Healthy Cruises...

[travel09]

In slight despair I am actually wondering if there is ever a "healthy"cruise, it seems.. sadly ..that transporting large groups of people,having to live in close proximity, is always going to be fraught with problems of illness, either respiratory or gastric,whatever the weather, or climate time of year... Every precaution taken, there are always the dreaded outbreaks of illness... Could it be air conditioning,is there a way to sanitize the working of this, as in aircraft, which I suspect does not work either, are there rules of cleaning filters, or are there even filters.??? I think of all the things involved with cruising this has to be one of the most frustrating, and maybe only downside to the whole experience..I know some of the problem is the basics, of almost childhood taught manners, like covering ones mouth while coughing etc, and the simple horror of seeing grown men blowing their noses on serviettes, so cant really see ways around the basic human decency issues...but look forward to others thoughts...or helpful hints.!

[sail7seas]

We have had about 80+ cruises and have come home with URI maybe four or five times. That is not an excessive amount of colds to get any season, anywhere. IMO

 

Out of all our cruising, I had Noro like virus one time and DH never.

 

Use your normal healthy habits and there's no reason to expect to become ill anymore on a ship than you would from being in a crowded enclosed space anywhere including schools, dorms, hotels, movie theaters and airplanes (particularly).

[1of4]

The most important thing people can do to stay healthy is to wash their hands...but there are still some that refuse.:eek: Working in this area for over 20 years I though I had heard it all untill I walked into my own family room where the TV was on one of the Entertainment Tonight shows (don't know if it was the original or the Canadian version) and there was some Hollywood starlet stating that she never washes her hands after using the bathroom...why....because she said the faucets and door handles were too germy!:mad: I guess she never heard of turning the faucet off with the papertowel AFTER she dried her hands.

 

The air conditioning systems are much improved over the last couple of decades and they are no longer the source of bacteria as they once were (think Legionares (sp?) disease).

 

As one co-worker says over and over...there is no cure for stupid....

[Krazy Kruizers]

We try to take precautions when we cruise -- just like when we go to a restaurant here at home -- fly, etc.

Washing your hands and practicing good hygene is very important.

When we leave the ship to do tours or just walk around -- I have a tiny bottle of Purell in the back pack as many restrooms often do not have soap.

[sail7seas]

I like the individually wrapped hand wipes better than the bottles. The outside of the bottles get dirty and after cleaning your hands, your left holding the dirty bottle. I always tuck a handful of the wipes in my purse.

 

I also have the larger size wipes I use on airplanes. I wipe our arm rests and the controls for the tv's and tray tables.

 

[PathfinderEss]

In slight despair I am actually wondering if there is ever a "healthy"cruise, it seems.. sadly ..that transporting large groups of people,having to live in close proximity, is always going to be fraught with problems of illness, either respiratory or gastric,whatever the weather, or climate time of year... Every precaution taken, there are always the dreaded outbreaks of illness... Could it be air conditioning,is there a way to sanitize the working of this, as in aircraft, which I suspect does not work either, are there rules of cleaning filters, or are there even filters.??? I think of all the things involved with cruising this has to be one of the most frustrating, and maybe only downside to the whole experience..I know some of the problem is the basics, of almost childhood taught manners, like covering ones mouth while coughing etc, and the simple horror of seeing grown men blowing their noses on serviettes, so cant really see ways around the basic human decency issues...but look forward to others thoughts...or helpful hints.!

As other CCer's have said, wash your hands and take your Purell with you. That's about all you can do. We have never caught or brought home Noro virus, but colds, you betcha!

[Roz]

Even before I started cruising, I would get sick after flying during the winter. A lot of people fly to cruise ports, so I think airplanes are the source of some of the illness people bring onboad.

 

Roz

[sail7seas]

Even before I started cruising, I would get sick after flying during the winter. A lot of people fly to cruise ports, so I think airplanes are the source of some of the illness people bring onboad.

