Sickness on board

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

Wondering if it was just us noticing the sickness on board our recent sailing.  Lots of coughing everywhere. We talked with quite a few people who also noticed. 
 Three of us went healthy two weeks ago, masked up on the plane and in San Juan…..and still three of us got the flu. (We all tested neg for ‘vid.) Son got sick on day four (after Gunbae.) I got sick on day 6 and hubs got sick day went home.
 

We were surprised how much cruising has gone back to not managing or caring about social distancing at all, anywhere. The elevators were always packed with people, so we used the stairs.  The sail away party was imho a germ-passing nightmare. Saw the bartender at the party re-pouring champagne into glasses for people that they had used and touched the mouth of the bottle to the glasses. HARD PASS.

There was no more emphasis on hand sanitizer….overpacked venues, bars with no distancing.  At Gunbae, one of our table mates (not with me) was sick and coughed and sneezed on everyone.  Son got sick two days later and stayed in cabin after.
Have we learned nothing as a society from Covid? I’m not saying this is a VV thing, I’m sure it’s all the lines. But when we last cruised November 2022, it was much different. We will never ride in a van full of tourists again and always choose single cabs even if it’s double the cost. 

Edited February 18 by WatermelonSugarHigh
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[CruisingWalter]

48 minutes ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

We were surprised how much cruising has gone back to not managing or caring about social distancing at all, anywhere.

 

The CDC declared the national emergency over as of May 11, 2023. There is no legal requirement for social distancing or any other protective measures beyond what the cruise lines already do.  You're sailing with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers along with those who have not kept up with their boosters.  

 

You're right back to where cruising was before the pandemic. What you're describing is not shocking or different in any way to our almost 20 years of cruising. If you cruise you accept that there is a risk you may get sick due to crowding or unsanitary practices of any number of guests. It's no different than flying or taking a land based vacation. 

 

We took 6 cruises over 3 months to end 2023 into 2024. The only thing we got was a cold on our very last cruise in January. We stay up to date on the boosters, we do the best we can with sanitizers and such on board. But cruising is back to normal and has been for some time. 

Edited February 18 by CruisingWalter

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

8 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

The CDC declared the national emergency over as of May 11, 2023. There is no legal requirement for social distancing or any other protective measures beyond what the cruise lines already do.  You're sailing with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers along with those who have not kept up with their boosters.  

 

You're right back to where cruising was before the pandemic. What you're describing is not shocking or different in any way to our almost 20 years of cruising. If you cruise you accept that there is a risk you may get sick due to crowding or unsanitary practices of any number of guests. It's no different than flying or taking a land based vacation. 

 

We took 6 cruises over 3 months to end 2023 into 2024. The only thing we got was a cold on our very last cruise in January. We stay up to date on the boosters, we do the best we can with sanitizers and such on board. But cruising is back to normal and has been for some time. 

I understand and agree with all you said.  Since cruising is a closed environment, it is different than other facets of life and from what I saw, they’re back to doing absolutely nothing precautionary. I saw not one person cleaning or wiping down anything in seven days.  They were definitely cleaning more last November.  There was always someone wiping th3 bannisters, elevator buttons, handing out hand sanitizer. There’s a reason it’s common to hear people say cruise ships are floating germ factories…because they are.
The pouring of champagne for passengers into their already-used glasses, touching the bottle to the glass, should never ever have happened.  And I get that sitting in Gunbae sick, knowing she was infecting other passengers, was the fault of that woman and not VV.  (we are all confident she did get us all sick with her coughing spray.) 
 I would also never go back to Gunbae again because of it. We should have gotten up and walked out as soon as she sat down and sprayed the table. I also wouldn’t dine in a main dining room on any line with strangers. I know we can’t live in a bubble, but really don’t understand an industry who was so damaged by Covid, now pretending it never happened. 

[tonit964]

We all used to cruise with colds, flu, Norovirus going around and now it's Covid added to that list.

[Wildcatllamas]

I was on a Princess cruise out of Galveston back in April of 2023 and everything you mention here occurred there as well. Most people have moved on. I stay current on all vaccinations and do what I can to minimize my risk. It is now all on the individual to protect themselves.

[cantgetin]

On our last VV cruise, I was surprised to find several of the hand sanitizer dispensers were empty for the entire cruise.  I realize that hand washing it the most important thing people can do to prevent spread of hand to mouth disease transmission, but sanitizer is not a bad idea.  Some lines were insisting on hand sanitizer before entering eating venues as early as 25 years ago to the point of handing out hand wipes at the entrances and on return from to the ship on port days.

