Flu on Anthem of the Seas

[Croozin Soozin]

Just got off Anthem and found out that there were a number of people quarantined for influenza - including someone who will be on the bus we’re on.  I don’t know the exact number but was told by the flu victim’s friend on the bus, that the number could be 100-150.  Glad I didn’t know before now!

[Menas1]

that totally sucks 

[maxieco31]

On 2/4/2019 at 10:16 AM, reallyitsmema said:

 

Thanks, we are both improving. 🙂  We were lucky we got to medical why they still had Tamiflu and nasal swab tests.  They gave us one course of Tamiflu to share (10 tablets) and then we contacted our doctors while on the ship and had the rest waiting for us when we got home yesterday.  Someone is taking an unofficial poll in a group from this sailing on another site and at least 100 over the over 300 in the group got either the flu or an upper respiratory infection.  Lots who left the ship feeling fine yesterday, are now posting they are feverish and headed to their doctors at home.  We are staying home and contacting our doctors to see how long we need to isolate ourselves so we don't infect anyone else.  We were quarantined but were released after our fevers broke and were fever free for 24 hours.  We still pretty much stayed in our cabin, other than getting food to bring back (room service menu gets old quickly).

 

I hope those on the current sailing stay healthy, but with so many members of the crew sick, it is going to keep spreading.

I believe those"unofficial" numbers are incorrect. If the "group...on another site"  that you are referring to is the fb group, there were no where near 100 people claiming they have/had the flu!  The admin of that group appears to be looking for financial compensation, and has contacted a "mariner attorney" and is encouraging others to join in a class action suit against RCCL for supposed "flu outbreak". smh  

[maxieco31]

On 2/2/2019 at 8:19 PM, Allura_317 said:

Yes please do.  And if you have to go to the separate breakfast, please give an estimate on how many guests were there.  Thank you for all your help!

Makes me wonder why you want this info "A"....

[maxieco31]

On 2/6/2019 at 11:42 PM, Aza1972 said:

Can any passengers who sailed on Anthem of the Seas on Jan 26 and not already answered this question on any other social media sites please let me know how many of your travelling party fell ill on the cruise or within a day or 2 after disembarking. I believe that the outbreak has not been truthfully reported and that passengers deserve better. Please only comment if you were on this cruise and a member or members of your party were affected. I appreciate your responses

Ahhh....here he is. How's the lawsuit going? 

[maxieco31]

On 2/7/2019 at 8:22 PM, reallyitsmema said:

 

The rollcall for this sailing was not very active on cruise critic.  It is more active elsewhere and the number is over 200 of us who were sick.

Where did you get that number??

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, maxieco31 said:

Where did you get that number??

 

Exactly where I said I got the number.  

[maxieco31]

10 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Exactly where I said I got the number.  

Oh...the hostile fb page. Gotcha...

[PickRC]

OK, my family of 4 were on this sailing. I have read this tread as well as a member of the fb group that is being mentioned.

While I feel bad for all those that were affected, I feel that there are a few things that should be said:

1-There were 2 separate "outbreaks". The flu and an upper respiratory  infection. It is unfortunate that they were on the same voyage, but need to be treated as separate incidents. The numbers of an influenza outbreak are being exaggerated by adding the numbers of the respiratory infection sufferers.

2-The captain did make a comment about the illness outbreak during one of his lunch time announcements, however, Royal Caribbean probably should have sent a written notice to each room making them aware of the outbreak. While RC can not force people to quarantine themselves while sick, making sure every passenger is aware of the outbreak might have helped minimized the spread. 

3-We were sitting near a family on embarkation day and we overheard the father telling another man that his daughter had strep throat. People boarding the boat and lying to check in staff about existing illnesses and people who insist on hanging out in public places while sick is not the fault of Royal Caribbean.

4-It is possible that the percentage of sick passengers in the fb group is abnormally high because that group had at least 3 different group activities. There was a gift exchange, a pub crawl and at least 90 people who participated in 3 separate slot pull events. If someone from this group caught either of the illnesses, it would be very easy to spread at one of these events.

5-There was definitely an outbreak with crew as well. We had dinner twice at Jamie's and on the second night when we asked for our same waiter, we were told he was covering in the windjammer that night for another sick waiter. On the final sea day, I was told by a dealer that there were 6 dealers and a supervisor all quarantined because of illness and it was making employee scheduling in the casino difficult. 

