Cruise ship returning early to Florida after 277 sickened

[JacksinPA]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-to-florida-after-277-sickened-idUSKCN1P42KV

(Reuters) - A cruise ship will return to Florida a day early after 277 guests and crew suffered from gastrointestinal illness since departing on Sunday, Royal Caribbean Cruises said on Thursday.

All guests aboard the Oasis of the Seas, which will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, will receive full refunds, Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesman Owen Torres said in an emailed statement.
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This is the reason I have never taken a cruise or plan to in the future: locked aboard a virtual plague ship with other sick people for days. Not a pleasant picture. Not what you paid a lot of $$$ to experience.

 

[Daisy]

I'm with you...never had a desire to go on a cruise because I get motion sickness and now, because of so many outbreaks of the stomach bug on them...

 

[Hawkeye10]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-to-florida-after-277-sickened-idUSKCN1P42KV

(Reuters) - A cruise ship will return to Florida a day early after 277 guests and crew suffered from gastrointestinal illness since departing on Sunday, Royal Caribbean Cruises said on Thursday.

All guests aboard the Oasis of the Seas, which will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, will receive full refunds, Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesman Owen Torres said in an emailed statement.
==========================================
This is the reason I have never taken a cruise or plan to in the future: locked aboard a virtual plague ship with other sick people for days. Not a pleasant picture. Not what you paid a lot of $$$ to experience.

If it is fully loaded there are over 8,000 people aboard, so 277 is not that many in percentage basis....why ruin the run for everyone?

 

[Acadia]

But on a nice ship, when everything goes right, cruises can be amazing experiences. There's nothing quite like it when it comes to scenery.
Frankly, the biggest danger is to one's waistline.

 

[Xelor]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-to-florida-after-277-sickened-idUSKCN1P42KV

(Reuters) - A cruise ship will return to Florida a day early after 277 guests and crew suffered from gastrointestinal illness since departing on Sunday, Royal Caribbean Cruises said on Thursday.

All guests aboard the Oasis of the Seas, which will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, will receive full refunds, Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesman Owen Torres said in an emailed statement.
==========================================
This is the reason I have never taken a cruise or plan to in the future: locked aboard a virtual plague ship with other sick people for days. Not a pleasant picture. Not what you paid a lot of $$$ to experience.

Red:
Is there some reason to think the illness is contagious?

 

[Acadia]

If it is fully loaded there are over 8,000 people aboard, so 277 is not that many in percentage basis....why ruin the run for everyone?

Viruses like noro are increcibly infectious. Another day and the number could have doubled.

 

[Acadia]

Red:
Is there some reason to think the illness is contagious?

The "usual suspects" with regards to cruise ship breakouts are very contagious. You do NOT want to experience noro!
Once suspected, the whole ship has to be disinfected industrially.

 

[Jetboogieman]

This kind of stuff is one of the drawbacks of cruising, cruise lines have tried very hard to stop things like Norovirus but somehow it still gets in there and wreaks havoc.

But cruising when things go right, is actually pretty awesome, did a few in my youth, great time.

 

[Rexedgar]

Red:
Is there some reason to think the illness is contagious?

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_the_stomach_flu_gastroenteritis_contagious/article.htm


Yeah, known from experience...



We have done both “free-style” travel and cruising. Free-style to me is renting a car and heading out with hotel reservations strategically placed. It is awesome for younger folk; one of the drawbacks is the constant packing and unpacking. Cruising gets you to places that you would not normally see and affords you the comfort of not having to pack/unpack every few days. We have experienced a bout of Norovirus and the entire ship was turned upside down. All the food routines were changed and monitored and we worked through it. The missus was knocked down for a few days, but the crew managed and limited the effects. If more people used the hand sanitizer stations all over the boat. Granted this was a smaller line, less than 300 passengers.

 

[UtahBill]

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_the_stomach_flu_gastroenteritis_contagious/article.htm


Yeah, known from experience...



We have done both “free-style” travel and cruising. Free-style to me is renting a car and heading out with hotel reservations strategically placed. It is awesome for younger folk; one of the drawbacks is the constant packing and unpacking. Cruising gets you to places that you would not normally see and affords you the comfort of not having to pack/unpack every few days. We have experienced a bout of Norovirus and the entire ship was turned upside down. All the food routines were changed and monitored and we worked through it. The missus was knocked down for a few days, but the crew managed and limited the effects. If more people used the hand sanitizer stations all over the boat. Granted this was a smaller line, less than 300 passengers.

Less than 300 got sick, there are usually thousands aboard....
We cruise a lot, never got sick. But I do usually gain about a pound per day...

 

[Xelor]

The "usual suspects" with regards to cruise ship breakouts are very contagious. You do NOT want to experience noro!
Once suspected, the whole ship has to be disinfected industrially.

What pathogens are the "usual suspects?"

 

[Xelor]

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_the_stomach_flu_gastroenteritis_contagious/article.htm


Yeah, known from experience...



We have done both “free-style” travel and cruising. Free-style to me is renting a car and heading out with hotel reservations strategically placed. It is awesome for younger folk; one of the drawbacks is the constant packing and unpacking. Cruising gets you to places that you would not normally see and affords you the comfort of not having to pack/unpack every few days. We have experienced a bout of Norovirus and the entire ship was turned upside down. All the food routines were changed and monitored and we worked through it. The missus was knocked down for a few days, but the crew managed and limited the effects. If more people used the hand sanitizer stations all over the boat. Granted this was a smaller line, less than 300 passengers.