I am surprised about the cleaning comments.  We have seen a lot of cleaning in public areas on all of our VV cruises.

No, sick people shouldn't share their illnesses, but there are no rules now.

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

2 minutes ago, tonit964 said:

We all used to cruise with colds, flu, Norovirus going around and now it's Covid added to that list.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

I was on a Princess cruise out of Galveston back in April of 2023 and everything you mention here occurred there as well. Most people have moved on. I stay current on all vaccinations and do what I can to minimize my risk. It is now all on the individual to protect themselves.

I’m not really speaking about Covid. I’m talking illness in general. We are fully vaxed for Covid, got it. We got the flu shot, all got the flu. We wore masks for two weeks at work before the trip, masks on the plane, masks in San Juan…get on the ship…boom.
 My husband and son are physicians so we take all the precautions and still got ill.  
 

I just think seeing crew members sanitizing, with hand sanitizer stations everywhere, using app instead of menus that everyone touches, not encouraging crowded sweaty drunk people to gather in small spaces…may have been small steps and some for show - but helped a bit to curb infection. They went whole-hog back to 2019. Why even do the health questionnaire prior to boarding, it’s just for show.

 

I don’t know what I’m really saying here, I guess 😂 I’m still cruising again. 

 

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

3 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

On our last VV cruise, I was surprised to find several of the hand sanitizer dispensers were empty for the entire cruise.  I realize that hand washing it the most important thing people can do to prevent spread of hand to mouth disease transmission, but sanitizer is not a bad idea.  Some lines were insisting on hand sanitizer before entering eating venues as early as 25 years ago to the point of handing out hand wipes at the entrances and on return from to the ship on port days.

I am surprised about the cleaning comments.  We have seen a lot of cleaning in public areas on all of our VV cruises.

No, sick people shouldn't share their illnesses, but there are no rules now.

I saw absolutely zero cleaning being done. And I was looking for it.  Yes, hand sanitizer stations were empty on ours too.  And several of the restrooms were out of SOAP. 

Edited February 18 by WatermelonSugarHigh

[cantgetin]

6 minutes ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

I saw absolutely zero cleaning being done. And I was looking for it.  Yes, hand sanitizer stations were empty on ours too.  And several of the restrooms were out of SOAP. 

I reported public restrooms out of paper towels and soap several times.  The one by The Wake was particularly bad, but the restaurant manager acted like he'd get someone on it.

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

As a side note, you couldn’t give me the keys and deed to Necker Island to sit in the hot tubs or pool. We saw the woman and her companion in the cabin next to us, with an upside-down 🍍 on their cabin door, making lots of friends in the hot tub and they had quite a few late night guests back to their cabin. 🤮 

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

4 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

I reported public restrooms out of paper towels and soap several times.  The one by The Wake was particularly bad, but the restaurant manager acted like he'd get someone on it.

It was the one by the Wake! 

[cantgetin]

Do you ever wonder if VV has people reading these and possibly other social media sites and getting things corrected as they do on some other lines?  Just the fact that we each had the same experience at the same location means it is a recurring issue that needs attention.

[WanderingBrit]

Were the weirdos who mask while onboard, only removing them when sitting to eat or drink. We were masked for all the shows, and in excursion buses. So far, so good, and we’ve been traveling quite a lot since May ‘21 - 7 international trips with our next in May.

[garycarla]

we have cruised with Virgin twice (2022 and 2023) and came home healthy.  And we take very little precautions when traveling.   (masks, avoiding people, concern with counters, etc)

[ReneeFLL]

6 hours ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

As a side note, you couldn’t give me the keys and deed to Necker Island to sit in the hot tubs or pool. We saw the woman and her companion in the cabin next to us, with an upside-down 🍍 on their cabin door, making lots of friends in the hot tub and they had quite a few late night guests back to their cabin. 🤮 

We were on the Odyssey Of The Seas last week and a few doors down there was an upside down pineapple sign that said “plays well with others”. Not our thing, but to each their own. It probably goes on more than we think, they probably just don’t always advertise it.

 

As for being back to pre-pandemic ways, I’m glad we aren’t still in panic mode. All we can do is to try to protect ourselves and if not comfortable, then remove ourselves from the situation. We will never get away from germs, it’s a way of life. With 2 physicians in your family I’m sure they are exposed to a lot of things so kinda surprised by your post. Trying to social distance on a full cruise ship is near impossible at times.

