Equinox illness 2/2015

Heard from friends yesterday who are currently on the Equinox. They said the special cleaning measures were in place for the first 4 days of the cruise but now all is ok. They were more concerned about the expensive drinks prices. I did tell them to choose the drinks package as their 123 go perk but they went for the obc instead! Oh well:confused:

Hey Rick! We are on the same route in Nov. If you would be so kind to keep a copy of the shore excursion flyer, we are still looking for something in Dominica.

EW

Will try to remember (as long as DW doesn't just throw them out like usual :rolleyes:). Booked the river tubing with Hybiscus falls. e-mail me at tordon "at" sympatico.ca so I can e-mail you back when I return (week of March 16th).

It's true that no one was allowed on the ship until 2 pm last Monday....We were the third and fourth passengers on (staying in a suite). Some had to wait until almost 5pm before they could board. We were dining in Silk Harvest when the word came that rooms were ready...we arrived at our cabin at 8:30 with one of our three bags in the room....the other two arrived by 9 pm...we were greeted by our butler shortly after getting to the room and we felt so sorry for him and all the crew. You could see total exhaustion on their faces even though they had smiles and warm greetings for everyone....no one was allowed to serve themselves in any of the dining areas until the fourth day....we along with everyone we spoke with understood that they had our health in mind....we have heard of no sickness so far but are constantly reminded to wash hands but as usual we have seen some who leave the bathroom without washing...we are ordering from room service more than usual top try to avoid poor hygiene in the ocean view cafe

Just saying. :)

Hey Rick! We are on the same route in Nov. If you would be so kind to keep a copy of the shore excursion flyer, we are still looking for something in Dominica.

EW

We did the culinary tour with rum tasting. Had a great time. One caution--the drive up is an adventure. Lot easier coming down after the rum.

We learned a lot about local cuisine and flavors.Had so much fun participating in the preparation. About 14 of us. There are two tours. We did the noon tour and it was just right for the lunch hour. Our finished meal was delicious.

Everyone is welcome to their own opinion. My opinion about calling out others 'loudly' is that at best it may possibly get them to change their behavior for that instance. I seriously doubt it changes anything going forward when you are not around to berate them. In fact, out of spite they may increase that type of behavior.

 

At worst, it also may get you into a very uncomfortable and perhaps even worse type of exchange. Honestly, if I were to walk past the hand sanitizer machine without using it because I know I just left the restroom after a thorough hand washing and I was loudly confronted and embarrassed I would report that behavior to the maître d' or someone else in charge. I do not pay a lot of money to go on cruises to have other passengers deliberately embarrass me in public because I do not meet their standards in some way (not that I would leave a restroom without washing hands, but still).

I'm not commenting about the hand sanitizer. I'm commenting about pax not following proper hygiene rules at the buffet or restroom. Sorry if it offends, but I'd rather correct someone in public, if necessary, than have them contaminate the food! How would regard it if your spouse picked up some food handled improperly & got sick a day later? I'd rather cause a bit of embarassment, than loads of people getting sick because of a few slovenly pax! I'm in the food industry & we had this guy stick his fingers in a buffet we were doing. when I asked him firmly to stop he got belligerent about it & eclaimed do you know who I am?? It turned out he was the "CFO" of the company. I got HR to deal with him & she publicly embarassed him in front of all the business assoc. The Co. President took him aside & throughly bitched the guy out. I guess rank & education doesn't always translate to proper behavior.

I'm not commenting about the hand sanitizer. I'm commenting about pax not following proper hygiene rules at the buffet or restroom. Sorry if it offends, but I'd rather correct someone in public, if necessary, than have them contaminate the food! How would regard it if your spouse picked up some food handled improperly & got sick a day later? I'd rather cause a bit of embarassment, than loads of people getting sick because of a few slovenly pax! I'm in the food industry & we had this guy stick his fingers in a buffet we were doing. when I asked him firmly to stop he got belligerent about it & eclaimed do you know who I am?? It turned out he was the "CFO" of the company. I got HR to deal with him & she publicly embarassed him in front of all the business assoc. The Co. President took him aside & throughly bitched the guy out. I guess rank & education doesn't always translate to proper behavior.