Red:
Sounds roughly like what my father, siblings, friends and I called "summer tour" or what Momma and my son called their "gap year." It's what we did the summer after graduating from high school and before college started, or in the case of a "gap year," the whole year prior to starting one's freshman year. About the only thing that differed is that the only cars involved were, for the most part, train cars.

Momma and Dad did their trips "old school" -- book a cushy suite for a month and use the hotel as "home base" and travel by train from it in various directions for a few days or a week or so before moving on to a new hotel and city. My siblings and I did it by landing on one end of Europe 'city hopping" by train, staying at whatever place we could find that was cheap but "decent enough."

Truly I couldn't then or now imagine traveling the Momma and Dad did. Just dealing with the luggage would alone have been more hassle than we would have willingly suffered.

 

[JacksinPA]

Red:
Is there some reason to think the illness is contagious?

You bet: https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/index.html. Noravirus is extremely contagious.

 

[Acadia]

What pathogens are the "usual suspects?"

iirc, Legionaires and norovirus. Both really contagious.
I enjoy cruising and recently went on one. There are hand washers and Purell dispensers everywhere. I'd really hate to be stuck on a ship with a big breakout. Misery!

 

[Xelor]

You bet: https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/index.html. Noravirus is extremely contagious.

iirc, Legionaires and norovirus. Both really contagious.
I enjoy cruising and recently went on one. There are hand washers and Purell dispensers everywhere. I'd really hate to be stuck on a ship with a big breakout. Misery!

Thank you.

 

[Xelor]

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_the_stomach_flu_gastroenteritis_contagious/article.htm


Yeah, known from experience...



We have done both “free-style” travel and cruising. Free-style to me is renting a car and heading out with hotel reservations strategically placed. It is awesome for younger folk; one of the drawbacks is the constant packing and unpacking. Cruising gets you to places that you would not normally see and affords you the comfort of not having to pack/unpack every few days. We have experienced a bout of Norovirus and the entire ship was turned upside down. All the food routines were changed and monitored and we worked through it. The missus was knocked down for a few days, but the crew managed and limited the effects. If more people used the hand sanitizer stations all over the boat. Granted this was a smaller line, less than 300 passengers.

Thank you.

 

[Mr Person]

Never want to take a cruise.

We'll save up and do a proper vacation on our own terms. The last thing I want to do is be stuck on a boat, no matter how many casinos, movie theatres, restaurants, and bars, when I don't want to be. Ok, second-to-last. The last thing I want to do is pay money to visit a place then get told I have X hours in it.

**** that. I'll decide where and what I feel like doing, what my schedule is, etc.

 

[Bodi]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-to-florida-after-277-sickened-idUSKCN1P42KV

(Reuters) - A cruise ship will return to Florida a day early after 277 guests and crew suffered from gastrointestinal illness since departing on Sunday, Royal Caribbean Cruises said on Thursday.

All guests aboard the Oasis of the Seas, which will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, will receive full refunds, Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesman Owen Torres said in an emailed statement.
==========================================
This is the reason I have never taken a cruise or plan to in the future: locked aboard a virtual plague ship with other sick people for days. Not a pleasant picture. Not what you paid a lot of $$$ to experience.

These people are totally selfish and hopefully there are protest groups there to meet and boo them when they depart the ship.

Ruining the trip for everybody else... that is bull ****.

 

[Bodi]

Red:
Is there some reason to think the illness is contagious?

Pretty much every illness is contagious...

 

[JacksinPA]

iirc, Legionaires and norovirus. Both really contagious.
I enjoy cruising and recently went on one. There are hand washers and Purell dispensers everywhere. I'd really hate to be stuck on a ship with a big breakout. Misery!

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers have recently been identified as a health threat as pathogenic bacteria have been found that have developed a resistance to alcohol. It's Darwinian evolution & the survival of the fittest. Different strains or species of bacteria readily exchange resistance genes via horizontal gene transfer.

 

[Acadia]

If it is fully loaded there are over 8,000 people aboard, so 277 is not that many in percentage basis....why ruin the run for everyone?

The number of cases doubled by the time the ship returned. That's why.

 

[Bum]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-to-florida-after-277-sickened-idUSKCN1P42KV

(Reuters) - A cruise ship will return to Florida a day early after 277 guests and crew suffered from gastrointestinal illness since departing on Sunday, Royal Caribbean Cruises said on Thursday.

All guests aboard the Oasis of the Seas, which will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, will receive full refunds, Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesman Owen Torres said in an emailed statement.
==========================================
This is the reason I have never taken a cruise or plan to in the future: locked aboard a virtual plague ship with other sick people for days. Not a pleasant picture. Not what you paid a lot of $$$ to experience.

277 people hanging over the ships rails feeding the fish does not make for a pleasant trip.

 

[Helix]

Viruses like noro are increcibly infectious. Another day and the number could have doubled.

yep. all it takes is one sick person preparing or serving food, and then it's off to the races. cruises seem to be a good incubator for that sort of thing.

 

[Hawkeye10]

The number of cases doubled by the time the ship returned. That's why.

Because the ship takes at least a day to go though the disinfecting process, and they want to be ready to start the next cruise ontime.

Cruse Lines cant do this too often if many people take them up on a free cruise, which is the standard offer.