Glory 9-27 noro????

[sublime118]

We were on the Glory last week, and half way through the sailing they started serving the buffet's. My wife is really sick with flu-like symptoms. Heard lots and lots of rumors (60 people quarantined to their rooms etc.) Anyone got the inside scoop????

[DqALEX]

Thats always a fear of mine while cruising

[LRY229]

Were just off the Glory 9/27 and unfortunately several in our party were sick. Mine started early Sunday morning and I didn't leave my room until Friday. I never made it off the ship at any of the ports. My Mom also got sick on Wed. Everyone my family talked to seemed to have someone in their party sick. We did hear that quite a few were quarantined.

 

Otherwise, the rest of my family had a great cruise.

[sublime118]

Sorry to hear that. Do you know what it was??? Did you happen to speak to anyone about it (Purser, doctor, etc)???

[kcj693]

We just got back from our cruise today on the Glory. We talked to someone who was sick and was quarantined in their cabin for two days. We heard it was over 100 people who were sick. We saw many red biohazard bags in the hallway on Deck 2 with towels and room service dishes in the bags. We were told by friends that a person died on the first full day after Nassau. When we got to St. Thomas, an ambulance pulled up to the ship before anyone got off.

[BND]

Noro is just another name for the stomach virus that all of us have had at one time or another. This happens everywhere. No one pays much attention when multiple people miss work for a stomach bug. 100 out of 3000 isn't that many. It's actually probably a lower percentage than are out of work in any given day. It's only 3.3%.

 

Also, if someone died, it probably wasn't from Noro unless they were elderly and had complications or had a suppressed immune system. Noro rarely kills anyone.

[93kompressor]

Oh how sad!!! What was it!!! I sure feel sorry for those that were sick and I hope they get it all cleaned out!!!

[kcj693]

Sorry to imply the person died from Noro...nothing to do with that. I figured heart attack or something like that. There were A LOT of seniors on this boat.

[Hurricane Girl]

I hate to hear that someone else died on the Glory. That makes one on each of the last 2 sailings on her. How sad.

[henepup]

I got Noro once. Picked it up at work, I work at a casino. You can get it anywhere.

Henepup

[fllady61]

One of the best preventions is to make sure you use a hand sanatizer frequently. I sometimes clean my slot machine before I play it with a baby wipe or something.

 

I am sure if it were a crew member that started it, they were also quarentined. It only takes 1 to start a major or minor thing.

 

Probably why this morning at 1130 - 1200 you did not see anyone on the ship via the radisson web cam. They were probably cleaning every inch of the ship.

 

I am sorry so many had a bad week. My DH was in the cabin on our 3 night cruise for the main part of the cruise last year. NOT noro, but a flu he picked up at work and when he got on the ship it hit him.

 

I am also so sorry someone died. Like the OP said, probably from a heart attack, or just natural causes. never know.

[pryd]

Noro is just another name for the stomach virus that all of us have had at one time or another. This happens everywhere. No one pays much attention when multiple people miss work for a stomach bug. 100 out of 3000 isn't that many. It's actually probably a lower percentage than are out of work in any given day. It's only 3.3%.

 

I am not a Doctor or a nurse but I am almost certain that the Norovirus is not the same as the Influenza virus. From what my physician say's, the Noro Virus can be more severe and dehydrating than the run of the mill Influenza.

 

or to put it scientifically:

Noroviruses are the most commonly detected pathogen both in sporadic cases and outbreaks of gastroenteritis. They are particularly problematic in environments where groups congregate and infection can be rapidly transmitted through both faecal and vomitus routes. Outbreaks affect health care facilities worldwide, and may cause massive disruption to providing care, substantial economic loss, and, according to some reports, mortality in vulnerable patient populations [3–5]. As is typical of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, noroviruses are diverse. There are two main genogroups affecting humans and approximately 15 genotypes within these groups, with substantial genetic heterogeneity between genogroups (60% divergence in the ORF2 major capsid protein) and genotypes within a genogroup (approximately 20%–30% divergence). At least since 1995 a single type—genotype II.4—has been the predominant circulating virus.

