Miracle: Skipped Grand Turk, Rumors of Noro and Delayed Sailing

[NS-Cruiser]

Hopefully they get it "cleaned up" before our stop on Freedom on April 8, 2013....

 

This also happened last summer in Halifax (Canada) when Glory paid a visit... (I live near Halifax, and it was well covered on our local news services - TV and Radio) Several people had been sick, while on board, but went ashore anyway. Three seperate restaurants on the Halifax waterfront were closed for the week afterwards while a proper cleaning took place. A lot of revinue was lost by those restaurants, but they went on the safe side, closed and cleaned properly, and allowed their staff to also get well.... everything was back to normal within a week.

 

They could do the same thing in GT.... especially if there are no ships stopping for a week or so....

 

Drain the pools, and CLEAN them properly, and clean the kitchens, and serving areas, and public access areas properly, and everything SHOULD be back to normal...

[bakechef]

Just got off the fantasy and grand turk was canceled. I would prefer that over noro. We really wanted to see that port, since none of us had ever been there. We ended up getting Freeport as a replacement, and we made the best of it! Great cruise overall!

 

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using Tapatalk HD

[ashley@cruisecritic]

This is as much info as we have at this point:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5264

[Watson's aunt]

in News a few ships have visited the island and all the shipa that docked there in last week or so have gotton sick. See cruise news. No ship will be stopping there.

[Hunshine]

I just got back from the Miracle and believe me, it was not a nice illness. It was short lived thankfully but it was nasty while it lasted. I have spoken to some other people who were sick and we all had Pina Coladas at Margaritaville. Hard to say what the actual cause was but it seems to be a common factor....

[rthereanynamesleft]

We were on the Liberty March 2-9. We had a port stop in GT on March 7. 11 of us in all including 2 children. On the day of debarkation my husband woke around 4 am very sick. Very hard to get off the ship when you are so sick and just want to stay in bed (or in the bathroom). We met 3 other people on our way to deck 3 that were also sick and one that had been sick the previous day. I stopped by the customer relations desk to inform them so that it would be noted. How else would they know if there was an outbreak if everyone gets off and does not say anything. I assume by the end of debarkation they had a good idea that they had a problem. We were not sure if it was the food or what. Over the next few days more of our party would become sick.

 

Just yesterday I found posts about this very thing pointing to GT. I had wondered if it had been brought back from port. Margaritaville seems to be the most likely. Of the people in our group who got sick, those had a frozen drink. Those that only drank bottle beer did not get sick. This all makes sense now. Most likely the water source or ice maker. I never thought I had to watch the water and ice in the Caribbean but did know the warnings about Mexico though I was told that in reputable hotels and restaurants they use filtered water. Margaritaville is a large corporation and I would not suspect this from them. I do bet after all the revenue lost and bad publicity that they will have a much higher standard after this but will think twice about a drink there the next time we visit. If passengers are figuring this out I am sure that they have found the source by now and are correcting the problem.

[Buffettfan 225]

Just off the Glory ...after 12 cruises, can say this had the weirdest Karma for medical.

First port on Mon was Nassau and after leaving at 2pm sailed two hours and then returned to Nassau due to a medical crew emergency (they had shipped cranked up to max knots!) Tues was a planned sea day,and were not able to make up the lost 5-6 hours,so Wed we arrived 3 hours late to St. Thomas and had to dock at Crowne Bay at 1pm and stayed until 6pm.

Upon arrival we were met by an ambulance for another medical emergency of I believe a child had dislocated a knee that morning? (I heard). It was very weird leaving St. Thomas first time in darkness and from Crown Bay port.

San Juan day went as planned.

Then that evening notified due to high rate of illness Grand Turk was being cancelled -no subsititute port only $14.92 taxes for port refunded.

Then on Friday afternoon they announced a closed the aft pool area and all of deck9,10 due to Coast Guard coming for another medical emergency for a crew member.

They closed all the fire doors in aft area, staff were in full fire gear on the deck,helmets face masks on deck 10 (in case of emergency), the coast guard helicopter circled, then lowered a Guard down a cable wire (also in full gear) followed by a stretcher basket. The helicopter then flew in circles away from the ship.Then a basket was lowered - a medical team member went up, the stretcher and then the guard back up. They circled once around and from back of helicopter one of the Coast Guards waved to the ship. Near end of rescue chants of U-S-A were loudly going on in appreciation.