 

Byw, that no soap issue would drive me crazy.

 

Edited February 19 by ReneeFLL

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

7 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

We were on the Odyssey Of The Seas last week and a few doors down there was an upside down pineapple sign that said “plays well with others”. Not our thing, but to each their own. It probably goes on more than we think, they probably just don’t always advertise it.

 

As for being back to pre-pandemic ways, I’m glad we aren’t still in panic mode. All we can do is to try to protect ourselves and if not comfortable, then remove ourselves from the situation. We will never get away from germs, it’s a way of life. With 2 physicians in your family I’m sure they are exposed to a lot of things so kinda surprised by your post. Trying to social distance on a full cruise ship is near impossible at times.

 

Byw, that no soap issue would drive me crazy.

 

Social distancing was entirely possible by choosing what venues to go to fior shows and events. We did none.  Because my family is in the medical field, they are experts at it. It kept us all alive, while they were working in medicine during a Pandemic in NYC.  Our lives depended on it,  Maybe that’s why I’m more critical. 
 

Watching the sloppy pouring of champagne for guests into their used glasses on day 1 set the tone and lowered any expectations or notions we had. The last we had cruised, protocols were still in place,

 

Getting sat with a sick person at Gunbae who coughed all over us, the crew member and our food was avoidable. I knew nothing anbour Gunbae prior to going. Had I known, I would have skipped it entirely.  All three of us getting the flu after most likely wouldn’t have happened had we not gone there and ate communally in a booth with a fairly tight seating arrangement. 
I was more or less commenting that the industry could do more to continue the efforts they made after finally being allowed to open up after Covid, and make attempts to mitigate the chances of getting sick by continuing their level of cleaning and sanitizing, but from what we saw, they’re not,. And not filling sanitizing stations or soap was extremely disappointing. That should never happen. 
My family is keenly aware of the dangers and risks. I will add that my husband would never do a cruise if it were not for me. Nor would any of his associates.
I guess we’ll see in July how Celebrity is handling things. 
As for the  🍍 people, to each his own but I think it’s gross. 
 

[WickedRed]

I think we've just become more hyper aware of other people coughing and sneezing.  The possibility of others spreading their cooties.  You just need to decide what you're going to do to keep yourself healthy.  If the pandemic taught us anything, it is that most people don't care if their actions make you sick.

 

Took my first VV cruise a couple weeks ago.  I do feel they were more lax on getting people to wash hands before entering areas with food or at a minimum use the hand sanitizers.  Maybe they feel since we're all adults then we'd know to wash our hands before eating.  lol!  Can't say I found empty hand sanitizers anywhere on the ship.  Soap always landed in my hand when looking for it.  Water was a bit trickier. 

 

As for 🍍 people.  Don't care.  They are adults.  Just wash your hands before eating. 

 

I am curious if WatermelonSugarHigh knows what that refers too though?

[ReneeFLL]

On 2/19/2024 at 2:11 PM, WickedRed said:

I think we've just become more hyper aware of other people coughing and sneezing.  The possibility of others spreading their cooties.  You just need to decide what you're going to do to keep yourself healthy.  If the pandemic taught us anything, it is that most people don't care if their actions make you sick.

 

Took my first VV cruise a couple weeks ago.  I do feel they were more lax on getting people to wash hands before entering areas with food or at a minimum use the hand sanitizers.  Maybe they feel since we're all adults then we'd know to wash our hands before eating.  lol!  Can't say I found empty hand sanitizers anywhere on the ship.  Soap always landed in my hand when looking for it.  Water was a bit trickier. 

 

As for 🍍 people.  Don't care.  They are adults.  Just wash your hands before eating. 

 

I am curious if WatermelonSugarHigh knows what that refers too though?

One thing I really like about Royal Caribbean (maybe other lines do this also) is that they installed hand washing sinks at the entrance of the Wind Jammer aka buffett. They always have someone there to remind people to wash their hands. It’s kinda sad they have that person there as people should already know to do this. 
 

I find it funny when people won’t go on cruises because they are afraid of germs especially when they are in the medical field and are exposed daily to god knows what.

[Gretchendz]

On 2/18/2024 at 12:27 PM, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

Wondering if it was just us noticing the sickness on board our recent sailing.  Lots of coughing everywhere. We talked with quite a few people who also noticed. 
 Three of us went healthy two weeks ago, masked up on the plane and in San Juan…..and still three of us got the flu. (We all tested neg for ‘vid.) Son got sick on day four (after Gunbae.) I got sick on day 6 and hubs got sick day went home.
 

