Live From Mercury (the Sick Ship) 3/27/06

[rubrrick]

Tuggers...........Gail, thanks for the warning. I have an associate coming over to my home in the morning, seeking advice on what to see and do on the Mercury and Mexican Riviera. I need to be able to tell him honestly what they might expect if they go on the 4/7 cruise.

All updates are greatly appreciated.

 

Rick

[flashdog_1]

Gail,

Thanks for posting. We've probably all been on a cruise or at summer camp etc. where there were outbreaks that spoiled the fun. Some people get it and some don't, but when the crew has it, it becomes very serious because they handle the food and clean your rooms. Then, if they are confined to quarters, the rest of the crew has to pitch in extra hours.

 

On our first cruise my husband got it and I didn't. Someone sneezed in an elevator we were on so we were both exposed! My constitution is stronger than his, I guess. These things are usually brought onto the ship by someone already infected. (There had been chicken pox on the cruise before mine in March on Veendam and I don't think there were any further cases, but then, the incubation period is longer for chicken pox than for intestinal problems, so I don't know for sure. But they were not still spraying the bleach when I was aboard). And it is usually fixed by the disinfecting, reminders to wash hands, and occasionally the crew wearing masks. But when the crew has it, it is possibly still on board, so even with subsequent sailings, the precautions must be taken. I assume someone in the crew remained ill at the start of the 3/27 cruise to cause them to continue the stringent spraying of bleach.

 

The problem is the way the ship is being disinfected that seems to be the problem, with the consequent result that clothes are being ruined and not so many dining options are available, forcing even more people together in the lido area. Lido is not fun on an ordinary day. I can't imagine what it's like when there are no other options for eating.

 

To tell passengers before they board that there is a situation (and allowing them the option to cancel on the spot) is not exactly the same as telling them what they will not be able to experience that they are anticipating.

 

Hang in there, Gail, and let us know if whoever was sick got well and they think it is over!

[vince4]

Thanks for the update Biggers. We are on the 4/17 sailing. There is another passenger posting and it's a bit of a contrast to what you've said about the current sailing.

Thanks again for your update. I guess we have to wait and see how things go.

[FlorenceItaly]

Oosterdam, we were told of the Mercury pulling in sick the previous day, and therefore having to decontaminate the pier area...YIKES. This IS a problem.

 

 

Marie

[poetic license]

I just read the CDC update, and it stated that decontamination procedures are expected to continue through the end of this cruise AND ALSO FOR THE FIRST FOUR OR FIVE DAYS of the next one as well.

 

Do you think X will do the right thing by passengers and contact them AHEAD OF TIME (there certainly is plenty of lead time here) to give them the option of whether to sail or not on the next sailing?

 

We'll see.

 

Cheers~

[tarheelmjfan]

I just read the CDC update, and it stated that decontamination procedures are expected to continue through the end of this cruise AND ALSO FOR THE FIRST FOUR OR FIVE DAYS of the next one as well.

 

Do you think X will do the right thing by passengers and contact them AHEAD OF TIME (there certainly is plenty of lead time here) to give them the option of whether to sail or not on the next sailing?

 

We'll see.

 

Cheers~

 

We're on the April 7th sailing. Our TA contacted Celebrity today, & was told that if anyone wanted to cancel they would experience normal cancellation penalties. From what she was told, we won't be given any options other than to go on the cruise or cancel & lose our money.

[smeyer418]

I just read the CDC update, and it stated that decontamination procedures are expected to continue through the end of this cruise AND ALSO FOR THE FIRST FOUR OR FIVE DAYS of the next one as well.

 

Do you think X will do the right thing by passengers and contact them AHEAD OF TIME (there certainly is plenty of lead time here) to give them the option of whether to sail or not on the next sailing?

 

We'll see.

