Norovirus Oriana

[richleeds]

This ship can't go on like this surely...

[Scriv]

Jean, I agree about Natalie Milverton ! She is so full of energy!

[jeanlyon]

absolutely marvellous. The energy she gave to the choir made it work so well.

[tring]

We are due on Oriana in March - getting a bit worried!

 

The late disembarkations make sense, as when I had been ill the night before leaving Artemis, we were told to stay in the cabin and they would come to collect us, so we would be disembarked separately. We were actually asked if we wanted to go before or after the other disembarkation and we asked for later. The staff were outside wanting to deep clean the cabin before we went though, so suspect they normally disembark ill people first, which would put the other disembarkations behind schedule.

[P&O SUE]

I'm on Oriana in less than 2 weeks - so I'm a bit worried too! Perhaps people on the latest cruise could report how it was when they get back...

[sukilu]

WE are just back from that cruise. We enjoyed it. The cabin was on A deck. A large picture window (dirty) plenty of hanging space. We had the beds pushed together which made a large comfortable bed. Plenty of room to move around. The bathroom was tatty, sink was stained and looked as if the surface had been rubbed off but halfway throughout the cruise we were asked by our cabin steward if we would like it painted! So while we were in Florence this was done. We returned to a pristine sink and surround and the cabin smelling of acetone. The bathroom was flooded during the night,clean water, but it was fixed as soon as we reported it. There were problems with the toilet flushing and the plumber came 3 times to fix it.

Yes, there was norovirus on board. The crew worked hard and there were stringent regulations put in place,but still people ignored the rules.No self service buffet, no shared condiments on the table etc.

My OH succumbed just before disembarkation, the Doctor came promptly, injection and copious immodium. We were escorted off the ship, OH in wheelchair, luggage got for us and straight to car. Journey home was difficult but at leads the symptoms were controlled. Apart from all I've said, yes we would do it again.:D The crew were good, always found a choice that suited us at meal times, plenty to eat. Freedom dining worked well. We never had to wait for a table as opted to share and met some interesting people.

Edited October 26, 2014 by sukilu

[richleeds]

WE are just back from that cruise. We enjoyed it. The cabin was on A deck. A large picture window (dirty) plenty of hanging space. We had the beds pushed together which made a large comfortable bed. Plenty of room to move around. The bathroom was tatty, sink was stained and looked as if the surface had been rubbed off but halfway throughout the cruise we were asked by our cabin steward if we would like it painted! So while we were in Florence this was done. We returned to a pristine sink and surround and the cabin smelling of acetone. The bathroom was flooded during the night,clean water, but it was fixed as soon as we reported it. There were problems with the toilet flushing and the plumber came 3 times to fix it.

Yes, there was norovirus on board. The crew worked hard and there were stringent regulations put in place,but still people ignored the rules.No self service buffet, no shared condiments on the table etc.

My OH succumbed just before disembarkation, the Doctor came promptly, injection and copious immodium. We were escorted off the ship, OH in wheelchair, luggage got for us and straight to car. Journey home was difficult but at leads the symptoms were controlled. Apart from all I've said, yes we would do it again.:D The crew were good, always found a choice that suited us at meal times, plenty to eat. Freedom dining worked well. We never had to wait for a table as opted to share and met some interesting people.

 

Wow!

 

So, the outside cabin you had paid extra for, had a window that was dirty.

The bathroom was tatty.

The sink was stained with its surface rubbed off.

The cabin smelled of acetone.

The bathroom was flooded.

The toilet needed 3 visits from the plumber.

There was norovirus onboard.

Your OH caught it.

He needed medical attention.

You had a difficult journey home.

 

But you would do it all again?!

 

P&O must love customers like you!

[sukilu]

I object to your tone. The faults set against the trip were small. It wasn't P&O's fault that some passengers ignored the rules and therefore spread the virus. Yes the bathroom had a problem but the cabin was roomy and comfortable. We enjoyed ourselves. The entertainment was varied and the ports of call interesting. You can of course ignore all the good points. The doctor made it possible for us to get home!

[richleeds]

I object to your tone. The faults set against the trip were small. It wasn't P&O's fault that some passengers ignored the rules and therefore spread the virus. Yes the bathroom had a problem but the cabin was roomy and comfortable. We enjoyed ourselves. The entertainment was varied and the ports of call interesting. You can of course ignore all the good points. The doctor made it possible for us to get home!

 

 

You didn't really post about the good points so I wasn't ignoring them.

 

I think there is a bigger picture here about the state of Oriana and particularly her plumbing, just read some of the posts who have sailed on her recently.

 

Although you say it's not P&O's fault the virus spread, I would bet my last dollar that the plumbing issues on the ship are a major factor in the spreading of Norovirus.

 

She does seem to succumb to outbreaks much more than other ships and I believe the two are connected.

[daiB]

You didn't really post about the good points so I wasn't ignoring them.

 

I think there is a bigger picture here about the state of Oriana and particularly her plumbing, just read some of the posts who have sailed on her recently.

 

Although you say it's not P&O's fault the virus spread, I would bet my last dollar that the plumbing issues on the ship are a major factor in the spreading of Norovirus.

 

She does seem to succumb to outbreaks much more than other ships and I believe the two are connected.

 

 

Rich, you have no proof of that at all. NV affects all cruise lines and all ships.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Sealoveragain]

Wow!

 

So, the outside cabin you had paid extra for, had a window that was dirty.

The bathroom was tatty.

The sink was stained with its surface rubbed off.

The cabin smelled of acetone.

The bathroom was flooded.

The toilet needed 3 visits from the plumber.

