Solstice Jan. 23 Norovirus Numbers

My husband and I were on the Solstice Jan. 23-30. Many previous posts have documented the norovirus outbreak and what the crew did to contain it. I applaud the actions they took. My husband and I were on Deck 8 and did not get sick, but everyone we talked to knew someone who was sick, or had been sick themselves. We asked the staff at guest relations how many people were ill, so we could make decisions about our activities, but they really minimized the situation, and wouldn't give a number.

Talking to other passengers, someone who had been in the infirmary was told about 250 people had been sick as of Day 5 of the cruise. If that were true, the total ill would be much higher counting people who didn't report, or who got sick after Day 5.

Since no one wants to face a norovirus outbreak - cruise line or guest - my only complaint is that the crew weren't more candid about numbers. If 20% of folks were sick, my behavior would be different than if 2% of folks were ill. I've had norovirus (aka Montezuma's Revenge) three times in many years of traveling, and I don't want to get it again as it can be just horrible, especially if you're sick on a travel day.

I found an interesting study by the CDC done in 2008 concerning noro outbreaks on 3 different ships.

What's really interesting is the attitude of those on Ship C - look at table 2 on page 16.

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/Docs/Passenger_behaviors_during_norovirus_outbreaks_on_cruise_ships_FINAL_for_CDC.pdf

There is a web site called cruise junky which has been listing these types of incidents for years and they are usually very good about it. So far they have posted nothing on the Solstice for this year and they usually get it on their site very quickly.

My husband and I were on the Solstice Jan. 23-30. Many previous posts have documented the norovirus outbreak and what the crew did to contain it. I applaud the actions they took. My husband and I were on Deck 8 and did not get sick, but everyone we talked to knew someone who was sick, or had been sick themselves. We asked the staff at guest relations how many people were ill, so we could make decisions about our activities, but they really minimized the situation, and wouldn't give a number.

 

Talking to other passengers, someone who had been in the infirmary was told about 250 people had been sick as of Day 5 of the cruise. If that were true, the total ill would be much higher counting people who didn't report, or who got sick after Day 5.

 

Since no one wants to face a norovirus outbreak - cruise line or guest - my only complaint is that the crew weren't more candid about numbers. If 20% of folks were sick, my behavior would be different than if 2% of folks were ill. I've had norovirus (aka Montezuma's Revenge) three times in many years of traveling, and I don't want to get it again as it can be just horrible, especially if you're sick on a travel day.

I agree. We too were on the Solstice 1/23 cruise. One of our traveling companions was sick which had a major impact on our enjoyment. On Thursday, we overheard a guest relations worker tell a passenger that "about 16 people" had contracted the virus. VERY MISLEADING.

I agree. We too were on the Solstice 1/23 cruise. One of our traveling companions was sick which had a major impact on our enjoyment. On Thursday, we overheard a guest relations worker tell a passenger that "about 16 people" had contracted the virus. VERY MISLEADING.

16. That's a joke. The 2 days I was down in the medical area with my kids there was a huge line going all the way down the hall.

I saw the huge stack of CDC reports that each of us had to fill out when we went down there. It was a very deep box filled to the top with the reports. = (

Since they my "suspect" Norovirus due to symptoms (nausea, vomiting & diarrhea) but they do not confirm (by lab results) that you have Norovirus...I'm not sure what they report to the CDC.

I CAN confirm they do not report all suspected cases that they treat from our personal experience on Sunday 1/30/11. My DH awakened with the classic Noro symtoms above around 5Am on disembarkation day. After 3.5 hours the elevator traffic had decresed enough that I could get him to Medical Care Clinic for treatment.

They did treat him including a shot and pills. They DID NOT ask for any medical info about him other than allergies. NO name, DOB, cabin number or any other way of identifying him. He did not present his sail card. Also no assessments were made other than asking how many episodes of the above symptoms had he experienced. No vital signs....nothing. I work in health care. In the USA, one must document treatment. This would require some sort of patient identification. Hmmm...cannot expect they felt comprelled to report to the CDC since they did not make a record of his visit.

