Celebrity Summit's 01-19-13 CDC Vessel Sanitation Report A Dismal 81 Failure!

[AcadiaL]

We would all probably be horrified if we knew how often the people cleaning our rooms both in hotels and cruise ships used the same rags from room to room, or wiped the toilets and then wiped the countertops with the same rag. I always wipe down the doorknobs and surfaces in the bathroom when we first check in, but forget to do so every day after housekeeping has been there. Its no wonder norovirus spreads so rapidly throughout ships. I can understand why room stewards cut corners as they are expected to clean so many rooms in a short amount of time, but wow, the risks of cross contamination are so high. I just have to hope our immune systems can handle it and not think about it too much.

[Ellen S]

We would all probably be horrified if we knew how often the people cleaning our rooms both in hotels and cruise ships used the same rags from room to room, or wiped the toilets and then wiped the countertops with the same rag. I always wipe down the doorknobs and surfaces in the bathroom when we first check in, but forget to do so every day after housekeeping has been there. Its no wonder norovirus spreads so rapidly throughout ships. I can understand why room stewards cut corners as they are expected to clean so many rooms in a short amount of time, but wow, the risks of cross contamination are so high. I just have to hope our immune systems can handle it and not think about it too much.

 

What week are you supposed to go on the Summit? My DH and I are going September 21st. I have been on the Summit three times. Am hoping the problem is fixed because I love the ship. Love going to New England and Canada either by ship or car.

[AcadiaL]

What week are you supposed to go on the Summit? My DH and I are going September 21st. I have been on the Summit three times. Am hoping the problem is fixed because I love the ship. Love going to New England and Canada either by ship or car.

 

Hi Ellen, We will be on the Sept 7th sailing. I hope we both have a clean ship by then. Yes New England and Canada are great to visit by land or by sea. This will be our first trip by sea, and I sure hope it cooperates!

[Pompein]

After I read the report, I was concerned about my upcoming cruise on Summitt in June. So I emailed Michael Bayley, President and CEO of Celebrity.

I received a phone call from his office the next day.

The woman I spoke with assured me they would be addressing the issues, and understood my concerns.

Didn't promise anything concrete, though. I will be monitoring this and will even contact them again before I cruise.

[Traveller20074]

Try this link. You can also go to the CDC website and their is a link there for all inspections.

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTgwMDAyNjc%3d-X9etrD%2fe0kI%3d

 

Celebrity has not filed a Corrective Action Report yet.

 

We are also concerned since we have a cruise booked for June on Summit.

 

 

 

Mine's in 20 days :eek:

[Traveller20074]

No, I don't think! I can't take antibiotics and have a few other health issues, so I'm quite concerned about this.

Doesn't E-coli in a ship's water supply bother you? It certainly gave me a head's up, as did many of the other infractions, particularly the CDC disclaimer before the "corrections" posted by Celebrity Cruises, indicating that:

"VSP requires all ships to submit corrective action statements for deficiencies. This vessel submitted the following corrective action statement; however, VSP does not verify that the deficiencies have been corrected until after conducting the next vessel inspection or re-inspection.

I also find it very interesting that the Correction Report link posted by fishin' musician no longer works! :rolleyes:

 

Kity

I don't think that it's an exaggeration at all to be concerned with this. e-coli can make one very ill and affect organs. (Brianne Kinner, anyone? Jack in the Box e-coli scare a couple of decades ago) I don't want to get sick, I sure hope they correct what's wrong.

[Traveller20074]

The fact that public areas are shiney and spotless means very little.

 

that, and Purell (mentoned above) doesn't kill Norovirus.

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s very easy to spread when somebody has it,” Dr. DuPont said. “That’s why when it gets in a cruise ship, it tends to stay there recurrently. This virus is pretty resistant. There is only one really good effective way to clean, and that’s with Clorox.”

 

Dr. DuPont says toilets and surfaces that may have been splattered during the acute stage of the illness should be doused with a concentrated solution of bleach and water. He suggests mixing 1/4 cup of bleach and 2 1/4 cups of water. Other surfaces can be cleaned with a more diluted bleach and water solution. (For general cleaning, he suggests taking one cup of the concentrated solution and adding nine cups of water.)

 

“Clean everything,” he said. “You want to focus on tile floors, counter tops, sinks, toilets and various surfaces where you may have had direct contact. You may even have to clean poker chips or whatever you’ve been handling.”

