Influenza on Princess getting worse?

[Loreni]

This thread reminded me of the cruise in May 2011 where my entire family came down with the flu from a tablemate (shots were totally the wrong match that year). It has made us sit down and think long and hard about canceling our 28 day Hawaii/Tahiti/Samoa cruise on Princess. I sure as heck don't want to be sick and since the demographic will be that of the non-hand washers, I am thinking we will pass. Not so sure I want to pay over $16,000 for the trip anyway. To get sick onboard would be the pits.

 

We were lucky to go on this cruise twice. Both times my flu started the day we left Papeete, so I was able to fully enjoy all ports. I loved both cruises anyway, even though I was sick for several months after the first one. If this could be your only chance to see Tahiti, give it careful thought. It is still probably healthier than a long flight to Tahiti where blood clots could happen as well as flu.

 

If you will have a balcony, you might try bringing a beach ball and partially inflating it for a foot rest. I just learned today that Coleman sells a portable light-weight "event stool" that those on Celebrity are using a footrest. I don't know if either of these ideas would work for us, because we both find the chairs themselves tilt in the wrong direction, but it does work for some people. Then perhaps "cocoon" in your cabin, enjoy room service, eat at the specialty restaurants, and skip the shows. This would limit your exposure to crowds. Also, it might be an idea to time-shift your schedule as many of the older passengers are early-to-bed, early-to-rise types.

 

Some have suggested wearing a mask. I did not realize that there was any evidence supporting their effectiveness, but now I see that there is. I would gladly wear one rather than miss Tahiti.

[blondee419]

So, I usually get sick when I go on vacation (I'm 37). I sometimes wonder if it's because when i'm working, I'm powering through and I don't allow myself to get sick. When I'm on vacation, I'm relaxed, I don't have to be at work ALL THE TIME. I'm also around strangers, in an enclosed space, when I'm on an airplane or on a cruise ship.

 

I'm currently suffering from "Con Crud" from the recent pop culture/comic con that I attended this past weekend. And I was using hand sanitizer and washing my hands frequently and regularly, I used allergy eye drops and nasal spray in addition to my daily pill to avoid touching my face, and I took off an extra day after coming home to let my body rest. But there were 77,000+ people at the con, so of course I'm going to get breathed on and not realize it!

 

There is a balance between being TOO sterile (and thus not having as much immunity to the general population) and being gross and all Typhoid Mary in a crowd. It is this reason I avoid buffets and get very irritated when sick people insist on gracing the rest of us with their presence (I do send employees home if they're sick. It's not worth it).

 

Hope you stay well on your next journey!

[northcalgal]

No offense taken. It does sound like your crew took it over the top. Infection control has gotten bigger because the State and Feds penalized facilities ( non payment for hosp. Visits ect.)

 

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[Lucky TGO]

We have been on 10 Princess cruises totaling 159 days and neither of us has gotten the flu even once.

 

Lucky you!! I hope you didn't Jinx yourself. :eek:

Tony

[Kingofcool1947]

I read an article a while back on handwashing and while part of the issue is because its the same group of people in a semi-enclosed environment for several days of time (unlike a hotel), the other part spoke to demographic differences.

 

The study found that about 60% of people age college age and younger washed their hands, where as only 38% of folks older than college age washed their hands. If you think about the average demographic age of a cruise, you can draw some parallels there. Additionally, when a ship rolls into port with 8% of passengers sick, usually only a fraction of the crew is sick which is interesting given that the crew is in much closer quarters, usually working on less sleep, and drinking quite a bit, all of which are attributes that should increase their likelihood of being sick. I have heard they can be reprimanded severely for not washing their hands after using the restroom or before touching food which may motivate them to practice better hygeine and keep their infection levels around 1 or 2% when there is a full blown outbreak among passengers.

 

So while I'm sure everyone on here washes their hands regularly on board, if you see someone who doesn't, please remind them to - it might keep you from getting sick later in the trip!

