I understand all of your fears, I do, but think about it, you are letting your emet control your life. The ship I was on was so clean and the staff was so well trained, that I wasn't concerned at all. I think there is a different class of ships out there and Carnival is one of the cheaper ones and you get what you pay for. I sailed on Carnival and it was awful, I didn't get sick but the service and food was not worth the money at all. I then saild on Norwegian and the difference between the 2 ships was like night and day. The staff was excellent, the food even better, and as for the buffets, no one touches the tongs, only the servers who are wearing gloves. They also had antibacterial dispensers everywhere and wouldn't let anyone into the restaurants until they used it. I know that people here have said that they don't prevent the spread of the norovirus, but this wasn't purell, it was something else that explained about the transmission of it and that this one killed 90% of the virus. It was much stronger than purell, and the fact that they were everywhere was a nice reassurance. It prevented people who were going to touch menus, handles, etc. from spreading any type of germ, noro or a cold.


I loved the cruise and am not afraid of catching anything. I would be more afraid of catching something from an airplane from the re-cycled air then a cruise ship. Actually, I'm more afraid of riding the train with commuters than the ship. Besides, if you do get sick on the ship, they have doctors on board who can give you anti-vomiting medication so you won't have to suffer like that. At least, that was on Norwegian, not sure about any of the other cruise lines out there.