We were surprised how much cruising has gone back to not managing or caring about social distancing at all, anywhere. The elevators were always packed with people, so we used the stairs.  The sail away party was imho a germ-passing nightmare. Saw the bartender at the party re-pouring champagne into glasses for people that they had used and touched the mouth of the bottle to the glasses. HARD PASS.

There was no more emphasis on hand sanitizer….overpacked venues, bars with no distancing.  At Gunbae, one of our table mates (not with me) was sick and coughed and sneezed on everyone.  Son got sick two days later and stayed in cabin after.
Have we learned nothing as a society from Covid? I’m not saying this is a VV thing, I’m sure it’s all the lines. But when we last cruised November 2022, it was much different. We will never ride in a van full of tourists again and always choose single cabs even if it’s double the cost. 

 

Totally understand.So sorry it happened to you and your family!

This has gone on for decades before Covid with flu, norovirus, etc.  I'm not saying it's right, just saying it is what to expect when traveling. 

 

I am not a germaphobe in real life, but I love to travel and when I travel I wash my hands after touching anything--bannister, elevator button, I use sanitzer constantly (yes, I know hand washing is better but sometimes not feasible). And I avoid buffets...I have seen too much bad behavior!  And I do carry masks for when that person near me on the plane is coughing their lungs out. And I sanitize the video screen and tray etc. on the plane. I've been lucky but I know it's always a possibility.

 

Point being this is true on pretty much every cruise line,like you say.

[Giraffes]

Currently on Valiant Lady. Right after reading this post, this is what I saw walking from deck 9 to deck 7.

[Lustate]

2 minutes ago, Giraffes said:

Currently on Valiant Lady. Right after reading this post, this is what I saw walking from deck 9 to deck 7.

 

This is what I'm used to as well. Every day I saw someone cleaning surfaces, vacuuming, cleaning windows etc. 

[Gretchendz]

Me three. And remember some cleaning happens while most of us are sleeping.  Not saying that some of the concerns expressed are not valid because they are. Just saying that none of sees everyhting that happens 24 hours a day.

[Wildcatllamas]

33 minutes ago, Gretchendz said:

Me three. And remember some cleaning happens while most of us are sleeping.  Not saying that some of the concerns expressed are not valid because they are. Just saying that none of sees everyhting that happens 24 hours a day.

I saw a lot of cleaning going on when I was on Scarlet back in December. But then I'm up and about when most are just going to bed. 

 

I know some of the cleaners we use at the casino have a residual life of 4 hours. I don't know what the cruise lines use but it is probably similar.

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

22 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

One thing I really like about Royal Caribbean (maybe other lines do this also) is that they installed hand washing sinks at the entrance of the Wind Jammer aka buffett. They always have someone there to remind people to wash their hands. It’s kinda sad they have that person there as people should already know to do this. 
 

I find it funny when people won’t go on cruises because they are afraid of germs especially when they are in the medical field and are exposed daily to god knows what.

I don’t really find it funny.  I assume you’re speaking to what I said about my husband and his practice partners. I don’t think they’re afraid, I think they’re realistic.  There are quite a few differences between cruising on a cruise ship and working in a medical office. 
I think this convo has run its course.  

Edited February 21 by WatermelonSugarHigh

[lahlah57]

On 2/19/2024 at 11:11 AM, WickedRed said:

I think we've just become more hyper aware of other people coughing and sneezing.  The possibility of others spreading their cooties.  You just need to decide what you're going to do to keep yourself healthy.  If the pandemic taught us anything, it is that most people don't care if their actions make you sick.

 

Took my first VV cruise a couple weeks ago.  I do feel they were more lax on getting people to wash hands before entering areas with food or at a minimum use the hand sanitizers.  Maybe they feel since we're all adults then we'd know to wash our hands before eating.  lol!  Can't say I found empty hand sanitizers anywhere on the ship.  Soap always landed in my hand when looking for it.  Water was a bit trickier. 

 

As for 🍍 people.  Don't care.  They are adults.  Just wash your hands before eating. 

 

I am curious if WatermelonSugarHigh knows what that refers too though?

What I don't get is why grown folks find it a difficult concept to wash your hands before you eat or handle food period! C'mon people grow up!!!