Arcadia cough - fact or fiction?

[Skintman]

We've just returned from J303 Baltic cruise on Arcadia (8-22 May)and were amazed how many people had coughs and colds on board, even though the weather was mild. It was awful during the show, everyone spluttering and wheezing. We both got it in the second week of the cruise and one of our friends too :(. We both still have a chesty, death type lung rattle!! I'd not heard of this issue beforehand, but it now looks like a well documented problem. I remember well from my 10 years on the oil rigs in the '80s, that bugs can stay on board for years infecting and re-infecting crew etc. What's your experience of this malady? Should we all wear face masks Japanese style?

 

Is there a Ventura virus, an Oriana outbreak (or odour), an Azura affliction (or ache) etc :eek:? - (you get the gist).

[FangedRose]

We've just returned from J303 Baltic cruise on Arcadia (8-22 May)and were amazed how many people had coughs and colds on board, even though the weather was mild. It was awful during the show, everyone spluttering and wheezing. We both got it in the second week of the cruise and one of our friends too :(. We both still have a chesty, death type lung rattle!! I'd not heard of this issue beforehand, but it now looks like a well documented problem. I remember well from my 10 years on the oil rigs in the '80s, that bugs can stay on board for years infecting and re-infecting crew etc. What's your experience of this malady? Should we all wear face masks Japanese style?

 

Is there a Ventura virus, an Oriana outbreak (or odour), an Azura affliction (or ache) etc :eek:? - (you get the gist).

 

I got 'cruise cough' on Celebrity Eclipse last year. Seems to be rife on all ships. Search for 'cruise cough'. Concensus of opinion seems to blame air conditioning drying the air out.

[Keith1010]

When you are in a confined environment with the same people it is very easy for germs to spread.

 

Keith

[davecttr]

I caught a cold the week before sailing on Arcadia to the Baltic where it turned into a cough. Soon to be 4 weeks later and i still have a cough etc etc.

 

I am so fed up I will be visiting my doctor this week although apparently this adult cough or bronchitis is self limiting and antibiotics don't help. however there is a 5% chance of it turning into pneumonia and I have an underlying medical condition... so off to the doc for wing of newt and incantations.

[ovccruiser]

... so off to the doc for wing of newt and incantations.

 

So that's your problem, it should be eye of newt and wing of bat, your doctor has been getting it wrong:D:D

 

Re cabin cough, I leave the lid off the ice bucket to allow some moisture into the atmosphere, it sometimes works

[Host Sharon]

Cabin cough is a common issue on all ships. I wet a hand towel or face cloth and hang it close to the bed at night to moisten the air. There are bound to be some people boarding with cough and colds and these do spread - mostly, from my observation, by people coughing and not covering their mouths!! Despite my precautions, I had a particualry bad bout of Oceana cough in 2011 - took weeks to go.

[jenny wren]

Saline nasal spray nightly before bed..... works for me!! :)

[Host Sharon]

Saline nasal spray nightly before bed..... works for me!! :)

 

Thanks for the tip - I'll get some tomorrow!

[Cosmic Rays]

I posted a "Cruise Cough" thread a short while ago here and got many points of view and remedies - have a look back. Mine have lasted five weeks as a rule and I have boarded the ships fit and healthy!!

We go again next month and I will take great heed as to what has been said and suggested to keep well for a change. This time we have a balcony so the door can be open and the A/C turned off if possible or 'covered'!

[Growler5010]

Of all the ships we've sailed on (including 5 weeks on Oriana in the winter months) Arcadia is the only ship that I contracted a cough on so I think it's down to that particular ship's air conditioning system.

[jenny wren]

We have done 23 cruises all together on 8 different cruiselines and on 18 of those cruises I have ended up with a dreadful rasping cough that hung around for weeks after our return home...we tried everything like hanging wet cloths in the cabin, boiling the kettle before going to bed, opening the balcony door, etc. etc. and nothing helped......for the last five cruises I have used saline nasal spray before going to bed and, touch wood, have not had a cough since!!!!:)

[FangedRose]

I've been on 10 cruises, various cruise lines, various ships and a variety of cabin types. Only got it on Celebrity Eclipse. Balcony cabin! Go figure!