Others I am aware of on our cruise that were ill prior to the last 24 hours of the cruise were placed on isolation in their cabins.

The cruise prior to our had Norovirus and embarkation was delayed more than an hour on 1/23. I fully support whatever they need to do to make the ship safe for passengers. I did confirm from several staff that they had "much more" Norovirus on our sailing 1/23 than the previous week.

I think Celebrity did an excellent job of continuous cleaning and making other adjustments to help decrease the spread. They were also upfront that passengers were ill...just not the volumes. I honestly can understand that they could create a panic like mode in passengers by reporting this while still on board...so I find this lack of transparency to be somewhat defendable.

I do have concerns about the lack of medical assessment and documentation that I observed. I did receive an email back today. Bottom line...Medical staff are independent contractors and a service provided as a convienience to the passengers.

I am an advocate for at least minimum patient care standards being met. In this case, I did not observe that goal to have been achieved.

Good news is that DH is much better with the assistance of meds and time.

To the original poster: if you had gotten the number, and it was high (in your mind) what would you have done different? I imagine you were already taking every reasonable precaution. Even locking yourself in your cabin and ordering room service is not a perfect plan to avoid exposure. Thanks.

To the original poster: if you had gotten the number, and it was high (in your mind) what would you have done different? I imagine you were already taking every reasonable precaution. Even locking yourself in your cabin and ordering room service is not a perfect plan to avoid exposure. Thanks.

I know this wasn't directed at me, but since I spoke at length with celebrity on the phone today about what could have been done differently....I'll share.

They had a policy to "deep clean" each cabin ONLY after the last person in the cabin was ill. This is absurd! It's no wonder why 3 of the 4 people in our family grew ill each on different days. My lysol wipes and hand washing could only help so much when there was projectile vomit residue and diahhrea that towels could not completely clean up. I witnessed an elderly woman in tears next door when the stateroom attendant was explaining this to her. She wanted her cabin deep cleaned so she would not get sick, and they said they could not until after she had it too. As a Nurse myself I can say that this is a horrible policy!

Another issue I had was that we requested our glassware be changed daily. We could not keep track of whole glass was whose in a family of 4. Our attendant said that we only got one set the entire trip. Basically, I think he was too lazy to go downstairs and trade them out. I finally spoke to the Housekeeping Supervisor and they brought us a stack of paper cups that we could use and dispose of to help stop the spread within our family.

Thanks for your response.

Glasses for the entire week? I had no idea. That is nuts. I agree that it is unacceptable to allow a family to basically sit in their own germs until it has gone through everyone in the cabin. Very disappointing.

3 FEB 11 Thursday 1314-1325 EST I called Celebrity Cruise at 1 800 437 3111, was routed to a woman who would identify herself only as “Contour”, but said that was a unique name at the firm. I told her that we were booked on the 6 FEB departure of the Solstice from FLL, and concerned about reports on CruiseCritic.com about illnesses on the vessel. I asked for the actual numbers of gastro-intestinal illnesses that had occurred on the Solstice for the last three voyages.

She responded that “there were zero on the two previous” to the present voyage, and the only illnesses were “less than a handful” on the current voyage (departed 30 JAN). She said that is the only voyage that has had illnesses. We clarified that my inquiry was not only about norovirus, but about any gastro-intestinal illness. I asked her to confirm that “less than a handful” would be less than ten, and she agreed. I asked where I could confirm these figures in writing, and she said the only writing was the letter sent last evening 2 FEB, and of course, they don’t report zeros. She agreed that the letter from Celebrity did not specify any number of affected passengers or crew, but said that the number was “less than a handful”. She confirmed that her information was up-to-date as of the time of our phone call.

I asked her if she was saying that the reports on CruiseCritic were not true. She said that it’s like any other blog, people get upset and write whatever they want. I asked her if she thought that the accounts posted there were not true, that people would fabricate such ugly details about vomiting and diarrhea, and she said she didn’t know, but there were no illnesses on the two voyages previous to the current one, and only “less than a handful” on the current voyage.

