How Much of a Germophobe are you?

The only precaution I take is frequent hand washing, especially in the following situations.

1. After using the restroom.

2. Before going to eat.

3. When returning from ports.

4. After handling animals.

5. Anytime I get my hands dirty.

Same here and I like using real soap & very warm water!

LuLu

I'm somewhere between 1 & 2. Of course I wash my hands, and other basic sanitary practices!!! And I do the squirt of sanitizer at the buffet and MDR, even though I know it won't stop some germs and viruses, but I don't usually carry any with me, don't wipe down our room and I do use doorknobs and handrails.

I'm basically healthy except for some allergies and once a year sinus infections. After teaching elementary school for 19 years, I think my immune system is in pretty good shape.`

I've noticed that the parents who are the most concerned about germs are often the ones with the sickest kids. I truly do believe we need to develop our immune system.

Of course, some people do need to be extra-careful for different reasons.

I was raised in a family of 5 kids in the 1950s. Mom kept a clean house but she didn't try to track down and kill every last germ. We got the usual colds and the childhood diseases that were considered normal back then (measles, mumps, chicken pox). All 5 of us are very healthy adults although my brother (who was only a toddler when he got chickenpox from the rest of us) gets shingles. I take about one sick day every 3 years at work.

I'm very lax about germs although I do wash my hands after using the bathroom. I try to remember that bugs like MRSA and other virulent antibiotic-resistant strains weren't around when I was a kid (they're the result of over-use of antibiotics, ironically).

My husband, OTOH, has to be very careful when we travel. He has one undersized lung (born that way), he's 75 and when he picks up a respiratory bug it can take him weeks to get rid of it. He's gotten them on the last 3 trips to Europe and we just know now that if it lingers for a few days after we get home, with signs of getting worse, it's time to get him to the doctor.

I don't think we'd like mega-ships. Too many people, too many germs from all over the world. A colleague moved to HK and told me that she'd never gotten sick while living/working in the US, but during her commute in HK she was exposed to so many people using the same elevator buttons, escalator handrails, etc. she was getting sick all the time till she started taking more precautions. Sounds like the same issue with the big cruise ships.

I'm a 1. I was taught to always wash my hands with soap and, if available, warm water and to sing "happy birthday" to be sure I took enough time to do a thorough wash. It was good enough for all us us prior to the Clorox-wipes-hand-sanitizer era, don't know why it wouldn't still be enough. God-forbid some of these people ever consider a Nile cruise!!! Toilets??? Try holes in the ground. Wait until I got back to the boat to use the toilet??? I can't "hold it" for hours. Now, I'll admit I used hand sanitizer there, but only because water was not readily available to wash with outside of the boat.

I only use hand sanitizer on large cruise ships only when forced to take a squirt by staff. I brave it and eat at the buffet - I'd rather make myself a salad to my liking for a meal.

I have asthma. I will now hang a large sign around my neck when cruising alerting fellow cruisers to the fact that I may cough due to asthma so you can avoid me. Unfamiliar, enclosed areas and inconsiderate women who douse themselves in perfume will give me coughing fits until my body adjusts to what is in the air. And, yes, I do cover my mouth when I cough...

God-forbid some of these people ever consider a Nile cruise!!! Toilets??? Try holes in the ground. Wait until I got back to the boat to use the toilet??? I can't "hold it" for hours. Now, I'll admit I used hand sanitizer there, but only because water was not readily available to wash with outside of the boat.

Yeah, I made several business trips to India and was a little more careful there, restricting my eating only to places that catered to the US/European market, our company cafeteria, and (once) McDonald's. I still didn't use hand sanitizer. And I never did figure out how to gracefully keep all the folds of my salwar kameez (the traditional tunic and scarf outfit) away from the squatty-potty.