Ok I Have to ask, bed bugs.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Anyplace I will be staying in gets checked for bedbugs, the first thing I get there. Have not seen them in real life, and hope that I never do! There are many photos online of what to look for. I bring a small LED flashlight. I am afraid of bringing something back home. It is very hard & thousands of dollars to treat your home. Everything from books to artwork on the walls, furniture - I don't even want to think about it.

 

Seattle has been getting more cases. We are nowhere near the levels of the cities on the top 10 or 15 lists, but the fact is they are pretty near everywhere now. I read of a case where the infestation was so bad they were crawling out of the Ipod and laptop.

[CanadaJulie]

Never even occurred to me! carnival cabins are cleaner than my house x 2.

 

BB don't care about clean or dirty - they care about feeding !

 

Certainly, it would be easier to notice bugs if you are constantly cleaning than if the sheets were never changed but if a single BB hitches a ride on a previous passengers suitcase, the suitcase is stored under the bed, the BB climbs up and makes the mattress her new home and proceeed to lay eggs... Then your super clean stateroom has BB ! It would take a while before anyones notices an infestation - just one bug at first - but soon the eggs hatch and the problem multiplies very quickly.

 

It becomes an even bigger problem if you didn't know about them, stored your suitcase under the bed and brought one home with you. It moves into your mattress at home, and proceeded to lay eggs...

[bmw mama]

I have never seen any evidence of bed bugs on any of my cruises.

 

I understand that there was a report of a single incident on the Magic back in November. Given that it was one report from one cabin I'd expect that if there were bed bugs the guest brought them aboard. Had they been there previously you'd expect that they would have spread to other cabins... other areas of the ship.

 

 

:)

If you care to check it out for me....I was in room 8262...March,11 cruise...I itched my entire cruise starting on Monday. I had hives,rash,that looked like bites. I had the room steward change my sheets...helped a little that night as did the cream and benedryl the doctor told me to take...I love the Magic...Not sure if this was a allergic reaction or bugs! Rather think allergy!!! I have not complained to CCL. as nothing can be done. Yes,I am still itching!! I was thinking maybe I was lucky enough to have the stateroom that the strange lady (with panic attacks)had her dog in. Very allergic to dogs!!I would appreciate it if you would let me know.:(

[Rizzorp]

I hate asking this question, I get it all the time since I work at a hotel and live in one of the worst locations for bed bugs, but has anyone experience bb's or bed bugs on the cruise ships?

 

Do you do a bed bug check before settling in?

 

I have never had bed bugs on a carnival cruise.

[LHP]

Hubby travels every week.

 

I put a fresh fabric softener sheet in his suitcase every month to help prevent him from bringing anything home.

 

We have never experienced bed bugs on a ship.

[CRUISE4JANE]

OMG! :eek: Just reading this thread is giving me the creeps. I have never experienced anything like this and hopefully will not bring home one of these little da** bed bugs. I think I would just have to ditch the suitcase and everything in it before I would attempt to bring it in my home. What is this about putting bounce in your suitcase? What does this dos? I usually clorox the bathrooms when I go on vacation and just checked the beds, sheets, but never lifted mattresses or checked walls, woodwork, pictures, etc. Don't laugh, I always put my luggage on the bed first. NEVER AGAIN thanks to all of you on this thread!:eek::eek::eek:

[bmw mama]

OMG! :eek: Just reading this thread is giving me the creeps. I have never experienced anything like this and hopefully will not bring home one of these little da** bed bugs. I think I would just have to ditch the suitcase and everything in it before I would attempt to bring it in my home. What is this about putting bounce in your suitcase? What does this dos? I usually clorox the bathrooms when I go on vacation and just checked the beds, sheets, but never lifted mattresses or checked walls, woodwork, pictures, etc. Don't laugh, I always put my luggage on the bed first. NEVER AGAIN thanks to all of you on this thread!:eek::eek::eek:

As soon as we are in our room we clean!! Do you really think they clean that well???? NO!! I really think I have an allergy of some kind....I am not thinking about bugs anymore!!! I will try the fabric sheets next cruise.

[CanWeGoYet?]

If there are bedbugs around, they will find you. They can crawl through walls to neighboring cabins, through electricity outlets - I've read cases of them getting inside laptops & cell phones in badly infested apartments in NYC.

 

I'm sure carnival checks the cabins carefully - bedbugs have appeared in all major cities. With the amount of travel people do it's inevitable they will spread & be "dropped off" in hotels, airplane seats, cruise ship cabins. I'd be surprised if fabric softener sheets will do much to deter them.

[Emperor Norton]

I hate asking this question, I get it all the time since I work at a hotel and live in one of the worst locations for bed bugs, but has anyone experience bb's or bed bugs on the cruise ships?

 

Do you do a bed bug check before settling in?

 

There was a thread on this (Carnival) forum a few months ago about someone who claimed to have found bedbugs. I stopped following it when it appeared that he was just stringing people along so Im not sure what the actual outcome was.

[FightOnRon]

So whats the scoop on the Bounce sheet,,what is this supposd to do?

[okwriter]

So whats the scoop on the Bounce sheet,,what is this supposd to do?

