Any Update on the Veendam?

[PCruzer]

Has there been any update on the Veendam and the virus problem? Haven't heard anything since she came in early on Friday.

[Peggy Tuten]

I checked with CDC this morning - one reported case last night. Ships are required to report illnesses twice a day. I called HAL and they said they had no information. Called CDC again this afternoon. Still just the one case. The CDC officer inspected the ship on Sat. Said HAL did a good job of cleaning her. Hopefully, the one remains an isolated case. I'll call again tomorrow morning.

[PCruzer]

Thanks so much for the response! Hopefully it is kept to the one case. Can you find the CDC information online?

[gaylenhazel]

Thanks for the update. I am leaving on the Veendam this Saturday. Don't want to get that bug!

[sail7seas]

I am so happy to hear there is only the single case. Congratulations to the crew of Veendam for their hard work and getting rid of the virus. The work they've done the last few weeks must be amazing.

Veendam's a great ship and I envy you lucky folks who are getting ready for your cruises on her.

Have a great time!!

 

[Peggy Tuten]

I checked with CDC again this morning and nothing more. Actually less people sick from the usual ailments than normal. Of course perhaps less passengers than normal if many opted out last weekend. So I guess I'm sailing on Saturday!:)

[sail7seas]

I heard from a friend of ours aboard Veendam and there are no new cases. The super-sanitizing and intense cleaning seems to have been successful. I am so happy for that hard working crew that their hard work provided success!!

[OCruisers]

This is great news!

 

Also tends to prove that the primary source of the virus was ON THE SHIP --NOT PAX bringing it on and giving it to each other.

 

"Sometimes bad things happen to good ships!" :p

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[ualtim]

Just got off the Veendam this morning, and there was only one case of the Norovirus the whole week which was reported on the first day (brought on board.) HAL had a lot of precautions in place including the "germstars" at every entry point from the dock, to the gangway, to all the public areas, and at the entry of any eating area. Different procedures were in place in all restaurants and the lido. No self serve, no salt/pepper, no bread baskets, and no food items on tables. All of these items were given to you by a gloved staff member on your request. The sports equipment was put away, the steam rooms and hot tubs were closed, and there were no stacks of paper or brochures available so that you would be less likely to come in contact with anyone else's disease. The procedures were so effective that they were able to operate "as normal" starting on Thurday and for the rest of the cruise. The only holdover were the "germstar" devices which remained by all of the areas with food and on the gangway during the visit to Costa Maya. The Captain warned that all though we were now "Noro free", we would be interacting with passengers from a Royal Caribbean ship in Costa Maya and we should continue to take precaustions and continually wash our hands in the event someone from the other ship was carrying Noro Virus.

 

An excellent cruise which was close to full even with some of the cancellations. When we inquired about an upgrade, there was only one "B" category and a few suites available. We enjoyed ourselves and look forward to sailing the Veendam again next year if able.

[dakrewser]

Nice to hear they really took this so seriously, thanks!

[RuffinReady]

Ualtim,

 

I note that you were on the Royal Princess during it's May 2002 transatlantic cruise. That's the one where we had to turn back to Halifax to helicopter a sick passenger and his friend to a hospital. Were you getting off at Southampton or going on another segment as we were? If you got off, how well did Princess handle the revision to your plans after we lost a day to the detour?

 

Ruffin

[cruzincurt]

QUOTE: "Also tends to prove that the primary source of the virus was ON THE SHIP --NOT PAX bringing it on and giving it to each other."

 

Maybe the reason no one got sick this time was all the sick people got off last time. The virus got on the ship somehow by someone bringing it on, it didn't just magically appear on the ship.

 

When we were on the Veendam last November, there were hand sanitizing stations at all eating areas. If people would just wash their hands it would help. I feel sorry for those who had to ride home on the same airplane.

[ualtim]

Ualtim,

 

I note that you were on the Royal Princess during it's May 2002 transatlantic cruise. That's the one where we had to turn back to Halifax to helicopter a sick passenger and his friend to a hospital. Were you getting off at Southampton or going on another segment as we were? If you got off, how well did Princess handle the revision to your plans after we lost a day to the detour?

 

Ruffin

 

