Britannia - Bad Flu

I went on the Britannia from the 2nd to the 17th February, and steadily over the course of the two weeks more and more people were coughing.

To put this in perspective, on the way out, there was no coughing on the plane. On the way back, there was so many people coughing, that I suspect this is where I caught it. I have been very ill with the flu for the last 3 or 4 days.

I did the back of the ship tour, and the doctor did mention the high number of people coughing on the ship and that it was the flu. Even people on the bridge were coughing.

I don't know, I feel very lucky that I didn't fall ill on the holiday, but it has put a dampener on it now I am back and ill.

I went on the Britannia from the 2nd to the 17th February, and steadily over the course of the two weeks more and more people were coughing.

 

To put this in perspective, on the way out, there was no coughing on the plane. On the way back, there was so many people coughing, that I suspect this is where I caught it. I have been very ill with the flu for the last 3 or 4 days.

 

I did the back of the ship tour, and the doctor did mention the high number of people coughing on the ship and that it was the flu. Even people on the bridge were coughing.

 

I don't know, I feel very lucky that I didn't fall ill on the holiday, but it has put a dampener on it now I am back and ill.

The hygiene standards on the Britannia are shockingly poor to say the least. We were on her for the third time over Christmas and NY and were ill on the ship and it took weeks to recover after our return. I was so disgruntled I actually complained to Christopher Whathisname. Basically they denied there was a problem and were extremely negative and aggressive. They even said they wouldn't give me compensation despite the fact I never asked nor wanted it. Their attitude was disgraceful.

We were on her on a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and we were both ill then as well. Our sister-in-law has just been on her and the same think. They are very lax on hygiene. No insistence on hand washing etc etc. Never will I cruise on this ship again.

Can I suggest you complain as if enough do then they make look into their hygiene standards on this ship.

Nothing to do with hygiene standards on the ship as flu is an airborne virus which can be caught with being in the vicinity of people coughing. Winter is the time of the year for flu which has been very prevalent this year everywhere and being on a ship with 3500 people it only needs a very small minority with flu and it would soon spread. Every cruise line has its names for the same situation those on Cunard call it Cunard cough and Arcadia has had a reputation they call Arcadia cough for years. All total nonsense it is just that this time of year when flu is very prolific everywhere it increases your chances of catching being around so many people in a confined space with air conditioning. Nothing at all to do with cleanliness of any ship as like previously said is an airborne virus caused by people coughing and sneezing and down to there own personal hygiene standards.

Nothing to do with hygiene standards on the ship as flu is an airborne virus which can be caught with being in the vicinity of people coughing. Winter is the time of the year for flu which has been very prevalent this year everywhere and being on a ship with 3500 people it only needs a very small minority with flu and it would soon spread.

Certainly makes me want to book my next holiday out of flu season. The med in June sounds appealing.

Nothing to do with a lack of hygiene on the ship. It’s a very bad flu season this year. I’ve not been on a ship since Christmas but I’m now recovering from a very bad infection/possible pneumonia. I’ve been in bed over 2 weeks, on antibiotics and steroids and had a raging fever for over a week. No idea where I got it from, could have been a bus, colleague, or just plain walking round the city where I commute to... or even elsewhere. Maybe even a dairy cow opposite the house, hell, even they’re coughing this year!!! I’ll never know and it doesn’t matter. The main thing is now recovering. I’m not the only one, loads of coughing at work by colleagues before I was off. I was just unlucky. And that’s it, it’s luck, not hygiene or lack of. When on a ship I use the buffet, etc, I wash my hands, use the sanitiser if no sink, etc, etc. This is just a bad winter flu season. Remember also that on your plane you had hundreds of people from round the country, a few may have been carriers of new bugs that others have not been immune to. Hygiene cannot totally stop distribution of bacteria!

Nothing to do with a lack of hygiene on the ship. It’s a very bad flu season this year. I’ve not been on a ship since Christmas but I’m now recovering from a very bad infection/possible pneumonia. I’ve been in bed over 2 weeks, on antibiotics and steroids and had a raging fever for over a week. No idea where I got it from, could have been a bus, colleague, or just plain walking round the city where I commute to... or even elsewhere. Maybe even a dairy cow opposite the house, hell, even they’re coughing this year!!! I’ll never know and it doesn’t matter. The main thing is now recovering. I’m not the only one, loads of coughing at work by colleagues before I was off. I was just unlucky. And that’s it, it’s luck, not hygiene or lack of. When on a ship I use the buffet, etc, I wash my hands, use the sanitiser if no sink, etc, etc. This is just a bad winter flu season. Remember also that on your plane you had hundreds of people from round the country, a few may have been carriers of new bugs that others have not been immune to. Hygiene cannot totally stop distribution of bacteria!