 

I'm not trying to diminish the illness that many people experienced but I just needed to share my thoughts and observations from what was a great vacation for our family. 

[Menas1]

Wow thank you for all that info. Which sailing were you on ? And did you see many people that were sick ? I am hearing mixed things about the number of people 

[maxieco31]

10 hours ago, PickRC said:

OK, my family of 4 were on this sailing. I have read this tread as well as a member of the fb group that is being mentioned.

While I feel bad for all those that were affected, I feel that there are a few things that should be said:

1-There were 2 separate "outbreaks". The flu and an upper respiratory  infection. It is unfortunate that they were on the same voyage, but need to be treated as separate incidents. The numbers of an influenza outbreak are being exaggerated by adding the numbers of the respiratory infection sufferers.

2-The captain did make a comment about the illness outbreak during one of his lunch time announcements, however, Royal Caribbean probably should have sent a written notice to each room making them aware of the outbreak. While RC can not force people to quarantine themselves while sick, making sure every passenger is aware of the outbreak might have helped minimized the spread. 

3-We were sitting near a family on embarkation day and we overheard the father telling another man that his daughter had strep throat. People boarding the boat and lying to check in staff about existing illnesses and people who insist on hanging out in public places while sick is not the fault of Royal Caribbean.

4-It is possible that the percentage of sick passengers in the fb group is abnormally high because that group had at least 3 different group activities. There was a gift exchange, a pub crawl and at least 90 people who participated in 3 separate slot pull events. If someone from this group caught either of the illnesses, it would be very easy to spread at one of these events.

5-There was definitely an outbreak with crew as well. We had dinner twice at Jamie's and on the second night when we asked for our same waiter, we were told he was covering in the windjammer that night for another sick waiter. On the final sea day, I was told by a dealer that there were 6 dealers and a supervisor all quarantined because of illness and it was making employee scheduling in the casino difficult. 

 

I'm not trying to diminish the illness that many people experienced but I just needed to share my thoughts and observations from what was a great vacation for our family. 

Agree with all of what you said.  The "abnormally high" number of sick people on the fb group is definitely  exaggerated. Very few have said they had flu onboard. Some reported they felt ill on debarkation and/or after. One person actually said they did not get sick but would join "lawsuit" if they would get any compensation! This is just wrong. 

[PickRC]

11 hours ago, Menas1 said:

Wow thank you for all that info. Which sailing were you on ? And did you see many people that were sick ? I am hearing mixed things about the number of people 

We were on the Jan 26 sailing. 

We saw many people who were sick with coughing symptoms all over the ship.

There were also lots of do not disturb signs on room doors on the last sea day. 

It was only 45 degrees on that day so it is possible that lots of people just hung out in the room to avoid the cold weather!

I truly feel that some of the numbers are skewed because of 2 different outbreaks as well as the fb planned group activities.

[reallyitsmema]

6 minutes ago, PickRC said:

We were on the Jan 26 sailing. 

We saw many people who were sick with coughing symptoms all over the ship.

There were also lots of do not disturb signs on room doors on the last sea day. 

It was only 45 degrees on that day so it is possible that lots of people just hung out in the room to avoid the cold weather!

I truly feel that some of the numbers are skewed because of 2 different outbreaks as well as the fb planned group activities.

 

Quarantined cabins had stickers. 

[PickRC]

5 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Quarantined cabins had stickers. 

We did not see those stickers on any doors, however we certainly were not looking and they are clearly placed to minimize their ability to be seen by the general public.

[Menas1]

Thanks for all the info everyone we are sailing Saturday hopefully there’s a lot less flu going around then as we are will small children 

[Menas1]

On 2/14/2019 at 6:57 AM, oddly excitered said:

 

thank you for the update! now get packed so I can board tomorrow! LOL, just kidding, hope your cruise was great!

 

How’s it going on board ? Does the flu still seem to be spreading ? You said you were getting on I was waiting till you boarded to ask you! 

[reallyitsmema]

7 minutes ago, PickRC said:

We did not see those stickers on any doors, however we certainly were not looking and they are clearly placed to minimize their ability to be seen by the general public.

