you're feeling better and you get to enjoy your vacation.

[packer99]

.

 

 

 

The timeline of my illness was that all active symptoms (90% of it vomiting, sorry) occurred in the first 6-7 hours. Everything, without exception, stayed "down" after that. But I was weak for days, and my appetite came and went. My stomach has been upset after every meal until today, literally a week later.

 

So how long was I really contagious for? I guess no one can say.

 

I.

 

 

This actually sounds like food poisoning. I had salmonella (verified by a doctor and tests) once years ago, and the first horrible symptoms only stayed about a day but the rest of it lingered for over a week.

[LuvBNatC]

I was on the Escape's 10/15 sailing and did not get sick. Here's how I think I did it (with some luck thrown in)...

 

When I first got to my cabin before sailing, I wiped down everything with some disinfectant wipes I'd brought, including the phone and the remote and all handles.

 

I ate at the buffet only two times, both for lunch on port days when it was relatively quiet, and washed my hands with soap at the sink before entering. Also, I ate no finger foods.

 

I used the hand sanitizers before entering all public rooms.

 

I kept fingers and palms off the stair handrails, but used the side of my hand to steady myself, which I wouldn't touch my face with.

 

In the dining rooms, they removed salt and pepper shakers and baskets of bread and stopped handing out the bound menus, but only gave us the paper inserts, and then threw them away after we ordered.

 

The left the public restroom doors wide open so people wouldn't touch the door handles.

 

But I noticed on Friday night (last night of voyage), the bread baskets were back on tables and thought maybe they felt the outbreak was under control.

 

I'm sorry that people suffered and had part of their cruise spoiled by whatever it was.

[davesgirl51]

That really is not a bad idea, especially since I sometimes cruise solo and would hate to leave my meal to wash my hands, only to find the table cleared when I got back.

 

A great many food-borne illnesses are caused by a nasal virus landing on food. That would be S. Aureus. Worry about the sneezing folks. And them washing their hands :eek:

[AdoraBelle]

This actually sounds like food poisoning. I had salmonella (verified by a doctor and tests) once years ago, and the first horrible symptoms only stayed about a day but the rest of it lingered for over a week.

 

Yeah, I really don't know. My blood pressure and pulse were so high during the worst of it that they gave me a diazepam injection, and like I said, two different anti-emetics. It 'feels' like I ate something bad.

 

For what it's worth--I would have rated myself at a very low risk of being a noro victim. I'm an info junkie and I hate getting sick on vacation. I see other people talking about 'best practices', and believe me I follow them. I know that hand washing is the only thing that's effective, and I ALWAYS washed my hands with soap and water at the buffet. I didn't eat food with my fingers (silverware only). I do have to use the rail on staircases, but after being on stairs or in an elevator I treated my hands like they were contaminated until the next time I got to soap and water. I used paper towels for the bathroom door handles. I also frequently use a hand sanitizer called zylast that is one of the few that claims to kill noro, although the claims are up for debate.

 

I mean, it's still possible I was just unlucky, sat next to the wrong person at the wrong time, etc.

 

Unfortunately, upon time to reflect, based on the way I was treated on the cruise (stuck in my room sick, solo, while my onboard account got nuked preventing me from getting food or water until I broke down sobbing on the phone), I believe I am done with NCL and will be ebaying my last FCC. It doesn't help that a lot of that reflection took place on the Royal Princess, where the passenger to staff ratio is absurdly superior to NCL, as is the buffet food. Once my appetite returned (in the last 2-3 days), my mind was pretty blown by how good the food was in the buffet on that particular Princess ship, and how much more at ease (less exhausted) the staff was.

 

I appreciate all the well-wishers, and yeah, it sucked having such a large part of my vacation impacted, but I still had some good times.

Edited October 27, 2016 by AdoraBelle

[Powerprice]

We too were on the ship NCL Escape on the 10/15/2016 sailing to celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary and also got the Norovirus!

 

 

 

After months of planning and waiting for a perfect holiday trip, our joy was dashed after he became extremely ill after eating at Cagney’s Steakhouse on Tuesday. He was vomiting violently and had diarrhea almost constantly for days. He could not eat, drink or care for himself. A case of food poising is what we suspected. I was not having any symptoms at the time and knew if I called the clinic we would be quarantined to our cabin. But, there was no medicine and the ship's nurse would not provide me with any unless my husband was seen by the doctor. So the ship doctor came to our cabin Thursday morning. What I though was food poisoning turned out to be the Norovirus! The doctor informed us that the virus was spreading throughout the ship and we were both quarantined in our cabin for the remainder of the cruise.

 

Sure, we were disappointed that our trip was ruined but decided to make the best of it. However, what happened during our isolation completely dashed any effort to salvage the remaining days during our trip.

 

My husband was put on a restricted diet, but I was not. I was told to order what I wanted to eat using room service. When I did, I was only allowed food off the “room service menu” not from the main dining rooms. Let me warn you, room service food was no better than hospital dining. It took over an hour to get food delivered, and every time our food arrived it was cold or it was poorly prepared. Once the chicken was oozing blood, the broccoli was brown from age, and French fries soggy and cold. We were informed to call the operator if we needed anything. Most of the time, our calls to them went unanswered. Calls to the clinic were unanswered.

 

About that time, the captain announced that a virus was on board and that additional safety measures were being implemented. The ship went into cleaning mode to stop the spread of the virus. Cleaning staff were everywhere. Stairways, elevators, bathrooms, and the buffet area was manned by NCL staff. Everything in the dining rooms was under strict control of the staff and away from the public. That was great, but what did they do to protect those who are healthy but locked up with a sick person? Well, nothing.

 

Since I was concerned for my own health, I too wanted some protection. I wanted a surgical mask, gloves and hand sanitizer…some air freshener would have been a plus. Since I could not get through to guest services I asked my cabin neighbor to bring me some hand sanitizer from the gift shop. I was told the gift shop didn’t sell hand sanitizer. I was shocked none was available. So I was not surprised that on Saturday morning, as we were leaving the ship, I started showing symptoms of the virus. By Sunday night I was bed ridden, extremely ill with vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headaches and body aches for three days after the cruise.

 

 

 

We had "special disembarkation" instructions. Those who were still quarantined met in the dining room. Let me say there were hundreds of people that were quarantined. We were lead out a different door than the other passengers.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I will be sailing again in the near future but if I do I will bring better protection and a pharmacy.

 

 

 

I'm glad your are feeling better.

[Sissaaaaaa]

oozing blood LOL Tell me, how do you people come up with so many different email addresses to register new names all of the time?