Golden Princess Red Flagged

[Buddy604]

According to crew, they had a Norwalk outbreak two days ago and are now operating under red flag. No self service in the buffet, no menus at the bar, and a very nice lady pumping the condiments on my cheeseburger.

 

When I let my travelling buddy know, she said she just thought they were offering a higher grade of service than usual. :p

 

Mike

[rdsqrl]

omigod, with no menus in the bar, how do you know which martini to order?!

Signed,

rdsqrl, who is working her way through the entire martini menu . . .

[gargoyle999]

So someone has to stand there and hand out all the buffet items as people walk by and decide what they want? Yikes! :eek:

[Javajunki]

Just got off the Golden, My impression was that the few cases, coupled with the quick response of the crew and staff, nipped it short. The majority of the

inconvenience was bore by the crew,they did a lot more work, the passengers had only a minor change in routine.

[Nancyquilts]

It only irks me when the steward stands there and salts my food. For good luck I now bring a small salt shaker with me.

WASH YOUR HANDS! Often. Nancy

[Buddy604]

It only irks me when the steward stands there and salts my food. For good luck I now bring a small salt shaker with me.

Maybe you're on to something with your "good luck" remark: I used to bring my own small pepper grinder - great also for those who like really coarse pepper.

 

I stopped bringing it though becuase I had never ended up encountering a red flag situation despite the number of cruises I take. Maybe it was a talisman that warded norwalk away! :p

[CroneWynd]

I actually don't think we had Noro onboard... I personally heard of three people who got seasick the first or second day. One woman was describing how the crew came in and sanitized their cabin when her husband got sick, and another couple was telling us how sick they got from the "rough seas" the first two days (:confused: never felt rough seas, but oh well)... however, the raised standards, the service levels at all dining venues, and the prevalence of sanitizer everywhere, seemed more precautionary than panic. If there was actually Noro, it was handled very well. If it wasn't, the prevention was in place to head it off if it was! I was impressed, in a very good way, by how it was all handled.

[POLSON]

If the medical staff had any inclination that it was Noro, the people taken ill would be confined to their cabin for about 3 days - Red Level ,as it is referred to, comes into play when a certain percentage of passengers/crew are taken ill with the virus. There are different levels and various actions taken depending on the level issued.

 

If you ever see someone leave a restroom without washing their hands, please chastise them as this is one of the leading causes.

[sassyredhat]

We sailed Code Red last April. It wasn't so bad, and only lasted for 3 days.

 

We chalked it up to a new experience. :D

 

Pat

[Latitude 20]

It only irks me when the steward stands there and salts my food. For good luck I now bring a small salt shaker with me.

WASH YOUR HANDS! Often. Nancy

 

We were on the Golden last night and they brought a dish of individual salt and pepper packets to the table. No shakers, no self-service in the buffet and waitresses were pumping the condiments in the grill.

 

omigod, with no menus in the bar, how do you know which martini to order

 

No worries, they'd bring one if you asked for it (and I assume wash it off afterwards) but nothing on the tables. Same with wine lists in the dining room.

[Av8tor]

I was on Sapphire last week and there was no sanitizer in Horizon Court or at any of the dining rooms. That was a change from my last Princess cruise wher it seemed to be everywhere.

 

In fact, the only time I saw any mandatory use of sanitizer was when they squirted some in my hands as we entered the Captains Circle Club cocktail party just before shaking hands with Capt Pickford(sp?). I guess rank does have its priviledges.

 

Is Princess trying to save $$ by only bringing out the sanitizer if a certain percentage of people onboard get sick??

 

Paul

[mii]

Another problem is people not using the hand santizers. I did a B2B2B this past May on the Coral and maybe 8 out 10 people did not use them in the lines of the buffet, and that was at all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

Marilyn

[rcacace]

Another problem is people not using the hand santizers. I did a B2B2B this past May on the Coral and maybe 8 out 10 people did not use them in the lines of the buffet, and that was at all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

Marilyn

 

On most the ships I've been on it's use was very sketchy. Most of the time they left the use up to the individuals to decide whether to use it or not. That's until a breakout occurs & then it's altogether different.

[mii]

On most the ships I've been on it's use was very sketchy. Most of the time they left the use up to the individuals to decide whether to use it or not. That's until a breakout occurs & then it's altogether different.

 

And there-in lies the problem. The santizers are there for a reason and people just do not use them. Or coming from the bathroom and I seen with my own eyes there are some that do not wash their hands after using the facilities. Yuck.

 

marilyn

[CroneWynd]

Sanitizers aren't as effective as washing one's hands.

If people always have the sanitizers, they may skip on the hand washing routine, and then the situation could be worse.

 

On the Golden last week, there was always sanitizer available at the various food venues, but it wasn't squirted at you until there were a few sick people onboard.

[rcacace]

And there-in lies the problem. The santizers are there for a reason and people just do not use them. Or coming from the bathroom and I seen with my own eyes there are some that do not wash their hands after using the facilities. Yuck.

 

marilyn

 

...and then we use the same serving spoons as they just touched & proceed to eat our lunch after we just finished sanitizing our own hands. It almost seems pointless to use the stuff if everybody isn't forced to comply.