 

Yeah! I think they are different from each other

[BND]

Noro is just another name for the stomach virus that all of us have had at one time or another. This happens everywhere. No one pays much attention when multiple people miss work for a stomach bug. 100 out of 3000 isn't that many. It's actually probably a lower percentage than are out of work in any given day. It's only 3.3%.

 

I am not a Doctor or a nurse but I am almost certain that the Norovirus is not the same as the Influenza virus. From what my physician say's, the Noro Virus can be more severe and dehydrating than the run of the mill Influenza.

 

or to put it scientifically:

Noroviruses are the most commonly detected pathogen both in sporadic cases and outbreaks of gastroenteritis. They are particularly problematic in environments where groups congregate and infection can be rapidly transmitted through both faecal and vomitus routes. Outbreaks affect health care facilities worldwide, and may cause massive disruption to providing care, substantial economic loss, and, according to some reports, mortality in vulnerable patient populations [3–5]. As is typical of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, noroviruses are diverse. There are two main genogroups affecting humans and approximately 15 genotypes within these groups, with substantial genetic heterogeneity between genogroups (60% divergence in the ORF2 major capsid protein) and genotypes within a genogroup (approximately 20%–30% divergence). At least since 1995 a single type—genotype II.4—has been the predominant circulating virus.

 

Yeah! I think they are different from each other

 

Where did you get that from my post? I NEVER said Noro and the flu are the same thing. WHAT I said was that Noro is a stomach virus that people get all the time, which is NOT THE FLU. Influenza (the flu) is achy, fever, cough, not a stomach virus. BTW, Noro is actually less common on a cruise ship than it is in schools, nursing homes, and other locations.

 

What amazes me is people's reaction to getting sick on a cruise. NORO has become this urban legend of illnesses. It is just another virus that people can catch from each other, but some react as if it's the plague coming round again. Overall, it's a relatively mild illness that rarely lasts more than 48 hours and while it sucks to be sick on vacation, most people dont get a free pass to stay illness free just because they're on vacation.

[teedee]

Just got off the Glory yesterday. On Thursday they started serving everyone in the buffet. I actually heard someone complain about it too! That really shocked me. We had a wonderful cruise, none in our party got sick, but we heard about 100 people were treated in the infirmary.

 

Terri

[cp1824]

I was on the Glory on 9/27, I got Norovirus, and I was quarantined. It was an ordeal I wouldn't wish on anyone, especially on vacation.

 

First off, I was traveling with my two young children (3 years old and 7 months old) so I was already washing my hands 500 times a day and using Germ-X and not touching elevator buttons and handrails. I started having symptoms on Tuesday morning when we got to St. Thomas but I chalked them up to motion sickness. After a couple hours, it became evident it was much more than motion sickness. To make matters worse, I had to go through immigration and I was all the way up on the Panorama deck forward. Took me several attempts to make it down there with my baby and without exploding. By noonish, I was getting severely dehydrated and because I'm exclusively breastfeeding my infant, I knew I needed help or else she'd starve. I was unable to hold down anything at all.

 

I called the infirmary twice. It rang and rang, no answer. On my final attempt, I told them I thought I had norovirus and they told me to come down right away. I made it down there and there was no one at the front desk. After a few minutes, a nurse walked by breezily and said "we're busy!" and walked out, as if I was there for no reason. My husband got argumentative and they gave me some attention. They made me fill out some CDC paperwork (which I never got to finish, and they never followed up on) and told me I'd be quarantined. We talked to a few other patients and one thing we had in common was that we'd all had caesar salad. They brought me back to a room and told me to sit in a chair...next to a bed on which they were storing boxes! I made them clear the boxes off the bed so I could lay down. They gave me a shot of promethazine (Phenergan). I asked for an IV, and the physician had a great deal of trouble placing it, as if she'd never inserted one before. She didn't wear gloves, my blood was dripping off my arm and onto the floor, which no one cleaned up. I never saw anyone on staff wash their hands the whole time I was there. Indeed, I vomited, but fortunately I had brought my own ziploc bag! There was no soap in the bathroom. I can only imagine how many people I inadvertantly infected during my stay there.