Good for you. Whatever happened to common sense?

Will try to remember (as long as DW doesn't just throw them out like usual :rolleyes:). Booked the river tubing with Hybiscus falls. e-mail me at tordon "at" sympatico.ca so I can e-mail you back when I return (week of March 16th).

We did the culinary tour with rum tasting. Had a great time. One caution--the drive up is an adventure. Lot easier coming down after the rum.

 

We learned a lot about local cuisine and flavors.Had so much fun participating in the preparation. About 14 of us. There are two tours. We did the noon tour and it was just right for the lunch hour. Our finished meal was delicious.

Thanks!

And Thanks All for letting me hijack for a bit.:)

EW

Speaking of the Buffet, have you ever noticed the kids going down the line touching everything while Mom and Dad lay around the pool or chat with friends? My guess is that they are good at carrying germs from one point to another. Hard to police but children should not be alone in the buffet area without supervision.

J.

We did the culinary tour with rum tasting. Had a great time. One caution--the drive up is an adventure. Lot easier coming down after the rum.

 

We learned a lot about local cuisine and flavors.Had so much fun participating in the preparation. About 14 of us. There are two tours. We did the noon tour and it was just right for the lunch hour. Our finished meal was delicious.

We are also doing the tour. Kindly elaborate about the drive up and do you have to do rum and pumpkin drink or can you do rum and something else?

It's true that no one was allowed on the ship until 2 pm last Monday....We were the third and fourth passengers on (staying in a suite). Some had to wait until almost 5pm before they could board. We were dining in Silk Harvest when the word came that rooms were ready...we arrived at our cabin at 8:30 with one of our three bags in the room....the other two arrived by 9 pm...we were greeted by our butler shortly after getting to the room and we felt so sorry for him and all the crew. You could see total exhaustion on their faces even though they had smiles and warm greetings for everyone....no one was allowed to serve themselves in any of the dining areas until the fourth day....we along with everyone we spoke with understood that they had our health in mind....we have heard of no sickness so far but are constantly reminded to wash hands but as usual we have seen some who leave the bathroom without washing...we are ordering from room service more than usual top try to avoid poor hygiene in the ocean view cafe

Thanks for your report! Makes me feel better about our upcoming cruise. Hats off to celebrity for their work. I applaud the hard working staff

Speaking of the Buffet, have you ever noticed the kids going down the line touching everything while Mom and Dad lay around the pool or chat with friends? My guess is that they are good at carrying germs from one point to another. Hard to police but children should not be alone in the buffet area without supervision.

J.

We do the 14 day trips on Eclipse & very few kids are present. It's the parents who need to get spanked for touching the food!

We were on the 2/13 cruise that had the outbreak. My wife noticed an elderly gentleman at the embarkation buffet trying to figure out the water dispenser. He put is hand on the part the glass goes up against. Apparently he did not press hard enough so he proceeded to put his hand on the nozzle rubbing it trying to figure out how to get water to come out. After that we drank only bottled water.

We're on the Equinox in 2+ weeks. I think this is a great idea of something to pack - latex gloves. They would be very handy - specially if Noro is still circulating around the ship.

 

Melissa

The only reason that I wrote non-latex was based on allergies, which includes myself. For work I had to switch from latex gloves to nitrile because I developed an allergy. Not sure if a latex glove would leave behind any residue that could affect someone with allergies?

Cruise lines are so conscious of cleanliness and food safety that I would venture to guess that they would beat most land-based restaurants for attention to detail.

We were on the february 23 departure. "code eed" was in effect for ~72 hours, then back to normal. This was the reverse of what we experienced last year on eclipse. As already noted, the crew was terrific!