Celebrity Millennium Alaska Cruise May 27 – June 3, 2011 Norovirus

[shermann]

I have been trying for 2 days now to write a Review of my Alaska Cruise on Celebrity’s Millennium, and have been unsuccessful. So here it is on Facebook, for all to read:

Alaska was great, the scenery the land tour, before the Cruise and the Excursions while on the Ship.

However there were problems while onboard. The Norovirus was prevalent in many persons onboard the ship both on its voyage from Vancouver to Seward and from Seward to Vancouver. A person infected norovirus experiences vomiting or diarrhea which can contaminate their environment directly or spread virus particles through aerosolized droplets when throwing up. Contamination may also occur in food and/or in water, which has led to infection spreading widely in restaurants or aboard cruise ships.

Our friends whom we traveled with were both sick for 3 days and Quarantined to their Cabin for 3 days. They were so weak they could not walk by themselves to the Dr. Office on board. The virus hit them fast and hard. Many others were sick also, as we found out in the elevators when talking with others who had been sick.

This caused precautions aboard such as no salt & pepper on the tables, no bread on tables, no creamers, no sweeteners etc. As a result the waiter’s had to do all of this and it resulted in poorer service and waiting for us. Also in the Buffet Dining areas, it took 5 minutes minimum to get a cup of coffee or water, after which your breakfast/lunch was cold. Then you could not find an empty table to sit down at to enjoy your food!!! We could not serve ourselves on the buffet and everything had to be done by gloved servers. This made for long backed up lines.

The constant sanitizing of hands and hand rails and even cabins did not halt the spread of the virus. I believe the customer’s should have been advised by more than a letter at check-in which most did not even pick up. More information should have been given out, or the whole ship should have been de contaminated Before the Cruse was allowed to continue. Compensation should be given to all those who were sick and confined to their Cabins for up to 3 days.

The food in the dining room was excellent, even though the service was longer than normal due to the precautions taken.

Thankfully we did not get sick and were able to enjoy the Cruise and beautiful scenery.

[seafood]

I was also on the cruise. Yes, it took longer to get food/drinks in the buffet because everything was being served, but, personally, I prefer it that way. I don't know how many times I witnessed people in the public restrooms leave without washing their hands. DH said he witnessed it also.

 

Another thing to consider is the use of the menu in the main dining room...lots and lots of use.

 

In my opinion, the crew handled the situation quite well; there's not much the can do to make people WASH THEIR HANDS!

[zoncom]

Seafood, Agree. I was once so fed up with ladies not washing their hands in crowded ship bathroom I screamed you people who dont wash are making me sick. I think its the older set who live by themselves and have gotten out of the habit at home since no one else is around. I only use the public baths on rare occasion to escape Noro and cold germs.

[Italy52]

I was also on the cruise. Yes, it took longer to get food/drinks in the buffet because everything was being served, but, personally, I prefer it that way. I don't know how many times I witnessed people in the public restrooms leave without washing their hands. DH said he witnessed it also.

 

Amen - couldn't agree with you more to both statements.

 

In my opinion, the crew handled the situation quite well; there's not much the can do to make people WASH THEIR HANDS!

 

Absolutely agree. The crew did an outstanding job of sanitizing. Poor things were so tired from all the extra work --- I really appreciated all their efforts on our behalf.

 

 

The constant sanitizing of hands and hand rails and even cabins did not halt the spread of the virus. I believe the customer’s should have been advised by more than a letter at check-in which most did not even pick up.

 

More information should have been given out, or the whole ship should have been de contaminated Before the Cruse was allowed to continue.

 

I was on the May 20th and May 27th cruise. The ship WAS decontaminated on May 27th prior to your boarding. In fact, those of us that were doing back-to-back cruises were asked to leave the ship the morning of the 27th so the decontamination could take place.

 

Compensation should be given to all those who were sick and confined to their Cabins for up to 3 days.

 

I respectfully disagree. Why blame the ship, the ship didn't spread the virus. There were cases where people boarded the ship with the virus and never reported it --- they are the responsible parties for spreading the virus. Also, one could have been exposed to the virus prior to boarding and not even know it. So, why should it be X's responsibility to compensate those that got sick and confined to their cabins. In my opinion, it's hard to determine the EXACT cause of the virus spreading. Medical care for the virus was provided freely by X if I remember correctly. I personally am satisfied that X did a good job of trying to prevent the spread of the virus and shouldn't be blamed. Perhaps loss of cruise days and cost of excursions can be compensated under one's cruise insurance????

 

Karen

[TWG_ag]

I have over a dozen X cruises and another dozen on other cruise lines. I believe most of the people who get sick do more to cause it than does the cruise line. Norovirus is everywhere. It is in hotels and resorts constantly, but because people come and go in short intervals, it is rarely tagged to them like it is on a cruise ship with its passengers capitive for a week. Cruise lines are actually the most active and accurate about reporting outbreaks. The virus is almost always brought onto the ship by passengers and the cruise lines suffer when their staff catches it. Interestingly the crews usually have a lower infection rate because they take the precautions of hand washing that the passengers ignore. I redouble my efforts when I am on board a cruise ship or in a hotel or resort to keep as safe as possible.

 

As for the request of compensation, nothing pi$$es me off more than people looking for a handout for their problem. Celebrity and every other major line I have been on pours tons of time and money into keeping these ships safe. The original poster did not get sick. I can assure you that Celebrity had a lot to do with that. Maybe you should pay them a premium for protecting you.

[happy cruzer]

CDC.gov has the best info about noro. It is entirely the fault of sick passengers not washing their hands and then a healthy person putting their infected hand to their mouth or nose. So the way to protect yourself is to not touch your face in case you touched a contaminated surface. The ship tries to decontaminate surfaces that sick passengers have touched.

 

Noro happens at schools, hotels, nursing homes, anywhere there are many people. And since it last 24 hours not much is done about it in those places unless the numbers get really high. AND no compensation is awarded.

 

Remember there is always some bug floating around like the flu or noro, it's a chance we all take everytime we go around others.