We got off at Southampton. In our opinion, Princess handled the situation OK, but handled us pretty poorly. We had booked air through Princess so they rebooked our flight while we were still on board the ship. When they finally informed us of the new plans, we noticed that we were no longer going out of Heathrow but out of Gatwick while still booked at a hotel at Heathrow. We tried to get that changed while on board ship, but the ship's personnel only said there was nothing that we can do about it. We understood the flight change, but we went from a non-stop to Chicago to a four hour layover in Detroit. Even combined with a hotel 45 mins away from the airport and the four hour layover in DTW we could live with the changes without much complaint. So, we get off the ship, on to the bus to our hotel and are on our way. Once we arrive at the hotel in Heathrow, we meet the Princess represenative to get our room assignment and transportation information (which we had paid for in advance as we were planning a one night stay.) Room, no problem. We ask about our transportation to the airport and we are told there is a shuttle from the hotel to Heathrow regulary. When we explained to her that we were flying out of Gatwick, she tells us we are at the wrong hotel (exactly what we had been trying to get across to them for 3 days.) She calls to her supervisor, confirms our dilemma, and then tells us there is a bus from Heathrow to Gatwick that leaves every hour. I ask, "There is no charge for this, correct?" to which she replies we will have to pay an additional 20 pounds each for the trip. I then produce our transfer vouchers (again) so she calls her supervisor again. OK, she tells me, they are not supposed to provide transportation to Gatwick (even though we paid for it) but they will have a van for us and the other two lucky couples in the same situation. We all give her our flight times out of Gatwick (2:20PM, 2:50PM, and 3:10PM departures). She says the van will be at the hotel for a 7:30AM departure. We inquire to the length of the drive, which she replies "45 minutes." A little confused, we ask if we could depart later since all of our flights were not leaving until mid-afternoon. "Sorry, this is what we are providing you. Enjoy your stay." We were a little miffed at this point. At 6:30AM we are just preparing to go down an grab some breakfast when we get a call in the room from the driver of the van. He is ready to go to Gatwick. We ask about the stated 7:30AM departure and are told that he "wants to avoid traffic." I am thinking, well, you got about 5 hours of leeway, chief, and can still get us to the airport 90 minutes before flight time. So, we scramble down stairs, grab a quick breakfast with the other two couples and hit the road around 7AM. Arrive Gatwick around 7:40 AM (no traffic of course) for our 2:20PM departure. We spent more time in the Gatwick airport waiting for our flight than the flight time from Gatwick to Detroit. Of course, now we have four more hours to sit in Detroit waiting for the Chicago flight which seemed short after the Gatwick sit. From the moment we were picked up to our hotel until the moment we walked out the front of O'hare that night, it was 22 hours.

 

We wrote Princess of our ordeal explaining that we understood the change in plans, but subjecting us to a 22 hour day was not very customer friendly. Princess replied that there was nothing that they could do as "all" circumstances were out of their control. While we agreed that some of the circumstances were out of their control, delivering us at Gatwick at 7:40AM for a 2:20PM departure was well within their control so we wrote them back requesting re-imbursement for the lunch we bought at Gatwick and for the 6 hour sit we were forced to endure waiting for our flight (which, by the way, had several other passengers from the Royal on board who all stayed at the Gatwick airport hotel and were allowed to show up 2 hours prior to flight time.) We also stated that we would gladly accept on board credit for a future cruise or a future cruise discount as the form of compensation. Princess replied that they were "sorry that we felt that way" and would not be sending forth any compensation.

 

It is shame that it had to turn out that way becaused we had always enjoyed our time on board Princess ships and now we do not even think about booking on them. On all three of our Princess cruises, there has always been a screw up with the air/hotel packages we have booked. Once on board, everything was fine, but on land their service was just so lacking. Return flights on the wrong day, no transportation listed for us to the airport (on a seperate trip to Alaska) even though we paid for it, a Princess represenative that scolded us for not tipping the bell man even though he never showed up to bring our bags to the bus and we had to carry them down from the room ourselves (guess its customary to tip people who don't do their job in some parts,) being dropped off at the wrong terminal at the airport by the Princess bus (had to get off the bus and put our bags back on the bus and request that we be dropped of at the terminal on the other side of the Anchorage airport, never received the bottles of champagne that our TA at the time sent for us in our room on two seperate cruises (Princess had no record, TA had receit, not sure if she got her money back,) and on our honeymoon cruise my cruise card that I received at the terminal had me listed as a 3 year old minor (they had swapped my year of birth from 1969 to 1996 and I did not find out until I went to get a glass of champage on board and was refused because I was a minor.) Yes, a bunch of small screw ups that by themselves are nothing to get upset over, but after having a continuing negative experience off the ships we just became disenchanted with the company.

[RuffinReady]

We got off at Southampton. In our opinion, Princess handled the situation OK, but handled us pretty poorly.......

 

Ualtim, I am sorry to hear about your problems. That is terrible. I know it must have been very difficult for Princess to rebook over 1000 people getting off the ship and another 1000 scheduled to arrive, but that is no excuse for the discourtesy of their representatives. To make matters worse, that was the week of the Queens jubilee and I am sure that hotels were at a premium. Princess had to bring in their workforce in California on Sunday to begin the process. We had new tablemates that had to be tracked down at a horse farm somewhere in England to be rescheduled for the new arrival date and others that had to be put up in London for a day. Despite all of this, they could have been more helpful and friendly. Unfortunately the poor man that was evacuated passed on at the hospital in Halifax.

 

You ought to post/copy your comments to the Princess site.

 

Ruffin

[ualtim]

We agree, it was difficult with all the changes for Princess to accomodate us especially during the Jubilee, it was just the one thing that they had control of (dropping us off at normal time at the airport) they did so poorly. As far as posting in the Princess section, we are pretty much over it and have decided to avoid Princess for the past 2 and a half years and into the foreseable future. As you were on the cruise and asked the question, I felt obliged to tell you what happened.

 

We had such a great time on board the ship that week and it is just so unfortunate that Princess chose to react to our request the way that they did. If they had come back with $25 per person future cruise credit right off the bat, we would have been satisfied. Instead, they have twice denied that they had anything to do with our disatisfaction and have lost us as customers. We always enjoyed our time on board Princess ships, its just that their landside operation that has continually let us down. Now that we live in Florida, we may eventually give Princess another shot since we can drive to the port and avoid their land/air operation, but since they seem to be obsessed with getting larger and larger ships that we may still avoid them. Two of our favorite vessels (Ocean Princess and Royal Princess) have been (or will be) removed from the fleet in favor for the multi thousand passenger replacements coming on line.

 

It was sad to hear the gentleman passed in the hospital in Halifax. We were hoping that he had pulled through the ordeal and returned safely home.