 

They do nothing other than make things smell nice. Check snopes.com. ;)

[kdinkus1]

My reply a couple of years ago: "It was on the Carnival Pride. It was the first time that we have ever encountered 'blue flannel' sheets. We thought that maybe Carnival used them for rooms with the wrap-around balconies. (our very first one ) Anyway, we slept on these sheets for 3 days before we complained. And yes, we had bites on us and itched like crazy. We thought maybe we had been bitten while on excursion. However, we looked closely at our sheets.. Yep bed bugs! Our cabin steward came in and changed the sheets out for us and put the regular white ones on. Plus they spent time 'fumigating' the room. And no we didn't get moved. All cabins were filled. No compensation either. Oh well... we sure did enjoy our wrap-around! Looking back we believe that someone must have brought their own sheets and the cabin steward must have thought that they were ours so he left then on the beds. Still gives me the 'willies' when I think about it today! "

[Martini Mom]

Never. AND Carnival has great beds and linens. So cozy! :D

[tinlizzy]

I'm bumping this thread because we were on the 5/14 Miracle sailing and found a bedbug in the cabin. We had bites - everyday a little worse, but didn't know what they were until we found the bedbug. We found it on the coverlet after the steward made the beds one morning. I captured it in a bathroom glass and took it to guest services.

 

I have to say they really made me mad at first 1) the steward tried to accidentally shake the bug to the carpet when I showed him 2) at first they would only admit that it was an insect and 3) they were off loading mattresses by the dozens from floor 5 and 6 so I feel they knew something was amiss.

 

I never asked for a thing but I had been very upset and demanded they at least own up to the fact that it was a bedbug so no one else would be affected. They brought a ship's exterminator to the cabin who did then confirm it was a bedbug.

 

We went to port and let them do an investigation. The mattresses were all new when we returned to the room.

 

One of the officers talked to us upon returning to the ship. She said they hadn't found anymore bugs but were very sorry for the experience. They would move us to a different cabin, launder all of our clothes and treat our luggage. We could see the ships dr. at no charge for the bites if we wished and they would refund 100% of the cruise fare.

 

I believe there was probably an outbreak on both floors because of the number of mattresses they were swapping out and the lack of shock from any of the employees.

 

It was very unnerving to say the least and I'm very thankful they had another cabin to move us to or I think I would have slept on deck. I'm still scared and hope I didn't bring them home. We took all of our clothes to a laundromat when we got home and ran them for 30 min on high heat on the advice from an exterminator. He is coming to treat our luggage next week which is still in the garage. Fingers crossed.

[ohiogymrat]

I'm bumping this thread because we were on the 5/14 Miracle sailing and found a bedbug in the cabin. We had bites - everyday a little worse, but didn't know what they were until we found the bedbug. We found it on the coverlet after the steward made the beds one morning. I captured it in a bathroom glass and took it to guest services.

 

I have to say they really made me mad at first 1) the steward tried to accidentally shake the bug to the carpet when I showed him 2) at first they would only admit that it was an insect and 3) they were off loading mattresses by the dozens from floor 5 and 6 so I feel they knew something was amiss.

 

I never asked for a thing but I had been very upset and demanded they at least own up to the fact that it was a bedbug so no one else would be affected. They brought a ship's exterminator to the cabin who did then confirm it was a bedbug.

 

We went to port and let them do an investigation. The mattresses were all new when we returned to the room.

 

One of the officers talked to us upon returning to the ship. She said they hadn't found anymore bugs but were very sorry for the experience. They would move us to a different cabin, launder all of our clothes and treat our luggage. We could see the ships dr. at no charge for the bites if we wished and they would refund 100% of the cruise fare.

 

I believe there was probably an outbreak on both floors because of the number of mattresses they were swapping out and the lack of shock from any of the employees.

 

It was very unnerving to say the least and I'm very thankful they had another cabin to move us to or I think I would have slept on deck. I'm still scared and hope I didn't bring them home. We took all of our clothes to a laundromat when we got home and ran them for 30 min on high heat on the advice from an exterminator. He is coming to treat our luggage next week which is still in the garage. Fingers crossed.

 

Sorry you had to go through that!

 

I travel alot, so I always check for bed bugs, knock on wood I havent encountered any yet.

[aidansaunt2004]

I live in Ohio and our city is known for having the most bedbugs. It's pretty disturbing that our area has the most. I've never encountered them, thankfully.

 

My advice to everyone is to avoid bringing anything used into your home and don't go to the "rent to own" places for furniture or electronics. I was a manager at a very popular "rent to own" place and I can tell you horror stories. You wouldn't believe the things bugs hide in including game consoles, tvs etc. A common myth is that the furniture is cleaned for bedbugs before it's sold or rented out. It's not true at all. The only treatment the furniture gets is an environmentally friendly roach spray that's water based and it's safe for pets and children. The electronics don't get that treatment. I wouldn't bring any of my belongings into the building. Obviously, the treatments for roaches wasn't very effective because they would be falling off of the ceilings, crawling on the walls, on our work computers etc. Just imagine, I am grossed out by bugs.

[LittleMiss]

I went to Miami in 2009. I stayed at the Princess Ann hotel on Collins and I was bit by bed bugs my entire stay. Even though this has nothing to do with Carnival, I say this because I know that many of the ships leave from Miami. This hotel offers awesome pricing, but from my understanding never fixed the problem. I contacted the board of Health and they did an investigation but there have been reports even after that.

[CanWeGoYet?]

I live in Ohio and our city is known for having the most bedbugs. It's pretty disturbing that our area has the most. I've never encountered them, thankfully.

 

My advice to everyone is to avoid bringing anything used into your home and don't go to the "rent to own" places for furniture or electronics. I was a manager at a very popular "rent to own" place and I can tell you horror stories. You wouldn't believe the things bugs hide in including game consoles, tvs etc.

 

Good advice. I've also read that it's wise to avoid getting anything from 2nd hand stores - I used to find some pretty good things at a Deseret store near my house. Cute 60's retro green upholstered armchair, etc. No more, not worth the risk.