Why Always Princess Ships Have Norovirus and not RCCL?

[gemz]

I went on a website on Ship Inspection and found that over and over again the ships that have norovirus and other outbreaks tend to be Princess ships and very very rare to find a Royal Caribbean ship. Now why is that? What is Royal doing right and Princess doing wrong?

[Charles4515]

I went on a website on Ship Inspection and found that over and over again the ships that have norovirus and other outbreaks tend to be Princess ships and very very rare to find a Royal Caribbean ship. Now why is that? What is Royal doing right and Princess doing wrong?

 

There was a large outbreak reported in the last few days on RCIs Vision of the Seas. Also there was a recent outbreak on Celebrity Equinox. I think the outbreaks occur on all the cruise lines without one being more than the other.

[easy_123]

I went on a website on Ship Inspection.....

 

What website would this be?

[A1A]

I went on a website on Ship Inspection and found that over and over again the ships that have norovirus and other outbreaks tend to be Princess ships and very very rare to find a Royal Caribbean ship. Now why is that? What is Royal doing right and Princess doing wrong?

 

Are you trying to invoke a conversation and do you have facts to support your generalization? If you have facts to present we can discuss it intellectually!

[billco]

Outbreak Updates for International Cruise Ships

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

[robgvic]

http://news.sky.com/story/1062270/norovirus-outbreak-strikes-us-cruise-ship

[gemz]

If you look at 2012, you will see the number of Princess ships vs RCCL.

[Cruise Junky]

Passenger demographic might have something to do with it. I don't think it's a case of one line doing something right or wrong.

[billco]

To be fair and to get a bigger picture, one might also look at the CDC inspection reports. Princess scored quite high last year,

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionSearch.aspx

 

Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises 9/22/2012 99

Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises 1/22/2012 100

Coral Princess Princess Cruises 7/16/2012 100

Coral Princess Princess Cruises 1/17/2012 98

Crown Princess Princess Cruises 4/21/2012 99

Dawn Princess Princess Cruises 4/27/2012 97

Diamond Princess Princess Cruises 8/25/2012 100

Diamond Princess Princess Cruises 5/24/2012 100

Emerald Princess Princess Cruises 10/18/2012 100

Emerald Princess Princess Cruises 4/26/2012 92

Golden Princess Princess Cruises 4/25/2012 98

Grand Princess Princess Cruises 3/31/2012 99

Island Princess Princess Cruises 5/26/2012 96

Ocean Princess Princess Cruises 2/15/2012 96

Pacific Princess Princess Cruises 2/3/2012 95

Ruby Princess Princess Cruises 11/4/2012 99

Ruby Princess Princess Cruises 3/22/2012 97

Sapphire Princess Princess Cruises 6/26/2012 98

Sea Princess Princess Cruises 9/5/2012 98

Sea Princess Princess Cruises 5/27/2012 99

Star Princess Princess Cruises 8/1/2012 93

Star Princess Princess Cruises 4/20/2012 100

[gemz]

Initially I thought demograhics because RCCL passengers tend to be younger and possibly have a better immune system but take Holland America for example. I'm pretty sure the average age of their passengers would surpass the average of age of the Princess passenger.

However, what I do know is that RCCL staff stands at every dining entrance and squirts hand santizer on every passenger prior to eating. Not sure whether that helps or not.

Could partial blame be on the staff? Not sure. Just curious when I saw the numbers for 2012.

[billco]

Initially I thought demograhics because RCCL passengers tend to be younger and possibly have a better immune system but take Holland America for example. I'm pretty sure the average age of their passengers would surpass the average of age of the Princess passenger.

However, what I do know is that RCCL staff stands at every dining entrance and squirts hand santizer on every passenger prior to eating. Not sure whether that helps or not.

Could partial blame be on the staff? Not sure. Just curious when I saw the numbers for 2012.

Frequent hand washing is the best preventer. It has been shown that hand sanitizers are ineffective.

 

There is a lot of good information on the CDC website.

