Caribbean Princess delayed boarding 4/8/23

[Cruisin4beaches]

Just got an "emergency notice" email about delayed boarding for this Saturday Caribbean Princess because the ship has to be cleaned because of gastrointestinal illness on the current sailing.

Boarding now delayed till 12:30.

I'm still going down to the pier at 10:30 but will wait if I have to. Plan to bring Xtra Purell.

[avonlady6390]

Great I hope the illness doesn't carry over to future sailings I'm on April 22.

[geomapper]

Or April 15, that’s our sailing. 😬😬

[GoDucksNation]

Make sure you have Purell Prime Defense that has 85% alcohol. The 68% doesn’t work on Noro

[nunyabidness]

I messaged a steward onboard whom I know.  He said "No outbreak...only few cases."

[wrongwaywatson]

I just got off.    I was told that there were several gastro cases on board.  After a few days into the cruise, they stopped letting you get drinks yourself, and they removed the sugar/creamer section at the IC.  No salt/pepper sitting out in the buffet, either.  They poured the cream in for you.  The last few days they were dishing out the bread and butter in the dining room, instead of putting the baskets on the table.  The last day they were dishing out the food in the buffet.

[GonzoWCS]

14 minutes ago, wrongwaywatson said:

I just got off.    I was told that there were several gastro cases on board.  After a few days into the cruise, they stopped letting you get drinks yourself, and they removed the sugar/creamer section at the IC.  No salt/pepper sitting out in the buffet, either.  They poured the cream in for you.  The last few days they were dishing out the bread and butter in the dining room, instead of putting the baskets on the table.  The last day they were dishing out the food in the buffet.

Sounds like decent protocols.

 

Cheers

[lvpet]

22 hours ago, nunyabidness said:

I messaged a steward onboard whom I know.  He said "No outbreak...only few cases."

I just got home from this cruise.  

 

This room steward was either giving you a line that he was told to say, or he had no idea of what was going on.  I was with a group of  8 and half of us got this "gasto cases"  norovirus?  My 9 year old neice was so dehydrated from the effects of this outbreak that she required an iv, medications and bloodwork to the tune of $800.  This family is VERY careful and health conscious.  The dr. on the ship told her father that the CP has had more outbreaks than any other Princess ships.  People who called medical were isolated in their cabins for at least 24 hrs.  Two others in our group came down with horrible sore throats and bad colds.  We even saw people in haz-mat like suits!

 

If you are on the CP now, please be very careful.  Touching the handrail after an affected passenger could get you sick.  

 

 

[buckeye7]

On 4/7/2023 at 4:11 PM, GoDucksNation said:

Make sure you have Purell Prime Defense that has 85% alcohol. The 68% doesn’t work on Noro

 

Can you tell me where to buy this? Is Amazon the only place to find it? Thank you for any guidance!

Edited April 9, 2023 by buckeye7
Incorrect

[GoDucksNation]

Amazon is where I purchased it 

[beg3yrs]

3 hours ago, lvpet said:

... The dr. on the ship told her father that the CP has had more outbreaks than any other Princess ships.  ...

 

 

If the Caribbean Princess has been running cruises in the same region for a while, it could get this reputation as many times it doesn't matter how much the ship is cleaned as passengers bring the illness with them from the ports.

[bronzey214]

1 hour ago, buckeye7 said:

 

Can you tell me where to buy this? Is Amazon the only place to find it? Thank you for any guidance!

I got it at CVS.

[lvpet]

And to add insult to injury, two of our group, myself included, tested positive for covid on our return.  No more large cruise ship trips for this group in the near future.  No way to know if it came from ports as we only were able to stop at 2 of the 4 scheduled due to high winds.  As hard as they may try, there is no way to sanitize a large ship in the short turn around time.

[Daisyloo]

On 4/8/2023 at 10:30 AM, wrongwaywatson said:

I just got off.    I was told that there were several gastro cases on board.  After a few days into the cruise, they stopped letting you get drinks yourself, and they removed the sugar/creamer section at the IC.  No salt/pepper sitting out in the buffet, either.  They poured the cream in for you.  The last few days they were dishing out the bread and butter in the dining room, instead of putting the baskets on the table.  The last day they were dishing out the food in the buffet.

I wish they would always serve the food in the buffet.  I hate the fact that everyone touches the utensils.  You don't know if the person who touched them before you omitted washing their hands after using the bathroom, or were licking their fingers before they touched the ladles.  

[BamaVol]

I was on the 3/2 sailing which also had delayed boarding for the same reason. 
 

I did see precautions such as no self service in the buffets and constant wiping down of handrails and elevators. 
 

We did not witness any signs of illness. I was hoping the cruise before ours was a noro one and done. What a shame. 

[jenp123]

Same scenario on Jan cruise on the carribean princess...

[SargassoPirate]

On 4/8/2023 at 10:30 AM, wrongwaywatson said:

I just got off.    I was told that there were several gastro cases on board.  After a few days into the cruise, they stopped letting you get drinks yourself, and they removed the sugar/creamer section at the IC.  No salt/pepper sitting out in the buffet, either.  They poured the cream in for you.  The last few days they were dishing out the bread and butter in the dining room, instead of putting the baskets on the table.  The last day they were dishing out the food in the buffet.

