Delayed boarding due to stepped up disinfection measures

[Bill Y]

Been notified that boarding will be delayed due to stepped up disinfection measures less than 48 hours before embarkation and asked to arrive one and a half hours after boarding pass time and that Loyalty embarkation lunch "will be held during the during the course of the cruise"

 

So what is anyone's experience of this? Do people obey this request? Or is it a bun fight with people turning up waving their boarding passes and saying that they had not been notified of the delay? Is priority boarding still recognised ahead of the chancers? it seems a recipe for chaos.

[AndyMichelle]

Oh no... What cruise is this Bill? 

[Bill Y]

32 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Oh no... What cruise is this Bill? 

Relax Andy it's Aurora.

Still not news I wished to hear.

[AndyMichelle]

7 hours ago, Bill Y said:

Relax Andy it's Aurora.

Still not news I wished to hear.

Thanks Bill. 

I feel for you. We are already having kittens about a fairly late boarding time... 

Have a fantastic time. 

Andy 

[mercury7289]

9 hours ago, Bill Y said:

Been notified that boarding will be delayed due to stepped up disinfection measures less than 48 hours before embarkation and asked to arrive one and a half hours after boarding pass time and that Loyalty embarkation lunch "will be held during the during the course of the cruise"

 

So what is anyone's experience of this? Do people obey this request? Or is it a bun fight with people turning up waving their boarding passes and saying that they had not been notified of the delay? Is priority boarding still recognised ahead of the chancers? it seems a recipe for chaos.

IMO something has got to be done on board,been reported problems since December maybe beyond.These ships need down days for thorough clean

[Snow Hill]

11 hours ago, mercury7289 said:

IMO something has got to be done on board,been reported problems since December maybe beyond.These ships need down days for thorough clean

Probably right, but given there is no gap between cruises in most case that would mean cruise companies having to cancel or shorten cruises and refund passengers the full amount.

 

The Norovirus can survive for almost 2 weeks on carpet on soft furnishings, they are never going to clean all the carpets & furnishings in the time they are allowing themselves. Land based outbreaks often use fogging to deal with the virus, not sure how that work on a ship in the large open areas such as the restaurants and atrium. 

[gsmt47471015]

I have the utmost sympathy for your enforced delay , however it is not just Aurora , we got off Arcadia after 99 nights and its fair to say that infections were plentiful ( of all descriptions)and increased in the last three weeks of the cruise , it says something when the Captain announced that anyone not adhering to basic hygiene requests would be put off the ship, and indeed 

they were, we never used the lifts and never once touched any grab or handrails during the whole voyage ,even when the ship was rolling all over, and still succumbed in the last few days and got off the ship with infections of varying descriptions which we are still suffering with. Honestly I do not know what the answer to this problem is but feel that earlier ,and strictly enforced standard hygiene practices perhaps would have minimized the spread , it must be stated that as passengers were flying into the ship and embarking at numerous ports this will not have helped ( passengers next door to us were isolating with sickness etc within an hour of embarking) 

I do wish you a speedy embarkation and hopefully a healthy cruise😃

[jeanlyon]

It's not just ships.  These infections are everywhere.  Schools, hospitals, anywhere that people gather.

 

[Snow Hill]

21 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

It's not just ships.  These infections are everywhere.  Schools, hospitals, anywhere that people gather.

 

True, but most land based locations deal with it better than cruise ships. 

[showingdiva]

2 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

True, but most land based locations deal with it better than cruise ships. 

 

That's probably very true.   Hospitals can close wards, isolate, deep clean and don't have carpet.   Cruise ships have such a tight turnaround.

 

So, it's back to soap and water and try not to touch your face (or anyone else's!).

