What is the longest time Noro has been on board?

[avalon007]

In the Australia & NZ forum there is a thread about the Noro currently on Voyager of the Seas.

 

Passenger reports have her arriving with it on her maiden season in Australia at the start of November after cruising in Asia.

 

Current reports from those onboard now is that it is still active onboard & it's approaching the 2 month mark.

 

It will be her 4th cruise leaving from Sydney tomorrow since arriving in Australia (not including a 1 night sampler cruise).

 

Does anyone know what the longest continuing Noro problem has been ona RCCL ship & at what stage do they take a ship out of service for a day or so to do a full mega clean, as per what has occurred on other 'sick' ships like the one mentioned in this CC article??

 

Quote:

 

Back in the fall of 2002, Holland America couldn't break the cycle after four cruises on Amsterdam despite enhanced cleaning; it took the ship out of commission and embarked on an ambitious program. This included sanitizing television remote controls and bibles, disinfecting poker chips and currency, discarding every pillow -- more than 2,500 -- and steam cleaning carpets. The end result? Amsterdam's follow-up cruise was, thankfully, Norovirus-free.

 

We are sailing on VOS in 5 weeks & would like to hope RCCL have it under control by then.:(

[joejoe 59]

Will be interested to see what happens here. It has been going on a bit to long :eek: I bet the staff are so over all the extra work.:mad:

[Dave from below]

It's always there, the question is will you get it. I doubt there was ever a cruise where no one got ill even for just a day.

Stay away from the buffets.

[Prada Cowboy]

The NORO Virus is on every ship all the time! It is just how high the percentage is of sick passengers and crew!

[setsail]

2 months 3days 7hours 23 minutes and 6 seconds.

[avalon007]

Well, maybe I should clarify & say how long do they let the ship cruise with repeated large numbers of Noro affected passengers before they take additional measures, like they did on the HAL ship in the CC article I mentioned in my first post?

 

Sure it's everywhere in every environment, all the time, just as many viruses are etc, but there comes a time when it escalates & is considered to be getting out of control.

 

Like the flu, if enough people are getting it at once it becomes a pandemic.:eek:

[fishtaco]

The NORO Virus is on every ship all the time! It is just how high the percentage is of sick passengers and crew!

 

 

If its there all the time as you say then at what point do they take drastic measures to lesson its percentage?

 

VOS has had no self serve buffet allowed for extended periods on all of its Australian/Asian season cruises since early November.

 

Personally you cannot discount the introduction of the less experienced new staff drafted on-board to cater for the Chinese language barrier on the upcoming Asian cruises!

 

Nothing to do with the staffs demographic at all but more to do with perhaps the inexperience of them dealing with a ship of this size and passenger capacity?

 

Den

[fishtaco]

It's always there, the question is will you get it. I doubt there was ever a cruise where no one got ill even for just a day.

Stay away from the buffets.

 

So you are used to Noro being present on all the cruises you have been on and thus Buffets being non self serve for extended periods?

 

I have not yet cruised on a ship with Buffet restrictions and passenger lock downs due to Noro but if I did I would expect the problem to be resolved quicker than 2 months.

 

 

Den

[Kaboochi]

The NORO Virus is on every ship all the time! It is just how high the percentage is of sick passengers and crew!

 

And you are basing this on what facts? Please report back with the stats: what ships, which dates, and how many passengers affected by the virus. You are alarming upcoming cruisers without substantial facts. Facts will help all of us decide to cruise this winter or cancel. Can't wait to hear back from you:)

[cb at sea]

Tis the "noro" season, after all! It runs from the time school starts until spring, generally speaking.

[avalon007]

But VOS is currently in the Southern hemisphere, which is our Spring/Summer here in Asia/Australia not the normal Noro season.

 

So maybe it was passengers from a Northern Hemisphere country that boarded in Singapore that brought the latest outbreak onboard to start?

I guess we will never know.

 

I think though Royal needs to close the ship down for a day now & do the deep clean or whatever they need to do to break the cycle, since every cruise on VOS since leaving Singapore in October has been a Noro outbreak cruise with the windjammer constantly being no self serve etc, the poor staff probably need a day off as well!

[fishtaco]

But VOS is currently in the Southern hemisphere, which is our Spring/Summer here in Asia/Australia not the normal Noro season.

 

So maybe it was passengers from a Northern Hemisphere country that boarded in Singapore that brought the latest outbreak onboard to start?

I guess we will never know.

 

I think though Royal needs to close the ship down for a day now & do the deep clean or whatever they need to do to break the cycle, since every cruise on VOS since leaving Singapore in October has been a Noro outbreak cruise with the windjammer constantly being no self serve etc, the poor staff probably need a day off as well!

 

 

Wait until it gets back to Perth, 40c on Christmas day (Well over the 100 mark for USA people) The high temps nearly kill the population so Noro wont stand a chance if its a cold weather virus :D

 

Den

[avalon007]

Wait until it gets back to Perth, 40c on Christmas day (Well over the 100 mark for USA people) The high temps nearly kill the population so Noro wont stand a chance if its a cold weather virus :D

 

Den

 

 

LOL - Maybe the answer to Noro is more Radiance class ships with all that glass allowing more sunshine inside, I have read that it dies in sunlight. :)

 

But it apparantly lasts for up to 5 days on surfaces in cooler temps (like air conditioned ships) & up to a year in bottled water stored in a dark place! :eek:

[lady_cruiser]

We took a B2B on the Navigator this December 1, 2012 and Decembaer 8, 2012. The sailing before ours had a "small percentage" of passengers that experienced the Norovirus. Our first sailing (December 1st) had 20 people ill with the virus and there was one (1) during our second week.

 

We haven't heard if anyone was affected this past week.