 

Cheers~

 

I don't think they will. Novo virus is endemic and happens all the time. The fact they will keep disinfecting isn't a reason for them to cancell or to allow people to. The CDC is aboard the ship according to their website. As long as the number of cases is going down, they won't cancel or even notify. They probably will make you disinfect before you go on/

[jspivak]

I've just spoken with Celebrity "customer service" regarding the current situation on Mercury and their plan for April 7th sailing. The person I talked to has confirmed the information I've received for CDC this morning: the number of the ill is back to expected, the increased cleaning and disinfecting procedures will continue on the current sailing AND on the next sailing (4/7). When I've asked at what point was Celebrity going to informed pax of their options for 4/7 sailings, he told me that they DO NOT plan on offering any options for cancelling. I could not believe that, and the rep went to consult his supervisor. The answer was that there is no plan on shortening any activities, but they are going to continue increased sanitization with bleach throughout the ship (just as on the current sailing), and they are not going to offer any options to the 4/7 pax.

[Casshew]

jspivak are are you on the 4/7 sailing?

[poetic license]

We're on the April 7th sailing. Our TA contacted Celebrity today, & was told that if anyone wanted to cancel they would experience normal cancellation penalties. From what she was told, we won't be given any options other than to go on the cruise or cancel & lose our money.

VERY troubling and disturbing. I am going to contact my own TA and ask her to write to Celebrity on behalf of passengers affected and insist that they change apparent policy on this, and I am not even directly affected in any way.

 

Celebrity cannot afford to lose the recommmendations of hundreds of travel agents. Very often, their recommendations to customers affect the decision a customer makes on which line to choose. Celebrity needs to know in a big way and a large scale that TAs cannot comfortably recommend them as a cruiseline if they operate in this manner.

 

Please, please contact Celebrity directly, and even more importantly, call your agent back and ask her to go to bat for you. You should be able to transfer the booking, at the very least.

 

As consumers, we also have an obligation to let any cruiseline know when their policies are morally unacceptable. Please write to the President and CEO about this immediately. Here's who to contact:

 

Richard D. Fain

Chairman and CEO

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Inc.

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Daniel J. Hanrahan

President

Celebrity Cruises

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Cheers~

Nicki

[tarheelmjfan]

Hi Nikki,

Thanks again, for caring about our situation. Kenneth & I have decided that since we haven't been given any options, we're going on this cruise with intentions of having a wonderful trip & not letting anything prevent that from happening. If the experience isn't up to Celebrity standards, we'll voice our displeasure by cancelling the 2 cruises we have booked with Celebrity after this one. I'm really hoping they'll have their act together by our sailing though. We were really looking forward to the cruise & would much rather receive the cruise we expected than an option to cancel. :)

[smeyer418]

VERY troubling and disturbing. I am going to contact my own TA and ask her to write to Celebrity on behalf of passengers affected and insist that they change apparent policy on this, and I am not even directly affected in any way.

 

Celebrity cannot afford to lose the recommmendations of hundreds of travel agents. Very often, their recommendations to customers affect the decision a customer makes on which line to choose. Celebrity needs to know in a big way and a large scale that TAs cannot comfortably recommend them as a cruiseline if they operate in this manner.

 

Please, please contact Celebrity directly, and even more importantly, call your agent back and ask her to go to bat for you. You should be able to transfer the booking, at the very least.

 

As consumers, we also have an obligation to let any cruiseline know when their policies are morally unacceptable. Please write to the President and CEO about this immediately. Here's who to contact:

 

Richard D. Fain

Chairman and CEO

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Inc.

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Daniel J. Hanrahan

President

Celebrity Cruises

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Cheers~

Nicki

 

Morally unacceptable? ...... I would comment but don't want to get into a political discussion....

