Millennium = Norovirus!

[happycruiser1942]

We just got off the Millennium and the Norovirus was all over the place! We did not talk to one person that did not have someone they were traveling with get sick! Our stateroom attendant told us it was the worse he has ever seen!!

[gtexan]

Seems to be going around the Celebrity lines right now...

 

hopefully this will mean everyone will be over it and protected by my cruise in early april...

[ehfl]

Looks like the Mercury has it too!

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35538104/ns/travel-news/

[gisnered]

We just got off the Millennium and the Norovirus was all over the place! We did not talk to one person that did not have someone they were traveling with get sick! Our stateroom attendant told us it was the worse he has ever seen!!

 

Hnm. Not meaning to be disputatious - just point out a different experience. We've just returned from the Feb 12 -22 Millennium to southern Caribbean and heard nothing about illness, much less Noro, from anyone. Also, didn't notice any extreme cleaning measures or restrictions on self-serve in the buffet.

 

G

[RickT]

Hnm. Not meaning to be disputatious - just point out a different experience. We've just returned from the Feb 12 -22 Millennium to southern Caribbean and heard nothing about illness, much less Noro, from anyone. Also, didn't notice any extreme cleaning measures or restrictions on self-serve in the buffet.

 

G

 

Great to hear. We are on Millie on March 5th.

[Freedom55]

deleted

[jd1966]

Strange how a norovirus makes the news when it's a cruise ship. When was the last time you saw a story about a school or a company with an outbreak?? It happens all the time! Since cruise lines have to report to the CDC when it exceeds a certain percentage it feeds our bad news oriented media.

[happycruiser1942]

Hnm. Not meaning to be disputatious - just point out a different experience. We've just returned from the Feb 12 -22 Millennium to southern Caribbean and heard nothing about illness, much less Noro, from anyone. Also, didn't notice any extreme cleaning measures or restrictions on self-serve in the buffet.

 

G

 

Really surprised! There was the smell of bleach everywhere and I am not sure how you missed the pile of vomit on the 4th deck by the casino but very happy you didn't notice it at all!

[mistletoe]

We just got off the Millennium and the Norovirus was all over the place! We did not talk to one person that did not have someone they were traveling with get sick! Our stateroom attendant told us it was the worse he has ever seen!!

 

I just got off the same cruise and must agree with happycruiser1942. People were stacked up like cordwood in the medical facility. I've been on about 25 cruises in my life and have never been affected by the Norovirus personally. But on this cruise my wife got hit with it on our last day. She woke up with it as everyone was ready to disembark the ship. Luckily one of our friends (who had been sick for 4 days) had some left over pills that helped her get home without too much problem.

 

Overall, the cruise was pretty good for us. But the Millenium is starting to show her age and could use a re-fit (IMHO). Watch out for the ice bins in the Ocean Grill Restaurant. I have a hunch that might be where much of the norovirus is being spread. The Millenium has automatic ice dispensing machines in that restaurant, but they can't keep up with the demand, so the cruise lines puts out plastic bins with scoops in them to dispense extra ice. Its the perfect place to spread any germs and I can't believe the cruise lines does this. But I suppose its cheaper than buying new ice machines.

 

Good luck to all you cruisers who are going on the Millenium. But bring your Imodium, Lomoto and/or any medications that might help you with nausia caused by the norovirus. These pills on the ship are not cheap!

[ccruisequeen]

Sure hope it clears up by mid-April! I want to enjoy my first Panama Canal cruise!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[gisnered]

Really surprised! There was the smell of bleach everywhere and I am not sure how you missed the pile of vomit on the 4th deck by the casino but very happy you didn't notice it at all!

 

Amazing how different experiences can be! Yeah, I sometimes smelled bleach - I just assumed that it's become one of the components in the regular cleaning products used on ships. As for the vomit/casino scenario: we don't gamble and, since we had an aft cabin, we used the rear elevator bank to get to the restarurant / Rendevous Lounge. Only went through the casino once, as far as I can remember.

 

 

(snip) People were stacked up like cordwood in the medical facility.

 

Interesting - I must be totally oblivious. We were at the medical facility on Wednesday - injury related - and we were the only ones there. I guess ye pays yer money and ye takes yer choice. ;)

[cruie4ever]

We found that when the noro virus strikes a vessel ,it takes 3 sailings to rid the ship of the bug .

 

We are booked on Millie to Alaska May 14th .Interesting thing is we never heard of the noro virus attacking a Alaska cruise ship

[dkjretired]

I just got off the same cruise and must agree with happycruiser1942. People were stacked up like cordwood in the medical facility. I've been on about 25 cruises in my life and have never been affected by the Norovirus personally. But on this cruise my wife got hit with it on our last day. She woke up with it as everyone was ready to disembark the ship. Luckily one of our friends (who had been sick for 4 days) had some left over pills that helped her get home without too much problem.