All of which is theater to make passengers feel safe and for it to look like the ship is being proactive.

 

The real key to preventing noro is to simply break the chain of contamination by washing your hands and not touching your food with your hands or sticking your hands in your mouth.  Sanitize your hands last thing before you eat since you have touched all sorts of common surfaces since that last handwash.

 

 

[bronzey214]

42 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

The real key to preventing noro is to simply break the chain of contamination by washing your hands and not touching your food with your hands or sticking your hands in your mouth.  Sanitize your hands last thing before you eat since you have touched all sorts of common surfaces since that last handwash.

...while also hoping the person in front of you at the buffet salad bar did the same.

[SargassoPirate]

10 hours ago, bronzey214 said:

...while also hoping the person in front of you at the buffet salad bar did the same.

I couldn't care less about that or others washing their hands, etc.  I treat every surface as contaminated and break the chain of contamination by washing my own hands and sanitizing before I eat.  I don't depend on the hygiene habits of others to keep me from getting sick.

 

Sound harsh?  50 plus cruises and no noro so far.

[Guest ldtr]

On 4/8/2023 at 7:30 AM, wrongwaywatson said:

I just got off.    I was told that there were several gastro cases on board.  After a few days into the cruise, they stopped letting you get drinks yourself, and they removed the sugar/creamer section at the IC.  No salt/pepper sitting out in the buffet, either.  They poured the cream in for you.  The last few days they were dishing out the bread and butter in the dining room, instead of putting the baskets on the table.  The last day they were dishing out the food in the buffet.

From what I have been told in the past Princess implements those procedures whenever there are 7 cases or more on board.

[azbirdmom]

On 4/9/2023 at 4:03 AM, lvpet said:

I just got home from this cruise.  

 

This room steward was either giving you a line that he was told to say, or he had no idea of what was going on.  I was with a group of  8 and half of us got this "gasto cases"  norovirus?  My 9 year old neice was so dehydrated from the effects of this outbreak that she required an iv, medications and bloodwork to the tune of $800.  This family is VERY careful and health conscious.  The dr. on the ship told her father that the CP has had more outbreaks than any other Princess ships.  People who called medical were isolated in their cabins for at least 24 hrs.  Two others in our group came down with horrible sore throats and bad colds.  We even saw people in haz-mat like suits!

 

If you are on the CP now, please be very careful.  Touching the handrail after an affected passenger could get you sick.  

 

 

 

I hope everyone in your group is doing better now!

[jeromep]

11 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

All of which is theater to make passengers feel safe and for it to look like the ship is being proactive.

 

The real key to preventing noro is to simply break the chain of contamination by washing your hands and not touching your food with your hands or sticking your hands in your mouth.  Sanitize your hands last thing before you eat since you have touched all sorts of common surfaces since that last handwash.

 

 

Totally correct.  Your hands have to be freshly washed just prior to eating, and I'm not talking about washing in your cabin, then touching the elevator buttons, or holding the handrails while you go up/down the stairs for a meal and eating with careless abandon.  You basically have to wash just prior to sitting down to the table.

 

Did they install hand washing stations in the Carribean's buffet?  If so, washing just before sitting down to eat breaks the contamination chain.

 

On 4/9/2023 at 1:57 PM, Daisyloo said:

I wish they would always serve the food in the buffet.  I hate the fact that everyone touches the utensils.  You don't know if the person who touched them before you omitted washing their hands after using the bathroom, or were licking their fingers before they touched the ladles.  

Me too!  Buffet utensils are a tremendously good place to get your hands contaminated with whatever is on somebody else's.  And let's be honest, a contaminated buffet serving tool that slips down into the food has now contaminated the food.  For all we know it doesn't even have to slip down into the food to contaminate the food.

 

[DallasGuy75219]

57 minutes ago, jeromep said:

Did they install hand washing stations in the Carribean's buffet?  If so, washing just before sitting down to eat breaks the contamination chain.

 

Me too!  Buffet utensils are a tremendously good place to get your hands contaminated with whatever is on somebody else's.  And let's be honest, a contaminated buffet serving tool that slips down into the food has now contaminated the food.  For all we know it doesn't even have to slip down into the food to contaminate the food.

 

I'm mixing up Crown and Caribbean at the moment, but I think it was Crown that didn't have handwashing stations in August.  I'm pretty OCD about washing my hands again at a buffet before I eat, and I seem to remember having to be dilogent about bring hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes to the buffet on Crown. So I think Caribbean had them in January.

 

Not just serving utensils falling into the dish.  I watched a kid drop one onto the floor on Sky or Regal and put it right back into the dish.  I had to tell the cook so he could pull the entire pan of food.

[bronzey214]

The Crown did not. We talked to one of the assistant managers of Food and Beverage who hoped it would be added during dry dock but…. that’s not something easily retrofitted in.

[DallasGuy75219]

4 minutes ago, bronzey214 said:

The Crown did not. We talked to one of the assistant managers of Food and Beverage who hoped it would be added during dry dock but…. that’s not something easily retrofitted in.

Sounds right.  Crown had the worst buffet setup of any Princes ship I've been on.