[seahorse001]

On 4/25/2024 at 8:21 PM, gsmt47471015 said:

I have the utmost sympathy for your enforced delay , however it is not just Aurora , we got off Arcadia after 99 nights and its fair to say that infections were plentiful ( of all descriptions)and increased in the last three weeks of the cruise , it says something when the Captain announced that anyone not adhering to basic hygiene requests would be put off the ship, and indeed 

they were, we never used the lifts and never once touched any grab or handrails during the whole voyage ,even when the ship was rolling all over, and still succumbed in the last few days and got off the ship with infections of varying descriptions which we are still suffering with. Honestly I do not know what the answer to this problem is but feel that earlier ,and strictly enforced standard hygiene practices perhaps would have minimized the spread , it must be stated that as passengers were flying into the ship and embarking at numerous ports this will not have helped ( passengers next door to us were isolating with sickness etc within an hour of embarking) 

I do wish you a speedy embarkation and hopefully a healthy cruise😃

Oh dear. All the P & O ships I have been on have NEVER enforced washing hands anywhere on the ship. I personally witnessed people entering the buffet going in and out with food & not washing their hands.Also in toilets .In MDR there is hand gel on reception. I guestimate 10% of people used it & staff did not challenge them. SOME passengers are disgusting 🤮

[jh1809]

1 hour ago, seahorse001 said:

Oh dear. All the P & O ships I have been on have NEVER enforced washing hands anywhere on the ship. I personally witnessed people entering the buffet going in and out with food & not washing their hands.Also in toilets .In MDR there is hand gel on reception. I guestimate 10% of people used it & staff did not challenge them. SOME passengers are disgusting 🤮

My own guesstimate for Aurora and Arcadia is that using the hand gel dispensers on entry to the MDR is more like 80% of people, though one would like it to be 100% of course. It could be a lot lower on the bigger ships, though - I don't have any experience of those. I try to avoid the buffet and also avoid food that you have to use your hands for (including toast and bread rolls). I've been lucky enough so far never to have had norovirus on a cruise.

Edited April 27 by jh1809

[david63]

10 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

My own guesstimate for Aurora and Arcadia is that using the hand gel dispensers on entry to the MDR is more like 80% of people, though one would like it to be 100% of course. It could be a lot lower on the bigger ships, though

I would guess that on those two ships there is a greater percentage of "experienced" cruisers who are aware of the problems whereas on the bigger ships there will probably be a large percentage of "new" cruisers who are no aware of these problems.

[daiB]

17 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

True, but most land based locations deal with it better than cruise ships. 

No they don’t land establishments do not have to deal with the situation at all. Schools cinemas, restaurants, pop concerts all get rid of peop0le at the end of the night and are unaware of any problem. On a ship they have to deal with the problem.

[kalos]

2 hours ago, seahorse001 said:

Oh dear. All the P & O ships I have been on have NEVER enforced washing hands anywhere on the ship. I personally witnessed people entering the buffet going in and out with food & not washing their hands.Also in toilets .In MDR there is hand gel on reception. I guestimate 10% of people used it & staff did not challenge them. SOME passengers are disgusting 🤮

 

and some staff 

[kruzseeka]

On 4/25/2024 at 8:21 PM, gsmt47471015 said:

I have the utmost sympathy for your enforced delay , however it is not just Aurora , we got off Arcadia after 99 nights and its fair to say that infections were plentiful ( of all descriptions)and increased in the last three weeks of the cruise , it says something when the Captain announced that anyone not adhering to basic hygiene requests would be put off the ship, and indeed 

they were, we never used the lifts and never once touched any grab or handrails during the whole voyage ,even when the ship was rolling all over, and still succumbed in the last few days and got off the ship with infections of varying descriptions which we are still suffering with. Honestly I do not know what the answer to this problem is but feel that earlier ,and strictly enforced standard hygiene practices perhaps would have minimized the spread , it must be stated that as passengers were flying into the ship and embarking at numerous ports this will not have helped ( passengers next door to us were isolating with sickness etc within an hour of embarking) 

I do wish you a speedy embarkation and hopefully a healthy cruise😃

Well I'm pleased to say that we've just returned from the 12 night Norway cruise on Arcadia which followed on from your return and there was no evidence of NV onboard. 👍

 

We also had a 90 minute delay wrt boarding tmes whilst additional cleaning took place.  We arrived about 20 mins before our designated time (2 pm revised from 12.30) and boarded immediately to find quite a few already on board.  I think they began embarking at 1.30.  We spoke to someone who had come by coach and there had been no revised departure time for them so they arrived about 2.00 and boarded immediately.  He said it was the fastest boarding they'd known!  There was quite a wait to gain access to cabins but it all seemed to work well and I didn't hear any complaints. 

