food poisening

[fishrfunky]

3/4/13 Thomson spirit day 3 food poisoning they called it nuro virus. totally wrecked our holls, saved up for ages and Thomson gave us nothing back for serving old rotten food, how do I know , well my better half is a professional chef, and knows all about food and what it can do to you, so once again thanks Thomson for giving nothing and taking everything, even my doctor said it was 90% chance food that was off, I work for a living and money is hard to come by and Thomson don't give a crap. well last time I use them and any of my friends that talk about going on a cruise I will strongly advise against Thomson.

[WeeCountyMan]

Did the ship's doctor diagnose Norovirus as the cause of the illness ?

 

Is that what's listed on his medical report for your travel insurance company ?

[Little Nell]

What a shame. What was the food that you think caused this?

[Keith1010]

Sorry about this.

 

Keith

[kalos]

Did the ship's doctor diagnose Norovirus as the cause of the illness ?

 

Is that what's listed on his medical report for your travel insurance company ?

 

You can bet your last penny the ships doctor will choose to diagnose Norovirus .

It is very hard to diagnose between the two as both are an infection of the stomach ,food poison and Noro have the same symptoms.

The ship will choose Noro as they are not liable for it if they take reasonable steps to prevent it ,as on the other hand food poisoning

they would be held responsible for the poor management and safety of your food .

Few insurance companys do cover Noro and some will only cover the confinement to your cabin if ordered to do so .

I will be swapping our insurance once expired to one that does cover this .

[WeeCountyMan]

Kalos,

 

I just wanted that confirmed before asking further.

 

Even if it were food poisoning, was there a port of call beforehand and did the unfortunate guest eat/drink anything ashore ?

 

Not defending Thomsons of course, but there may be other possibilities ?

[kalos]

Kalos,

 

I just wanted that confirmed before asking further.

 

Even if it were food poisoning, was there a port of call beforehand and did the unfortunate guest eat/drink anything ashore ?

 

Not defending Thomsons of course, but there may be other possibilities ?

 

No probs :) I was just pointing out how hard it is to get anywhere with Thomsons as Mrs Kalos has found out to her cost and i would advise anyone who has travel insurance to try to get one that covers this .;)

[Julessmiles]

3/4/13 Thomson spirit day 3 food poisoning they called it nuro virus. totally wrecked our holls, saved up for ages and Thomson gave us nothing back for serving old rotten food, how do I know , well my better half is a professional chef, and knows all about food and what it can do to you, so once again thanks Thomson for giving nothing and taking everything, even my doctor said it was 90% chance food that was off, I work for a living and money is hard to come by and Thomson don't give a crap. well last time I use them and any of my friends that talk about going on a cruise I will strongly advise against Thomson.

 

 

Sorry to hear this - if your husband is a chef & felt something was wrong with the food or food prep, why did he not report it at the time & why did you eat it?

[john_l]

3/4/13 Thomson spirit day 3 food poisoning they called it nuro virus. totally wrecked our holls, saved up for ages and Thomson gave us nothing back for serving old rotten food, how do I know , well my better half is a professional chef, and knows all about food and what it can do to you, so once again thanks Thomson for giving nothing and taking everything, even my doctor said it was 90% chance food that was off, I work for a living and money is hard to come by and Thomson don't give a crap. well last time I use them and any of my friends that talk about going on a cruise I will strongly advise against Thomson.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. It must be really upsetting to be ill on Holiday. Where you confined to your cabin?

 

I cannot comment on Thomson serving "old rotten food" on your cruise because I was not there but can only provided comments on the cruises I have personally been on that have covered most of the ships.

 

I have found Thomson’s standard of hygiene to be exceptional. Above and beyond what you would expect a clean and hygienic food establishment to be. They have hand sanitizers on the approach and exit of every venue where food is served. In addition, they also have members of staff strategically positioned to try to catch the holiday makers who are too lazy or selfish to use this facility. The only complaint I have regarding hygiene is related to these selfish individuals.

 

The staff are always cleaning night and day and correct food handling procedure are followed.

 

The food in both the buffet and main restaurants has been superb and I have never experienced one single occasion of rotten food being seen never mind served.