Nearly every flycruise I have been on I end up with a cold/cough (or worse) a few days into the cruise or a few days after getting back home.

I am convinced I pick it up on the plane either going or coming back no surprise really being in a confined space for several hours and breathing in all those germs!

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I was a stewardess for 16 years and I never caught anything on the aircraft. Now that doesn't mean you don't catch it, just means that our immune systems were better. I've never caught anything on the ship either, although my husband has had two bad throat infections.

Well if people are coughing, it's unlikely to be a norovirus or something like that. Coughs, colds and flu are airborne, nothing to do with hygiene.

Nothing to do with a lack of hygiene on the ship. It’s a very bad flu season this year. I’ve not been on a ship since Christmas but I’m now recovering from a very bad infection/possible pneumonia. I’ve been in bed over 2 weeks, on antibiotics and steroids and had a raging fever for over a week. No idea where I got it from, could have been a bus, colleague, or just plain walking round the city where I commute to... or even elsewhere. Maybe even a dairy cow opposite the house, hell, even they’re coughing this year!!! I’ll never know and it doesn’t matter. The main thing is now recovering. I’m not the only one, loads of coughing at work by colleagues before I was off. I was just unlucky. And that’s it, it’s luck, not hygiene or lack of. When on a ship I use the buffet, etc, I wash my hands, use the sanitiser if no sink, etc, etc. This is just a bad winter flu season. Remember also that on your plane you had hundreds of people from round the country, a few may have been carriers of new bugs that others have not been immune to. Hygiene cannot totally stop distribution of bacteria!

You would be going some to catch flu from a dairy cow. As I said before, the hygiene standards on Britannia were shocking when I was on her and way worse than any other P&O ship.

Well if people are coughing, it's unlikely to be a norovirus or something like that. Coughs, colds and flu are airborne, nothing to do with hygiene.

Ships Doctor specifically told us on the Back of the Ship Tour the cough was a symptom of the flu that was going around the ship.

I think it is unfair to blame hygiene on the ship when half the country has ended up with this horrific 'flu bug. Put a lot of people in a confined place with 'flu germs flying and no matter what you do it is going to spread.

Hope the OP is feeling better now - had it myself for 3 weeks. No fun

The hygiene standards on the Britannia are shockingly poor to say the least. We were on her for the third time over Christmas and NY and were ill on the ship and it took weeks to recover after our return. I was so disgruntled I actually complained to Christopher Whathisname. Basically they denied there was a problem and were extremely negative and aggressive. They even said they wouldn't give me compensation despite the fact I never asked nor wanted it. Their attitude was disgraceful.

We were on her on a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and we were both ill then as well. Our sister-in-law has just been on her and the same think. They are very lax on hygiene. No insistence on hand washing etc etc. Never will I cruise on this ship again.

Can I suggest you complain as if enough do then they make look into their hygiene standards on this ship.

Oh honestly! Winter is the time of year that viruses proliferate; if your number's up, you'll get it: in school, church, a cruise ship, office, tube train, wherever you happen to be when you unwisely breathe in the wrong bit of air.

We were on a cruise (not P&O) in January this year. Lots of people coughing on board, and we both got viruses, OH while we were away, me three days later, on our return. He hacked and coughed for about a fortnight. I was fine after 3 days, despite having the same bug. These things affect everyone differently, there is no way of preventing them and there is no one to blame.

I can only suggest that you spend the rest of your life alone in a hermetically sealed room.

A similar bug has been doing the rounds on Aurora as well, with a high proportion of the passengers on the current South American Circumnavigation feeling rough and having bad coughs.

The term ‘flu’ is overplayed these days and used generically for heavy colds or viruses. As several doctors have said to me over the years, if you really have flu and you see £1000 on the floor, you will be too ill to bend down to pick it up!

A similar bug has been doing the rounds on Aurora as well, with a high proportion of the passengers on the current South American Circumnavigation feeling rough and having bad coughs.

 

The term ‘flu’ is overplayed these days and used generically for heavy colds or viruses. As several doctors have said to me over the years, if you really have flu and you see £1000 on the floor, you will be too ill to bend down to pick it up!

Love the money quote at the end.

I also feel you can take a horse to water..you cannot make it drink. It is said enough time from the captain down and in horizon about hand washing. You still get the idiots who think it does not apply to them.

Spend any time with other people in confined spaces at this time of year and you will get something. To blame it on the ship and or crew is not fair.