[Cosmic Rays]

We have done 23 cruises all together on 8 different cruiselines and on 18 of those cruises I have ended up with a dreadful rasping cough that hung around for weeks after our return home...we tried everything like hanging wet cloths in the cabin, boiling the kettle before going to bed, opening the balcony door, etc. etc. and nothing helped......for the last five cruises I have used saline nasal spray before going to bed and, touch wood, have not had a cough since!!!!:)

 

We MUST get some I think.......what did you buy and where from please?

[jenny wren]

Sorry we're moving house this week and everything packed so I can't actually read the label off the bottle!! but I ordered off Amazon (just put in 'saline nasal spray' in the search box and up came a selection) ....I ordered a pack of 3 for around £10 I think!! I'll see if I can find the original order for you. :)

[Cosmic Rays]

Sorry we're moving house this week and everything packed so I can't actually read the label off the bottle!! but I ordered off Amazon (just put in 'saline nasal spray' in the search box and up came a selection) ....I ordered a pack of 3 for around £10 I think!! I'll see if I can find the original order for you. :)

 

Cheers!!! Enjoy the move................

[Sutho]

One technique some people use is called nasal flossing to cleanse the nasal passage of mucus preventing colds and coughing sypmtons. A google search of nasal flossing will give you an idea of what you have to do to perform the practice on yourself if you are looking for a natural way to prevent against the cough.

 

I have been on Arcadia twice and on both occasions I returned home with bronchitis. I am very fit and healthy and can do a 5km run in 20 minutes and a 6km run in 20 minutes on a good day.

[ivygirl]

The only time I have been ill on a cruise was when I got a chest infection while on Arcadia! She is still my favourite ship though!

[NSWP]

It was fact on the Arcadia WC last year, hundreds got it including me, I was confined to cabin for 4 days. We did the 49 days, Sydney to Southampton. I hope it has gone before we embark Arcadia for the Med on 13 April next year ! The ship' s doctor told me the 'cough, well the virus, had been on the ship since it left Southampton in the January, so don't blame us Aussies who got on in Sydney on 9 March, 2012 !!!

 

'Cough', crikey I still have it.

[Cosmic Rays]

It was fact on the Arcadia WC last year, hundreds got it including me, I was confined to cabin for 4 days. We did the 49 days, Sydney to Southampton. I hope it has gone before we embark Arcadia for the Med on 13 April next year ! The ship' s doctor told me the 'cough, well the virus, had been on the ship since it left Southampton in the January, so don't blame us Aussies who got on in Sydney on 9 March, 2012 !!!

 

'Cough', crikey I still have it.

 

Oh no.....................you STILL have it???? Yikes, what do WE do to avoid it?

[Essexlass2]

We're just back from J304 Norwegian fjords and North Cape cruise. Yes, quite a few people had coughs and colds which wouldn't have been half as bad had the culprits sneezed into their hankies and washed hands thoroughly after using the toilets. One lady discovered how the taps worked in the public loo on the day she disembarked "Oh that's how it works!" was her comment when someone else showed her and also pointed out the soap dispenser, so she'd not washed her hands for the previous two weeks!

 

I usually finish up with either a cold, a cough or a virus, but this time I simply used Vaseline inside my nostrils day and night and have come home as fit as a fiddle.

 

It was our first cruise on Arcadia and I cannot say we liked her at all. Not only is the age group elderly (often a state of mind, not necessarily the years) but the ship lacks a heart. It needs a nice atrium with things going on around it and not all quizzes, of which there were far, far too many (and we do love a good quiz). The Headliners were absolutely brilliant and left the ship with us after lots of emotion on both sides, performers and passengers.

[davecttr]

Just back from the doc after 4 weeks of coughing and I have an infection in the right lung, not serious but a 7 day course of antibiotics is needed. I cought it on Arcadia it seems.

[Slow Foxtrot]

This cough business on cruise ships is nothing new, although it seems to have increased in intensity.

In the 1980s it was common on that great P & O liner 'Canberra'. It was widely known amongst regular passengers as the 'Canberra Cough'.

The symptoms usually lasted for about thirty years but I've just got rid of mine. You just have to be patient.

[Cosmic Rays]

This cough business on cruise ships is nothing new, although it seems to have increased in intensity.

In the 1980s it was common on that great P & O liner 'Canberra'. It was widely known amongst regular passengers as the 'Canberra Cough'.

The symptoms usually lasted for about thirty years but I've just got rid of mine. You just have to be patient.

 

Thirty YEARS!!!!!!! OMG ...............Air conditioning is the problem, I am sure! I have my medication ready now and some tape for the AC vent!!!