[Seal]

This may sound foolish, but I use Perell after taking food from the buffet--before eating--in my mind I have the feeling that I've outsmarted those who don't sanitize their hands--anyway--somehow I feel a little bit better about it this way---really try to stay away from the buffet--except for cookies to go to the room late at night

 

I had noro once--fortunately we disembarked the next morning--they told my DH that the only place he could not go to was the Buffet.

 

When I had noro--they said computers, railings--elevator panels etc were a great problem--not as obvious as bathrooms, buffet etc.

 

have had 15 cruises since the noro--with no problems--once I saw a lady coiming down a couple of flights of stairs in the atriun with a wash cloth on the rail that she was hold so she wouldn't touch the rail

 

Nancy:D

[cruzinchris]

DH and I were on the Star 9/14-21. We noticed right away that there was no ice bucket in our stateroom fridge. Since we were onboard and in our cabin before noon, we thought that the steward might not be finished with our room but, when no ice bucket appeared after a couple of hours, we contacted housekeeping.

 

Our steward appeared within minutes and explained that ice would be left in our stateroom only upon request and, if we wanted our ice bucket filled, we should leave it out in the morning and evening when our stateroom would be cleaned. We forgot to do this a couple of times and had to call room service for ice.

 

While we appreciated the explanation regarding ice in staterooms - that passengers were helping themselves to ice from stewards' carts - it seemed odd to enforce the "ice rule" but not encourage passengers to wash their hands frequently or promote use of hand sanitizers. But for the letter that was in our stateroom when we embarked the ship, no mention was made regarding protection against Norovirus. There were no hand sanitizers outside dining rooms, and they were ignored in Horizon Court.

 

Have passengers on other Princess ships had the same experience with ice buckets not being filled unless requested or is this practice limited to the Star? Just curious...

Chris

[Thurston Howell lll]

This explains the $500.00 price reduction on the the next Golden sailing out of LA. :eek:

[Thurston Howell lll]

When I had noro--they said computers, railings--elevator panels etc were a great problem--not as obvious as bathrooms, buffet etc.

 

have had 15 cruises since the noro--with no problems--once I saw a lady coiming down a couple of flights of stairs in the atriun with a wash cloth on the rail that she was hold so she wouldn't touch the rail

 

Nancy:D

 

 

I will be wearing latex gloves!

[POLSON]

I have never understood how people would just pass on by the sanitizers and not use them. It really is obvious when you see people returning to the buffet lines for seconds or something sweet. They usually try and enter thru the exit. That makes me sick just to think about it as 9 times out of 10, fingers are near your mouth when you are eating and then you return to handle a serving spoon or what not.

 

When I teach onboard my computer classes, I wipe the keyboards down after each class. I would rather be safe then sorry.

[giftwrapper7]

And be sure when you go to the Mall in your home town you do not touch the rails on the escalator or touch the elevator buttoms, or pick up any merchandise to ck. prices. Life is to short to go overboard(ha, ha) we just need to use common sense. We have no idea how many times that tummy ache or of course cold is caught just by our daily activities. Just a ;) thought. j;)

[Buddy604]

Hand sanitizers are good for dealing with bacterial issues, but remember that they do nothing for noro virus. If you want to kill noro virus, you need a strongish bleach solution or sustained high heat. The best way to defeat noro is washing your hands with soap. It doesn't kill viruses, but it does strip them off your hands and send them down the drain where they can be dealt with by the waste treatment system.

 

I'm almost ambivalent about the hand sanitizers because so many people seem to think it's a substitute for handwashing when it is really just an adjunct. :(

[pkw1966]

We were on the Golden 9/20-9/27. Our cabin attendant told us that there were sick people in two cabins on our deck and 50+ cabins on decks 9 and 10. We were told that these passengers were confined to their cabins.

 

Golden had the hand sanitizer out from the start of the cruise. It was midweek when the dining room staff started distributing the sanitizer as you entered the dining room. The next day the buffet was no longer self service. The Captain made an announcement about the illness after lunch on 9/25.

 

While it was an inconvience to ask a waiter to salt your food or add creamer to your coffee, it was necessary to eliminate the spread of germs. I'm sure it was more of a hassle to the crew than the passengers.

[karatemom2]

Hand sanitizers are good for dealing with bacterial issues, but remember that they do nothing for noro virus. If you want to kill noro virus, you need a strongish bleach solution or sustained high heat. The best way to defeat noro is washing your hands with soap. It doesn't kill viruses, but it does strip them off your hands and send them down the drain where they can be dealt with by the waste treatment system.

 

I'm almost ambivalent about the hand sanitizers because so many people seem to think it's a substitute for handwashing when it is really just an adjunct. :(

 

While I completely agree that the best way to prevent illness is always proper and thorough hand washing with warm soap and water it is not correct that hand sanitizers do nothing to prevent norovirus. Studies have shown that ethanol based sanitizers with at least a 62% ethanol concentration are effective against many non-enveloped viruses including norovirus, which is why the CDC recommends using these types of ethanol based sanitizers as an adjunct to hand washing or when soap and water aren't available.

 

And I agree, hand sanitizer should never be viewed as a substitute for proper hand washing The problem is that most people do not practice appropriate hand washing techniques. I work in a health care setting and believe me when I say that everyone should be taught to wash up like a health care provider. We'd all stay a lot healthier!