 

Roz

 

 

 

I agree

One person sneezes or coughs on a plane, doesn't cover their face and everyone gets sick. :(

[Mary Ellen]

Even worse is when someone covers their mouth with their had when they cough/sneeze. :eek: :eek: :eek: Then everything they touch (until they finally wash their hands) is contaminated. Good grief people, sneeze into your shoulder or the inside of your elbow. These are parts of your body that don't normally come into contact with other people or things they touch.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I like the individually wrapped hand wipes better than the bottles. The outside of the bottles get dirty and after cleaning your hands, your left holding the dirty bottle. I always tuck a handful of the wipes in my purse.

 

I also have the larger size wipes I use on airplanes. I wipe our arm rests and the controls for the tv's and tray tables.

 

 

The wipes are much better. Hand sanitizers are antibacterial, but not antiviral. So with Purell, you just push the viruses around on your skin. With the wipes, you can get dirt, bacteria, and germs off your skin and onto the wipe.

 

I think one reason that people catch colds so easily on airplanes is the dry air. It makes your nasal passages dry out and become more vulnerable to infection. I always travel with a clean cotton handkerchief and bottled water. I moisten the handkerchief and hold it to my nose and inhale the moist air. I don't do this the whole flight, just now and then. And (knock wood!) it has stopped my habit of catching colds when I fly. On some flights it's amazing how quickly the handkerchief dries out because of the dry air.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Even worse is when someone covers their mouth with their had when they cough/sneeze. :eek: :eek: :eek: Then everything they touch (until they finally wash their hands) is contaminated. Good grief people, sneeze into your shoulder or the inside of your elbow. These are parts of your body that don't normally come into contact with other people or things they touch.

 

I think the sneeze-into-the-elbow thing is taught to every kid who goes to daycare, nursery school, etc. The littlest kids all know to sneeze into their arms, while their parents are still sneezing into their hands.

[sail7seas]

The wipes are much better. Hand sanitizers are antibacterial, but not antiviral. So with Purell, you just push the viruses around on your skin. With the wipes, you can get dirt, bacteria, and germs off your skin and onto the wipe.

 

I think one reason that people catch colds so easily on airplanes is the dry air. It makes your nasal passages dry out and become more vulnerable to infection. I always travel with a clean cotton handkerchief and bottled water. I moisten the handkerchief and hold it to my nose and inhale the moist air. I don't do this the whole flight, just now and then. And (knock wood!) it has stopped my habit of catching colds when I fly. On some flights it's amazing how quickly the handkerchief dries out because of the dry air.

 

 

A doctor friend once told us to spread a dab of neo-sporin inside each nostril when we fly. The antibacterial in the moistness of the ointment seems to protect from the spread of those nasty germs.

 

[arewethereyet]

The wipes are much better. Hand sanitizers are antibacterial, but not antiviral. So with Purell, you just push the viruses around on your skin. With the wipes, you can get dirt, bacteria, and germs off your skin and onto the wipe.

 

I think one reason that people catch colds so easily on airplanes is the dry air. It makes your nasal passages dry out and become more vulnerable to infection. I always travel with a clean cotton handkerchief and bottled water. I moisten the handkerchief and hold it to my nose and inhale the moist air. I don't do this the whole flight, just now and then. And (knock wood!) it has stopped my habit of catching colds when I fly. On some flights it's amazing how quickly the handkerchief dries out because of the dry air.

May I ask where you get wipes that kill viruses? I'm talking about wipes to use on your skin.

[arewethereyet]

I think the sneeze-into-the-elbow thing is taught to every kid who goes to daycare, nursery school, etc. The littlest kids all know to sneeze into their arms, while their parents are still sneezing into their hands.

 

LOL, so are the cashiers at the grocery store.

[3rdGenCunarder]

May I ask where you get wipes that kill viruses? I'm talking about wipes to use on your skin.