 

 

 

 

 

So, just wondering, how many of you people verbally confront those PAX who cough and don't cover, or those PAX you see that used the restroom facilities who didn't wash their hands after "doing their thing #1 or #2"? :eek::eek: Do you ever get blowback if you do speak up, if you even do speak up, to remind these PAX? How do you politely explain it to them? Especially when calling out the older PAX?

 

Lucky you!! I hope you didn't Jinx yourself. :eek:

Tony

[Kingofcool1947]

http://www.livestrong.com/article/1012306-fda-confirms-antibacterial-soap-doesnt-actually-work/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0902_fri_curated_m

 

You can leave the hand sanitizer at home. ;)

 

Enjoy your cruise in good health.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Kingofcool1947

[Montrealais]

Besides your face masks, don't forget to wear your surgical gloves as well when out and about the ship. Bring several pairs with you.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

 

In Japan, people wear face masks when they are infected to protect other people.

 

Surgical gloves might be a good way of avoiding germs in the laundry room.

[moki'smommy]

While we are all worrying about the ships, remember that most of us start our vacations by spending several hours inside a glorified tin can doing a lot of re-breathing of air and the associated microbes. It has been shown that you are most likely to become ill if someone within 3 rows of seats from you is coughing or sneezing, but much as the airlines try to deny it, the air on the plane is being recirculated without being disinfected.

 

I seem to have developed better immunity or the airlines are cleaning the air better, but for years I'd always get sick a week or two after a flight.

 

Yes, hand washing is very important for those things which are spread from hand to mouth. Handwashing does little or nothing for those pesky respiratory viruses though.

[Ole Faithful]

...

So, just wondering, how many of you people verbally confront those PAX who cough and don't cover, or those PAX you see that used the restroom facilities who didn't wash their hands after "doing their thing #1 or #2"? :eek::eek: Do you ever get blowback if you do speak up, if you even do speak up, to remind these PAX? How do you politely explain it to them? Especially when calling out the older PAX?

 

"Excuse me, but you forgot to wash your hands." Some people are absent minded.....treat them that way, and give them a big smile. It's not like most of the planet hasn't gotten the word. And it's in MY best interest to say something, so I will. I paid a fare and want a disease free vacation!:)

 

Blow back? Who cares? Any passenger in the rest room who sees a display like that can judge the guilty party for themselves. It's not rude, it's survival!!

[TitanSMES]

In one of the Naked Gun movies, Leslie Nielsen's character and Priscilla Presley wear "full body condoms". I wonder where you can purchase them? They should do wonders in controlling Noro, flu, swamp fever, or a whole lot of ailments and maladies!

 

 

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[Cruise Raider]

When you get the flu or a flu shot, you get the flu strain prevalent in your region. When you travel, you're exposed to different strains as you're in contact or exposed to people from all over the world. Doesn't matter whether you're on a plane or cruise ship.

 

I'm allergic to hand sanitizer which does little to prevent anything since the flu and Noro are viruses. So, I wash my hands with soap constantly and enjoy being outdoors as much as possible rather than in enclosed spaces.

 

Washing your hands before eating or putting your hands to your face is probably the most effective prevention of getting a cold or the flu.

The flu shot is also recommended by the CDC but as you mention, it does only contain attenuated viruses of 4 or 5 strains that the powers that be think are going to be the most prevalent. Sometimes, they get it totally wrong ... I think this happened about 2 years ago, give or take.

 

Too bad about your allergy to hand sanitizer. While the basic alcohol based sanitizer does little to prevent norovirus, it does help protect against cold and influenza viruses. I read somewhere that the cruiselines provide the kind of gel that combines benzalkonium chloride with the alcohol based product, which has proven at least some effectiveness against the norovirus. Who knows if they all do ... or if even some do, but the ones that are alcohol based with at least 65% concentration are pretty effective against influenza viruses according to the CDC.

 

But as you've said, nothing is better than good hand washing protocols and techniques.

