yarmyob

I would be interested to hear from balanced perspectives out there on the following thought progression. Interesting to hear what y'all think.

1. Oceania had experienced at least 2 NV outbreaks aboard cruises in the short time before our cruise (embarkation 2/12/2016). Of these one had a CDC report (Nov/Dec timing?) with lots of adverse findings. However, I have not been able to find any CDC report related to the NV outbreak on the cruise that preceded ours. Perhaps that outbreak did not exceed the 3% threshold reporting requirement.

2. with less than 24 hours before our scheduled embarkation, O sent an e mail to our TA advising of the NV outbreak on prior cruise. The e mail cited "enhanced sanitation protocol to safeguard the well being of our guests and crew."

3. The e mail goes on to assert "the vessel will undergo a thorough turnaround sanitation protocol prior to your embarkation in Miami." O finally concludes "we fully believe the occurrence has been contained." O also mentioned that the embarkation process would be delayed by about 2 hours (1 pm for suites, 2 pm for general boarding) to accomplish the extensive sanitation protocol mentioned above.

4. based on our past positive experiences on O, we believed their representations and felt ok to embark.

5. we arrived at noon and found embarkation to already be well underway for the suites and for all cabins. There was sanitation activity on shore through the embarkation process wiping everything down between each passenger that registered.

6. we never noticed any CDC personnel on shore or on Rivera after we boarded. They may have been there but we never saw them.

7. Here is a key issue to me: changeover day on any cruise ship is a massive undertaking under the best of circumstances. It takes every single member of crew and staff working in a frenzied way to get it all done. Anyone who has seen it understands this reality. How then could O possibly accomplish "a thorough turnaround sanitation protocol prior to our embarkation in Miami" and at the same time undertake all of the work associated with changeover day? Think about this. We are talking about doing all of this wishing a 4-5 hour period!! And the time taken to do this work was actually cut short vs. what O advised in their e mail about delayed embarkation. I do not know what this changeover day sanitation protocol entailed. Was it developed by O or was it under the guidance of CDC? My contention is that O did a short and quick attempt with all efforts to get the next cruise underway.

8. Once we were on board, the infection took its course despite all of the ongoing sanitation efforts until it reached 10% ultimately. I believe that O cut short this cruise, not out of any concern about the passengers or crew on board. Rather, they now had the CDC deeply engaged and they knew they would be required to undertake a more extensive multi day sanitation before being allowed to set sail with the next cruise. So rather than take any risk of screwing up yet another cruise, they stiffed those they had already duped into believing their earlier representations.

Conclusions:

a) I believe O cut corners on 2/12 and took the risk with open eyes to set sail. They withheld information from passengers prior to embarkation and throughout the cruise. Were it not for the obligation to get CDC involved, no idea where this might have gone. They took the risk. All the upside goes to O. All the downside goes to passengers.

b) O management looks pretty inept and cowardly. They ran away from a problem rather than taking accountability. They under communicated and (except for Dottie the Cruise Director) chose not to interact with passengers to help manage the ever growing tension on board Riviera. Contrast that with the working crew who worked tirelessly to near exhaustion. Many apologized profusely to passengers and begged them to come back to O an a future cruise. Never once did we hear anything like that from ANY member of O management. And it is this dismissive, blame it on the passengers attitude that is so enraging.

After 65 Cruise nights on O, how can I persuade myself to trust them again?

Exactly Heather. This is one instance where they don't want to over-communicate and like you, I've never known any cruise to do so in this circumstance. I can't blame Oceania in this regard. They certainly don't want to incite a panic. Usually there is a letter in the cabin the first day letting people know of the Code Red, what precautions are being taken, and what precautions the person can take. That is it. Only in extreme cases where a cruise is being cut short, would additional communication be warranted. Oceania is not the only cruise line to cut short a cruise to combat Noro. It's happened on several other cruise lines as well. Unfortunately when you cruise this time of year, it's something you may have to contend with.

That makes some sense. However, in the case of the recently concluded cruise cut short, the captain did communicate to all passengers on the day we arrived in San Juan that the infection had diminished. The reality unfolded in a materially different direction. Next that we heard from the captain was that we were sailing back to Miami.

Interesting "lessons learned", but easier said than done. When you have booked and paid for a cruise and learn 7 or 8 days before embarkation that Noro is onboard, do you cancel? Do you simply toss the thousands of $$$ you have spent? Perhaps some would, but not many.

 

I completely sympathize with anyone who had to deal with what was obviously a miserable cruise for them and it's easy to Monday morning quarterback. I may be doing the same thing in a week or so, but I sure hope not. We board tomorrow (2/22 as far as I know...not 2/23) and will hope that the extra cleaning they are doing since last night will do the trick.

 

Frankly, I think at this point we have a better chance of avoiding Noro on Riviera than most any ship heading out to sea right now.

Yes, it is extreme. And I truly hope that your experience is unlike ours. We have sailed many times with O and have been happy. Thus we relied on their representation and got burned. They made the call to go forward after a hastily done cleaning and it failed. We paid a good amount of $$ and needed a relaxing break but came back more stressed than ever and much poorer. It puts both their loyal and prospective customers in a difficult quandary. Makes one think very carefully about who you are willing to place your trust with. Once you get badly burned it is hard to give it a go again.