[Char]

Hi Nikki,

Thanks again, for caring about our situation. Kenneth & I have decided that since we haven't been given any options, we're going on this cruise with intentions of having a wonderful trip & not letting anything prevent that from happening. If the experience isn't up to Celebrity standards, we'll voice our displeasure by cancelling the 2 cruises we have booked with Celebrity after this one. I'm really hoping they'll have their act together by our sailing though. We were really looking forward to the cruise & would much rather receive the cruise we expected than an option to cancel. :)

Hey Tammy :D

 

Let's hope the Mercury is a well ship instead of a sick ship when you board. :)

 

Please don't cancel the Cruise of the Century!!! :eek:

 

Have a really great time and come back with a good report! :p

[tarheelmjfan]

Hey Tammy :D

 

Let's hope the Mercury is a well ship instead of a sick ship when you board. :)

 

Please don't cancel the Cruise of the Century!!! :eek:

 

Have a really great time and come back with a good report! :p

 

We have every intention of doing that. :D

[bububr]

Once again...PASSENGERS, PEOPLE are bringing this illness, problem on board..not Celebrity.

 

I would suggest poetic license that you instruct TA's to have their clients recieve a full physical, and if they are ill NOT TO TRAVEL on X. W'ed all be happy to not have this problem brought aboard by inconsiderate, ill manner folk that think they paid for a vacation so they'll go on it whether they are ill or not...after all they did 'pay for it'.

 

The ship isn't sick, one or some of the passengers boarding it are. and if found out THEY should not only be responsible for the inconvenienced passengers but to repay the cruiseline for their troubles.

 

BTW...in a different thread a poster referred to a very sick infant that was brought on board by its parents. I asked if it was the baby in the hot tub I saw..They didn't answer...

 

What do you want to do with the parents that disobeyed the rules and put diapers in the hot tubs? or the baby if it was the cause...Jail? death penalty? you decide.

 

Dave

[cml3]

I find it hard to believe that the illness on the 3/17 cruise was not the result of the previous cruise!

I think the CDC statement said that Celebrity did not take the proper measures on the previous cruise to clean the ship.

[tangerinebunny]

I find it hard to believe that the illness on the 3/17 cruise was not the result of the previous cruise!

I think the CDC statement said that Celebrity did not take the proper measures on the previous cruise to clean the ship.

 

 

Federal officials have asked the Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury to follow its own rules in hope of quelling a viral outbreak that has sickened hundreds on two recent voyages from San Diego to Mexico.

“It's very rare that we would see an outbreak on consecutive cruises,” said David Forney, chief of the Vessel Sanitation Program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “The company has an excellent protocol for dealing with outbreaks like this, (but the Mercury staff) were not real successful in implementing some of their own protocols.”

 

What about the other cruise ships that had outbreaks at the same time as Mercury? Did they have outbreaks on their next voyages?

[newmexicoNita]

VERY troubling and disturbing. I am going to contact my own TA and ask her to write to Celebrity on behalf of passengers affected and insist that they change apparent policy on this, and I am not even directly affected in any way.

 

Celebrity cannot afford to lose the recommmendations of hundreds of travel agents. Very often, their recommendations to customers affect the decision a customer makes on which line to choose. Celebrity needs to know in a big way and a large scale that TAs cannot comfortably recommend them as a cruiseline if they operate in this manner.

 

Please, please contact Celebrity directly, and even more importantly, call your agent back and ask her to go to bat for you. You should be able to transfer the booking, at the very least.

 

As consumers, we also have an obligation to let any cruiseline know when their policies are morally unacceptable. Please write to the President and CEO about this immediately. Here's who to contact:

 

Richard D. Fain

Chairman and CEO

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Inc.

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Daniel J. Hanrahan

President

Celebrity Cruises

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

Cheers~

Nicki

Nicki, you are going to insist? and if they don't what will you do then? I have a gut feeling if anyone even us TAs start threatening Celebrity we will get nowhere fast. I dread going on any vacation and getting sick, who doesn't, but this is not an isolated situation: a couple of years ago cruise lines were filled with this from late summer til early winter and I don't remember many cruises being cancelled. Tarheel has the right attitude: she will go and will have the best possible time: if things go wrong then it is time to think of cancelling future cruises, but it is too late to worry about the next couple coming up. NMNita

[NanD]

Sorry your invite for the Cruise Critic gathering got lost in the shuffle. A good group showed up, altho the numbers probably represented only a few more than half those who signed up. An officer who identified himself as the group activities coordinator spoke to us and took Q&A. He was interesting and opened a new perspective.

