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Topic: When deciding to return to port....

NWLB
First Class Passenger
Member # 1987

posted 01-28-2005 12:02 PM

With all the talk about the Norwalk virus I was wondering how many people would have to get sick, or what other factors the lines are taking into account when deciding to return a ship to port. What is the threshold they wait for?

Posts: 329 | From: Bowling Green, Ohio | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

Linerrich
First Class Passenger
Member # 4864

posted 01-28-2005 12:30 PM

I think it would be most unusual for a ship to return to port because people are sick, unless something like half the ship got the virus, which is unprecedented.

When I worked on ships, the rules were that if over 2% of the passengers reported symptons of diarrhea, it had to be reported to the CDC (Center for Disease Control.) This is usually when the event makes the news.

Posts: 4210 | From: Miami, FL | Registered: Jul 2004 | IP: Logged

Norfolk Boy
First Class Passenger
Member # 5387

posted 01-29-2005 12:28 PM

The level of Diarreahea & Vomiting (D&V) that must be reported to the CDC is still set at 2% of either passengers or crew or both combined, (whichever is reached first),. However there are no hard ad fast rules about returning to port. The decision would normally be based on what was making people ill, how fast it was spreading and where the ship is in the world. Only the company can make the decision.
Remember, the 2% figure is cumulative so, for example, if a ship with 1000 passengers you only need 20 people to get upset stomachs and you reach the magic number that the press will declare an outbreak. This is only 1 per day on a 3 week cruise, and when the ship actually reaches 2% there may only be 1 or 2 who are sick.
On the other hand if you get 10 or 15 (or more)on the same day there is clearly a problem on board.

Posts: 28 | From: Miami | Registered: Jan 2005 | IP: Logged

debm3553
First Class Passenger
Member # 3617

posted 01-30-2005 12:31 AM

Strange that this topic should be posted at this time. The Holland ship Veendam returned to the port of Tampa a day ahead of time(Jan28)due to the fact over 200 passengers had gotten sick on the cruise. They skipped Grand Cayman and came straight into port. The ship is getting a good scrubbing along with the fact that all bed linens and towels are being replaced with new. On the previous sailing 77 passengers were sick. There were a lot of disappointed and angry passengers. Passengers were compensated for Grand Cayman and those that were sick are receiving additional compensation based on their misery I guess.

Posts: 48 | From: Mulberry, FL. | Registered: Jan 2003 | IP: Logged

Malcolm @ cruisepage
Cruise Director
Member # 301

posted 01-30-2005 06:38 AM

quote:
Originally posted by debm3553:
The Holland ship Veendam returned to the port of Tampa a day ahead of time(Jan28)due to the fact over 200 passengers had gotten sick on the cruise.

What about the 1240 passenger who were not ill? I bet they are not pleased about returning home early.

I understand that the Norwalk virus is not particularly nice, but for healthy people it is not dangerous either. It passes within a few days.

Lets not forget it exists eslewhere such as shopping malls, airports, hotels, trains etc.

Posts: 19210 | From: Essex (Just Outside London) | Registered: A Long Time Ago! | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 01-30-2005 04:01 PM

I had what was very similar to the symptoms of Norwalk Virus on a Princess Cruise a few years ago. Princess totally tried to sweep the entire matter under a rug. I thought I was the only passenger that had taken ill the last day of the cruise when in fact there were many others. I only found this out as I limped off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale and spoke to several other 'green' passengers. I was furious at the line as when I called the ship's hospitol, they were rude and kept quoting me the cost of a doctor's visit. I explained to them it was THEIR food that made me sick and asked them if I would be refunded if they found this to be true. They of course said NO. Now I see why the lines avoid the topic and try to tell passengers to go away. A letter to Princess also yielded no answer-this after our 8th Princess Cruise!

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

Travellor
Just Boarded
Member # 5407

posted 03-28-2005 10:35 PM

You are right, there were a lot of disappointed passengers when the Veendam returned to Tampa early and missed Grand Cayman Island. With the virus on board the ship there were a lot of differences and changes to what we had experienced in past cruises. Once we returned to Tampa, we were not allowed off the ship unless we were disembarking. Since our flight back to Canada was not until the next day, we had to stay on the ship while it was in port in Tampa.

Posts: 1 | From: Winnipeg, MB, Canada | Registered: Jan 2005 | IP: Logged

Tom Burke
First Class Passenger
Member # 5238

posted 03-30-2005 07:37 AM

quote:
Lets not forget it exists eslewhere such as shopping malls, airports, hotels, trains etc.

Indeed so. My father (in his 80s) holidays once or twice a year with a company in the UK who specialise in coach/hotel holidays for old folks, and on one such holiday 18 months or so ago, the party was hit with a serious tummy bug. They were in Ireland, and by the end of the 5 days (for it was only a short holiday) almost one-third of the people had been ill (and about 10% still were). They were staying in a perfectly decent hotel in the Republic, which had apparently never had any such problem before.

They stayed until the end and then drove home. They were due to stay overnight at a hotel in N Wales (having got off the ferry at Holyhead late in the evening) but this hotel refused to allow them to stop - the holiday company had done what they were supposed to do by informing the hotel what the situation was. So the coach ploughed on; a relief coach driver was picked up on the welsh border (the 'official' driver was almost out of hours by then); and they arrived at the terminus at Coventry in the early hours of the morning. The holiday company then made sure that everyone had transport home, because of course they were now about 10 hours early. In the case of my dad & his wife, this was a taxi from Coventry to Oxfordshire, paid for by the company.

It emerged during the journey home that one of the holidaymakers had been ill the day before the holiday but had decided to go because she was 'feeling a bit better' on the morning of departure....

Posts: 1469 | From: Sheffield, UK | Registered: Dec 2004 | IP: Logged

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