Norovirus

[vacationlover_mn]

Just curious- do they do anything special for people who had flights scheduled this weekend?  Do they help finding a hotel?  Do they pay for hotel?

[boscobeans]

8 minutes ago, BEENSAILING said:

Wonder what they do with Casino chips?

EVERYTHING is included in the process.  A lot easier now that slots no longer use quarters.  I imagine even those quarter pushing machines get a spray as well... 

 

We spend a lot of time in the casino and are extremely careful and use sanitizer before touching anything and after as well. Will not play with chips and only on slots.

 

A warning about shaking hands is more than enough to keep us from passing chips back and forth, EVEN on a cruise where there is no warning.

Edited January 10, 2019 by boscobeans

[niceneasy]

Wondering just how many have been affected.  Missing 2 ports and heading back one day early sounds pretty serious.

 

Will be sailing her soon.  Hope she is ready for our cruise.

[John&LaLa]

26 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

John was nice and didn't post any CATS photos. 

 

I have some Frozen in Time pics still to come

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, BEENSAILING said:

Wonder what they do with Casino chips?

Casino chips, restaurant menus, and virtually everything, as I've said, hard or soft surface gets fogged.  Virkon is pretty nasty stuff, there is a certified person onboard for handling the concentrate, and the crew will use half-face respirators, disposable coveralls, gloves and booties when fogging.

[vacationlover_mn]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

Norovirus can be airborne via vomiting.

 

It is standard procedure for those who have reported GI illness, whether noro or not, to have their bed linen and towels placed in a biohazard bag that is water soluble, so that the entire bag can be thrown into the specially designated medical washing machine without the laundry crew having to touch the linen.  It is then washed at higher temperatures and with different chemical doses than the normal laundry.  And, yes, the cabin stewards cleaning these cabins will typically don disposable coveralls and a "dust type" mask.

 

Typical remediation methods used onboard are to "fog" with a Virkon solution over "every single available surface" whether hard or soft.  The fogging application works especially well on soft surfaces.  The cabin of a quarantined passenger will be fogged  after they leave.  Public areas are generally fogged every night, passageways, restaurants, theater, etc, etc.

 

We witnessed this at the all inclusive when DH had noro.  They fogged our room every day, wore special clothes, and put our linens in bags.  And, as soon as DH started feeling a little better (got sick Sunday, started feeling better Wednesday), they shipped us home first class for free per my request 🙂. They were happy to see us leave, I think. And, I was super glad to be out of that horrible quarantine!

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, boscobeans said:

Dishes, flatware, pots, pans, serving trays, platters and all glassware that is washed commercially with the normal temperature, time and sanitizing chemicals is more than enough to kill Noro. 

 

Yes, those buckets of "water" you see the crew using to wipe things down, are actually 100ppm chlorine solutions, and the supervisors have test strips to determine if the solution is still above 100ppm, or needs to be discarded.

 

Typically, galley food contact surfaces must be sanitized every hour with this solution.  Pots and pans are washed in a "three sink" method:  wash sink, rinse (160*F) sink, and sanitizing sink (100ppm chlorine solution).  Dishes and glassware typically do not use chemicals to sanitize, but must have final rinse water that is 185*F, and the dishware must reach a surface temperature of 160*F (we use little stick on temperature strips, like the ones you use on kid's foreheads).

 

All of this is mandated by the USPH, under the CDC's guidelines for sanitation to kill virtually any bacteria or virus.  

[Raycin]

We’re on board, I haven’t heard anything about a full refund. Where are people getting their information from? What I made of it is we’re getting refunded another day. I couldn’t hear the captain very well though so maybe I’m wrong??

[CruzNTammy3]

My adult daughter had norovirus on the last night of our Harmony cruise last January. I had extremely close contact with her, sharing a room and taking care of her during the illness, which was very severe. I washed my hands after touching anything and before eating and was very careful not to touch my mouth, nose, or eyes. I was surprised that I didn’t get it, too, since it’s highly contagious. Just shows you that it’s totally possible to not get it with the right sanitary precautions. Hope all infected get well soon! 

[chengkp75]

Actually, sneezing and coughing will not pass noro virus, it must come from the gastro-intestinal tract, so it can only become airborne via vomit droplets.

[Biker19]

54 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

 If it was me I’d be hiding in my cabin, happy to get off with good health. 

No, need to get out and get in Flowrider time. Even there some customers had an argument with the staff. The staff kept insisting that everyone in line hand down to the next rider the safety note. The customers refused saying they might be spreading the noro. The compromise was to mount the note on a stanchion at the entry of the ride.

[Oneluckywoman]

2 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Did you allow the cabin steward access to the cabin to service it or have you left a do not disturb sign out?  By not reporting your husband's sickness, the cabin steward will not know to put your linens and towels into hazmat bags to be cleaned with other infected laundry.  The cabin steward will not put on a hazmat suite to clean your cabin as they do with infected cabins.  Your cabin will not be on the list of cabins that need to be fogged prior to someone else occupying the infected cabin.

 

You also should be quarantined as you are touching surfaces that have been contaminated.

 

We were on a cruise with norovirus and every flat surface in our cabin was wiped down every day, because we were surrounded with quarantined cabins.  Our walls were washed daily, cabinets, desk, anything and everything that they could reach.  There was always a haze on mirrors and glass surfaces because the disinfectant needs to be left on the surface for a specific time for it to work.

 

We came away from that cruise without every getting norovirus because our cabin steward did the best to keep us healthy.

 

Report his illness for everyone's benefit.