 

Because the virus is particularly hardy and can last on surfaces for days, he advises leaving the bleach solution on the surface for at least 10 minutes and rinsing with clean water.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that once a person has contracted norovirus, he or she is most likely contagious for about three days after recovery. Dr. DuPont suggests staying away from others for at least a week after symptoms subside....."

[Christine Frances]

Happens every once in a while and corrections are made quickly. Luxury/Premium lines also fail occasionally as well eg Sea Dream II http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5287

[Spender Nui]

After I read the report, I was concerned about my upcoming cruise on Summitt in June. So I emailed Michael Bayley, President and CEO of Celebrity.

I received a phone call from his office the next day.

The woman I spoke with assured me they would be addressing the issues, and understood my concerns.

Didn't promise anything concrete, though. I will be monitoring this and will even contact them again before I cruise.

 

Where did you find his e-mail address?

[Spender Nui]

hi navy- I blame the overdoing in hygiene for all those many allergies nowadays. Nevertheless if X allows to continue the downslide of their standards it will go more downhill every year. X- is named for the absolut clean ships. Anyway I myself found some nice " leftovers" , such as hairs, smear , of the previous occpuants of our cabin on our last Eclipse cruise. Mostly in the bathroom- absolutly not up to their standards! Sloopy housekeeping leads to sloopy maintainance and so on.

 

Interestingly I didn't see any comments regarding cabins in the report. We've seen some disgusting things in cabins a few times.

 

Do they not include cabins in the inspections? If not they should.

[AcadiaL]

I would love to know how often cruise ships are inspected, and if they unannounced (surprise) inspections not scheduled in advance. I would also love to know how many inspectors comprise a team for one ship, and how long it takes to do an inspection. I would think they would have to be onboard for at least several days, and that it would be a team of at least six or more, divided into departments to inspect. Finally, I would love to know what agency, regulatory board, or corporation employs the inspectors.

[phoenix_dream]

that, and Purell (mentoned above) doesn't kill Norovirus.

 

 

Just for the record, there is a new Purell product out now called 'Advanced Purell' which does a much better job at killing Norovirus than the old version. The jury is still out as to whether it is as effective as the bleach cleaning (doubtful) but it is significantly better than the prior version. I read some information on the CDC website about it. They are still running studies to determine exactly how good it is. It is now available in stores in the US.

 

Unfortunately, there is no way people can avoid each other for over a week after symptoms end as this doctor suggests, so spread of noro and similar is unavoidable. The best we can hope for is rigorous efforts to contain it. To those worried, I would imagine that Summit will be the cleanest ship in the fleet for at least the near future:)

[Kitycaty]

The CC piece states that the CDC inspects these ships once every 6 months.

This means that the Summit won't be inspected again until July of 2013!

 

Whoa!!! :(

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5297

[sarahc78]

I sent an email to Mr Bayley regarding my concerns w/ the Summit not passing CDC Inspection. The very next day I received a call from one of the gals at his office. Unfortunately I was working so I couldnt take the call, however she left a very detailed message explaining that she sent my concerns to the appropriate channel and I should receive a call sometime next week as to how the situation is/will be handled.

 

Once I receive her call I will up date you all. ;)

[johhnnyt]

From my understanding each ship has two inspections a year at random times. If it fails once or a certain number of times is there a penalty involved? Or is just the PR nightmare of failing.

[Kitycaty]

I sent an email to Mr Bayley regarding my concerns w/ the Summit not passing CDC Inspection. The very next day I received a call from one of the gals at his office. Unfortunately I was working so I couldnt take the call, however she left a very detailed message explaining that she sent my concerns to the appropriate channel and I should receive a call sometime next week as to how the situation is/will be handled.

 

Once I receive her call I will up date you all. ;)

 

Thank you sarahc78. I, and I'm sure everyone else sailing shortly on the Summit, will be very interested in Celebrity's reply, (although, what can they say, they haven't corrected anything)?! They must state that everything's been corrected, as in their correction report, because if they didn't, the CDC would be on their case immediately, and I have no idea what the repercussions of that would be! :rolleyes:

[daleroux]

Thank you for the info. Please keep us updated as we are planning to cruise for the first time on a Celebrity ship and are very concerned about cruising on the Summit.

 

Donna and Tom

[Kitycaty]

I sent an email to Mr Bayley regarding my concerns w/ the Summit not passing CDC Inspection. The very next day I received a call from one of the gals at his office. Unfortunately I was working so I couldnt take the call, however she left a very detailed message explaining that she sent my concerns to the appropriate channel and I should receive a call sometime next week as to how the situation is/will be handled.

