Sick passengers threaten to sue cruise-ship lineSusan Lazaruk
The Province
Friday, August 02, 2002
the province
Workers wear gloves and masks to handle passengers' luggage.
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George and Marian Dackenstoes, who became sick with the virus.
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(George) Cataldo
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The cruise ship Ryndam, after it berthed at Canada Place yesterday.
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Irate passengers who became sick while cruising to Alaska on the twice-stricken ship Ryndam are threatening to sue Holland America for their ruined vacations.
"There were a lot of angry people on board that ship," said California lawyer Todd Melnik, who sailed the seven- day Alaska cruise with six family members, five of whom were struck by the Norwalk- type stomach virus.
"My one-year-old nephew was dehydrated -- he had diarrhea for four days and the dry heaves," said Melnik, who collected names from 90 people willing to consider joining a class-action lawsuit.
"There needs to be generous compensation, and I think we would be more effective dealing with Holland America as a group rather than individually," Melnik said from his L.A. office late yesterday. "We were all put at risk."
On the previous sailing of the Ryndam, 170 passengers had suffered through the bug.
"They didn't inform us until we got on board and they didn't make it seem all that big a deal," said Melnik. "They just said make sure you wash your hands."
He said the cruise line should have given passengers the option of cancelling.
Some 243 passengers and crew on the latest cruise were stricken by the common virus, which causes a swift attack of diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pains and fever that lasts for 24 to 48 hours. It's spread by person-to-person contact and through contaminated food or water. It can be spread through the air, for instance, if someone is in close contact with an ill person's vomit.
"I called before we left and they would not tell us anything," said Mary-Lou McCaffery of Lebanon, Penn., who wasn't ill but whose travelling companions were.
"I never washed my hands so much in my life," said McCaffery. "And I prayed a lot. But I felt very uneasy. The sick people in our group, they were told to drink lots of ginger ale and then they charged them $1.75 [US] a can."
She expects the cruise line to compensate them with free trips.
George Cataldo, 78, a plumber from Springhill, Fla., who was sick for four days, said: "I never vomited so much in my life. All I could eat was crackers. And they ran out of crackers.
"There are people talking about a class action and you bet I'm going to be in on it. I didn't take a cruise to get sick for four days."
George Dackenstoes, also of Lebanon, Penn., said he was now feeling "as slick as a hair on a frog's back" and his bout with the bug was "short-lived but nasty."
His wife Marian, who suffered nausea, said: "You were afraid to get in an elevator. You were afraid to touch the handrails."
One day, they had to step around a pool of vomit in front of an elevator, she said.
Diane Todd of Champaign, Ill., said she was sick for 24 hours and it didn't ruin her cruise.
"The staff were great, we had a wonderful trip," she said.
Just as disappointed as those coming off the ship were those who showed up expecting to board for yesterday's cancelled
5 p.m. sailing because the cruise line couldn't contact 200 of the 1,300 passengers.
John and Marge Kress, who travelled from Wisconsin for the cruise to mark their 30th anniversary, found out the Ryndam wouldn't be sailing when they pulled up in a cab.
"It was like hitting a brick wall," said Marge. "And we saw a family of 13 from Israel with a baby crying and another couple with a guy who was being treated for cancer. It's just a mess."
"We're really bummed," said John, who noted they'd heard the night before of a cruise being cancelled but assumed it wasn't theirs.
"What really makes me mad is that our travel agent knew there was a virus on the other sailing but didn't tell us," he said.
It's an industry-wide policy that no refunds are given within days before the sailing, and Holland America wasn't offering refunds last week.
Fares for yesterday's cancelled trip, which run from $1,800 to $2,900 in high season, will be refunded and passengers will get a voucher for future travel, said Rose Abello of Holland America.
She said company and health officials were confident they had eliminated the virus during the ship's nine-hour turnover last week.
"We believed it made sense to continue sailing," she said. "It's disappointing to us to have customers falling ill. This impacted fewer than 13 per cent of the passengers; 87 per cent of the folks had a great trip."
The Ryndam is to be docked on the North Shore where its crew of 560 will decontaminate it, said Harsh Thakore of Health Canada, which is supervising the cleaning with the U.S. Center for Disease Control.
Items such as bedding will be soaked in a bleach solution, which will also be used to wipe down hard surfaces such as railings and doorknobs, said Thakore. Hydrogen peroxide will be used on non- bleachable items. Other items, such as pillows, will be destroyed.
The ship is expected to sail again Aug. 8.
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