Cruise Ships

[adunlavey]

I know you all have seen the news with the Cruise ships and 700 people getting ill. Here's my question, if we believe all that we read, how can 700 people get sick when you have to be in contact with the V*? The last Alaskan cruise ship, they said 2 people got on the ship that we ill. How is this possible? I jsut don't think anyone knows. I could see if it was the cooks and they were ill while preparing the food, but we are talking about 2 people getting 700 sick. I'm just confused. On that note, you won't ever see me on a cruise ship.....i know it's a freak thing and there are cruise ships every hour probably that go out, but i'm not going to take that chance.


Anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

[calibmom24]

I don't understand it either, but believe me I will never get on a cruise ship!!!

[marby]

I agree with you. According to the CDC, norovirus lives on surfaces (door handles, railings, etc.) for an extended period of time. That would indicate, for this type of virus anyway, that you don't need to come in direct contact with v* or d*, but can pick it up from hard surfaces and get the virus that way.

[babygap5]

I've been on 2 cruises, and I'm going on a third in April. I didn't get sick and there wasn't an outbreak on the cruisesI went on. The first cruise I took was on carnival and it was awful. The food was terrible and so was the service. The 2nd one was a norwegian and it was 1000 times better. There were hand sanitizers everywhere, all the cooks wore gloves and the staff seemed to be educated on virus's and contamination. Also, there were actual doctors on board that could give antiv* medication and that could give iv's and such just in case of a breakout. The way they cleaned the ship every morning was amazing, they actually washed the outside of the ship, the decks, the balcony's the handles with a bleach solution because they told us not to leave towels, clothes etc on the balcony in the morning because everything got cleaned. They had this cool piece of equipment, like a window washer on a skyscraper, only it was all computerized.


When we docked, we saw it, it was being controlled by someone at the end of the deck, it would hose down the entire outside section, then there were cleaning staff that would dry it. So, I think it really depends on the cruise line. Norwegian is one of the most expensive ones and I go by the saying, "You get what you pay for." My gf went on a Carnival in September and said it wasn't like the one I went on at all, so the standards are obviously different based on cost of the cruise. I posted this in the other 2 posts regarding the cruise and the bottom line is, unless you get motion sickness, to let this bother you is a shame. I was in full blown emet mode when I went on the 2nd cruise and I wasn't scared of catching anything at all. I knew if I did, the doctors would give me stuff to make me feel better, so I just let loose and had fun. Plus the sanitizers all over the ship are a wonderful investment for the line to make. I know there have been discussions on this as to noro being killed by purell type products, but the one on the cruise ship did. It wasn't purell it was something stronger, much stronger and they had employees standing outside every restaurant who wouldn't let you in unless you got a squirt from the automatic dispensers. It was much stronger than purell because it dried up my skin so fast. It said it had a 90% effectiveness for preventing the spread of it. What was also good, the buffets were served by the crew, no one but them touched the tongs.


I know that people on here are afraid and someone on here has a sister who works for a cruise line and they wouldn't dare step foot on one, but honestly, I'm more at risk for catching a sv taking my local commuter train from the re-cycled air then I am at catching something on a cruise ship. The cruise in April I'm going on is with Norwegian again, same boat in fact. Oh, they also had the viral antiseptic dispensers on the docks and the crew wouldn't let you back on the ship without getting squirts as well, so they were really diligent to making sure people weren't bringing anything other than souveniers on the ship with them.Edited by: babygap5