Today we disembarked and hate a late evening flight, the ship was still there at 6pm and later as we flew over in our flight --anyone know why?

[North_bound]

Just off the Glory ...after 12 cruises, can say this had the weirdest Karma for medical.

First port on Mon was Nassau and after leaving at 2pm sailed two hours and then returned to Nassau due to a medical crew emergency (they had shipped cranked up to max knots!) Tues was a planned sea day,and were not able to make up the lost 5-6 hours,so Wed we arrived 3 hours late to St. Thomas and had to dock at Crowne Bay at 1pm and stayed until 6pm.

Upon arrival we were met by an ambulance for another medical emergency of I believe a child had dislocated a knee that morning? (I heard). It was very weird leaving St. Thomas first time in darkness and from Crown Bay port.

San Juan day went as planned.

Then that evening notified due to high rate of illness Grand Turk was being cancelled -no subsititute port only $14.92 taxes for port refunded.

Then on Friday afternoon they announced a closed the aft pool area and all of deck9,10 due to Coast Guard coming for another medical emergency for a crew member.

They closed all the fire doors in aft area, staff were in full fire gear on the deck,helmets face masks on deck 10 (in case of emergency), the coast guard helicopter circled, then lowered a Guard down a cable wire (also in full gear) followed by a stretcher basket. The helicopter then flew in circles away from the ship.Then a basket was lowered - a medical team member went up, the stretcher and then the guard back up. They circled once around and from back of helicopter one of the Coast Guards waved to the ship. Near end of rescue chants of U-S-A were loudly going on in appreciation.

Today we disembarked and hate a late evening flight, the ship was still there at 6pm and later as we flew over in our flight --anyone know why?

 

Hey Buffettfan, I just got home from the same cruise.

 

Yes, I've been on a number of cruises and this is the strangest one yet. In addition to all that you've posted there was some sort of medical emergency on the aft Lido deck on either Wednesday or Thursday morning(can't remember which). Many of the ship staff were present and circling the person and I couldn't see what was happening other than an IV bag being held up by staff. Also another person fell backward and apparently was badly injured with some sort of head wound. I heard additional injuries but they are unconfirmed so I won't post.

 

Check out this picture I got from our balcony. The sight of the coast guard helicopter directly above us was unbelieveable.

[MrPete]

Just off the Glory ...after 12 cruises, can say this had the weirdest Karma for medical.

First port on Mon was Nassau and after leaving at 2pm sailed two hours and then returned to Nassau due to a medical crew emergency (they had shipped cranked up to max knots!) Tues was a planned sea day,and were not able to make up the lost 5-6 hours,so Wed we arrived 3 hours late to St. Thomas and had to dock at Crowne Bay at 1pm and stayed until 6pm.

Upon arrival we were met by an ambulance for another medical emergency of I believe a child had dislocated a knee that morning? (I heard). It was very weird leaving St. Thomas first time in darkness and from Crown Bay port.

San Juan day went as planned.

Then that evening notified due to high rate of illness Grand Turk was being cancelled -no subsititute port only $14.92 taxes for port refunded.

Then on Friday afternoon they announced a closed the aft pool area and all of deck9,10 due to Coast Guard coming for another medical emergency for a crew member.

They closed all the fire doors in aft area, staff were in full fire gear on the deck,helmets face masks on deck 10 (in case of emergency), the coast guard helicopter circled, then lowered a Guard down a cable wire (also in full gear) followed by a stretcher basket. The helicopter then flew in circles away from the ship.Then a basket was lowered - a medical team member went up, the stretcher and then the guard back up. They circled once around and from back of helicopter one of the Coast Guards waved to the ship. Near end of rescue chants of U-S-A were loudly going on in appreciation.

Today we disembarked and hate a late evening flight, the ship was still there at 6pm and later as we flew over in our flight --anyone know why?

 

Yeah, some word leaked out about the beginning of your voyage, then we heard nothing more, and was deemed "conspiracy".