What happened to the sick people onboard were they just let loose to spread the joy in Miami or where ever???

 

Lysol wipes make you feel better but will not kill noro

 

yes I have been struck down with this virus ..it is not fun

When the cruise returned early to Miami all passengers were given hotel for 2 nights at various Mia hotels. Not sure how those still sick were treated. So if you went by bus to their hotel, you remained in the spell of the virus

We will be boarding Riviera in April. Reading posts about medical center costs and quarantine, I have a few questions:

1. Is visiting the medical center for an illness that really has to run its course really a good suggestion?

2. If I get sick, will my husband be quarantined?

3. How long is the quarantine period?

I am hoping that by mid April Riviera will be healthy once again. I foresee major problems if it isn't, because our cruise is a transatlantic with most days at sea. Some of the excitement and anticipation of sailing on Riviera again has been lessened. Hearing how the Oceania management (not the ship's staff) has handled this crisis is very disappointing to say the least!

We did nit get sick or quarantined but were with several who were. If you get the noro you are quarantined to your cabin. Any one in the same cabin is also quarantined whether they are sick or not. Duration seemed to be 2 days when illness symptoms are prevalent plus 2 more days. All Passengers must present their key card before entering any dining venue, casino, etc. if you break quarantine your key card is confiscated and some were taken off the ship. It was widely reported that at least in one case a quarantined passenger had internet access blocked. Not a way to travel whether sick or not!

As has been said many times on this thread, until you have been through this situation personally it is difficult to describe or understand.

We boarded Riviera on 2/12 based on representations by O that they had taken extra precautions to fully sanitize the vessel and eradicate the infection. They cut corners, rolled the dice by going forward with the cruise and came up craps! Within 2 days the ship had surpassed the 3% threshold where CDC reporting is required. This was announced by the captain to the passengers.

A few days later as we were preparing to disembark in San Juan, the captain announced that the incidence rate "had subsided." So we began to feel a bit more hopeful. In actuality, the rate of infection continued to grow with the last reported level of 119 passengers and 3 crew. More stunningly than anything is that there were virtually no communications to passengers from ship management. When a passenger has to find information on a CDC website, even the cheerleaders would have to acknowledge that there is a real problem.

Lessons learned:

1. the processes required to clean a ship infected with norovirus are completely incompatible with a cruise experience for passengers.

2. Never board a vessel that has reported norovirus, no matter what the cruise line promises, until they have had several clean sailings.

Word to the wise ... To those scheduled to board on 2/23 I hope you do not experience what we went through.

More than anything, our hearts go out to the working crew aboard Riviera. They worked tirelessly to fight the infection and also carry out their normal work duties. They interacted with passengers as best as they could in the circumstances and were the best ambassadors for the cruise line. As for the ship's management, I have never observed a more gutless pack of fools. They remained behind closed doors for the duration of the cruise imploring us over the broadcast system to just wash our hands. A classic case study in how not to face a crisis.

A recap of what happened on this, our final Regent cruise ...

Severe brown water in Navigator (cabin 724) during 10 day Caribbean cruise January 14-24, 2014. Over the first 4 days, reported problem to reception. In each case a plumber was dispatched instructing us to "just flush the lines and it will go away." Problem kept recurring and recurring and recurring. It was disgusting, ranging from pale yellow to the color of dark iced tea. Existed in sink, bathtub, shower and toilet.

On day 3 met with Executive Concierge & Chief Engineer and was told, all is well and the water is "safe for us to drink." When I presented a sample collected that morning to the Chief engineer he nearly fell off his chair and instructed us to not use that water at all. He asked for access to the cabin to further investigate. On day 4 we were approached by the General Manager who offered to relocate us to another cabin (862). The good news is that the brown water was gone. The bad news is that the vibration, motion (aft cabin) and noise (just above the lounge) made this a less than desirable cabin. We made the best of it. The General Manager tried to help us to the extent of his ability but staff on the ship have no authority. All is controlled back at Miami HQ.

Overall we paid a premium to get the mid ship cabin and ended up in a 2 level downgrade after enduring 4 days of brown water misery.

We have asked for a credit back to our credit card for the fare difference between the cabin we paid for and where we ended up. We have asked for nothing for all of the brown water misery. Regent HQ offered a future cruise credit. We are not interested to cruise with them again to recover what we have already paid for. What we are asking for is one third of the amount offered by Regent in future cruise credit. For whatever reason, Regent has refused to work with us other than in terms of a future cruise credit.

So, after more than 100 cruise nights each on what had been a first class cruise line, we realize that Regent of today is a mere shadow of the Regent we came to love a few years back. Posting shrill comments on a cruise review board will not resolve much of anything. We love to travel, including cruising and are willing to pay a little more for a real high quality experience. Unfortunately, in our experience, that is no longer reliably available through Regent.

So we are off to find another cruise line on which to continue the journey. And we encourage others to do the same.