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Diamond Princess passenger "tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus"


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59 minutes ago, Coral said:

 

 

There has been some criticism by how staff acted during the quarantine (not using face masks around others, etc...). Not sure how accurate it is but it is out there.

 

 

 I put a picture up earlier of the staff some no masks as smoking out on deck definitely not the required distance away from each other that the passengers had been told, and as smoke comes back out of lungs - that could not be good.  However, I got stick for the photo and rightly so it was pointed out to me that the crew where not under the same quarantine conditions as the passengers as they were (I assume still are) all eating at the buffet together.

 

 In hindsight (which is always wonderful but not at all practical) the crew should may be have been tested first and split apart pre quarantine date start. But as we know testing is a bit sporadic and if viral load too low some false negatives would probably have happened so some crew infected with the virus would perhaps have remained undetected.

Edited by fragilek
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57 minutes ago, phil the brit said:

So 67 Saturday, 70 Sunday and now 99 today. This virus is not CONTAINED that is for damn sure. Would not want to be on that ship for all the tea in China!

 

Does anyone know the date that the crew stopped preparing the food?  I think we're well past the 5 day incubation period average, for that to be the major cause.  With people already removed from the ship, the % of new cases VS the remaining passengers, is really spiking.  There's more going on here than a few people trading fruit from their verandas.

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1 hour ago, phil the brit said:

So 67 Saturday, 70 Sunday and now 99 today. This virus is not CONTAINED that is for damn sure. Would not want to be on that ship for all the tea in China!

I wonder if the huge spike is because they just started to test everyone . This is a new  strain of the corona virus and everything is still guesswork. Maybe the incubation period is longer than 14days .

 

originally they were only testing people with a fever, maybe all these people have had it in their system all along.   

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Just now, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Does anyone know the date that the crew stopped preparing the food?  I think we're well past the 5 day incubation period average, for that to be the major cause.  With people already removed from the ship, the % of new cases VS the remaining passengers, is really spiking.  There's more going on here than a few people trading fruit from their verandas.

 I got the impression that some food was still being made on the ship - things like fried egg arriving still very hot and still soft to cabin would be hard to prepare off the ship.  But we don't know who is now preparing the food for definite, but we do know still being delivered by crew

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4 minutes ago, Jb944 said:

I wonder if the huge spike is because they just started to test everyone . This is a new  strain of the corona virus and everything is still guesswork. Maybe the incubation period is longer than 14days .

 

originally they were only testing people with a fever, maybe all these people have had it in their system all along.   

 At this stage anything is possible, however, recent info suggests average incubation of 3-5 days, so to have so many outliers on a distribution curve would be very unlikely.  A more likely scenario if it is not spreading ( I think it is still/ or has been still spreading - but that's my own opinion and I have no experience working with viruses.) is that many +ve people remain un-symptomatic throughout there infection. That could be both good and bad news.

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9 hours ago, rich_cathybrock said:

Hmmm...potential for evac in Japan w/bento boxes 3 x daily and no idea when or how I am supposed to get home, or meals prepared on a military base AND I can probably get my prescriptions renewed locally, stream Netflix, and be back home before St. Patrick's Day.  For me, it would have been a no-brainer.  I am staggered that some American pax opted NOT to take this flight.  What the heck could they be thinking?

 

At least some of them felt that the risk of them getting infected by others while riding the bus to Haneda, waiting to board the plane, and taking the plane ride, in a close proximity conditions was too high for them to bear.  And the masks are not 100% effective, even if it worn all the time:  These mask require rigorous fitting procedure (by measuring incursion of water vapors), and certain people require certain models, and it's not a "one mask fits all."  Looking at some of the pictures when single mask is employed, I see at least a few people whose masks are obviously ill-fitting.  It's not as simple and no-brainer as some may think.

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28 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I put a picture up earlier of the staff some no masks as smoking out on deck definitely not the required distance away from each other that the passengers had been told, and as smoke comes back out of lungs - that could not be good.  However, I got stick for the photo and rightly so it was pointed out to me that the crew where not under the same quarantine conditions as the passengers as they were (I assume still are) all eating at the buffet together.