This seems to be in stark contrast to the reports posted on CruiseCritic.com. It seems ugly and unlikely that a number of people would fabricate these tales of illness, or that a cruise line would falsely deny illnesses that are reportable to CDC. If CruiseCritic will trace this back to me, I stand ready to execute an affidavit if necessary that this is the summary of my call with “Contour” at the Celebrity number. And Celebrity’s telephone system says that they may monitor and record the call, so there may be a tape to confirm this conversation. CruiseCritic should attempt to determine which version of the facts is the truth, and relay the results to CDC and to its readers.

They did treat him including a shot and pills.

Do you know what he was treated with? Shot and pills?

3 FEB 11 Thursday 1314-1325 EST I called Celebrity Cruise at 1 800 437 3111, was routed to a woman who would identify herself only as “Contour”, but said that was a unique name at the firm. I told her that we were booked on the 6 FEB departure of the Solstice from FLL, and concerned about reports on CruiseCritic.com about illnesses on the vessel. I asked for the actual numbers of gastro-intestinal illnesses that had occurred on the Solstice for the last three voyages.

 

She responded that “there were zero on the two previous” to the present voyage, and the only illnesses were “less than a handful” on the current voyage (departed 30 JAN). She said that is the only voyage that has had illnesses. We clarified that my inquiry was not only about norovirus, but about any gastro-intestinal illness. I asked her to confirm that “less than a handful” would be less than ten, and she agreed. I asked where I could confirm these figures in writing, and she said the only writing was the letter sent last evening 2 FEB, and of course, they don’t report zeros. She agreed that the letter from Celebrity did not specify any number of affected passengers or crew, but said that the number was “less than a handful”. She confirmed that her information was up-to-date as of the time of our phone call.

 

I asked her if she was saying that the reports on CruiseCritic were not true. She said that it’s like any other blog, people get upset and write whatever they want. I asked her if she thought that the accounts posted there were not true, that people would fabricate such ugly details about vomiting and diarrhea, and she said she didn’t know, but there were no illnesses on the two voyages previous to the current one, and only “less than a handful” on the current voyage.

 

This seems to be in stark contrast to the reports posted on CruiseCritic.com. It seems ugly and unlikely that a number of people would fabricate these tales of illness, or that a cruise line would falsely deny illnesses that are reportable to CDC. If CruiseCritic will trace this back to me, I stand ready to execute an affidavit if necessary that this is the summary of my call with “Contour” at the Celebrity number. And Celebrity’s telephone system says that they may monitor and record the call, so there may be a tape to confirm this conversation. CruiseCritic should attempt to determine which version of the facts is the truth, and relay the results to CDC and to its readers.

If there were NO cases on any Solstice cruise prior to Jan 30, then why did they delay boarding on the 30th to do a deep cleaning of the ship?

I was on the cruise 1/16 to 1/23. On that cruise on day 6 I believe (possibly 5, it was a sea day for sure) the cruise director, Lisa, clearly stated in her noontime announcement that a small number of people had presented to the medical center with gastrointestinal illnesses. She did not say norovirus, just gastrointestinal illness. As a result of that, she reminded us of the proper prevention techniques (handwashing, hand sanitizer) and also informed us that the crew had been instructed not to shake hands with passengers for the remainder of the voyages. I am going to guess to arouse enough suspicion to mention it in an announcement, it would take a handful of passengers getting sick.

As much as I love my X cruises I have taken, I have to say, I have never felt like I was getting a 100% dependable answer from anyone I have spoken to on the phone there. There land based customer service leaves a lot to be desired, and I think is very poorly trained or purposely lacking in information.

