Just Back - Norovirus Outbreak On Caribbean Princess - 4/1-4/8

[stoneharborlady]

When did the CB get an arcade? There wasnt one the first time I was onboard. Is there much in it? Thank you

Karen

[1827cruise]

Thanks for the report. I'm a little confused as to why they would administer Cipro or "antibiotic shots" for a virus?! That just makes no sense to me at all. I've heard there is a shot that can help with the symptoms, but this is the first I've heard of them using antibiotics.

 

Agreed, All the Cipro and/or other "antibiotic shots" in the world won't do a thing to help Norovirus and in two days there was probably not enough time to acquire a secondary bacterial infection that would respond to Cipro of other antibiotics.:confused:

[carlywilson]

I had norovirus on new years eve, it spread through the family. Thankfully it only lasted 24 hours with each of us, I really only felt truly terrible for about 10 hours. They should have refunded your cabana-they were the ones who quarantined your son.

[ikelmay]

Under the circumstances, it sounds like Princess coped pretty well. We were on the CP the week before, and I was very impressed with the emphasis on sanitization, especially in the food areas. Given that there can't be much slack in the whole operation on any cruise ship with a full complement of passengers, I'm not surprised that some areas get stretched to the max when something like this happens.

[Pickland]

What happens if you are quarantined just before reaching your home port or are still quarantined when you arrive? Are you allowed off the ship to continue home?

[joand452]

Wouldn't that be a shame if you had to stay on board for the next cruise... ;)

 

Glad if your son had to get sick, it was at the end of the cruise and that you all had a great time anyway.

 

My boss's DH called this morning that she's sick at a family member's home. Sounds like noro to me. It can be picked up anywhere. A couple of local DC hotels had to close for a few days not too long ago when guests got sick.

 

I picked it up at Disney World a couple of years ago. Not a fun way to spend a couple days of vacation!

 

Well, we'll be extra vigilant on our Crown cruise coming up...

[crzDave]

What happens if you are quarantined just before reaching your home port or are still quarantined when you arrive? Are you allowed off the ship to continue home?

 

Apparently there were several that were still quarantined when we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday morning. We did the express 'walk off' and I got separated from the rest of my group. I ended up getting off the ship very early, and waited at the bottom of the gangway for the rest of my group. After a few minutes, there was a long pause, with no one getting off the ship. The Princess rep directing everyone into the customs lines told me that they were getting ready to escort everyone who was still sick off the ship. About 5-10 minutes later a large, escorted group (a couple in wheelchairs) came off the ship. When the rest of my group came down they said they stopped disembarking to let the folks who were still sick, along with their families exit the ship. Apparently they were told to congregate in one of the dining rooms and would be disembarked together.

 

We were very fortunate, as none of our group of 7 got sick. Felt bad for those that did. We were impressed with the diligence displayed by the entire crew to continuously sanitize the public areas. As I said, we didn't get sick, so didn't have to experience what the OP did. Hope everyone is getting back on their feet!

[TwinCruiserMom]

You are quite correct. We tried every telephone number we could think of several times for 20-30 minutes or so. We searched the hallways for crew members, but at 3am no one answered and we didn't know what else to do. Glad I wasn't having a heart attack!

 

It is completely unacceptable to not be able to reach someone on the ship! It would be so frustrating to make calls for that long and not be able to reach anyone to report the illness and mess.

 

The room service wait was ridiculous too. Are you supposed to order your lunch an hour or two before you really want it? Especially when you are only allowed to eat off that menu because of illness. You would hope they would put additional staff to work on taking care of those passengers.

 

I am glad that you came through those frustrations and still have such a positive attitude. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[michigan tim]

Were you offered any compensation for missed days? My wife got ill on RCI over New Years; they quaranteened her for 2 days and me for 1 day (proximity ?). Because we complied we received a credit for 4 pro-rated days (good for 2 years).

[live4vacation]

My husband & I were on the Grand a couple years ago when I got the virus. I am still wondering how it happened as I am a compulsive hand washer!!:)

I woke up on our last day and felt absolutely awful! After a few hours of debating I went down to the infirmary. It was confirmed I had norovirus. I had to complete a questionnaire stating where and what I have eaten in the last 48 hours. They also asked me if I used any of the public restrooms on the way down. They gave me a shot for the nausea and some very strong imodium. They quarantined me for 24 hours. When I got back to my room there were 2 men with rubber boots & gloves waiting to scrub down our room. They take it very seriously when someone is sick, I guess the nurse calls the cleaning team the minute you leave so they can meet you at your room to scrub it down. When I walked up they were asking me what took me so long to get back up to the room and if I made any stops. My 24 hours were almost up by disembarkment and I was not given any instructions about waiting in a certain area. I was very thankful I was feeling better and even happier that we lived only an hour from the port. I couldn't imagine getting on an airplane in that condition. They did not offer any compensation but I didn't ask so I guess that was an error on my part.