 

Just of note, I was in the airport in LA after a recent cruise and my hands tested positive for explosives. After an extensive search of my entire body and all my possessions, the screeners explained that sometime hand sanitizer tests positive for explosives. It was all over my hands, in my shoes, on my clothing, inside and on the handle of my luggage, etc. They kind of laughed when they had me in the little private room for privacy ... asked me if I had recently been on a cruise. I guess they've seen it many times before.

[pris993]

Since 2013 I have caught the flu on 4 out 5 Princess cruises. I wonder if the incidence of flu is increasing on Princess. Before 2013, I only took one cruise that lasted longer than a week or 10 days. It was a Hawaii cruise and my flu started the day we left Hawaii...just a few days after someone coughed directly in my face near the photo gallery. She did not cover her mouth and I could feel the spray on my face.

 

Since 2013, we began taking longer cruises and I have caught the flu at about 2.5 to three weeks into each cruise (except one). In once case, a woman with a hacking cough sat directly next to me on the promenad even though lots of empty chairs were available. I do visit the ships doctor and one said it tends to happen on longer cruises. So, this could be why I am getting sick more often than before.

 

But, it could also be the incidence of flu is increasing on Princess. When we first started cruising the letter from the doctor that is in the cabin only mentioned Noro. Now it mentions both Noro and the flu. This changed several years ago, but I don't recall exactly when.

 

By the way, the coughing person on the bus mentioned in the other thread should have cancelled her cruise if she had an infectious disease; she could enjoy her cruise and she put others at risk. Another good reason to have cruise insurance.

 

Our experience is different. We don't get sick at home or traveling anywhere.

 

We do some things to try and stay well... we avoid public restrooms as much as possible, we always turn the heat on in our cabin to the lowest level, to cut off the air conditioning when we sleep, do the same in hotel rooms, wash our hands constantly, try to avoid shaking hands with others. We stay to ourselves... we don't travel to meet and make friends so we enjoy our own company away from crowds. I use wipes around the area we are sitting on airplanes. We don't do group tours or share transfer transportation, we get a private taxi.

 

We also pace ourselves, get plenty of rest while traveling... that was hard to learn... but well worth it. We assume we will be back so we do not need to do and see everything when we are in port.

 

Do we every get sick yes it does happen but not that often.

[Cruise Raider]

So, just wondering, how many of you people verbally confront those PAX who cough and don't cover, or those PAX you see that used the restroom facilities who didn't wash their hands after "doing their thing #1 or #2"? :eek::eek: Do you ever get blowback if you do speak up, if you even do speak up, to remind these PAX? How do you politely explain it to them? Especially when calling out the older PAX?

 

I have called people out on it on occasion -- but here is where I draw the line. The cruise line is always trying to seat you at tables with others at dinner: "Do you wish to share?" I tell them no problem but if you seat me with someone that is sick, I will leave that table and request to be re-seated at a table for two.

At dinner, if your table mates want to shake hands, I politely explain that I just washed my hands and don't shake hands with anybody when I am sitting down for dinner.

All those years of working at a hospital has given me a bit of confidence is reminding people that clean hands are oftentimes a huge part of staying healthy. If your waiter, cook or room steward is sick, probably not a lot you can do about avoiding it. :(

[AdoraBelle]

I don't usually like to enter into conversations where "personal anecdotes" are being used in place of statistics, but ...

 

I didn't travel until I was in my 40s due to a fear of flying. (Thank you, Xanax.) When I did start flying, I started getting sick every single trip. I changed up my personal habits in a hurry. I use an alcohol based spray on airplane tray, belt, etc, never get my hands anywhere near my face or food unless I've just washed them (if that's not possible, it's the Clorox hand sanitizer spray), and I wash my hands every time I see a sink.

 

(Im not a germaphobe, I just absolutely hate being sick. Even with a cold, I become incredibly whiny.)

 

A couple of years and many cruises have passed now, and I've never gotten sick since I changed my habits (even at home). FWIW, I also use a sanitizer called zylast that claims to be effective against Noro when I'm on a cruise, but it's been called out by the FDA on a few of its claims. Still, I have some bottles left so I use it.