Yes I did report to our cabin steward immediately.  Guess i should have made that clear.  I believe i said we did not report to a doctor because there isn't anything they can do....they are treating with over the counter meds, which i always bring when we are on vacation, just in case. If my husband's symptoms did not improve after the first night of symptoms, of course we would have taken advantage of the medical treatment offered.  It also seems to me that the staff should treat every cabin as if it's been infected, since no one can really be sure if they have been affected until they are actually sick.  If i were trying to HIDE it, I don't think I would be stupid enough to post on a public site!  I chose to post in order to inform others of what is going on.  Sheesh. Get off your judgemental horses. I'm out.  

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, Raycin said:

We’re on board, I haven’t heard anything about a full refund. Where are people getting their information from? What I made of it is we’re getting refunded another day. I couldn’t hear the captain very well though so maybe I’m wrong??

Both the Captain's announcement and CD mentioned it - detail will be in a letter later today.

[boscobeans]

9 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually, sneezing and coughing will not pass noro virus, it must come from the gastro-intestinal tract, so it can only become airborne via vomit droplets.

 I would like to know if anything was done to prove or disprove a study from Oct. 2016:

 

How is the stomach flu transmitted (norovirus and others)?

Annie Pryor, Ph.D. Sourced from http://www.stopthestomachflu.com/Home/how-is-the-stomach-flu-transmitted

The results show that all 6 family members had norovirus present in their saliva for 9-13 days after the vomiting STOPPED from norovirus!  2 of the family members who never had vomiting (only diarrhea) still had norovirus present in their saliva for 10 and 13 days!!! That is really, really upsetting. I could only find one research article that investigated this. Hopefully, more research will be done so we can be certain of how scared we need to be. Rotavirus has also been shown to be present in nasal secretions 2,3,4.  Therefore, people coughing and spitting when they talk can contribute to the spread of norovirus and rotavirus.

[Peeker28]

8 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Both the Captain's announcement and CD mentioned it - detail will be in a letter later today.

 

Biker, I hope you enjoy the rest of your sea days and don't get sick.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, boscobeans said:

 

We have experienced a late boarding due to extra sanitizing due to a NORO infection on the previous cruise a few times.

 

You will probably see a slight white residue on just about everything that you could possibly touch or come in contact with.

 

Dishes, flatware, pots, pans, serving trays, platters and all glassware that is washed commercially with the normal temperature, time and sanitizing chemicals is more than enough to kill Noro. 

 

I have seen staff with backpacks containing sanitizing solutions spraying all chairs in all venues. 

 

On two cruises the library had all books removed and the shelves were sprayed and the books held in quarantine. 

 

Pretty good compared to what airplanes, airports or hotels do to clean...

In Nov while on a B2B2B on Serenade and had same corner/Aft cabin 9256. Was interesting In middle on turn around day they took extra 2rs do Bio cleaning just in that Aft section deck 9. Even posted signson closed doors.  Room attendant said something about it couple days before but forgot to ask why & I just went up hung out in CL for a bit. Have done B2B when they did Deep Cleaning and they do Everything... Back in 1982 was Manager of a restaurant and got award for Top 25 in the County from the Heath Department. Though have to admit in Winter time in Michigan some days were lucky to have 6-10 customers last 5hrs in evening, on a Sunday ope-close maybe 25 orders with most Drive up window. So what do have employees do?...clean clean clean...

Edited January 10, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[megr1125]

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Why?

Why attach it to a 7 year old, vaguely titled thread. At first, I skipped right past this as it's 7 years old and called NOROVIRUS...nothing about this being on OA, nor current. I only found it by scrolling past and looking for a new thread. 🙄🙄

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, megr1125 said:

Why attach it to a 7 year old, vaguely titled thread.

Because I like to recycle and is the closest exiting thread I could find that fits the criteria. Lots of threads have vague titles.

[klfrodo]

1 hour ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Just curious- do they do anything special for people who had flights scheduled this weekend?  Do they help finding a hotel?  Do they pay for hotel?

 

 

Travel Insurance !!!!

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Just realized there wont be a Saturday matinee of CATS.  That's a bummer

Your the only one I know who would watch Cats 3 times on a cruise. Lol

[Teacher42]

Everyone is probably tracking it all over the ship on their shoes. They should saturate the carpeting, but are afraid of slipping accidents.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, Teacher42 said:

Everyone is probably tracking it all over the ship on their shoes. They should saturate the carpeting, but are afraid of slipping accidents.

Even if they were, it would require those shoes to touch something else, or your hands taking your shoes off and then touching something else for it to spread.  And, as I said a few posts back, the fogging works very well on soft surfaces, and the carpets in public spaces are being fogged every night.

[BEENSAILING]

1 hour ago, megr1125 said:

Why attach it to a 7 year old, vaguely titled thread. At first, I skipped right past this as it's 7 years old and called NOROVIRUS...nothing about this being on OA, nor current. I only found it by scrolling past and looking for a new thread. 🙄🙄

I posted separate on the Royal board specifically about Oasis a day or so ago when I first read something about many getting ill. A few hours later it was merged by an admin to this thread.

[HBE4]

2 hours ago, niceneasy said:

Wondering just how many have been affected.  Missing 2 ports and heading back one day early sounds pretty serious.

 

 

Same here. The last number mentioned was 2% which would be 120 passengers out of 6,000.  That's known cases. Double it for unreported cases and that's about 240 sick passengers and 5,750 healthy passengers.

 

I wonder what's the threshold to return early and offer a refund to so many people. Ive only skimmed the thread & I've seen a  mention of a full refund and OBC for port missed.

[itsmeagain]

John,  Did they say how they were going to handle the people with free cruises from the Casino offers?  Do they give you money or pay it back to the source that paid it?

 

Hopefully you don’t catch it.