 

The Capt and Hotel Manager were very up-front about the infections prior to our embarkation and frequently reiterated the need for hand washing and compliance.  Enhanced procedures in the buffet were in place and you couldn't help yourself to teas/coffees - staff would make those at your request.  

 

After about 3/4 (?) days an announcement was made that here had been no reported infections so normal service was resumed in the buffet.  We didn't get any indication later in the cruise that there was as a recurrence. 

 

So hats off to their procedures and compliant passengers.  We had been a little apprehensive beforehand but had a good cruise and thankfully no infections. 

 

I m

 

 

 

 

 

We too 

 

[gsmt47471015]

38 minutes ago, kruzseeka said:

Well I'm pleased to say that we've just returned from the 12 night Norway cruise on Arcadia which followed on from your return and there was no evidence of NV onboard. 👍

 

We also had a 90 minute delay wrt boarding tmes whilst additional cleaning took place.  We arrived about 20 mins before our designated time (2 pm revised from 12.30) and boarded immediately to find quite a few already on board.  I think they began embarking at 1.30.  We spoke to someone who had come by coach and there had been no revised departure time for them so they arrived about 2.00 and boarded immediately.  He said it was the fastest boarding they'd known!  There was quite a wait to gain access to cabins but it all seemed to work well and I didn't hear any complaints. 

 

The Capt and Hotel Manager were very up-front about the infections prior to our embarkation and frequently reiterated the need for hand washing and compliance.  Enhanced procedures in the buffet were in place and you couldn't help yourself to teas/coffees - staff would make those at your request.  

 

After about 3/4 (?) days an announcement was made that here had been no reported infections so normal service was resumed in the buffet.  We didn't get any indication later in the cruise that there was as a recurrence. 

 

So hats off to their procedures and compliant passengers.  We had been a little apprehensive beforehand but had a good cruise and thankfully no infections. 

 

I m

 

 

 

 

 

We too 

 

Glad to hear all now appears to be calming down, I do feel a lot of sympathy for the staff as they do all they can to stop the spread of infections, however if a minority of passengers are incapable of basic hygiene ( and from what I witnessed they are) they are fighting a losing battle, towards the end of our cruise fellow passengers were bringing to task those that would not comply, it did make trying to get drinks in the buffet a long winded affair

7 hours ago, seahorse001 said:

Oh dear. All the P & O ships I have been on have NEVER enforced washing hands anywhere on the ship. I personally witnessed people entering the buffet going in and out with food & not washing their hands.Also in toilets .In MDR there is hand gel on reception. I guestimate 10% of people used it & staff did not challenge them. SOME passengers are disgusting 🤮

 

[jeanlyon]

6 hours ago, jh1809 said:

My own guesstimate for Aurora and Arcadia is that using the hand gel dispensers on entry to the MDR is more like 80% of people, though one would like it to be 100% of course. It could be a lot lower on the bigger ships, though - I don't have any experience of those. I try to avoid the buffet and also avoid food that you have to use your hands for (including toast and bread rolls). I've been lucky enough so far never to have had norovirus on a cruise.

BUT the handgel doesn't deal with noro!  And anyway you can wash your hands, then touch a surface and bingo you have it.  Having said that I have never caught noro on any of our cruises.

[Clodia]

I am allergic to the hand gel and cannot use it, and have never caught anything in 25 years of cruising, because I wash my hands all the time. In fact I have to take a special hand cream because the soap and water makes them dry. A friend who is a nurse tells me that this  is the correct way to avoid infections as much as possible.

