Babies in pools

[blueridgemama]

As long as we have resurrected the diapers in pool question. What is the reasoning that allows them in the pool at CocoCay? Is that pool capable of being sanitized?

[bilyclub]

On 1/15/2017 at 7:34 PM, gerif said:

 

Ecoli, found in fecal matter which cannot be contained by any kind of swim diaper, can be deadly to a small child or immuno suppressed adult. Pools on cruise ships cannot contain the chemicals required to kill ecoli.

 

[killtheump]

On 1/15/2017 at 8:16 AM, Ocean Boy said:

 

How do you hide a ship's swimming pool?

 

Royal hid one in The Solarium on The Harmony. 😂🤣😜

[chengkp75]

10 hours ago, blueridgemama said:

As long as we have resurrected the diapers in pool question. What is the reasoning that allows them in the pool at CocoCay? Is that pool capable of being sanitized?

The pools at Coco Cay are not under the jurisdiction of the USPH, like the ship's pools are.  Coco Cay is subject to Bahamian health codes.

 

As for sanitizing the water, I will disagree with the previous poster about ship's pools not being able to kill e coli.  E coli is susceptible to chlorine, and at the mandated free chlorine levels of 2-4ppm, the contact time for killing e coli is about a minute, for the small concentration there would be from a single fecal accident in a pool.  Any ship's pool, whether a "regular" pool or a swim diaper splash area, must be closed down and sanitized whenever there is a fecal accident.

 

The swim diaper areas on ships are required to have a faster turn-over rate (how often the water is filtered and passes the chlorination process), and to have an additional UV sterilizer that all the water passes during filtering/chlorination.

[vacationlover_mn]

Thanks Cheng!  I was also wondering about that...

Edited September 26, 2019 by vacationlover_mn

[airbusdrvr]

On 1/15/2017 at 7:28 PM, Host Clarea said:

US Department of Public Health rule.

Once in international waters and RCCL ships are Nassau registered what jurisdiction does the US Dept. of Public Health have? Do they or don't they? I don't know.

 

But I do agree with keeping babies with swim diapers out of the pools..... and drunks too! Last cruise some drunk guy barfed in the pool and it was immediately closed for the remainder of the day. A ship's Officer told me the pool had to be drained and then cleaned and sanitized before it could re-open. 

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, airbusdrvr said:

Once in international waters and RCCL ships are Nassau registered what jurisdiction does the US Dept. of Public Health have? Do they or don't they? I don't know. ...

 

The cruise line decides to follow USPH rules so they are allowed to use US ports.  If a ship won't be disembarking people at a US port, then the cruise line does not have to follow USPH rules. 

 

When Empress came back to the US after being in Europe for many years, she was infested and Royal had to tear out the kitchens to fix it before the USPH would let them base the ship in the US.

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, airbusdrvr said:

Once in international waters and RCCL ships are Nassau registered what jurisdiction does the US Dept. of Public Health have? Do they or don't they? I don't know.

 

But I do agree with keeping babies with swim diapers out of the pools..... and drunks too! Last cruise some drunk guy barfed in the pool and it was immediately closed for the remainder of the day. A ship's Officer told me the pool had to be drained and then cleaned and sanitized before it could re-open. 

USPH is mandated with preventing the introduction of infectious diseases into the US, so they have the authority to board any ship, foreign or US flag, cruise or cargo, that has come to a US port from a foreign country to conduct a sanitation inspection and to interview the crew (and passengers) as to their current health, before clearing the ship to allow passengers, crew, or cargo to leave the vessel.  Imagine if USPH came to a cruise ship every week when it returned from a foreign cruise, and did a complete sanitary inspection and interview of a random selection of passengers and crew, before anyone was allowed to disembark.  Chaos?  Complaints?  Missed flights?  So, USPH and the cruise lines got together and developed the VSP (Vessel Sanitation Program), which was an amalgam of what the CDC wants to see towards stopping disease transmission vectors, and what the cruise lines feel is "doable".  The VSP allows that any ship that follows the construction and operation regulations in the VSP, that ship will not be subject to USPH inspection every time it comes to the US, but will only be subject to no more than two random inspections a year, and with proper GI illness reporting by the medical center, the passenger interviews are waived as well.

[blueridgemama]

chengkp75.   Thanks for the explanation. How do they sanitize the whole pool though,  especially one the size of CocoCays,  without draining it to clean up after a incident?

[chengkp75]

8 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

chengkp75.   Thanks for the explanation. How do they sanitize the whole pool though,  especially one the size of CocoCays,  without draining it to clean up after a incident?

Notice I said "any ship's pool" must be closed and sanitized.  I have no idea what the requirements are for pool sanitation in the Bahamas are, and even in the US, most public pools are only drained for repairs or painting.  Most times, if there is an incident or the pool chemistry gets completely out of whack, they will drain a portion of the water and renew.  I am not an expert on pool chemistry, just ship's pools, so I am not aware of what protocols are taken to sanitize after a fecal accident, but I do know that shoreside public pool chemistry is far more complex than ship's pools, because they don't drain them frequently.  Ship's pools must be drained at least weekly, so the biological load is eliminated each time it is drained and refilled.  USPH inspectors (who are mostly ex local or state health inspectors) tell me that the ships have it so much easier with pool chemistry because we are required to drain regularly.

[Drock20J]

33 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

chengkp75.   Thanks for the explanation. How do they sanitize the whole pool though,  especially one the size of CocoCays,  without draining it to clean up after a incident?

 

I am sure it is the same process that is used at water parks across the globe. They use a highly efficient filtration system and "shock" the pool, thus eliminating the bacteria spores.