Gate1 response to Noro Virus complaint

[p598738]

Our Rhine cruise in September was a disaster. Virtually everyone on board was sick due to a 'Noro' virus. It was known to be on the ship (MS Deutschland) and the shipping line had been unable to correct the situation after multiple attempts.

 

I complained that the shipping line and/or Gate 1 should have informed us of the problem and given us an option to cancel. They did not. Their response letter follows. I would appreciate and comments in general and particularly on the Viking, GCL and Unitour ships. Thanks much.

 

Gate 1 answer to my complaint:

 

Once again thank you very much for your comments about your River Cruise travel with us.

 

Our clients entrust us with their contact information and it is our responsibility to respect their privacy and not share information, as we protect your name and address in the same matter. Our cruise logs also may contain private information that we are not at liberty to divulge.

 

The vessel had a doctor on board for several weeks to ensure that all guidelines were followed accordingly. The managing director of the cruise ensured that a notice was placed in each cabin to advise that our passengers accordingly of the measures that should be taken.

The cruise director report does mention that on September 24th at 7:15am you advised the reception that you were not feeling well, but after that no further contact was made with the reception staff.

 

It is our understanding that other ships on the Rhine were affected, to include Viking as well as GCL and Unitours. After review of the information presented and evaluating of collective data, the WTO through Robert-Koch-Institute would have halted all passenger traffic on the rivers, had they deemed this measure necessary.

 

Gate 1 cannot be held responsible if passengers become ill during travel, their are many outside circumstances that effect each passenger that is out of the control of any cruise line or tour operator.

 

Naturally we wish there was never cause for disappointment on any Gate 1 services. However, as we do look forward to seeing you on a future Gate 1 Travel holiday, please accept our additional goodwill credit of $75.00 per person which may be used towards your next escorted or guided tour or cruise to any destination. Gate 1 will honor this travel credit through June 30, 2009. Please refer to this correspondence at the time of reservation to ensure the proper credit is applied.

 

We look forward to having the opportunity for you travel with us again in the very near future.

 

Sincerely,

 

Gate 1

[steamboats]

Paul,

 

To be honest, I didn´t expect any other answer. The cruise company is not repsonsible for the noro virus (although you can question what kind of action they have taken to get rid of this problem). It is usually no reason to cancel a cruise. Especially on a small river cruise ship it is a problem to get that kind of virus under control. And because of its size a virus can spread within seconds on a river cruise ship.

 

No cruise line will pay you any money (blue water ships do have the same problem). We did receive an information sheet when we boarded RCCL´s Grandeur of the Seas this April regarding the noro virus as there were some cases two weeks prior to our cruise.

 

In nearly every case a sick passenger coming aboard is spreading the virus.

 

I don´t know what the WTO should be able to do in such a case of Noro virus. Neither the WTO nor the Robert Koch Institut is not able to shut down river traffic. This is not within their responsibilty. The Robert Koch Institut just an statal organization collection the information and spreading it. Noro virus cases have to be reported by the doctors to the Robert Koch Institut by law. But usually there are no actions taken. So IMHO this part of the answer is completely nonsense.

 

BTW news reported today that an elementary school in Munich closed down today after reporting 100 Noro virus cases within less than a week. They are sanitizing the whole building over the weekend. But that´s been the decision of the school authorities.

 

Another piece of nonsense in Gate 1´s reply is "Unitours". The company is called Uniworld.

 

It is pretty hard to fight against the Noro virus. Any kind of sanitizer you can buy over here in Germany won´t be strong enough to eliminate this virus. The use of chlorine is not allowed in public areas which are not closed to public during the usage.

 

Here in Germany we don´t take that problem pretty serious (but we better should). And I definitely agree that the onboard mangement wasn´t pretty good. At least they hired a doctor to care for the passengers. But there are things you can do like

 

- sanitizing the cabins on turn over day (which might mean that new passengers are not able to get into their cabin for a certain time)

- stop everything buffet like food but serve everything

- clean every kind of rails frequently

- close all public restrooms

- quarantine every sick passenger (any maybe offer empty cabins to their not sick travel companions)

 

But: river cruise ships do not have a high crew - passenger ratio. This means everyone has his duties and there is no space and time for any extras. Many of the above actions do need more staff and staff is pretty expensive.

 

I´m not a fan of sanitizing sprays, sanitizing wet wipes, hand sanitizers. IMHO this is more cosmetics than really effective and the virus does survive any of those products. But anyway a hand sanitizer does at least calm down the feelings of the passengers and is showing some sort of reaction.

 

Here are two articles from this website about the Norovirus problem on cruise ships:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseplanning/articles.cfm?ID=61

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2028

 

I totally understand that your cruise experience was more a disaster and I´m totally feeling with you. I´m definitely sure that the onboard mangement might have not taken enough action to fight the problem (mainly because here in Germany we don´t regard this as a big problem). But an US travel company should be aware that here in Germany we aren´t as sensible to this topic as their US customers are. And therefore I think their should have been more action.

 

steamboats

[p598738]

Thanks Steamboats. You comments are very good ones. Our major complaint is that we think we were lied to both while on the ship and by Gate1 since our return.

 

We were told both on the ship and since our return that the Rhine is rife specifically with the 'Noro'. I am not talking about resporatory or other viruses, just the 'Noro'. We are certain that this ship was essentially the only one infected with this particular virus.

 

Can anyone help me prove or disprove this ?? I can't find any other reports of 'Noro' on the Rhine this summer. Thanks

[letsgo39]

Dh and I cruised Budapest to Amsterdam with Avalon in July and there were no problems with the Noro Virus on our ship. A few people did have colds but that really can't be blamed on the cruise line as people get colds all the time.

 

I've been on this board on a regular basis since last year and I don't recall anyone else complaining that they had the noro Virus on their river cruise this year.