[Thrak]

Our experience is different. We don't get sick at home or traveling anywhere.

 

We do some things to try and stay well... we avoid public restrooms as much as possible, we always turn the heat on in our cabin to the lowest level, to cut off the air conditioning when we sleep, do the same in hotel rooms, wash our hands constantly, try to avoid shaking hands with others. We stay to ourselves... we don't travel to meet and make friends so we enjoy our own company away from crowds. I use wipes around the area we are sitting on airplanes. We don't do group tours or share transfer transportation, we get a private taxi.

 

We also pace ourselves, get plenty of rest while traveling... that was hard to learn... but well worth it. We assume we will be back so we do not need to do and see everything when we are in port.

 

Do we every get sick yes it does happen but not that often.

 

Somehow I just don't see a taxi as a more germ free environment. :eek:

 

We got sick on our last cruise but a very large percentage of passengers also got sick. Someone brought a really nasty cold or something of that sort onboard. By the end of the cruise people were coughing all over the ship. My wife and I each spent a (different) day in self exile in our cabin. We missed going ashore at Ketchikan as we were both too sick.

 

We wash our hands frequently. I always use a knuckle on the elevator buttons. I agree with others who say the airport and the plane ride are more likely to make people sick.

[cruisequeen4ever]

One of our room stewards was coughing and sniffling for a few days prior to me getting sick onboard. I don't think that's a coincidence. They pick it up from sick pax and then can pass it to other pax when they clean their rooms. The idea of a sick room steward fluffing the pillow I bury my face in makes me sick! Also, a pax licking a serving spoon in HC and then putting it right back in the salad dressing. Add to that the pax coughing on you while trapped in a bus for hours. Then there are the servers who touch their noses and dirty dishes and then serve you your dinner without washing their hands. Pax ignore the sign and fill their own water bottles in HC, touching the mouthpiece to the water dispenser. DH's pre-purchased liquor was pulled out of a supposedly "clean" trash bag in the room steward's cart to be delivered to him; I about vomited. On another cruise, an elderly man had diarrhea all over himself and asked my DH to help him; thank goodness his wife was right outside, and DH was able to get her to help. A pax using the Thermal Suite as his own personal steam treatment for bronchitis, coughing open air over and over all week. There is a lot of germ risk on cruises.

 

 

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[GTck88]

I don't know if this is related as far as the memo changing, but I just got home yesterday from the Island Princess and we had a flu outbreak. We left on Wednesday 8/31 and I would say around Sunday is when I started noticing people coughing and sneezing a lot. I also saw people at breakfast with bottles of cough syrup on the table that day. I started feeling bad Monday night before bed and by Tuesday evening I was convinced I was dying, had to be held with IVs and confirmed it was the flu. Thankfully all I missed was dinner that night and it was a sea day, and we disembarked the next morning. This was my first cruise and I've gotta say I'm going to be hesitant to go on one that long again. I washed my hands and used the hand sanitizer constantly but still got horribly Ill. I'm a very healthy young person and this flu was borderline the sickest I've ever been. What really made me upset was taking the "quarantine" bus to the airport and hearing all the other people talk about how they just thought they would tough it out so they went around infecting everyone else for days before going to the doctor.

[Kingofcool1947]

One of our room stewards was coughing and sniffling for a few days prior to me getting sick onboard. I don't think that's a coincidence. They pick it up from sick pax and then can pass it to other pax when they clean their rooms. The idea of a sick room steward fluffing the pillow I bury my face in makes me sick! Also, a pax licking a serving spoon in HC and then putting it right back in the salad dressing. Add to that the pax coughing on you while trapped in a bus for hours. Then there are the servers who touch their noses and dirty dishes and then serve you your dinner without washing their hands. Pax ignore the sign and fill their own water bottles in HC, touching the mouthpiece to the water dispenser. DH's pre-purchased liquor was pulled out of a supposedly "clean" trash bag in the room steward's cart to be delivered to him; I about vomited. On another cruise, an elderly man had diarrhea all over himself and asked my DH to help him; thank goodness his wife was right outside, and DH was able to get her to help. A pax using the Thermal Suite as his own personal steam treatment for bronchitis, coughing open air over and over all week. There is a lot of germ risk on cruises.