The average lifestyle of cruisers at home gives us the answer. At home how often do they eat in a room twice a day in close proximity with hundreds of other people. how often do they sit in a theatre in close proximity with hundreds of other people etc etc. cold and flue viruses are airborne, it is going to spread like wildfire.

I developed a cough on Arcadia a few years ago as did most of the passengers. Not the ships fault though. I remember being treated in a ships medical centre on another cruise line ( I fell off a waterfall) and being surprised to see enormous quantities of strepsils in a cupboard. The nurse explained that sore throats and coughs were the most common ailment for passengers on cruise ships.

I should feel right at home when we travel on Britannia in a couple of weeks,I started with a cold in November & am still coughing!

I too love the " money quote" at the end of Selbourne's post...after having The Flu...twice...I quite agree with the quote...I couldn't even walk to the bathroom unaided.

I'm 68 years old and had Flu twice in all those years, once as a 12 year old and again 20 years ago. Both times I was so ill that I couldn't get out of bed and if I had to go to the bathroom I crawled. Now nasty colds on the other hand have come and gone numerous times and yes I've felt poorly but never ever called it Flu as it isn't.

As for it being down to poor hygiene on ships that is complete rubbish as it's an airborne problem.

I'm 68 years old and had Flu twice in all those years, once as a 12 year old and again 20 years ago. Both times I was so ill that I couldn't get out of bed and if I had to go to the bathroom I crawled. Now nasty colds on the other hand have come and gone numerous times and yes I've felt poorly but never ever called it Flu as it isn't.

 

As for it being down to poor hygiene on ships that is complete rubbish as it's an airborne problem.

I agree with you re the flu, anyone who has ever had the real thing can tell the difference (though a heavy cold etc is still miserable if you are on holiday).

As any doctor will tell you good hygiene does stop the spread of infection to an extent, even airborne ones for example covering your mouth and nose with a hanky when sneezing.

What does concern me about ships is the air conditioning. An airborne issue in one cabin can spread to another depending on the filtration systems they have. (That's why airplanes are so bad for catching bugs as well). They don't call it cabin cough for nothing.

Thank goodness we have a medical and virus expert on the forum to keep us right. I am particularly impressed that you knew it was the flu without being able to examine anyone.

The fact is that the standards of hygiene on Britannia when I was on her were shocking and fell far short of other P&O ships I have been on.

It’s nit the ship that has poor hygiene... it’s the passengers!

Thank goodness we have a medical and virus expert on the forum to keep us right. I am particularly impressed that you knew it was the flu without being able to examine anyone.

The fact is that the standards of hygiene on Britannia when I was on her were shocking and fell far short of other P&O ships I have been on.

It’s not the ship that has poor hygiene.., it’s the passengers!

It’s not the ship that has poor hygiene.., it’s the passengers!

In some case yes, people can have shocking habits at times but not always.

It's an easy get out for ships to blame passengers and while bad passenger hygiene will contribute so will bad ships hygiene.

Next time you are a ship look up at the air con unit or at the extraction in the bathroom and see how clean (or otherwise) they look.

It's quite interesting that on Aurora at present there have been messages in the Horizon newspaper asking people to cover their mouth when coughing. You really wouldn't think that this needed saying! Like many others, we avoid the buffet like the plague. I just look at the serving tongs and think of the number of times that they have been handled by people who have blown their nose, licked food spills off their hands or not washed their hands after going to the toilet. It's a shame that P&O seems to have almost dispensed with the enforced hand gel treatment at the entrance to the buffet. Whilst it doesn't kill all germs, it did make a general point about the need for hygiene.

I'm 68 years old and had Flu twice in all those years, once as a 12 year old and again 20 years ago. Both times I was so ill that I couldn't get out of bed and if I had to go to the bathroom I crawled. Now nasty colds on the other hand have come and gone numerous times and yes I've felt poorly but never ever called it Flu as it isn't.

 

As for it being down to poor hygiene on ships that is complete rubbish as it's an airborne problem.

There is only sparse evidence that it is airborne, like the medieval miasma. NHS England does not mention this possibility. Only in close contact with a sufferer who is coughing or vomiting is it likely. The idea that it is widely distributed via an atmosphere or the ship air com is false imo.

David

I just wanted to add that for those trying to distinguish between the flu and a cold, that the Dr specifically mentioned it was the flu going around the ship, and for about 3 days pretty much all I did was sleep. I feel like today \ yesterday was my start of the recovery, but between the sore throat (this is how it started - a really painful sore throat \ cough that felt like a razor blade was in my throat), cough, runny nose \ sinus ache, achy limbs, hot and cold (alternating), sensitive skin and of course the tiredness, it has been quite a bad one.