 

Overall, the cruise was pretty good for us. But the Millenium is starting to show her age and could use a re-fit (IMHO). Watch out for the ice bins in the Ocean Grill Restaurant. I have a hunch that might be where much of the norovirus is being spread. The Millenium has automatic ice dispensing machines in that restaurant, but they can't keep up with the demand, so the cruise lines puts out plastic bins with scoops in them to dispense extra ice. Its the perfect place to spread any germs and I can't believe the cruise lines does this. But I suppose its cheaper than buying new ice machines.

 

Good luck to all you cruisers who are going on the Millenium. But bring your Imodium, Lomoto and/or any medications that might help you with nausia caused by the norovirus. These pills on the ship are not cheap!

 

Millenium was in for refurbishment in May of last year...

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/aboutceleb/pressDetails.do;jsessionid=00003WOFCG-DMcFWUWvPXK8XIo5:12h3rnd1c?pagename=press_room_details&event_date=2009-05-13&event_type=press_release&sequence_code=A

[cruie4ever]

Millenium was in for refurbishment in May of last year...

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/aboutceleb/pressDetails.do;jsessionid=00003WOFCG-DMcFWUWvPXK8XIo5:12h3rnd1c?pagename=press_room_details&event_date=2009-05-13&event_type=press_release&sequence_code=A

 

Thanks for the web site . We knew that millie had been refurbished but didn't know the particulars

[cruiseman111111]

((QUOTE---Good luck to all you cruisers who are going on the Millenium. But bring your Imodium, Lomoto and/or any medications that might help you with nausia caused by the norovirus. These pills on the ship are not cheap!))

 

They charge for noro-pills???!!!!I can't beleive they make you sick, then charge you for medicine...What a racket!!

[spunky01]

We also just got off the Millennium and the noro virus was going around. I was told it started in Barbados. The last formal night there was a medical call over the speakers for the 4th floor diningroom. I was told over 100 people were sick from this. After our last shore excursion in Aruba we received a letter from the captain that night telling us that someone on the excursion had become sick. Offered us a fee medical exam and free medicine if we become sick. I felt they were on top of it and did what they could to contain it. I was told that it takes 24 to 48hrs to show symptoms. This was our first Celebrity cruise and this venture did not stop us from booking a back to back in October.

[Cassarino]

We just returned from the Millennium last night and everyone looked like the walking wounded. Everyone we talked to had some symptom of the virus. All the people at our table we sick with it including my husband and myself - vomiting and disentary very severely. People missed going out at many ports and missed many dinners and were self medicating with Imodium and apple juice because the cost to see the doctor was $150.00 which Celebrity should have waved considering the illness was contacted on that ship. We love crusing with Celebrity but this may be our last one with them because the staff and anyone in authority met our complaints we no comments and blank stares. Celebrity should offer compensation to the many passengers who missed so much of their cruise experience because they had to remain in their staterooms to nurse themselves back to health. I agree with others who have said that the Millennium

(this was our third cruise on it) is definitely looking aged and needs serious refurbishing.

We sailed on the Solstice last year and would recommend that ship very hightly - great crew, great shows, great food. A stunningly beautiful ship.

[Cassarino]

What?????????????????? We never received any notice from the Captain and we were in a suite. EVERYONE we talked to (and there were many) paid for the doctor. By the way, the medical call in the dining room was because someone was chocking and thankfully was fine. I called the last night on the ship because my husband was very ill with vomiting, diarrhea and a temperature and was told there would be a charge for the

exam and meds. We have sailed on Celebrity many, many times and, please believe ME,

there were no extra precautions taken to contain this illness. The crew is always washing down public areas on all sailings and dispensing hand sanitizing but they were allowing passengers to serve themselves in the buffet areas. Do you call that "containing it?" You said this is your first sailing with Celebrity so I do not feel you are justified in saying that they did all they could. The handling of this situation is way below Celebrity's standards.

[Cassarino]

Well aren't you the lucky ones. Maybe you should have come to our suite to see the mess in the bathroom after I was struck with the virus. Many people we talked to who had to go to the doctor said the line was longer than the buffet line at lunch. Everyone at our table of eight was sick. Everyone!!! I understand that these things happen but to be dismissed by Celebrity's not acknowledging it was insulting and poor guest relations.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Calm down, folks. It's not Celebrity that's making people sick, it's the passengers who are coming on board (knowingly or unknowingly) with Noro who are passing it on. As others have said, there are Noro outbreaks all the time on land, but they're not required to report them.