Also, bummer about your riding accident. Something similar happened to me years ago.....so, when I say "I can feel your pain", I kind of can. :-)) Hope it's feeling better ASAP.

Like you, my husband and I had a good time on the 3/17 cruise. I think staying healthy has a lot to do with our viewpoint. We are somewhat frustrated, however, that we still don't feel we have an idea of what it is to be "treated famously" by Celebrity, as our cruise was a bit out of the norm. C'est la vie....given an option, we'd have gone again. I do think Celebrity should have shown some good faith in offering a token to indicate they understood the cruise had come up short. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my memory is the top level of the ship didn't even admit the specific problem in a daily announcement until the CDC was aboard. Not that we hadn't figured it out by then! Call me a skeptic but, by that time, I'm inclined to think they were speaking more to the CDC folks than the passengers.

I do have a small disagreement with you regarding the source of the bugs that plagued us all. It may, in fact, be that the initial culprit was a fellow cruiser. However, since the incidence of sick crew grew by 70% (per CDC numbers) from the 3/6 to 3/17 cruises, I think it's hard to argue that by the time we arrived, the problem wasn't well established on the ship itself. Recent feedback here is that numbers are much better for the current sailing. Let's hope those hold.

Again....wishing you a fast recovery from the effects of your spill.

Nan

[bububr]

Sorry, Just a little grumpy/groggy from the meds.

 

Actually refferring back to my stack of info. The daily on the first day reads:MARCH 17

 

HEALTH TRAVEL ADVISORY

 

Celebrity cruises has worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control, to enhance cleanig proceedures onboard all of its ships. You will likely see some of these activities during your cruise.

 

Medical Experts strongly suggest travelers pay close attention to washing their hands. The best way to prevent colds, flu, and GASTROINTESTINAL illness is to simply wash your hands thoroghly and soap and hot water after bathroom breaks and again before eating anything. Your Cooperation and assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

 

So while you are correct in saying they didn't SPECIFICALLY announce there was an outbreak on board ( I don't believe less than a hundred ill is an outbreak ) , they did advise us that we SHOULD beware or we COULD get it in a round about way. This statement remained on the dailys every day.

 

What it all comes down to is he said, she said. Bottom like is we may never know. We should wait until the CDC makes a final report before we start pointing fingers...thats the point I'm trying to make.

 

Sorry that some had a terrible cruise experience, sorry that some had a less than enjoyable experience, sorry that some didn't feel they recieved the "Celebrity" treatment. But remember the Princess ship in port with us did have some of the same problems, and the ship in port when we docked had been quarentined. It wasn't just the Mercury. And I'm just glad we didn't burn down.

 

Did I hope for a perfect vacation? yes. Did I have a perfect vacation?no. but bottom line is it was a vacation never the less. I'm gonna try to remain positive on this because being negative really solves nothing.

Thanks again Nan:)

 

Dave:eek:

[SandyMc]

I'm so sorry all these threads about the 3/17 cruise have not contained all the information that people planning cruises on the Mercury in the coming months should know. Primarily that, even once they quit with the bleach and restaurant closures, this ship looks awful!

 

They have not only sprayed bars, stair railings, elevators and doors, the very tired crew has oversprayed most of the upholstry on board. Consequently, the tattered chairs in the Cova Cafe and Rendevous Sq. all display bleach stains. (I'm sure that is elsewhere as well but those were our favorite meeting places and thus most obvious).

 

This ship is not scheduled for drydock until next year but should be taken out of service and redone as soon as possible.