Edited April 27 by Clodia
typo

[Snow Hill]

9 hours ago, daiB said:

No they don’t land establishments do not have to deal with the situation at all. Schools cinemas, restaurants, pop concerts all get rid of peop0le at the end of the night and are unaware of any problem. On a ship they have to deal with the problem.

My local school primary school was closed for 2 days after a Norovirus outbreak a few years ago, doesn’t disappear overnight. My brother runs a cleaning business, they deal with land based outbreaks of various viruses and to do the job properly can take many hours. 
 

He has said many times you can’t deep clean a cruise ship fully in a few hours. 

Edited April 27 by Snow Hill

[Snow Hill]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

BUT the handgel doesn't deal with noro!  And anyway you can wash your hands, then touch a surface and bingo you have it.  Having said that I have never caught noro on any of our cruises.

We haven’t caught it on a cruise either, but then we spend much of our time off ship where ever possible. I have caught it twice in the last 15 years, once when cleaning my late moms flat after she went down with it, despite latex gloves and a mask and other precautions. The second time as after an outpatient visit to hospital, they had to close the department for a deep clean which took 2 days. 

[jh1809]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

BUT the handgel doesn't deal with noro!  And anyway you can wash your hands, then touch a surface and bingo you have it.  Having said that I have never caught noro on any of our cruises.

Yes, it's because of that risk that - as I said - I try to avoid any food items such as rolls and toast that you have to eat using your hands.

[Funboy]

On our recent cruise on Iona we rarely saw anyone washing hands entering the Horizon. We stood and watched as we washed our hands and when it was busy, especially at breakfast hardly anyone stopped to wash. Personally I would love to see staff at the entrances telling people they cannot enter without washing hands first.

 

[gsmt47471015]

8 hours ago, Funboy said:

On our recent cruise on Iona we rarely saw anyone washing hands entering the Horizon. We stood and watched as we washed our hands and when it was busy, especially at breakfast hardly anyone stopped to wash. Personally I would love to see staff at the entrances telling people they cannot enter without washing hands first.

 

This is exactly what was happening on Arcadia, staff were stationed at the hand wash facility but so many passengers argued or ignored them or said ,"were just passing through, or I've just washed my hands" that staff didn't enforce it, with the exception of one staff member who would not let anyone pass until they washed their hands , the grief she got was incredible but she stuck to her guns, unfortunately she was only there a few times and passengers went around the other side to avoid her.

Only when the captain announced that it was his orders to wash hands and his orders to make staff  take note of cabin numbers etc of those who refused to comply did you see 100% compliance , personally my thoughts have always been that this action from the start could have helped matters .

The obvious conclusion is that a captain should not have to resort to these measures and that some peoples dirty habits have a major impact on other passengers and crew☹️    

[AchileLauro]

I was on one of the first P&O cruises where Noro virus really hit the news, Canberra in 1986.

I was extremely ill with it but it only hit me while travelling home so didn't actually effect my enjoyment of the cruise. It affected my immune system and I seems to go down with every bug known to man for the next 6 months, or so it seemed.

Environmental health officers from Southampton were put on board for a cruise a short time later, my in-laws happily told anyone who would listen that they shared a table in the MDR with them every evening.

 

We have been on a couple of cruises since then where there have been outbreaks of the virus, even one on Aurora where specialist cleaning teams were flown out to Naples to join the ship. Fortunately I haven't succumbed to the virus as yet for a second time but I live in dread of it. That is why it annoys me so much when passengers (mainly old passengers in my experience) aren't prepared to abide by the most basic of hygiene requirements, these people are so selfish.

 

It also annoyed me when observing a couple of female members of the crew supposedly washing down handrails and walls in the corridor outside Andersons early one morning were more concerned with carrying on a conversation rather than doing what they were supposed to be doing. This was the very same cruise where specialist cleaners had been flown in. I am an early riser and was sat in the corner of Andersons and watched them for at least five minutes going through the pretense of washing down but did not once wash their cloths out in that time.

Controlling the virus on a ship depends on both the adherence of basic hygiene precautions by passengers and conscientious cleaning staff.