There was norovirus onboard.

Your OH caught it.

He needed medical attention.

You had a difficult journey home.

 

But you would do it all again?!

 

P&O must love customers like you!

 

I have to agree with you. That sounds like the cruise from hell to me and if people are prepared to put up with this, things are not going to improve.I'm not interested really in how good the entertainment is, but if my accommodation is dirty, and the plumbing unacceptable, I certainly wouldn't be happy. I loved the Oriana the first time we cruised on her, but our cruise this year has put me off this ship.

[richleeds]

Rich, you have no proof of that at all. NV affects all cruise lines and all ships.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

I never said I had proof.

[richleeds]

I have to agree with you. That sounds like the cruise from hell to me and if people are prepared to put up with this, things are not going to improve.I'm not interested really in how good the entertainment is, but if my accommodation is dirty, and the plumbing unacceptable, I certainly wouldn't be happy. I loved the Oriana the first time we cruised on her, but our cruise this year has put me off this ship.

 

 

Exactly!

[tjwa]

Tone.

[richleeds]

As P&O will never grace us with official figures of norovirus outbreaks you can get an idea in other ways...

 

If you google norovirus P&O (without a ship name) out of the top 20 results 16 are for Oriana, 3 for Azura and 1 for Ventura.

 

If you google norovirus oriana then you get pages and pages

 

If you google norovirus Ventura then it runs out of steam on page 2 and starts reverting to Oriana outbreaks and only brings up Ventura as its mentioned elsewhere in the result.

 

Unscientific as it gets but I'm still betting my last dollar that Oriana is the worst culprit in the fleet.

[tjwa]

Could also be food poisoning.:eek:

[jeanlyon]

I think this puts it into context!!

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/04/12/8-cruise-ship-outbreaks-in-2014-is-your-cruise-safe/

[sukilu]

Oriana might be old but was certainly not dirty

[richleeds]

I think this puts it into context!!

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/04/12/8-cruise-ship-outbreaks-in-2014-is-your-cruise-safe/

 

 

Luckily for P&O they are not subject to CDC inspections or data collection, so this article has no relevance.

[Dryce]

Unscientific as it gets but I'm still betting my last dollar that Oriana is the worst culprit in the fleet.

 

I tried a similar sort of strategy prior to booking Oriana earlier this year.

 

My rough and ready conclusion was that the results were skewed to some extent by the amount over coverage of the December 2012 outbreak. Actually poking and prodding round the results showed roughly the same number of outbreaks. The difference was the level coverage.

 

Part of the problem with using Google for this sort of thing is that it uses page ranking mechanisms which rank pages in the results higher if there are more references to them. So Oriana gets whacked again disproportionately in the search results because the extensive coverage of the December 2012 outbreak is referenced by reports of other outbreaks on P&O.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Dryce

[richleeds]

I tried a similar sort of strategy prior to booking Oriana earlier this year.

 

My rough and ready conclusion was that the results were skewed to some extent by the amount over coverage of the December 2012 outbreak. Actually poking and prodding round the results showed roughly the same number of outbreaks. The difference was the level coverage.

 

Part of the problem with using Google for this sort of thing is that it uses page ranking mechanisms which rank pages in the results higher if there are more references to them. So Oriana gets whacked again disproportionately in the search results because the extensive coverage of the December 2012 outbreak is referenced by reports of other outbreaks on P&O.

 

 

I don't disagree with what you say and its difficult to get a definitive answer.

 

However in the results I did notice the outbreaks at different dates and did not overly feature the Dec 2012 outbreak more than others.

 

As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire and if people are googling "Norovirus oriana" more than other search terms hence the ranking returns, it shows there is an issue/concern out there.

[jeanlyon]

Yes, but it's a problem in schools, hospitals and even jails, so not confined to ships and I blame it on the dirty habits of the passengers, especially one or two that I saw but didn't have the guts to say anything.

 

How does this one on Royal Caribbean grab you? http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2014/10/articles/norovirus/a-sick-ship-adventure-of-the-seas-cant-shake-the-bug/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CruiseLawNews+%28Cruise+Law+News%29

Edited October 26, 2014 by jeanlyon

[richleeds]

It's common and spreads easily so like you say any public space can carry and spread it.

 

We can all find horror stories on cruise ships but I'll still stand by what I say and say that it occurs more frequently on Oriana than any other ship in the P&O fleet.

[majortom10]

I object to your tone. The faults set against the trip were small. It wasn't P&O's fault that some passengers ignored the rules and therefore spread the virus. Yes the bathroom had a problem but the cabin was roomy and comfortable. We enjoyed ourselves. The entertainment was varied and the ports of call interesting. You can of course ignore all the good points. The doctor made it possible for us to get home!

 

The faults you encountered on the trip have been experienced by myself in March of this year and been reported widely all year by numerous people and are not small faults. P&O know they have issues with plumbing, toilets and showers on Oriana and have known for some considerable time and in this day and age it is not excessive when paying for a cruise however much you have paid to expect clean water and working toilet facilities. I am sorry to say it but I told P&O in March that Oriana is not fit for purpose and should not be cruising in its current condition. While I know noro virus can be caught by numerous ways not having clean water in your cabin or defective toilets can only breed germs.

Edited October 26, 2014 by majortom10

[dgs1956]

Yes, but it's a problem in schools, hospitals and even jails, so not confined to ships and I blame it on the dirty habits of the passengers, especially one or two that I saw but didn't have the guts to say anything.

 

Absolutely. I've saw more than one or two and I do, very politely, tell people. If I get any hassle I point them in the direction of a member of staff.