 

There is bleach on every conceivable surface - vertical as well as horizontal - and much of the effect will not be easily cleaned once they quit with the bleach. The ship looks and feels shabby and future cruisers should be aware of that.

 

I have no doubt they will eventually win over the virus - but they cannot make this ship worth the price of passage with a wipedown!

[safein]

I do feel that letters to TPTB are warranted about fears regarding the extra spraying. Yes, I feel it's necessary to help wipe down the surfaces to help get rid of the germs. But, as someone with asthma and very sensitive to smells like bleach, I would have trouble sailing on a ship where this is being done constantly and everywhere. We love Celebrity and we think they should be more lenient.

 

In this area, Celebrity should be more sensitive to their passengers.

 

Anita

[Cruise Arizona]

From Tuggers original description, which I highly value as she has 30+ cruises and loves Celebrity very much, I can tell that this would not be the cruise I was expection.

 

My number one issue is that I try to avoid the Buffet if I can. It is crowede, slow, noisy, and not very relaxing. To not have the option of dining in the dining room for breakfast and lunch, would probably cut my enjoyment a lot.

 

Having to worry if my favorite dresses or my DH's tux are going to be ruined by bleach spray would be another bummer. Dressing for dinner is my favorite part of cruising.

 

So since dining and dressing up are major parts of my cruise expectations, I would be very disappointed if the conditions Gail decribed were present on my cruise.

 

And all this said, I am one of those people who tries to make the best of things, and I would find some way to make the best and enjoythings, but it would not be the cruise that I paid for.

[tarheelmjfan]

My number one issue is that I try to avoid the Buffet if I can. It is crowede, slow, noisy, and not very relaxing. To not have the option of dining in the dining room for breakfast and lunch, would probably cut my enjoyment a lot.

 

Having to worry if my favorite dresses or my DH's tux are going to be ruined by bleach spray would be another bummer. Dressing for dinner is my favorite part of cruising.

 

So since dining and dressing up are major parts of my cruise expectations, I would be very disappointed if the conditions Gail decribed were present on my cruise.

 

 

Our feelings exactly. I know many people say they had a fabulous cruise, even under these circumstances. They tell all the wonderful things they enjoyed on the ship, & imply that anyone who's not happy just being of vacation is a whiner. We'll be more than happy to be on vacation, but there's lots of places to spend our vacation money. I can't think of too many places that would refuse it. Bottom line, we expect to get what we pay for. If something comes up that is uncontrollable, that's one thing. This is a month later. The fact that these issues still exist is IMO unexcusable. We choose Celebrity for 3 reasons, quality of food, atmosphere, & my DH & I really enjoys the sushi bar. If the dining room is closed for 2 meals a day, it will negatively affect our experience in a big way. We could get buffet food on any cruise line. If we're unable to comfortably wear our more expensive formal & informal clothing, then we lose another reason that caused us to choose this cruise. If the sushi bar is closed, then there's all 3. (Although, this one isn't as important as the other 2.) To us, these are the reasons to take a cruise. I don't gamble & DH does very little. We don't play the games, sing karaoke, or go to lectures. We'll lay by the pool awhile on sea days, but not on port days. If our main interest was the ports, we'd take a land vacation instead. It's understandable that people who choose to cruise for reasons other than ours wouldn't be as adversely affected by these issues. Some people enjoy buffets for B & L, & would choose that anyway. We aren't 2 of those people. As I've said before, we're going with intentions of having a fabulous time. If the 2 major reasons we choose to cruise on X are taken away, we'll think seriously before going on another of their cruises.

[RLM77]

I don't believe the practice of spraying the bleach came from Celebrity's disease control protocols, but from the CDC.

I was on the March 6 cruise when 200 pax were sick and there was no sripping bleach or wet surfaces. Surfaces were being wiped down continually, but not sprayed.

 

My point is that the chance of having your clothes ruined is not a Celebrity problem. It could happen on a sick ship on any cruiseline.

 

We were fortunate and stayed well.