 

 

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That's terrible. Especially the PAX licking the serving spoon in the buffet.:eek::eek:

 

So did you call these offenders out, or report them to supervisors? What did you do anything about it?

 

 

GOOD LUCK, AND HAPPY CRUISING (IF YOU CONTINUE TO TAKE YOUR CHANCES CRUISING):D

Edited September 10, 2016 by Kingofcool1947

[cruisequeen4ever]

Kingofcool1947, I've reported HC issues to crew. When it's come to our room steward or MDR server, I've just made general comments to Princess about a decline in cleanliness standards because I don't want those people to be singled out and fired. They've been some of our best Princess crew, just need some extra training in cleanliness. As for pax coughing, I make a point of looking intently at them and leaning forward or moving away if possible to try to send a nonverbal message. It's very awkward to me to tell someone.

 

 

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[RJ2002]

Frequent hand washing, and avoiding touching the face, has been effective in preventing travel-related illnesses for us.

[Chitownsailor]

I don't know if this is related as far as the memo changing, but I just got home yesterday from the Island Princess and we had a flu outbreak. We left on Wednesday 8/31 and I would say around Sunday is when I started noticing people coughing and sneezing a lot. I also saw people at breakfast with bottles of cough syrup on the table that day. I started feeling bad Monday night before bed and by Tuesday evening I was convinced I was dying, had to be held with IVs and confirmed it was the flu. Thankfully all I missed was dinner that night and it was a sea day, and we disembarked the next morning. This was my first cruise and I've gotta say I'm going to be hesitant to go on one that long again. I washed my hands and used the hand sanitizer constantly but still got horribly Ill. I'm a very healthy young person and this flu was borderline the sickest I've ever been. What really made me upset was taking the "quarantine" bus to the airport and hearing all the other people talk about how they just thought they would tough it out so they went around infecting everyone else for days before going to the doctor.

 

We left the Island on August 31, when you were getting on. There were so many sick people with a really bad cough. It started on our Alaska land portion, lots of people coughing. At dinner on the ship we noticed a couple with their Kleenex box on the dinner table, yikes maybe have dinner in your room. In the ships shop people were buying up cold and cough medicine when we were in there, more were purchasing cold medicines when we were in port in the stores. It was fairly bad when we were there.

[cboyle]

That's terrible. Especially the PAX licking the serving spoon in the buffet.:eek::eek:

 

So did you call these offenders out, or report them to supervisors? What did you do anything about it?

I have also seen someone use the serving spoon to taste a dish in the buffet. She decided she didn't like it and just put the spoon back in the food.

 

I told the server what had happened and asked him to remove the spoon and the tray of food (which he did immediately).

[pablo222]

Since 2013 I have caught the flu on 4 out 5 Princess cruises. I wonder if the incidence of flu is increasing on Princess.

 

Unless one worked in princess fleet medical, how would a poster

here have a statistically significant number of data points to

provide an intelligent answer?

[Loreni]

Unless one worked in princess fleet medical, how would a poster

here have a statistically significant number of data points to

provide an intelligent answer?

 

True. The best we can hope for is anecdotal evidence. If guess the single strongest piece of evidence is the fact that Princess changed its welcome letter from the doctor. Before it only mentioned Noro, now it mentions bother flu and Noro. So Princess has the data. I doubt they'll share.

[DandDM]

My wife often gets a cold after/during our longer cruises. She insists that it is the air conditioning that gets her sick; I've never understood if it is the circulation of air (and germs) or the 'conditioning' of the air. Luckily it has never been too severe and she gets over it in a day or two. Same has happened in longer stays in warm places (such as Las Vegas).