 

 In hindsight (which is always wonderful but not at all practical) the crew should may be have been tested first and split apart pre quarantine date start. But as we know testing is a bit sporadic and if viral load too low some false negatives would probably have happened so some crew infected with the virus would perhaps have remained undetected.

In the end - when this is all said and done, all cruise lines will look at what the Diamond Princess did through this process and evaluate what was done right, wrong and what could have been improved on. They will look at both how passengers and crew were handled. I am sure they will learn a lot and new protocols will be written.

 

------

As far as PR nightmare - news is saying "this doomed ship". Not a good thing when you see the Princess logo on the ship.

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As is now proven beyond reasonable doubt, the thing on the ship is spreading like wild fire.

There were some pretty bad decisions made early days which with hindsight should have been better thought out.

BUT the Japanese didn't want them ashore for obvious reasons so I see why they were kept on board.

Food prep on onboard, a terrible decision. Letting people out on balconies without masks another bad idea particularly as they slope away with some people in upper ones looking directly down on the ones below in many cases.

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1 hour ago, Coral said:

Yes it is a PR nightmare. My friends see the ship every day (several times a day) on the news. They have not cruised but are in the demographic that are looking at them and Princess is the last line they will look at based on what they see on TV news. And they have warned that the stock is taking a hit because of it. If everything was great - they would not announced this stock hit. Even loyal Princess people have thought they handled the cancellations poorly.

 

There has been some criticism by how staff acted during the quarantine (not using face masks around others, etc...). Not sure how accurate it is but it is out there.

 

 

I’ll stand by my remarks. I must be watching different TV news stories than you. The demographic you speak of aren’t looking at Princess, they are looking at the cruise Industry as a whole. Princess’ PR then becomes irrelevant to your friends who don’t cruise. In the news stories I’m reading, people are disappointed about the cancellations but thankful to the Cruise Line for doing it. A very small number are angry with the process but they’ll have to learn to deal with the disappointment. 
I might also point out that my statements are my opinion and not based statistics or facts that neither one of us know about. Sometimes what we see and hear are misrepresentations of the truth. 
People like to criticize so I don’t think it’s fair to judge a situation that people are unfamiliar with. Sometimes we have to learn as we go. We’re not there so we really can’t judge their actions. 
Without being there, I would be positive that the Princess gurus didn’t tell the staff NOT to wear masks. In those early stages that we talk of, communication was confusing at best. I’m only making this up but what if there weren’t enough masks to go around? The passengers get looked after first, and the crew should then be idolized for their efforts. 

Glenn

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2 minutes ago, Grburkart said:


Without being there, I would be positive that the Princess gurus didn’t tell the staff NOT to wear masks. In those early stages that we talk of, communication was confusing at best. I’m only making this up but what if there weren’t enough masks to go around? The passengers get looked after first, and the crew should then be idolized for their efforts. 

Glenn

 I think what is being referred to is the photos of crew with the masks hanging round there necks while smoking and chatting on deck. It was then pointed out that they sit and eat together so taking off to smoke and chat did not seem like a big deal to them.

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3 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I think what is being referred to is the photos of crew with the masks hanging round there necks while smoking and chatting on deck. It was then pointed out that they sit and eat together so taking off to smoke and chat did not seem like a big deal to them.

Okay. I’m not familiar with that photo. I’ll stand corrected. 
 

Glenn

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6 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I pay a small fortune for my travel insurance (sometimes more than the cruise, well more than my Costa one and only cruise).  I also have between £300 (EU) to £500 (worldwide) pp excess  and not even that offer would get me on a cruise until all this is over.  

Your cruise insurance is more than your cruise?  We pay approx. 5% of the cruise fair for full insurance, including pretty comprehensive medical.

 

Note "full" does not include cancelling for any reason.

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4 hours ago, Grburkart said:

Fair enough and I’m one of them. Losing interest in cruising is different than losing interest in Princess cruises. My point being it’s not the fault of Princess and I think it’s admirable for the way they’ve conducted themselves considering they have zero control over the proceedings.

 

4 hours ago, Farts said:

I agree that it's not their fault. 

 

Ppl around me know I love to cruise. But now many ppl are saying how all cruise ships are just nasty petri dishes. Can't blame them. 