 

The only reason this virus is so common on cruise ships is because they are required to report outbreaks to the CDC. When people get it on land it is not normally reported as you are feeling much better in 24 hours.

 

We will be on the CB April 22nd and you better believe I will be wiping down everything in my room. I will also stay away from the buffets this time around!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Apparently they were told to congregate in one of the dining rooms and would be disembarked together.

 

 

Thats ridiculous, put them in a food service area? :eek:

[ginak1112]

My family was on this cruise also with another family of 6. None of us got sick, thank goodness. We cruise often and I always travel with purel and clorex wipes. I live in Ft.Lauderdale and there was an article today about the outbreak in our local paper. It stated that there were 117 sick passengers per the center of disease control.

[CruiseNut7]

We were also on the April 1-8 sailing of the CB.

 

I feel badly for those that were affected with the norovirus and do hope they are now healthy, but after checking many sources, I was told there were about 60 passengers that became sick - still 60 too many, but once again this can happen anywhere.

 

We first knew that something was going on when we stopped at the buffet for a salad and the staff were serving - I think a good idea routinely. On several visits to the buffet prior to that, I saw people actualy picking up tomatoes and even slices of pie with their fingers, rather than using tongs - idiots!

 

Other than that, it was a wonderful cruise on a fabulous ship. Princess' staff was awesome - kudos to them and the captain!

[dakodacruiser]

Even though noro isn't an airborne virus (as someone stated) this is unacceptable. This kid's puke was left in the hallway for 4 hours!! That is just down right disgusting. I'm sure someone could have located a crew member somewhere, they don't leave the ship at night.

My point exactly! Hand sanatize and scrub up the ying - yang and then leave vomit for anyone and everyone to come into contact with it seems to me crazy! That should have been cleaned up as soon as possible.

[nrdsb4]

My guess is that the Cipro is being used to cover other bacterial diarrheal or GI illness (salmonella, E Coli), in case the presumptive diagnosis of Norovirus is wrong...

 

 

Regarding treatment of e.coli, from the CDC web site:

 

"Antibiotics should not be used to treat this infection. There is no evidence that antibiotics improve the course of disease, and it is thought that treatment with some antibiotics could lead to kidney complications."

 

As for salmonella, treatment with antibiotics is not usually done when diagnosis is first made:

 

▲TopDiscussion of treatments for Salmonella food poisoning:

 

Salmonellosis (General): DBMD (Excerpt)

 

Salmonella infections usually resolve in 5-7 days and often do not require treatment unless the patient becomes severely dehydrated or the infection spreads from the intestines. Persons with severe diarrhea may require rehydration, often with intravenous fluids. Antibiotics are not usually necessary unless the infection spreads from the intestines, then it can be treated with ampicillin, gentamicin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, or ciprofloxacin. Unfortunately, some Salmonella bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, largely as a result of the use of antibiotics to promote the growth of feed animals. (Source: excerpt from Salmonellosis (General): DBMD)

[Clarkk W Griswald]

My family was on this cruise also with another family of 6. None of us got sick, thank goodness. We cruise often and I always travel with purel and clorex wipes.

 

Don't know if many of you realize that the clorox wipes contain no bleach. Before our last cruise, we wanted to takes wipes along to wipe down our cabin and we were surprised that we could not find any wipes that contained bleach.

[pablo222]

Try reading the OP again. This was in the middle of the night when it happened. They attempted to call but the crew was stretched thin. You do know that a ship has to operate 24 hours a day. The OP admits they never contacted anyone about the mess. How is anyone from the ship supposed to respond to something they have no knowledge about? By the way, if you have spell check, use it.

 

If I call 911 at 3:00AM, I expect an answer. The crew should

not be stretched so thin that they can't respond to emergencies.

 

Their answer might be that cleaning up can't be handled right now,

but if I'm calling to say I'm having a heart attack right now, and

I need emergency help, I hope to god someone answers the

phone.

[MaryPoppinz]

The CDC notwithstanding, CIpro is sometimes prescribed for those illnesses. And, a three-day course of Cipro is pretty standard for travelers diarrhea.