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/JohnHeald/posts/526635434045689

 

The rumor about the late departure was linked to a water refuel of the ship. I think she finally sailed around 7ish.

[Buffettfan 225]

So a bunch of people get sick on the ship, and they put the blame on the island last visited? What odds are greater:

 

1. All of the sick passengers happened to end up in the same place while on GT & ate bad food or drank bad water at that spot?

2. All of the sick passengers ate something/drank something bad on the ship, or crossed paths/were in proximity with each other on the ship and spread the illness amongst each other.

 

I guess it COULD be that they got sick from something on Turk, but it sounds far more likely that it was a ship-related illness & CCL is blaming the island to avoid another hit of negative press.

I googled Grand Turk and article May 2012 they have had a gastrointestinal issue and cannot locate cause, there seem to multiple articles on it. Our Glory Cruise 3/10 sailing skipped this port and we were not notified until evening prior to when we were supposed to arrive next day.

[Laurin612]

Bummer. My cruise on the Freedom that leaves on Saturday was supposed to stop there. We were really looking forward to seeing Grand Turk, but I'd rather skip it than have a whole ship full of sick people! :eek:

[MDSue]

Bummer. My cruise on the Freedom that leaves on Saturday was supposed to stop there. We were really looking forward to seeing Grand Turk, but I'd rather skip it than have a whole ship full of sick people! :eek:

 

Hi Lauren, I am on this sailing, too! I am really hoping they will find another stop for us. It will be such a bummer to lose a port. I was looking forward to Grand Turl, but under the circumstances, I'd rather stop elsewhere at this point unless they are confident the problem has been solved.

[SexyK]

There has been many reports on the news about viruses on land so what makes it any different that it wouldnt effect the cruises. People get sick dont tell n still go out cough touch and anything else. So it doesnt surprise me to see it on the cruises. You just have to be more vigilent with washing your hands cover your mouth, wash your hands!!!!!

[Cruizinman]

Perhaps Jack " Jacks Shack with no Shack " will finally clean that grill :D

[MDSue]

There has been many reports on the news about viruses on land so what makes it any different that it wouldnt effect the cruises. People get sick dont tell n still go out cough touch and anything else. So it doesnt surprise me to see it on the cruises. You just have to be more vigilent with washing your hands cover your mouth, wash your hands!!!!!

Yeah, I did all of that and still ended up in the hospital this year with a severe gastro illness (from a school, not a cruise ship, though). Don't want to go through that again. I hope they get to the bottom of the problem soon, but in the meantime, I think I'd prefer to go elsewhere now.

[rthereanynamesleft]

We were on Carnival Liberty March 2-9. GT was our last stop and then a sea day. 48 hrs after being there my husband was very sick the day of debarkation. I notified customer relations so that they would have it documented. I am sure many people who woke up sick that morning just got off the ship and did not say anything. I spoke to two people who were sick but said they would contact them when they got home. Not sure if they did or not. I wondered if it was the food as 3 of our family member complained that the steaks did not take good and did not smell good. They did not eat their dinner. I also considered that someone may have brought it back from port. Of 11 of us 6 ended up sick. When I read that ships were not going to GT because of illness I started to think about it and what we did figured out was we went to Margaritaville and those that got sick had a frozen drink and those who did not get sick either drank bottle beer or nothing. We all went into the pool.

[MDSue]

We were on Carnival Liberty March 2-9. GT was our last stop and then a sea day. 48 hrs after being there my husband was very sick the day of debarkation. I notified customer relations so that they would have it documented. I am sure many people who woke up sick that morning just got off the ship and did not say anything. I spoke to two people who were sick but said they would contact them when they got home. Not sure if they did or not. I wondered if it was the food as 3 of our family member complained that the steaks did not take good and did not smell good. They did not eat their dinner. I also considered that someone may have brought it back from port. Of 11 of us 6 ended up sick. When I read that ships were not going to GT because of illness I started to think about it and what we did figured out was we went to Margaritaville and those that got sick had a frozen drink and those who did not get sick either drank bottle beer or nothing. We all went into the pool.

Thanks for the tips. I hope they find the source. If our ship stops there next week-it will be bottled water from the ship and that's all for me.