3 FEB 11 Thursday 1314-1325 EST I called Celebrity Cruise at 1 800 437 3111, was routed to a woman who would identify herself only as “Contour”, but said that was a unique name at the firm. I told her that we were booked on the 6 FEB departure of the Solstice from FLL, and concerned about reports on CruiseCritic.com about illnesses on the vessel. I asked for the actual numbers of gastro-intestinal illnesses that had occurred on the Solstice for the last three voyages.

 

She responded that “there were zero on the two previous” to the present voyage, and the only illnesses were “less than a handful” on the current voyage (departed 30 JAN). She said that is the only voyage that has had illnesses. We clarified that my inquiry was not only about norovirus, but about any gastro-intestinal illness. I asked her to confirm that “less than a handful” would be less than ten, and she agreed. I asked where I could confirm these figures in writing, and she said the only writing was the letter sent last evening 2 FEB, and of course, they don’t report zeros. She agreed that the letter from Celebrity did not specify any number of affected passengers or crew, but said that the number was “less than a handful”. She confirmed that her information was up-to-date as of the time of our phone call.

 

I asked her if she was saying that the reports on CruiseCritic were not true. She said that it’s like any other blog, people get upset and write whatever they want. I asked her if she thought that the accounts posted there were not true, that people would fabricate such ugly details about vomiting and diarrhea, and she said she didn’t know, but there were no illnesses on the two voyages previous to the current one, and only “less than a handful” on the current voyage.

 

This seems to be in stark contrast to the reports posted on CruiseCritic.com. It seems ugly and unlikely that a number of people would fabricate these tales of illness, or that a cruise line would falsely deny illnesses that are reportable to CDC. If CruiseCritic will trace this back to me, I stand ready to execute an affidavit if necessary that this is the summary of my call with “Contour” at the Celebrity number. And Celebrity’s telephone system says that they may monitor and record the call, so there may be a tape to confirm this conversation. CruiseCritic should attempt to determine which version of the facts is the truth, and relay the results to CDC and to its readers.

No they shouldn't and neither should you! Sorry but this is norovirus not the plague :rolleyes:

If you were to click on the link I provided in an earlier post describing CDC reports about cruiselines you would have noticed that every cruiseline has cases of noro - EVERY CRUISELINE.

This is not a unique situation. In fact there is a limit to the amount of cases that must be present before certain CDC guidelines are enacted. If you've ever had to deal with CDC protocols you'll likely find their paperwork is cumbersome at best.

This is not H1N1 but yes Norovirus is not fun to have. It's good to keep people informed but to come on a public website and post your 'private conversations' with telephone reps is actually quite funny/ludicrous.

I'm sure that the people working in the call centers for Celebrity have the latest up to date information concerning the medical conditions of the 2800+ passengers on the Solstice :rolleyes:

I happened to go to the CDC website, which lists outbreak updates for cruise ships. http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm

What suprises me is the contrast in affected numbers between passengers and the crew of the ships. For example, this year Radiance of the Seas had a 6.42% outbreak (unknown) amongst the passengers and only 0.25% of the crew reported becoming ill. I looked at the other dates and the same can be said for the other outbreaks. How do you explain that? Why do the passengers get sick in higher numbers than the crew. Is it psychosomatic? Are the crew healthier and passengers not so healthy? Is it do to age? Most passengers on cruise ships are older, and may have lowered immune systems. Could this be why outbreaks seem to effect pasengers more?

I work in the medical field and if a patient is throwing up, I can't help but feel nauseous. I wonder if the act of vomiting contributes to someone else within the area to also become ill. Could this explain why entire families within a cabin become ill.

Just trying to start a lively debate.

If there were NO cases on any Solstice cruise prior to Jan 30, then why did they delay boarding on the 30th to do a deep cleaning of the ship?

Excellent question. It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who may have called Celebrity directly, and find out what they were told. :rolleyes:

Excellent question. It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who may have called Celebrity directly, and find out what they were told. :rolleyes:

Celebrity also delayed boarding on 1/23 due to need for them to "deep clean" from previous gastrointentinal disordes on the cruise from 1/16-1/23. We did our routine check in, then were provided seating while we waiting for the "all clear" to board. I think be began boarding aroun 1PM....maybe a bit sooner.