 

The medical staff was woefully uninformed about breastfeeding, they told me to stay away from my infant, which is the totally wrong protocol. She's never had a bottle, she sure wouldn't start then, she doesn't take solids; and besides, where would I have gotten formula anyway? She needed the antibodies from me to avoid the norovirus, plus the hydration. In fact, she was the only one of us who didn't get sick in the end. I had to argue with the staff about what meds I could take, because I already knew the lactation risk categories of their meds, and their books were inaccurate and CYA. It was ridiculous that I had to argue with a physician about milk to plasma ratios while I was throwing up.

 

I had to get back to my infant, whom my husband was watching, so I left the infirmary before I felt better. Security insisted on escorting me to my room in a wheelchair. As soon as I got on the elevator, some jerks started heckling me: "whatsa matter honey, hung over?" I told them I had norovirus and that shut them up. By the time I returned to my cabin my husband was extremely ill and vomiting. The infimary had already delivered a letter to me indicating I was to be confined to my cabin for no less than 24-48 hours, during which they would waive the charges for in-room movies and soft drinks. They also flagged my sail and sign card and told me I could not leave the ship by order of the port authority, even if I wanted to fly home. I had to return to the infirmary for a recheck before they'd lift my quarantine restriction. During the quarantine, the info desk would call me every few hours to "check up" on me (i.e., make sure I was still confined to cabin). Our room steward virtually disappeared during the quarantine.

 

I recovered well enough to get the quarantine lifted the following day. My husband did not seek medical attention, so they did not know he was ill. I did not let my son return to Camp Carnival in case he was a carrier and asymptomatic. He had one loose stool and no vomiting.

 

I think Carnival could have handled the outbreak much better if they'd responded faster and with more urgency. Whenever I asked anyone (the nurses, the physician, the info desk) how many cases of norovirus there were aboard, I got a very minimized answer: "oh, a couple, no big deal." I personally observed at least 18 people in the infirmary presenting symptoms during my short stay, including at least one hospital transfer. This was Tuesday. Only by Thursday did they start serving at the buffets and wiping down areas with bleach. I saw many weary Carnival service staff members walking around with buckets of bleach and rags wiping everything down. And I saw an awful lot of room service trays with the red biohazard bags on them. The whole ship had a faint odor of sewage and bleach. At no time did Carnival ever notify the masses as to what was going on. I heard a great deal of rumor and innuendo swirling around. And the people in the infirmary who were ill weren't just the elderly, it was mostly young healthy-looking people. Had I known about an outbreak, I might have taken extra precautions. I know many of those suffering did not seek medical attention, perhaps they were unaware that GI issues are free to treat or they wanted to avoid quarantine. Maybe if Carnival let people know it wouldn't cost them to seek treatment in the infirmary for GI issues, they would be more inclined to do so, and therefore they'd receive the proper protocols for preventing transmission.

 

Finally, their medical staff needs some training regarding basic hygiene! Wearing gloves while inserting an IV, especially on a patient with norovirus, would go a long way! I can look past their ignorance about lactating patients, but they're lucky I'm not carrying some frightening blood bourne disease! And no soap in an infirmary bathroom during a noro outbreak is just wrong.

 

Other than the Norovirus and my experience in the infirmary, we enjoyed ourselves on the cruise. Everyone was very friendly and the service was exceptional. The food was excellent, it's a shame that I didn't really eat it for the majority of the cruise and now I'm home and recovered and having to cook for myself, ha! I did some research when I returned from my trip and found that the Glory is one of the cleaner ships so I'm really surprised the outbreak happened to begin with.

[Ms Belvedere]

I was on the Glory on 9/27, I got Norovirus, and I was quarantined. It was an ordeal I wouldn't wish on anyone, especially on vacation.

Other than the Norovirus and my experience in the infirmary, we enjoyed ourselves on the cruise. Everyone was very friendly and the service was exceptional. The food was excellent, it's a shame that I didn't really eat it for the majority of the cruise and now I'm home and recovered and having to cook for myself, ha! I did some research when I returned from my trip and found that the Glory is one of the cleaner ships so I'm really surprised the outbreak happened to begin with.

 

I"m sorry that you were sick on your cruise and glad to see that you had the sense to seek medical help. As far as the ship being clean, the virus is brought in by passengers or changing crew members, it doesn't originate on the ship itself.