 

Despite all these measures I understand that because of the nature of the holiday with a lot of people in close proximity there are periodic outbreaks of the NoroVirus. I have been lucky enough not to experience this but I can well imagine that if I ever did then it would spoil my holiday and change my outlook.

 

I can understand your frustration and I hope that even if it has given you a bad opinion of Thomson then is hasn’t put you off cruising in general and your next cruise whoever it is with is a far better experience. Good luck.

[geomagot]

3/4/13 Thomson spirit day 3 food poisoning they called it nuro virus. totally wrecked our holls, saved up for ages and Thomson gave us nothing back for serving old rotten food, how do I know , well my better half is a professional chef, and knows all about food and what it can do to you, so once again thanks Thomson for giving nothing and taking everything, even my doctor said it was 90% chance food that was off, I work for a living and money is hard to come by and Thomson don't give a crap. well last time I use them and any of my friends that talk about going on a cruise I will strongly advise against Thomson.

 

oh dear all this illness being reported on cruise ships recently is filling me with dread as I am cruising soon:(

 

did you report the rotton food you were served? how long were you confined to your cabin?

 

norovirus has an incubation period of about 48 hours....you must have been infected as soon as you stepped on board?

[k8ti]

oh dear all this illness being reported on cruise ships recently is filling me with dread as I am cruising soon:(

 

did you report the rotton food you were served? how long were you confined to your cabin?

 

norovirus has an incubation period of about 48 hours....you must have been infected as soon as you stepped on board?

Boots has on a buy one get one half price a anti viral hand foam. I have just bought some for our cruise. A precaution I think worth the £4.75 spent today.

[Jim The Scot]

You can bet your last penny the ships doctor will choose to diagnose Norovirus .

It is very hard to diagnose between the two as both are an infection of the stomach ,food poison and Noro have the same symptoms.

The ship will choose Noro as they are not liable for it if they take reasonable steps to prevent it ,as on the other hand food poisoning

they would be held responsible for the poor management and safety of your food .

Few insurance companys do cover Noro and some will only cover the confinement to your cabin if ordered to do so .

I will be swapping our insurance once expired to one that does cover this .

 

Hi Kalos

 

No medical expert but thought with Novovirus the trots are accompanied with sickness where food poisoning not so much so and in the main just the trots,

 

Appears its not just the Dream suffering from this

[okavango]

i would imagine every cruise on every ship with every company will always have a few cases of a gastric bug, goes with the nature of the tens or hundreds of thousands of meals consumed on every ship every week, been the victim myself on a couple of occasions over the years but thats how the cookie crumbles, no point spitting out the dummy though,ok it takes the shine off but you just get on with life, not seen any other reports of any problems on Spirit so far this year, been on three weeks already this year and looking forward to going back for another two weeks of rotten food shortly.

even the top "proffessional" chefs have downed plenty folk over the years.

[Little Nell]

This has been ongoing on the Dream since April!

[kalos]

Hi Kalos

 

No medical expert but thought with Novovirus the trots are accompanied with sickness where food poisoning not so much so and in the main just the trots,

 

Appears its not just the Dream suffering from this

 

Nor am I Jim but our Doctor told us the symptoms can be the same as either way you ingest the virus/bacteria so people can think

its food poisoning when its Noro and the other way around, Noro when its food poisoning:confused:.

Most Doctors at this point would send you for a stool sample so even they can tell the difference .

As you say if you eat something and you get it mild then yes you could end up with just the "Trots" which sometimes could be down

to just a change in water, minerals etc .

I used to get them the minute I stepped off the plane in Spain years ago but over the years, either got imune or they got better with the hygiene:rolleyes: One thing for sure it was nothing like the Noro :(.

 

http://www.ehow.com/about_5375248_difference-stomach-virus-food-poisoning.html

[Malch_uk]

fishrfunky has not mentioned if others were affected, and if so, how many. If others not affected then unlikely to be anything served on the ship.

 

Not seen any other reports of problems on Spirit. Friends of ours were on the May 9th sailing and came back with glowing reports. They have booked for next year whilst on board, that's how good it was.