[DDWW]

We are also done with Celebrity. Two years ago we went through this on the Mercury. Both of us were very sick. What we did not know until we were out to sea was that there were bad outbreaks the last two sailings.

One passenger passed out on the floor of the infirmary and the nurse/aide walked over to him and said; “Sir, you can’t lay there.”

Ours made national news! I did see crew members one night throwing what appeared to be lots of waterline piping overboard so maybe it was in the system (and now in the Gulf of Mexico).

We know about this virus and if told about it before hand we would have definitely rebooked, about 6 months down the road. Celebrity did offer us $100 off a future cruise……. if we travelled within six months.

So it goes.

[I Fly]

We also got off the February 12-22 Millennium cruise and our cruise was somewhere in between the descriptions I've just read. Yes, there were some sick passengers, yes, I did smell bleach, but NO there weren't people throwing up all over the ship. I don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone, because if you were sick, it might seem like everyone was sick. That just wasn't the case. I will admit it might have been difficult to find someone who didn't know anyone who had been sick, but the situation wasn't code red, or even code yellow. I think it was stage one, if there is such a level. I heard that from several people. I know they fly a red flag or yellow flag if there is a serious condition and no flags were flying. They didn't remove the salt and pepper shakers, and on the buffet lines, the passengers could serve themselves.

 

We had a wonderful cruise. We found the ship in very good condition. The service was as outstanding as always. I must admit, the guest relations, "front desk people," were as always quick to say I'll take care of it, but it doesn't always work that smoothly. They are dealing with problems all throughout the day and seem to be the order takers, sending messages out to be dealt with. I've given up putting too much faith in any of them. I didn't want someone to think I find everything perfect. But overall Celebrity deals with issues very well.

 

Anyone who has plans on taking a Millennium cruise in the next month or so can be assured you will have as good a time as always. A great ship, with a great crew in really nice condition.

 

Steve

[kitty9]

Come on, saying you're done with Celebrity is a bit extreme. Unless you plan on not cruising on ANY cruise ship, then you have a point. But, every single line has had issues with Noro at one time or another. I've read of bad cases on Princess, RCI, Carnival, Costa, MSC, NCL, Regent and most others. You cannot blame this on the cruise line. All it takes is ONE passenger coming on board sick, touching any hard surface that others touch and there go you----cases of Noro. It's not just cruise ships where this happens but in schools, offices and other places---we've had schools and daycare centers close because of Noro. So don't go off the deep end and blame the cruise line for this happening. They do everything they can to make sure passengers are safe, but all it takes is one person to start an outbreak.

[Cassarino]

Come on, saying you're done with Celebrity is a bit extreme. Unless you plan on not cruising on ANY cruise ship, then you have a point. But, every single line has had issues with Noro at one time or another. I've read of bad cases on Princess, RCI, Carnival, Costa, MSC, NCL, Regent and most others. You cannot blame this on the cruise line. All it takes is ONE passenger coming on board sick, touching any hard surface that others touch and there go you----cases of Noro. It's not just cruise ships where this happens but in schools, offices and other places---we've had schools and daycare centers close because of Noro. So don't go off the deep end and blame the cruise line for this happening. They do everything they can to make sure passengers are safe, but all it takes is one person to start an outbreak.

 

As a writer said, the guest relations takes complaints with no results. They allow you to "vent" put never reply. I do not blame the virus on the cruise line what I do blame Celebrity for is that they did not acknowledge the many, many passengers who were ill with the virus. In a previous statement on this site, someone said they received a letter from the Captain saying that the medical services and meds were free. Has anyone else on that sailing received that message because no one I know did?

[lysolqn]

Come on, saying you're done with Celebrity is a bit extreme. Unless you plan on not cruising on ANY cruise ship, then you have a point. But, every single line has had issues with Noro at one time or another. I've read of bad cases on Princess, RCI, Carnival, Costa, MSC, NCL, Regent and most others. You cannot blame this on the cruise line. All it takes is ONE passenger coming on board sick, touching any hard surface that others touch and there go you----cases of Noro. It's not just cruise ships where this happens but in schools, offices and other places---we've had schools and daycare centers close because of Noro. So don't go off the deep end and blame the cruise line for this happening. They do everything they can to make sure passengers are safe, but all it takes is one person to start an outbreak.

 

A voice of reason. Thank you. Holding Celebrity (or any other cruise line for that matter) responsible for a noro outbreak is like holding an airline responsible for encountering turbulence. It just doesn't make sense.