 

The only thing that is pretty certain is that Cipro was not being prescribed to treat Norovirus.

[kmtoner]

When did the CB get an arcade? There wasnt one the first time I was onboard. Is there much in it? Thank you

Karen

 

The arcade is adjacent to the casino on Deck 6. There are maybe 6 machines and an air hockey table. My kids were able to charge tokens to their cruise cards. The good news is that they didn't run up a big tab on tokens. Even though the arcade was smaller than on our last RCI cruise, the kids loved it.

[kmtoner]

Were you offered any compensation for missed days? My wife got ill on RCI over New Years; they quaranteened her for 2 days and me for 1 day (proximity ?). Because we complied we received a credit for 4 pro-rated days (good for 2 years).

 

Compensation was never offered, but our teen received a nice letter from the Captain.

 

We think he probably picked up the germ from other kids in the teen center or the public restrooms. I wouldn't exactly describe him as diligent hand washer. We packed our own hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes for the trip, but I don't think we were able to wipe down the boy too often during the week. By the end of the cruise, I was just about bathing in the stuff. I never realized how often I unconciously touch my face during the day until I started tasting that awful sanitizer.

 

As part of the hit squad process, we had to piece together everywhere he had eaten and what he'd eaten for the last four days. The possibility of food contamination is very important with this virus, I guess. Our Olive Garden here in Indianapolis had a very serious outbreak earlier this year sending 300 people to local hospitals over the course of one week. Local families have now applied for class action status in our Circuit Court thanks to contaminated breadsticks and an ill food service worker.

[kmtoner]

From today's Miami Herald:

 

CRUISE SHIP ARRIVES WITH 117 ILL ON BOARD

 

More than 100 people came down with what appeared to be norovirus on a seven-day trip aboard a Princess cruise ship that came into Port Everglades on Sunday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Only six people were still in isolation on Sunday, meaning they had gotten sick in the past 24 hours, said Capt. Jaret Ames, acting chief of the CDC'S Vessel Sanitation Program.

 

Ames said 117 people contracted the illness aboard the ship, which carried more than 4,500 passengers and crew members.

 

The Caribbean Princess came into port, was decontaminated and returned to sea the same day, Ames said.

 

Samples were taken to determine whether the illness was norovirus -- a gastrointestinal illness whose symptoms include vomiting.

 

An outbreak's impact is measured in the percentage of people it affects, Ames said. This illness affected about 2 ½ percent of those on board, a lower rate than other recent cases of cruise ship illnesses, where up to 10 to 15 percent of a ship's population has been sick, he said.

[DrTravelBugPhD]

The CDC notwithstanding, CIpro is sometimes prescribed for those illnesses. And, a three-day course of Cipro is pretty standard for travelers diarrhea.

 

The only thing that is pretty certain is that Cipro was not being prescribed to treat Norovirus.

 

 

:rolleyes:

 

And how long until you receive your internet M.D certificate? I hear you don't ever have to leave home to get it. You should be no more than a month away, TOPS! :)

[nrdsb4]

The CDC notwithstanding, CIpro is sometimes prescribed for those illnesses. And, a three-day course of Cipro is pretty standard for travelers diarrhea.

 

The only thing that is pretty certain is that Cipro was not being prescribed to treat Norovirus.

 

And as we all know, "standard" prescribing of antibiotics in the absence of a definitive diagnosis of a bacterial infection is a contributing factor to antibiotic resistance.

[MaryPoppinz]

And as we all know, "standard" prescribing of antibiotics in the absence of a definitive diagnosis of a bacterial infection is a contributing factor to antibiotic resistance.

 

Yes, it's problematic. But, it's done all the time. When was the last time you had a culture before being treated for sinusitis (for instance)?

[Sandytoes]

Princess staff and crew are trained to be extremely vigilant regarding passenger health, and the line operates a thorough health monitoring system. Employees receive special training and utilize a rigorous sanitary protocol that meets or exceeds CDC requirements.

 

This is the third Princess Cruise ship to be hit with the virus.

Island & Regal.

 

How noroviruses are spread

People can become infected with the virus by:

• Eating food or drinking liquids infected with noroviruses
  
• Touching surfaces or objects infected with noroviruses and then touching own mouth, nose, or eyes
  
• Having person-to-person contact (with a norovirus-infected person) by
  • being present while someone is vomiting
    
  • sharing food or eating from the same utensils
    
  • caring for a sick person
    
  • shaking hands

  [*]Not washing hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.