 

Sample size of just me and my husband, but this incident is WHY I booked with Princess.  My husband and I have taken a few cruises on Royal, were happy enough, and decided to just keep building our loyalty points on one line.  After the hit that Princess is taking (I feel unfairly), and seeing the offer they made to their workers, I decided to check them out and found an itinerary that Royal doesn't offer.  Boom, booked.  If this incident had never occurred, or if their handling of it had been worse I never would have looked at their product.

 

In terms of cruise ships being petri dishes, of course they are, to an extent.  But that's also because they're easily identifiable as such.  If one person with norovirus is on a ship and spreads it through poor hand washing, it's easy to see the spread because everyone is all together.  But if that same person went to the movies or an airport, then infected one or two others through poor hand washing, then those one or two people did the same, it would be the same spread, but not trackable as everyone is dispersed to different locations.  The world is a petri dish.

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1 hour ago, fragilek said:

And the plan for the British passengers is back up on BBC news 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51526875

Rescue plan 'considered' for Britons trapped on cruise

The Foreign Office is "considering all options" for Britons trapped on a quarantined cruise liner in Japan struck by coronavirus - including flying them home.

Downing Street said officials are in contact with the 74 UK passengers and crew to "establish interest" in a repatriation flight.

According to reports in UK Media one of the holiday inn hotels near heathrow airport has been closed down to the general public till mid march. It is reasonable to assume that the 14 quarantine period for Diamond Princess passengers will be conducted here from perhaps Feb 20th onwards.

Edited by ace2542
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47 minutes ago, voljeep said:

has a date been established for Princess to take back control of the Diamond, and get it to a place to be 'cleaned' ?

Surely for the ship to be "cleaned". The entire crew will have to be removed from the captain to the lowest deckhand and quarantined accordingly. Once that is done an entirely new crew will have to be put in place. Or princess can wait until the entire crew clears quarantine procedures whichever is quickest. Then a new location for the ship to cruise to will have to be decided upon and so the ship could be out of business for some time yet.

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10 minutes ago, chilis said:

 

 

 

In terms of cruise ships being petri dishes, of course they are, to an extent.  But that's also because they're easily identifiable as such.  If one person with norovirus is on a ship and spreads it through poor hand washing, it's easy to see the spread because everyone is all together.  But if that same person went to the movies or an airport, then infected one or two others through poor hand washing, then those one or two people did the same, it would be the same spread, but not trackable as everyone is dispersed to different locations.  The world is a petri dish.

Excellent explanation. If I had to guess, I'd bet that handrails on a cruise ship are cleaner than your average grocery store cart handle.

 

It makes me shudder when a woman leaves a public toilet stall and exits the bathroom without washing up. She's spreading germs everywhere she goes. Hopefully she washes those hands before prepping the next meal.

 

 

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16 hours ago, timbom said:

Hud and the Red Cross have been working on these arrangements for some time.  Neighbors close to base are upset about these people being thrust on them without their permission.  Lets hope there will be no more cases. 

 

Is this a legitimate concern? I thought these people would be isolated, and not coming into any contact with the local populace, no?

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2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

If the prediction that 50% of the world’s population will inevitably be infected proves correct, quarantine is going to be completely irrelevant anyway soon.

 

Wait...what!!! I hadn't heard anything like that. Hopefully it was from some alarmist source. It seems if that was the prevailing medical opinion it would have been big (huge!) news.

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We will all start hearing the stories from those that lived it.  I for one will pay attention to those that had insurance and how it worked or did not work.  That will be valuable in determining what to do for my next cruise.  I agree that including insurance as a perk might be a brilliant marketing maneuver going forward.  

 

We are focused here on the Diamond yet others have been through similar situations.  I keep looking at Westerdam and HAL but there are more.  I hope this discussion can continue with FACTS as they are learned.  That feedback will be most helpful in dealing with something like this in the future.

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2 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

Wait...what!!! I hadn't heard anything like that. Hopefully it was from some alarmist source. It seems if that was the prevailing medical opinion it would have been big (huge!) news.

The more alarmist death rates in UK media say 400,000 will die in UK alone. With a mortality rate of 1% that argues that 40 million will become infected in a country of 66 million. That would be an infection rate of 2  in 3. That is highly unlikely.

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