Are you afraid of the coronavirus in your next cruise?

[librarygal]

The coronavirus

It scares me to death.  I would not want to be trapped on any closed place without easy access to a hospital or my home with this going around.  Right now 7000 passengers are waiting for permission to leave the ship in Italy because some passengers may be sick with the virus.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/01/30/coronavirus-costa-cruise-ship-passengers-held-onboard-amid-tests/4618718002/

 

What are your thoughts about cruising during the internationally spread coronavirus?

Edited January 30, 2020 by librarygal

[CruiserBruce]

No. The ship in Italy was cleared hours ago. It wasn't Corona.

 

Many threads on Cruise Critic on this topic already.

[Markanddonna]

Concerned, but not panicked. I am sailing next week. Based on my fall cruise in the Med this past November and December, I wouldn't want to cruise in Asia or Europe right now.

[nascarcruiser]

Aware of it and taking normal precautions but scared no not at the this point.  I wouldn't go to China but I wouldn't have gone before this so....

[leaveitallbehind]

No - not concerned.  And the figure mentioned of 7,000 passengers would have to be passengers and crew combined.  I think you need to read the article more closely as it indicates the ship with 6,000 passengers has been cleared as it was a flu diagnosis that only was affecting a single passenger - not "some" as you say.

Edited January 31, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[Doug R.]

More concerned about norovirus.

[klfrodo]

3 hours ago, librarygal said:

The coronavirus

It scares me to death.  I would not want to be trapped on any closed place without easy access to a hospital or my home with this going around.  Right now 7000 passengers are waiting for permission to leave the ship in Italy because some passengers may be sick with the virus.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/01/30/coronavirus-costa-cruise-ship-passengers-held-onboard-amid-tests/4618718002/

 

What are your thoughts about cruising during the internationally spread coronavirus?

 Really???

You're scared to death of Coronavirus??? A bit melodramatic are we?

 

This from the CDC regarding the FLU

In total, the CDC estimates that up to 42.9 million people got sick during the 2018-2019 flu season, 647,000 people were hospitalized and 61,200 died. That's fairly on par with a typical season, and well below the CDC's 2017-2018 estimates of 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths.

Edited January 31, 2020 by klfrodo

[clo]

3 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

This from the CDC regarding the FLU

In total, the CDC estimates that up to 42.9 million people got sick during the 2018-2019 flu season, 647,000 people were hospitalized and 61,200 died. That's fairly on par with a typical season, and well below the CDC's 2017-2018 estimates of 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths.

Facts beat fears. For me anyway.

[cruisemom42]

Nope.

 

Planning on going on my cherry-blossom adventure circling Japan in April unless it is canceled.

 

Edited to add: My son just reminded me that my last trip to Japan (with him) in 2010 was during the swine flu epidemic. We had Japanese officials come aboard our aircraft upon landing at Narita in space suits with special "wands" that could detect fever among passengers. Those who were detected had to be isolated for several days to ensure they did not have the swine flu.....

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by cruisemom42

[lenquixote66]

No because people can die crossing the street or riding in a helicopter.

[mom says]

It seems like almost every year there's something that sends people bat poop crazy with needless panic, instead of a measured, reasoned response. This year its Coronavirus. Before that it was Chikungunya, Zika, Ebola, Measles, Swine flu, SARS, and MERS. There were probably people planning to sail on the Mayflower in a flutter over the possibility of the Black Death while on the ship.

 

I've given up trying to give a reasonable, science based, factual response to these doomsdayers. There's nothing anyone can say that will assuage their fears except to tell them to stay home. As for DH and me - we are still looking forward to our cruise in 3 weeks.

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, Doug R. said:

More concerned about norovirus.

Of course, the fat lady has not yet sung.  How many people die of norovirus?  Thus far there has been a fairly high mortality rate from coronavirus.    No, I am not particularly sweating it, but I will start closely thinking about any symptoms I might experience if cases of coronavirus infections start appearing in my area.

 

It is cool to be dismissive, but to trivialize an obviously growing global health crisis with high mortality by comparing it with the minor inconvenience of a couple of days with the runs — until we at least know a bit about its incubation period, how it is transmitted and what treatment seems to work. —   is simply stupid.

 

 

[Doug R.]

5 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Of course, the fat lady has not yet sung.  How many people die of norovirus?  Thus far there has been a fairly high mortality rate from coronavirus.    No, I am not particularly sweating it, but I will start closely thinking about any symptoms I might experience if cases of coronavirus infections start appearing in my area.

