Reflection Norovirus 11/26

[jules815]

We're scheduled for Reflection 12/8/17 departure...Hoping that things are cleaned up well beforehand.

 

We are too!

[Kevinb1176]

I'm fairly confident they'll have the ship as clean as possible by then. For the last 3 days every railing and wall was being washed and scrubbed down. The less than 5% reported of guests infected is probably grossly under reported. I wouldn't say 50% of the guests but more than 5%.

[Marelaine]

How do you deal with those passengers that return to the buffet with dirty plates and use the serving spoons which touch their plates? No type of hand sanitizer will help in that case. Same with people using fingers to take food. Disgusting!

 

I never before have seen so many adults 'grazing' at the buffet as I saw on this cruise. Passengers sampling the goods as they moved through the buffet lines, picking up food with their fingers, licking fingers. WTH do they think the tongs are for? I figured there was a noro outbreak just waiting to happen.

[Captain Claire]

I called the Medical team on 11/26 at about 6:30 pm and told them my husband was ill and vomiting. They said they would send someone to the cabin, but no one ever came. I'm sure he wasn't counted in the 173 cases reported to the CDC. I wonder how many other cases weren't counted?

[1Virgo]

We're boarding tomorrow. Packing extra lysol, clorox and purell.

 

I had all that and still got the virus. You can sanitize, sanitize and sanitize but it is not going to help when people just can’t be bothered to cover their mouths when they cough or their nose for sneezes. or, use their bare hands then touch stuff - including utensils at buffet we couldn’t believe how many people we saw failing to do what was once common sense

 

Staff were constantly cleaning.

[Kevinb1176]

I called the Medical team on 11/26 at about 6:30 pm and told them my husband was ill and vomiting. They said they would send someone to the cabin, but no one ever came. I'm sure he wasn't counted in the 173 cases reported to the CDC. I wonder how many other cases weren't counted?

 

Same here with my wife. We were told 3 times they were sending someone up. NOBODY showed and NOBODY cared! They just wanted to get everyone off the ship. I brought it up to Julie Sherrington the Manager of Guest Relations, she made poor excuses that they were too busy and it was an unusual circumstance. I told her that her answers and excuses were unacceptable.

[Marelaine]

Just read on an Eclipse thread that they canceled Dec 1 St Lucia stop and replaced with Martinique.

 

 

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Well that's good news for you. We were supposed to dock in St. Lucia, but the spot was given to Royal Caribbean. We were informed the day before that we would have to tender and the staff was not allowed to assist those who can't walk up and down stairs. So we stayed on the ship that day. The tender lines were still past the elevators at 11 a.m. Celebrity does lots of things very well. This was not one of them.

 

Our St. Maarten overnight was changed to one day in St. Kitts and one day in Martinique. There is a small craft market just past the dock in Martinique where we were able to purchase souvenirs with U.S. dollars. The vendors at the market spoke English and were happy to let us practice our very limited French. Charming, friendly people. In the downtown area, French or really great pantomime was essential. Some non-French speaking passengers found this area challenging. There weren't many ship sponsored excursions to choose from. I hope Celebrity keeps this island on their itinerary's and contracts with more excursion vendors.

[deb18]

Someone at our table had it but did not go to medical. I left the ship with a bad cough and sore throat. MD yesterday said I have strep.

[donsuz]

Has anyone heard any news of the Celebrity Reflection response to the Nov. 26, 2017 mayday?

Has the sunken ship been identified or how many were aboard?

We were impressed by the Reflections response to the mayday.

[deb18]

Has anyone heard any news of the Celebrity Reflection response to the Nov. 26, 2017 mayday?

Has the sunken ship been identified or how many were aboard?

We were impressed by the Reflections response to the mayday.

 

Hi. I have a little bit of video on it. Apparently there was an RIB type of vessel like a zodiac partly sunk. The captain was on stage discussing navigation when he got a phone call and said he had to go because of the vessel. A lot of people thought he was kidding as just a few moments previous to that he got a call from his daughter. The vessel looked to be empty and he announced no survivors found. Dh saw. A life vest on the ship. They marked it and sent it a drift. Speculation was that it was a dingy that came loose from a boat, yacht etc.

[DavyJoneses]

Sorry to hear about some refusing the sanitizer.

 

Keith

 

I guess it takes all kinds.

[JCMStewart]

Husband and I were on Reflection from Nov 17 to Nov 27. He fell ill on Friday and went back to the cabin after dinner and is still not 100% today. NO ONE is more diligent about using hand sanitizer, avoiding touching surfaces, using utensils, and washing his hands than my husband. He got sick because of others (as posted above) who don't follow the rules (cleanliness, not touching food directly, coughing / sneezing politely). I appreciate some are allergic to sanitizer but I saw MANY refusing sanitizer. Watched a woman berate a staff member by saying - "I just washed my hands" ... I wanted to say -- Did you touch the door? Your face? Your nose? There was another passenger who refused when boarding from port. If you have allergies, I am sorry. I suffer from different allergies so I can appreciate the situation. If it was me, I'd carry mine around and say "Using my own because of allergies!!" rather than yelling at the staff. P.S. CDC numbers are probably not far off -- we didn't ask to see the doctor, but we did see a medical professional in the hallway seeing another passenger and had plans to see more. Staff were cleaning the handrails hourly. We did get a letter on the Sunday and noticed there was no more "self-serve" in the buffet Sunday morning. But yeah -- saw stupid people reaching through the plastic wrap to help themselves. Honestly, I would love a health and safety movie to be as mandatory as the muster drill.

[Gitte]

We are now on Reflection and it is sad to see that people still take food with their hands an put their feets with our without shoes on the tables. I am very sorry for the hard working crew.

Gitte.

[crmcruise]

I got off the Reflection on the 27th of November having contracted norovirus. It was brutal. I have never been so ill. Medical was helpful - gave me medication. Lots of extra sanitizing happening on the 25th and 26th. Heard hundreds were ill. Still love the ship and still love Celebrity.

[snow bunny]

We were on the Equinox in 2010 and there had been an outbreak of Noro on the cruise before us. They delayed boarding until about 2pm in order to do a deep clean. While on board, the outbreak continued despite all of the efforts of the crew. We did not get sick as we do not touch the railings and use the stairs versus the elevator. Suggestion for in the buffet area is to use your napkin to pick up the tongs and then once you are done loading your plate, toss the napkin in the laundry and get a clean one. Sure hope this is all cleared up for all of the subsequent cruisers.

 

snow bunny

[Oceangoer2]

Hi. I have a little bit of video on it. Apparently there was an RIB type of vessel like a zodiac partly sunk. The captain was on stage discussing navigation when he got a phone call and said he had to go because of the vessel. A lot of people thought he was kidding as just a few moments previous to that he got a call from his daughter. The vessel looked to be empty and he announced no survivors found. Dh saw. A life vest on the ship. They marked it and sent it a drift. Speculation was that it was a dingy that came loose from a boat, yacht etc.

 

I watched the 'rescue' from our verandah...it was partially under water on its side when the ship made a huge turn around to reach it. Staff took ONE life vest out of it (wouldn't there normally be 2 or more?), marked it as being searched, then left it. Within 10 minutes it was sinking vertically point up. If anyone had been on it, they wouldn't have had a chance. There had been severe lightening around 5am off the horizon so the theory of detachment in a storm might be spot on.

Edited November 30, 2017 by oceangoer2

[Oceangoer2]

I got off the Reflection on the 27th of November having contracted norovirus. It was brutal. I have never been so ill. Medical was helpful - gave me medication. Lots of extra sanitizing happening on the 25th and 26th. Heard hundreds were ill. Still love the ship and still love Celebrity.

 

We left the ship on the 27th also. So many ill and many unreported. My concern is they knew about this early on but never notified anyone until the last day via a letter in our cabin. We saw the extra wipe downs of railings, etc. We didn't get sick, but we certainly would have used extra precautions if we knew Noro was onboard just in case. So sorry you had to experience this and hope you're feeling better now.

[Lindsaycruiser]

We also left the Reflection on the 27th. We did not get sick with the Norovirus but we were quite annoyed that the information that many people were ill was being withheld.

During our cruise I saw 2 women laying on the floor in the solarium and no one was taking charge of the situations. I ran for the black phone and asked for immediate medical help to come. There was a lot of confusion before any one came to help. I don't know if these women slipped on the wet floor or they were suffering from the norovirus. On disembarkation a man fell out of his wheelchair and again it was a slow response on behalf of anyone coming to help. I think the staff were overwhelmed.

 

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[pixiedust777]

Has anybody had a baby get noro on a cruise? We are cruising on reflection 1/2/18 with our 10 month old. Getting very worried!

 

 

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When we travelled with our children as infants I always packed pedialyte crystals. Just add a pack to 250ml of water to keep them hydrated. I was worried about sun exposure as well as them getting a stomach virus.

 

 

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[Covepointcruiser]

You know some people like myself are allergic to most sanitizers.....

 

I hope you can cancel your sailing as you will be faced with a lot of sanitizer and similar chemicals. If you notify them, you can probably get out of the cruise. They don’t want to deal with a medical emergency at sea and you won’t want to risk your health! How do you deal with this in the doctor’s office?

[Tennant]

When we travelled with our children as infants I always packed pedialyte crystals. Just add a pack to 250ml of water to keep them hydrated. I was worried about sun exposure as well as them getting a stomach virus.

 

 

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Great idea! Thanks!

 

 

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[tbmrt]

Wanted to mention the Connections party Celebrity hosted for the 65 or so of us. This has now been only the 4th one I've attended with Celebrity and I wonder why they don't do a little more for us. They introduce a few of the staff and then just disappear to leave us to meet but they just don't seem to do anything else. Other cruise lines try to impress us with great snacks, treats sent to our cabin later, raffles, etc. Why don't they use this opportunity more? Am I the only one who feels they're missing the boat on this one?

 

MSC Divina really did its CC party right. Lots of Officers, very friendly, drinks, nice hors d'oeuvres. Also did an 8x10 group picture of all of us with Captain that was delivered to our room with heading MSC Cruise Critic on it. I mentioned to Hotel Director at this party about some problems we encountered at our table with an apparently new waiter, food not delivered, etc. When we got back to our cabin later, we found he changed our group's table to an excellent location w/great waiters and left us t-shirts and a bottle of bubbly. Later in the week, this Director stopped me twice just to chat and told me that they wanted to make MSC our first choice of cruises. Nice.

Edited December 2, 2017 by tbmrt
fix

[ghstudio]

All appears well on this reflection cruise. Menus are out at bars and you serve yourself again at the buffet

 

 

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[Kmangel]

All appears well on this reflection cruise. Menus are out at bars and you serve yourself again at the buffet

 

 

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Great news!

 

With all the recent illness on Reflection, it reminds me of our cruise last summer. Someone was hacking away in a lounge, sneezing, and left their used Kleenex behind on the seat they were using. I motioned to a cleaning person to remove the Kleenex but I also tried to ask her to wipe down the seat but the lady did not understand what I was saying. Made me want to carry disinfecting wipes on me at all times!

[donsuz]

Just as Sammy1 said, I'm not an authority (and I did NOT stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ;p) so...

 

Per a suggestion from another thread about the norovirus (on another ship) I did buy some wipes from Amazon for our upcoming cruise. These are made for industrial use (so a different formula than those available in a local grocery) https://www.amazon.com/Saalfeld-30825-Disinfectant-Norovirus-Rotavirus/dp/B01M24FNAI/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1511803989&sr=1-1&keywords=norovirus They are also approved by the FDA for use in hospitals to fight the norovirus (as indicated per this link:https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-06/documents/list_g_norovirus.pdf)

 

Here's a link to CDC page that offers information about Norovirus outbreaks on ships which is also available in many other norovirus threads: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm#2017 Reflection has not been listed yet but I have no idea how often this info is updated. The site indicates that ships are required to report if more than 2% of total passengers get sick I believe (unless I'm reading that wrong...)

 

Hand sanitizers seem to offer a limited abet important defense against noro but keep in mind that they should be at least 70% alcohol according to most. I've also read that the hand-sani used on cruise ships is a different and more effective than the stuff we, mere mortals, can buy over the counter. Not sure if this is true or not but out of an abundance of caution it may be wise to use the ship stuff on occasion (if you're not allergic) in addition to the stuff we'll all probably bring along? Also per another thread I bought this brand of hand sanitizer because it was reported that it's more effective. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the original thread which was the basis of this info so take this with a grain of salt. (No - I don't work for Clorox) This brand does have slightly higher alcohol content than Purell but honestly - there may be very little difference so apologies in advance if this is a bit of BS - BUT this item does state, "tested and kills norovirus" so there's that?! https://www.amazon.com/Clorox-Bleach-Free-Sanitizer-Moisturizers-Alcohol-Based/dp/B00DDZNSDK/ref=lp_9125405011_1_1_a_it?srs=9125405011&ie=UTF8&qid=1511806131&sr=8-1

 

Hope everyone stays safe, washes their hands often and has a great time!

Hi, you mentioned at the beginning of your thread that you did not stay at a Holiday Inn express. We did, for three nights before our cruise. Stayed at the cruise port and convention express.

Was there something medical going on there???