Norwalk Virus and Respitory Illness on Mercury

[TravelinRo]

Just returned from the Mercury today and wanted to advise caution if traveling on her in the near future. Approximately one third of the ship was ill during much of the cruise. The staff is busy sanitizing everything on board and the hospital is totally overburdened with the sick passengers and crew.

Other than that, the ship, staff, weather, food, etc. was wonderful. Very old passengers on the March 6th sailing.

:p

[hardingk]

We are sailing in less then 3 weeks on the April 7th sailing...hope they have her cleaned up by then.

[Fblack]

TravlinRo:

 

I am on the April 17th cruise. Our San Diego paper said they are adding an extra doctor this week. The CDC says less than 10% of passengers were ill. You said 33%. Any idea why these numbers are so different?

[cruznduo]

We are still in the process of deciding whether or not we can book for a last minute cruise on the Mercury at the end of April (as I posted on another thread) and OF COURSE I am worried about the illness on the ship...but now another question has come to mind...how old were/are the passengers? We are in our early 50's...but as they say, "young for our age." We like to have fun...tell me the Mercury has some liveliness to it. I don't want to be on board and find it to be totally quiet after 9 p.m. for 10 days! Please share your thoughts if you have sailed recently on both things. Thanks...Linda

[vince4]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't heard of back to back cruises with passengers being sick. I think they clean up the ship very well after they have a cruise with the virus. It wouldn't look well for Celebrity or any other cruise line to have multiple cruises with sick passengers.

[jerseygirl3]

This is not an uncommon occurrence. It has been going around (Norwalk and Influenza) in N.J. for the past couple of weeks. One school had to close down as they had 1,400 children out sick with Norwalk. You can pick up these viruses anywhere; it's just that in environments where people are spending more time together, it can spread more easily (i.e., schools, nursing homes, hospitals, college dorms, cruise ships, airplanes).

 

I wouldn't avoid a ship because of this. I could walk into my neighborhood grocery store and pick up one of these viruses. The best defense is frequent and thorough handwashing. And try to avoid touching your face until you have washed your hands.

[tangerinebunny]

We picked up a norovirus in Santa Fe one year - probably from restaurant food. There's good advice and explanations at the CDC and webmd sites.