 

But to sum it up:

 

Why noroviruses are associated with cruise ships

 

Health officials track illness on cruise ships. So outbreaks are found and reported more quickly on a cruise ship than on land.

Close living quarters may increase the amount of group contact.

New passenger arrivals may bring the virus to other passengers and crew.

[jerwick]

There was an otbreak on Crown Princess in Dec 2012 transatlantic. Did not see on CDC report. All incidents are not necessarily reported out of the USA.

[rkmw]

Initially I thought demograhics because RCCL passengers tend to be younger and possibly have a better immune system but take Holland America for example. I'm pretty sure the average age of their passengers would surpass the average of age of the Princess passenger.

However, what I do know is that RCCL staff stands at every dining entrance and squirts hand santizer on every passenger prior to eating. Not sure whether that helps or not.

Could partial blame be on the staff? Not sure. Just curious when I saw the numbers for 2012.

 

when the Voyager of the seas came to Australia last november it had a bad dose of noro but i think it got cleaned up in a matter of weeks

 

we have cruised on p&o australia a lot and they squirt the hand sanitizer on everyone prior to eating to and to my knowledge i dont think they have had a case of noro onboard

[DShock]

You can't be serious? You honestly think Noro is prevalent on Princess but not on RCCL? Really? Wow

[Pam in CA]

Hand sanitizer helps with bacterial infection but does little or nothing to prevent Norovirus. I've been on Princess ships where everyone was forced to use hand sanitizer in both the buffet and the dining room and some where it wasn't enforced. No real difference in Noro that was reported. HAL's buffet has staff-only food service in the buffet for the first 48 hours after boarding which I think helps.

 

There are many reasons why and how a Norovirus outbreak can happen. Sometimes, it's brought onboard after a day in port. Sometimes there are people who feel it's their cruise and no one is going to tell them to stay in their cabin. It probably takes only one or two idiots to spread the virus.

 

Why are there more outbreaks on Princess than other lines? It could be a combination of reasons. Ports, passengers, number of passengers affected, etc. I don't think it's related to whether hand sanitizer is used more on one than another.

[DrivesLikeMario]

I used to think the same thing until I started looking. LOTS of RCI ships have had Noro lately - and when they get it, it's bad because they generally carry a lot more passengers.

 

I will say that we encountered some of the most stringent hand sanitizer wardens on RCI though. Seriously, they would not let you anywhere near the buffet unless they personally squirted you with that liquid stuff. They would yell at passengers and chase them down until they had them sanitized. It's amazing how lax they are on other cruise lines compared to what we've seen on RCI.

[RickEk]

I think that one thing that should be considered is that noro cases are only reported when they involve 3% or more of the crew/passengers. Many of RCI's ships hold more passengers than Princess' largest ships and could therefore have more noro cases onboard, but wouldn't be reported because they didn't hit the magic 3% threshold.

[jrzebird]

I'd like to point out what others have said but many seem to ignore .. hand sanitizers kill most bacteria. Noro is called noroVIRUS because it's a virus, not a bacteria. There is no connection between the two, they are treated or prevented by totally different means. The only really effective way to keep it in check is to wash your hands with very warm soap and water every time you touch something, use the bathroom and before you put your hands to your face, eyes, nose or mouth. We all feel better when we stick our hands under the machine or reach out to the staff member handing out hand sanitizers, but that isn't going to stop noro.

 

The only time I was on a ship with Noro was on HAL. Most outbreaks start when the virus is brought on board from a plane, hotel, school, hospital, etc. It doesn't mean that the ship is dirty or sick, or one line cares less about the health of the passengers because it has 3 more outbreaks than another line.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I was on the Emerald Princess Christmas cruise that went Code Red. They kept up those restrictions halfway through the next cruise too, then we didn't have an another issue into March. Many of us believed the culprit to be either contractors who were on for the dry dock or crew that were given time off and perhaps ate and drank in places in Freeport that weren't observing the cleanest standards. The ship returned from dry dock and almost immediately we had issues.

 

Saying that, DH and I, as well as over 4500 people managed to stay well, And I did it without using one drop of sanitizer. We simply washed constantly and then ate nothing with our fingers.