 

Sorry if what I wrote was misleading. The wipes don't kill viruses, but at least they take some of them off the skin.The liquid sanitizers don't provide a "destination" for the viruses.

[arewethereyet]

Sorry if what I wrote was misleading. The wipes don't kill viruses, but at least they take some of them off the skin.The liquid sanitizers don't provide a "destination" for the viruses.

Ah, I thought I was missing out on an important product. But, yeah, I see your point.

[renne]

And I thought the discussion here would be about food!!!

That just shows you where my mind is at!

[bcd2010]

...I have a tiny bottle of Purell in the back pack ...

 

On the Statendam in March (code red for 26 of 28 days) they gave us all little bottles of Purell the night before port calls. The problem is, even if they clean the ship extensively (they DID), and even if they get everyone observing all the preventative measures (which they DID NOT because pax just won't cooperate), when people get back on board they bring the virus with them again because it's "everywhere".

[vjblk]

A doctor friend once told us to spread a dab of neo-sporin inside each nostril when we fly. The antibacterial in the moistness of the ointment seems to protect from the spread of those nasty germs.

 

 

I had read about keeping the nasal passages moist when flying so I have a saline nasal gel that I put inside each nostril. It does help. Haven't caught a cold from flying lately(knock on wood). And before I started doing this it seemed I always caught a cold after flying home after a trip.

[Typhoon1]

The best advice is to wash your hands with soap and water EVERY time you return to your cabin.

[sail7seas]

If you make the habit of always washing your hands each time you enter your home, the habit will carry over to the ship.

 

I never enter our door without going immediately to the sink..... especially when I've just come from the grocery store. :eek:

 

[DFD1]

We're very careful about washing our hands. We use Airborne when we fly or cruise. Thus far, in over 50 years of cruising, we've never gotten sick on board.

 

Traveling by land in some countries is another story. We've gotten sick two or three times either during or just after land trips. Mostly, this happened 25 or 30 years ago. Many countries have modernized their food and water supply so that it is less of a problem now.

 

Still, you can't be too careful, either cruising, flying or overland.

[Taxguy77]

Anoyhrt thing to remember, don't overdo. Some people drink ocasionally at home but quite a lot on ship. Go to bed at 10 or 11 at home but after midnite buffet. Eat 1800 calories at home but 2800 on board.

[SwissMyst]

I hope you can read the book "Achoo" to make sure you are worried about the right things. What we think are the obvious transmission routes, in fact are not. It is the inadvertent things we do to ourselves that gets most of those bugs into ourown bodies.

 

Main thing is do not touch your mouth, nose or eyes with your hands and wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. We were recently on a ship that had a lot of upper respiratory coughing and we really watched what we were doing with our fingertips and what we were touching.

 

Both of us came through fine and the air was always filled with coughing. We were not so lucky the last time we were on this same ship which had the exact same problem,s so this time we made sure we watched where we were putting our fingers.

 

If one worries about rare transmission routes while overlooking the obvious -- self-innoculation -- then it can make for an unhappy result on all counts - worrying when one does not need to and ignoring where one can make the most difference.

 

This book "Achoo" tells it straight and lets you know the high level of research that has been going on in this area ...right under our noses.

[SwissMyst]

Even worse is when someone covers their mouth with their had when they cough/sneeze. :eek: :eek: :eek: Then everything they touch (until they finally wash their hands) is contaminated. Good grief people, sneeze into your shoulder or the inside of your elbow. These are parts of your body that don't normally come into contact with other people or things they touch.

 

Keep in mind there is still the missing part in this contamination equation. Even if one touches a carelessly contaminated surface, one still has to stick their own fingers into their own nose, mouth and/or eyes.

 

The whole chain of contamination needs attention because the bugs on the stair falling or the bathroom door cannot walk up your fingers and into your own nasal passages, mouth or eyes.

 

Only you can put these bugs from the stair railing (etc) into your own eyes, nose or mouth. Watch what your own hands are doing more than what someone is doing or not doing with their elbows.