 

You took the precautions that you could by washing your hands but it still found its way into your system. It was a huge inconvenience while on vacation; hopefully your next cruise or vacation will be better.

[cp1824]

I"m sorry that you were sick on your cruise and glad to see that you had the sense to seek medical help. As far as the ship being clean, the virus is brought in by passengers or changing crew members, it doesn't originate on the ship itself.

 

You took the precautions that you could by washing your hands but it still found its way into your system. It was a huge inconvenience while on vacation; hopefully your next cruise or vacation will be better.

 

I don't blame Carnival for what happened to me. $&it happens, literally, sometimes. I realize the virus doesn't originate from the ship itself but according to the CDC, the Glory already has protocols in place to limit the spread. I just didn't see them being followed this time, or with enough urgency.

 

The OP asked for "the inside scoop" and there it was. I hate to be one of those posters that has nothing but bad things to say in a post. I can say a lot of great things about the trip, but that's not the context of this particular thread.

[fllady61]

sounds to me like Carnival may have recently had an unsanitary crew member board the ship. To have so many in the past month get sick with noro.

 

Maybe Carnival needs to so some investigating of their own crew.

[BND]

You don't have to be "unsanitary" to catch or spread noro. It's a virus and it's everywhere. It just happens. There haven't been more in the last month. There are cases all over the world every day.

[xxjulzxx]

We were on this sailing, and someone in our party got it pretty bad.

She was quarantined to her room for about 24 hours.

After about 4 days, she did start to feel better.

They say a lot more folks had it that didn't seek medical help.

[Momma G]

I was on this sailing with several family members celebrating my husbands 50th. I became very sick Tuesday morning as well as my mother-in-law. We both went to the infirmary and were given medication for the nausea sent to our cabins and quarantined. I was released from quarantine the next day after being released from the infirmary. Interesting that my mother-in=law and I were the only ones in our group who ate the ceasar salad the night before.

 

A couple of sanitation issues that I noticed were a baby in the pool in a diaper as well as a woman exiting the pool with a large open wound on her leg. Needless to say we never again utilized any of the pools or jacuzzi's. Why isnt the crew enforcing sanitation standards?:eek:

[pe4all]

This is probably the one thing about traveling that always gives me the heebie-jeebies. As we usually cruise during Christmas, we always "hit" some kind of virus/flu on any ship we are on. Luckily (and that is all it is, imho - luck) no one in my family has ever been ill. But, even before cruising, when we were doing all-inclusives, they had the same problem. I truthfully think it has more to do with sanitary practices of not only the staff, but the vacationers as well. We have seen visitors do things that would turn your stomach. Being in enclosed spaces - well, I teach in an elementary school, and any teacher knows that during the first year of teaching you catch everything, until you build up immunities. And even then you still will get sick - but not so often. I feel terrible everytime I read/hear about noro on a ship. You can only do so much - it is hit and miss.

[angelkisses]

A previous poster stated, "perhaps they were unaware that GI issues are free to treat or they wanted to avoid quarantine. Maybe if Carnival let people know it wouldn't cost them to seek treatment in the infirmary for GI issues"

 

I was certainly not aware of this ... thanks for posting that information. I have heard they give out free sea sick pills but I didn't know the doctor would acutally see and treat you free of charge for stomach illnesses.

[happy cruzer]

Noro strikes many places. If you have not heard of it before, do a search on any of the CC boards and see you will see lots of reports. You can also go to the CDC site to see details.

 

One myth is that hand sanitizers will help or Lysol. Bleach is the only think that kills the viruse. Washing you hands for 1 minute in soapy water is also somewhat effective.

 

If you are worried do a little research, bottom line is that an infected person touchs a surface and then then someone else touchs the same surface and Noro gets spread. Airplanes are a very common area for a virus to spread. At least cruise ships have a staff that can go around bleaching surfaces.

 

Good Luck.

[seashell36]

We have had Noro hit our elementary school 3 out of the last 4 years. It takes out approximately 30-45% of the students and teachers. If you think about that number of kids taking the illness home to parents and siblings. You can see how it gets out of hand quickly. It has actually closed our school two of those years. It is a nasty bug! We don't have that many absences from the Flu.