 

We knew they put stickers on quarantined cabins because we were on a norovirus cruise in the past and saw many stickers on that cruise.  The one in the picture is from our cabin on the January 26th sailing.  Our cabin was right at elevators, so we didn't have cabins to walk past and I didn't go looking for other stickers, so not sure how many cabins were marked.  The sticker did stay there after we were released from quarantine, on the other cruise we saw them, they removed the sticker.  I hope they left it so that our cabin was fogged after we disembarked.

[juju2454]

On 2/1/2019 at 8:53 PM, PhoenixCruiser said:

 

Thanks, just wanted to see if this year's dose was effective at all.

 

 

According to CDC this years if the most effective they've had as it was a quad serum.    I know that if you got  flu shot early ( September) it is now in it's last stages of strength, they usually say to get it Late October,,,  We did and Hubs is a nurse that is around it everyday ( yep swabs people all day long) an has not caught it nor have I.  
Hope you feel better soon,  We had a sinus thing hit out cruise in early January around NYE, we lucked out all 8 of us came away unscathed. WHEW!

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by juju2454
spacing

[juju2454]

On 2/8/2019 at 10:28 AM, blueridgemama said:

 

Flu virus is constantly mutating so no vaccine is going to be 100% effective. Even if only 40-50% effective it's worth getting the vaccine and then using common sense precautions during flu season like washing your hands frequently, covering your cough, staying away from people when you are sick etc.

According to CDC  this years flu was a quadravent and is showing to be the most effective,   so there's that....

 

[Aza1972]

On ‎2‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 1:24 AM, maxieco31 said:

I believe those"unofficial" numbers are incorrect. If the "group...on another site"  that you are referring to is the fb group, there were no where near 100 people claiming they have/had the flu!  The admin of that group appears to be looking for financial compensation, and has contacted a "mariner attorney" and is encouraging others to join in a class action suit against RCCL for supposed "flu outbreak". smh  

 

You are correct, there were nowhere near 100 people claiming to have become ill. The correct figure is over 250.

 

Nobody is seeking financial compensation per se. All that is being sought is a reimbursement of what was lost and not able to be used due to the illness. Yes It was winter and yes people do get sick however the issue we had was they way the matter was handled. No communication was made with passengers except for ONE announcement made by the Captain during his midday report. There were waits of up to 3 hours to see medical staff, all doctors on the ship were required to be on shift whether they were on shift or scheduled time off. The ship ran out of Tamiflu and swabs. There was no hand sanitizer in many locations thoughout the ship INCLUDING outside the medical centre of all places. Staff were sick and not quarantined just like the future cruise consultant who had a roll of toilet tissue on his desk for which he was constantly reaching for when coughing and sneezing.

 

It is funny how it is ok to reimburse passengers for Noro which is also no fault of the ship and reimburse passengers for the inconvenience of not having a reliable air-conditioning system for a few days but heaven forbid there is an influenza outbreak that was poorly handled

[Aza1972]

So a month after the cruise there has still been no word from Royal regarding the promised Future Cruise Credit for anyone who had been quarantined. Why am I not surprise

[ONECRUISER]

20 minutes ago, Aza1972 said:

So a month after the cruise there has still been no word from Royal regarding the promised Future Cruise Credit for anyone who had been quarantined. Why am I not surprise

It's common for some wait that long. It you are expecting it, call them. Not 100% sure but they might be able give you your number to apply it towards your next cruise. 

[GarlicBread]

28 minutes ago, Aza1972 said:

All that is being sought is a reimbursement of what was lost and not able to be used due to the illness. 

 

Travel. Insurance. 

[ONECRUISER]

Just now, GarlicBread said:

 

Travel. Insurance. 

Agree. I'm fortunate that have collected more in Insurances,(medical, Lost work, Auto) then I will ever pay for into my whole life...

[GarlicBread]

35 minutes ago, Aza1972 said:

Staff were sick and not quarantined

 

Where's your proof they had flu? 

Crew showing symptoms are tested for flu. 

If it comes back they have it they are quarantined for a week. Or 2 weeks if they have not had the flu jab. 

 

I've had a stinking cold as a crew member but tested negative for flu, so was sent back to work. 

Edited March 5, 2019 by GarlicBread