 

It is cool to be dismissive, but to trivialize an obviously growing global health crisis with high mortality by comparing it with the minor inconvenience of a couple of days with the runs — until we at least know a bit about its incubation period, how it is transmitted and what treatment seems to work. —   is simply stupid.

hi

 

I was relating to my worry about coronavirus as it relates to my next cruise and the answer stands. Unless you are cruising in Asia your concerns should be minimal despite the sensational press about this disease. A guy of Asian descent posted on Twitter that anytime someone of Asian descent sneezes people are going to panic whether they have been to Wusan, China or not. I am aware of the incident aboard the Costa ship in Italy, that may be an outlier. In that case caution was advisable. It is not time to panic, but to take rational precautions. I have lost count of the number of diseases that were going to cause mass fatalities that eventually proved to be less than the sensational press made them out to be.

[clo]

48 minutes ago, mom says said:

I've given up trying to give a reasonable, science based, factual response to these doomsdayers

Thank you. Was it this thread or another that gave the statistics for "flu"? I worked at CDC a gazillion years ago so I look at these things perhaps with a different view.

Edited January 31, 2020 by clo

[Laurie S.]

Nope.

[Flatbush Flyer]

11 hours ago, librarygal said:

The coronavirus

It scares me to death.  I would not want to be trapped on any closed place without easy access to a hospital or my home with this going around.  Right now 7000 passengers are waiting for permission to leave the ship in Italy because some passengers may be sick with the virus.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/01/30/coronavirus-costa-cruise-ship-passengers-held-onboard-amid-tests/4618718002/

 

What are your thoughts about cruising during the internationally spread coronavirus?

I'd be more concerned that you're citing USA Today.

[Harry Peterson]

Well given its impact on the Carnival share price, it must be spooking a lot of potential passengers - or at least investors concerned that it will.

 

Depends how it all pans out of course, but the prospect of being stuck on a ship, quarantined and unable to land for 14 days, is going to put people off.  All it needs is one passenger, and it's already spread way beyond China and into Europe and elsewhere.

[K32682]

I was at ground zero during SARS in Toronto in 2003.  I went to Africa during the peak of the Ebola epidemic.  I might not do a holiday trip to Wuhan this week but am not worried about coronavirus elsewhere in the world.      

[DirtyDawg]

We escaped from SARS ridden Toronto in 2003! 

 

For a week anyways. We went on a caribbean cruise.😱

 

They had us checked out by a nurse prior to boarding and we got our temperatures checked each day in the medical centre. It was like an added attraction for the cruise. 😉

[zqvol]

 More worried about regular flu and noro than corona!

[ilikeanswers]

It has to be remembered that during an epidemic statistics are almost always over estimated. The fact is alot will die with out having a test for the Novel Coronavirus. Despite this their deaths get lumped in with Coronavirus victims because there is no time or resources to do any post mortem tests so they prefer to err on the side of caution. In the end with epidemics you never get an accurate count of how many people died of the infection itself. On the other hand this is an ongoing situation so naturally the situation could get worst but they can also get better😉. So far it has been well contained within the Chinese borders with no major outbreaks in any other country so personally I am optimistic.

[K32682]

1 hour ago, DirtyDawg said:

We escaped from SARS ridden Toronto in 2003! 

 

For a week anyways. We went on a caribbean cruise.😱

 

They had us checked out by a nurse prior to boarding and we got our temperatures checked each day in the medical centre. It was like an added attraction for the cruise. 😉

 

How did the cruise line handle this?  Did they notify you in advance? Make it a condition of boarding? Demand you present yourself in the medical centre each day?  Were there consequences if you didn't visit the nurse?

[DirtyDawg]

48 minutes ago, K32682 said:

 

How did the cruise line handle this?  Did they notify you in advance? Make it a condition of boarding? Demand you present yourself in the medical centre each day?  Were there consequences if you didn't visit the nurse?

 

It was a long time ago but I think they contacted us in advance because we knew we had to fill out the health questionnaire prior to boarding. One of the questions was have you visited the Toronto region in the past x number of days. We live  near T.O. so we said yes. We handed the questionnaire over and were told immediately to wait for the nurse. She came a few minutes later and asked more questions and took our temperatures. I can't recall if we also saw the doctor before boarding the ship  but we saw him at some point early in the cruise. The approval to board was on condition we went down to the medical centre each day.  It was no big deal, we just went down after breakfast, as I recall, and then went about our regular day.

[gooch47]

This scare reminds me of a t-shirt I saw aboard a snorkle tour boat.  It said, "You could also die falling off your couch in your living room."

[MicCanberra]

There are many more restrictions on people's travel in and out or through China and Hong Kong. Also on anybody who has come from or via China and Hong Kong are being restricted from boarding any cruise ship.