[pcsunlover]

I went on a website on Ship Inspection and found that over and over again the ships that have norovirus and other outbreaks tend to be Princess ships and very very rare to find a Royal Caribbean ship. Now why is that? What is Royal doing right and Princess doing wrong?

 

I've been on 4 Princess cruises and 1 Royal Caribbean cruise in the last 6 years, The only time I contracted Noro was on the Royal cruise (Radiance of the Sea). The cruise before ours was so bad that everyone on our cruise had to sign paperwork acknowledging that we were cruising at our own risk.

[Belle]

But only have to report it if

it's over a certain number.

 

Also if ship has it..doesn't mean

you'll get it.

WASH YOUR HANDS OFTEN!

[Josy1953]

Hand sanitizer helps with bacterial infection but does little or nothing to prevent Norovirus. I've been on Princess ships where everyone was forced to use hand sanitizer in both the buffet and the dining room and some where it wasn't enforced. No real difference in Noro that was reported. HAL's buffet has staff-only food service in the buffet for the first 48 hours after boarding which I think helps.

 

There are many reasons why and how a Norovirus outbreak can happen. Sometimes, it's brought onboard after a day in port. Sometimes there are people who feel it's their cruise and no one is going to tell them to stay in their cabin. It probably takes only one or two idiots to spread the virus.

 

Why are there more outbreaks on Princess than other lines? It could be a combination of reasons. Ports, passengers, number of passengers affected, etc. I don't think it's related to whether hand sanitizer is used more on one than another.

 

I totally agree with everything that you say Pam.

 

The only thing that I would add is that I have noticed that on Princess for some unknown reason there seems to be more passengers in the buffet who feel that it is acceptable to pick up items with their fingers and then change their minds and return the said items to the service plates. This said I can only compare Princess with Cunard and P&O because these are the only lines that we have travelled with. My personal solution to the problem is to avoid the buffet as much as possible and if I have to use it then I only take items that are unlikely to be touched by human hands, soup, and other hot items only. I was very disappointed when Princess decided to close the MDR at lunch time in port because I can no longer go to the MDR so I find that if I am on a ship the the great Alfredos pizza I eat pizza on every port day just to avoid the buffet.

[Dorset Cruiser]

We have cruised on many Princess ships but have also been on a few Royal Caribbean ships and one thing we have both commented on is that on Royal Caribbean you can always see crew members cleaning in the public areas. Not so, in our experience, on many Princess ships. Perhaps this helps. I am with those who caution 'wash, wash, wash' your hands at every opportunity and we also use the handwashes, although not sure how effective they can be against a virus! Just returned from P&O Aurora WC sector which had a bad outbreak of noro, which the ship appeared to put down to passengers bringing on board from a Mexican port, but who knows! In 30 cruises, we have never been afflicted with noro, although many of the ships were affected, to one degree or another, at the time.

[WVBill]

I have no scientific evidence for this but it seems to me that the most likely vecors for NoroVirus are the buffet, handrails/elevator buttons and MDR Menus - things other people touch a lot.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think NoroVirus is airborne - you have to orally ingest it.

 

We avoid the buffet "like the plague". We grasp handrails with our elbows and push elevator buttons with our knuckles, and we use hand sanitizer after reading menus and before eating/drinking and then wipe them off on a napkin which we don't touch again. And we wash hands, wash hands, wash hands.

 

The rest is "out of our hands...." :rolleyes:

[2BeOnaBoat]

Hand Sanitizer and Hand Washing are equally as effective/ineffective as each other. If you don't properly wash your hands - hot enough water, enough time scrubbing etc., then all washing does is create an inhospitable environment for the virus. Ditto, hand sanitizer. It isn't about KILLING the virus so much as stopping it from taking root.

 

Hopefully the goop the want us to use at the buffet is of these brands...

 

http://www.stopthestomachflu.com/Home/which-hand-sanitizers-kill-stomach-flu-viruses

 

On my last Princess cruise there was always someone wiping down hand rails. But again they too may just making it inhospitable for the little viruses. :eek: