Norovirus

[Toofarfromthesea]

When did cruise ships start with the sanitizers?  Is it something of long standing or is it something that started in more recent years?

[Cruisergal1208]

36 minutes ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

When did cruise ships start with the sanitizers?  Is it something of long standing or is it something that started in more recent years?

They have been doing this for some time. Some are more strict about using them before entering the dining room than others. 

[Hlitner]

I cannot speak specifically to cleanliness, but our opinion of the Divina was it appeared (from a passenger perspective) to be one of the most immaculate ships I have every seen (and we have cruised on more than 65 ships).  I actually had a chance to mention this to the Divina's young Captain and you could see the pride in his face.   We were on the ship more then 2 weeks before we actually spotted a tiny bit of rust near one of the pools.   I suspect its gone now.

 

Hank

[Teacher42]

To All, Just FYI, the CDC has a handy list of cleaning agents effective against norovirus.  https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-06/documents/list_g_norovirus.pdf

    

How is the stomach flu transmitted (norovirus and others)?

Annie Pryor, Ph.D. Sourced from http://www.stopthestomachflu.com/Home/how-is-the-stomach-flu-transmittedI found this on RCI site Norovirus from two great CC posters!

[ready2cruzagain]

12 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I cannot speak specifically to cleanliness, but our opinion of the Divina was it appeared (from a passenger perspective) to be one of the most immaculate ships I have every seen (and we have cruised on more than 65 ships).  I actually had a chance to mention this to the Divina's young Captain and you could see the pride in his face.   We were on the ship more then 2 weeks before we actually spotted a tiny bit of rust near one of the pools.   I suspect its gone now.

 

Hank

 

I agree with you, the Divina is one of the most immaculate ships I have ever seen and 41 cruises here.  We were on for 32 days and I missed that rust spot lol.  This is the first ship that I have been on that I did not see rust somewhere or everywhere (Carnival Glory)

[Teacher42]

The worst rust we could find on board the Divina was in the Royal Suite on the bottom of the bathroom door. The chair on the balcony looked like bird poop, but was just stained.

[Scooters]

We just got off the Seaside yesterday.  The ship was absolutely spotless.  I've not seen such a clean ship before. There were no hints or reports of illness. There was hand sanitizer at each dining entrance.  We've experienced GI problems on other ships.  Not this one.   

[Reds4life]

7 hours ago, HeavySeaman said:

Does anyone who has sailed both MSC and RCI care to compare the cleanliness levels? I usually sail RCI and the last few cruises I have noticed the common areas are a little less than clean at times. They have really let things go so no wonder there's norovirus. I have heard MSC is cleaner, true?

I sailed Divina in 2017 and Adventure of the Seas in 2018. Divina was much cleaner, almost spotless. Adventure not so much. I got food poisoning on Adventure also. 

[GOLDENBONNY]

On 1/10/2019 at 11:48 PM, mvh said:

Now that I have your attention. I don’t want to freak anyone out, but have there been any reported cases recently on MSC? I did just hear RCI just returned a ship because of it. I know it is really prevalent this time of year and I have heard MSC really doesn’t enforce the hand washing like most other lines. Can anyone confirm if they have pressed this a little more recently? It is really ashame that you have to tell people to wash their hands, but apparently you do.

no, they don't force you to wash hands and they don't have Noro reports . 

 

[Hlitner]

By the way, I took a look at the CDC Incidence reports (where they post reported outbreaks) and MSC has not ever had a single reported incident (I went back to 2010).  Of course these incident reports would not necessarily show problems in Europe or on cruise ships that do not call at US Ports.  The most recent incident was on the Oasis of the Seas 1/6/19 - 1/13 which is still listed as an "unknown" meaning they have yet to officially identify the causative virus or bacteria.

 

As to the scores under the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program, the Divina did get a 96 back on 3/8/18 and the Seaside got a 94 on 4/28/18.  

 

For those that put a lot of stock in these reports, you might want to go to the CDC web site at

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionResults.aspx  and read the details of some of the reports.  If it does not put you asleep, you might be impressed by level of detail in the reports and how difficult it is for any ship to achieve a high score (most ships do get very high scores).  I doubt if any or our home kitchens would pass this kind of scrutiny.

 

Hank