Again, for those that have questions about what medications were given by the medical care clinic staff. My DH rec'd a "shot" of Phenergan in his upper arm and "pills" of immodium to take once the Phenergan controlled the vomiting. Others may have received alternate treatments.

No they shouldn't and neither should you! Sorry but this is norovirus not the plague :rolleyes:

 

I'm sure that the people working in the call centers for Celebrity have the latest up to date information concerning the medical conditions of the 2800+ passengers on the Solstice :rolleyes:

You are correct...it is not the plague....HOWEVER, the CDC does consider it worth their time and effort to track. Per the CDC web site:

CDC conducts surveillance for norovirus outbreaks through the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS), which was implemented in 2009; NORS combined the reporting of food- and waterborne norovirus outbreaks and added the ability to report outbreaks caused by person-to-person spread.

Please do not delude yourself to think the Call Center for Celebrity have accurate information on the outbreaks of Norovirus. Even IF there was accurate reporting of outbreaks....I would not expect the call center would be a good resource of that information. They cannot even tell you which specialty coffees are on their beverage programs.

Do you know what he was treated with? Shot and pills?

Sorry, I should have responded directly to your question.

"Shot" was Pheregan given intramuscularly in upper arm (prescription med)

"Pills" were immodium (can be purchased OTC)

Since Noro is a VIRUS....you can only treat symptoms. If someone was very dehydrated or had an electrolyte imbalance, you could treat this with IV fluids.

Medications like antibiotics only work with infections from bacteria, fungus etc...but not viruses.

Yes, I am an RN.:)

A little tangent but I was wondering:

Given the incidence of norovirus on the prior sailings would Celebrity allow passengers on upcoming February 6 to reschedule without a penalty? :confused:

A little tangent but I was wondering:

 

Given the incidence of norovirus on the prior sailings would Celebrity allow passengers on upcoming February 6 to reschedule without a penalty? :confused:

We were not given that option on the 1/23rd sailing of the Solstice.:cool:

I would like to report some sub-standard medical care practices I observed on the Solstice on 1/30. :( However, I cannot determine WHO to report it to...if indeed there is anyone. :mad: What I have learned is:

Infirmaries are usually staffed by doctors who are not licensed in the United States. Regulation of shipboard medical care is largely non-existent. Most cruise lines have no formal procedure for reviewing doctors' work.

Doctors and nurses are independent contractors, not employees. Thus, the cruise lines are generally not legally liable for their actions.

There is no international oversight of medical care because martime law does not require cruise ships to provide medical care for passengers, only for the crew.

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/cruise_safety.html#ixzz1CxGu2JWf

If anyone can give me better contact information for reporting:confused:, I will promise to follow up!

A concerned RN

As stated before, hotels, dorms etc don't have a mandate to report noro to the CDC. Cruise ships, with some of the highest sanitation standards around, are pretty much the only "institution" that must report noro. I've been deathly ill at All Inclusive resorts, in hotels, after eating at restaurants; and I've also been sick on a ship from too much sun, too much booze, rich foods and not enough sleep... not to mention food and beverages from various islands.

And as far as the poster who feels that Cruise Critic should make efforts to determine numbers of infected passengers and then report it to the CDC.... really? I mean REALLY? Patient records are not open to everyone... not even cruise critic. SO how in heck could they determine numbers since probably only a few percent of cruisers post here. And I can just see them at the CDC... "OH Cruise Critic has a noro report for us based on....um....er...." It's not CC's right nor responsibility to be reporting illnesses to the CDC.

And YES I also am an RN.

I sure wish we had some kind of report from people on the ship right now. I guess the fact that they are delaying the 2/6 sailing means they still have a problem. I guess I'll try to keep positive thoughts until it's time not to!;)

and the there is the old saying "no news is good news" .... I just facebooked a friend of mine who works in entertainment on board... we shall se what he says!