 

 

M.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

I have just read on FB that there is still sickness on the Dream. As we all know it is OUR FAULT and we are bringing it on :rolleyes::rolleyes: Last night I read a review that said it was on there in January, Kalos said he was told by one of the officers that there had been problems on the TA and everyone coming back has said there is still "some illness on the Dream" :(

 

So is there someone EVERY week taking it on and where is it coming from? I don't know of anyone who has it. I know I didn't have NV - it is a horrible debilatating illness and it is not over in a few hours as mine was.

 

Mine was food poisoning, I'm convinced of that. It could have been the fish which I think was undercooked (Should have complained I know:o) or it could be someone in the kitchen who is carrying a bug.

 

Some years ago we went to Blackpool for the lights. We stayed at Butlins Hotel. Some weeks before we went we heard there was illness there, but assumed it would be fine by the time we went. But no, people were going down like flies and we actually got it just as we got home. So someone dealing with the food I would say!

 

I called into the TA yesterday and one of the chaps in there had just come back from the Dream and had a great time. When I said we had been ill when we were on, he admitted there is still sickness on there and then said that it was the customers who brought it on board :rolleyes: Company policy I expect!

 

I agree with kalos about the diagnosis. Was anyone actually diagnosed with noro and did the captain ever ACTUALLY say it was noro - no he didn't. Just waffled on about NV type illnesses and GI illnesses.

 

Sorry to moan on about this, but Thomson must sort this out, possibly by taking ships out of service and deep cleaning them and also testing the staff for bugs. You can be a carrier without having any symptoms.

 

Rant over ;)

[trinitytrees]

a couple of years ago on fred olsen Boudicca within a couple of days people began to get sick with NV the amount of people in dining room got less and less, people confined to cabins, my husband and I did not get it, but I did get bad asthma attack due to the very strong smell from the chemicals, I couldn't sleep with coughing and needed steroids to get well again.

 

I thought it was one off, then discovered that NV been on several cruises before our, and it cont to be on the ship and has continued to be on the ship.

 

saw a programme on tv about it and they did demo using a dye to shown how far the bacteria spreads when someone projectile vomits. and how much work it takes to get rid of it.

 

it is one of the reasons we choose not to travel on Boudicca again. went on Balmoral last year and saw no sign of it, I hope they manage to clear the destiny.

[rookery]

I'm quite surprised as in my experience, The Spirit has always been the best managed of them all.

Equally I'm not in the least surprised to learn of the continuing sickness on the Dream. I remember once seeing a member of staff wipe the counter with a cloth, then wipe the used teaspoons with the same cloth then put the 'clean' spoons in the receptacle ready for new users.

[Jakanne1]

Well said, Linda.

When 2 people share a cabin and one is told by the doctor she has NV and the other one is ill a couple of days later and is told by the doctor that she does not have NV because her symptoms are less, then what can you believe?

The only way one can be certain is by testing and on a ship with so many passengers and crew it strikes me as impossible or is it? :eek::eek:

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Thanks Jackie and thanks for your "like" on FB. I shall probably be "struck off" now for criticising Thomson Staff ;)

[Little Nell]

Linda, I agree with you completely.

 

My sister, when she was 3 years old, was placed in an isolation hospital because they identified she was a carrier of dysentery. She had no symptoms but the village that we lived in had so many cases, they tested everyone and my sister was the carrier.

 

It is high time that Thomson investigated this thoroughly and found the root cause.

 

I also saw the programme that showed the area covered by projectile vomiting and with the amount of sickness there has been on the dream there is no way that one 3 hour cleaning session could deep clean a ship!!!

 

If this continues, I will cancel my cruise before the final instalment is due.

 

There is no reason to expect that things are going to improve now, despite the best efforts of the crew.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Thanks Nell. My mum's sister was a carrier of diphtheria may years ago and had to be isolated along with her friend who caught it and was very ill. She did recover, but my aunt had to spend a while in hospital, which must have been very boring for her as she was not ill :rolleyes:

[Little Nell]

This happened before I was born, Linda, but I remember my mum saying how hard it was having to sit the other side of a window when your little one was upset.

 

Incidentally, my sister had no childhood illnesses and I had them all, measles, German measles, chicken pox and mumps and we shared a bed!!!

 

So, she may be a carrier of more than diphtheria.

[Sheila49]

Re. the Captain talking about NV or GI illness, when we were on it was the

german Capt. (Olbricht?). He referred to it as "zee vinter vomiting virus"! I loved his daily stories.