 

Once I receive her call I will up date you all. ;)

 

"Next week" has come and gone, and, since you've not posted anything since, I must presume that the "return call from the appropriate channel", never occurred! Par for the course, I'd say...:rolleyes: Frankly, we would have cancelled this cruise, if we'd not been within the penalty period. Too late now...

 

Kity

[richstowe]

"Next week" has come and gone, and, since you've not posted anything since, I must presume that the "return call from the appropriate channel", never occurred! Par for the course, I'd say...:rolleyes: Frankly, we would have cancelled this cruise, if we'd not been within the penalty period. Too late now...

 

Kity

Well the important thing is that you are going with a good attitude.;)

 

Seriously I believe that the the Summit crew are on their best behavior at this point.

 

On our Summit cruise,we went on the behind the Galley tour where the guide kept on emphasizing how important cleanliness

was to them and how seriously they took this responsibility. After hearing of the CDC failure, these comments took on a new meaning.

 

I should say everthing was clean as far as we could see when we were on the Summit.

 

As far as not knowing these results when on our cruise, I guess I'm conflicted.

One the one hand there's the feeling of being lied to by the withholding of this information to us by X staff and management.

On the other hand this may be the case where ignorance truly is bliss. Knowing of the recent failure would

not have added anything positive to our cruise. Overall I'm glad we didn't know.

 

It doesn't change the fact that this CDC failure is and should be an embarrassment to Celebrity.

[Kitycaty]

Well the important thing is that you are going with a good attitude.;)

 

On our Summit cruise,we went on the behind the Galley tour where the guide kept on emphasizing how important cleanliness

was to them and how seriously they took this responsibility. After hearing of the CDC failure, these comments took on a new meaning.

 

I should say everthing was clean as far as we could see when we were on the Summit.

 

As far as not knowing these results when on our cruise, I guess I'm conflicted. On the one hand, there's the feeling of being lied to by the withholding of this information to us by X staff and management. On the other hand this may be the case where ignorance truly is bliss. Knowing of the recent failure would not have added anything positive to our cruise. Overall I'm glad we didn't know.

 

It doesn't change the fact that this CDC failure is and should be an embarrassment to Celebrity.

 

We regret, that we don't have the luxury of going with a better attitude, and simply stating, "we're glad that this may be a case where ignorance truly is bliss", but I have medical reasons why this report was, and remains, a real concern to us.

 

I remember once when we were on a Fall Foliage cruise on the Connie, and they were in the middle of a Norovirus outbreak, (without notifying the passengers, of course), how everything on the ship stank of bleach, particularly the elevators, where the buttons and controls had to be constantly wiped down with it. When I tried to use one of the towels in our bathroom to wipe off a stain from a pair of pants, the towel literally bleached out my pants, ruining them, (lol)!

 

The feeling by the PAX, though, became one of real apprehension, and it was not a pleasant experience, (particularly since the crew knowingly withheld from us what was transpiring). After we docked back in the U.S., the ship was late leaving on its next itinerary, as it had to be professionally cleaned from stem to stern.

 

It was a concern to us that on the Summit's CDC Report, those crew members kept working, and did not report ill, passing around their illness to the PAX. So, you'll forgive me if I'm not feeling exactly positive about embarking on this cruise. :-\

 

Well, at least on your cruise this past March, the ship seemed to be clean, and there was no illness reported. That, at best, is comforting...:)

 

Kity

[Pompein]

Where did you find his e-mail address?

 

I just searched this forum.

 

contactmichael@celebrity.com

[Kitycaty]

I just searched this forum.

 

contactmichael@celebrity.com

 

What do you mean? When I clicked on your link a form of e-mail opened which I don't have on my computer requesting my user name and password...(?) Who is michael@celebrity.com??? :eek:

 

Kity

[BigAl94]

Has anyone noticed that Century scored only 78 in a recent inspection?

[Keith1010]

Sorry to see this.

 

Keith

[ghstudio]

What do you mean? When I clicked on your link a form of e-mail opened which I don't have on my computer requesting my user name and password...(?) Who is michael@celebrity.com??? :eek:

 

Kity

 

Just retype (don't copy) the address contactmichael@celebrity.com into the to field of your mail program.

 

The poster of that mail address above actually posted it with the hidden command mail to: to automatically bring up your mail program with the address already in it...nothing sinister...they were trying to help.

 

Micheal is Micheal Bayley, the CEO of Celebrity Cruise lines.