Illness rate on longer cruises

[RDC1]

I have noticed that on longer cruises, longer than 10 days, that a very high percentage of the passengers come down with upper respiratory illness by the time the cruises end.

 

Does not matter which cruise line, or even where the cruise is. The combination of a large number of passengers (from different parts of the world), in the closed environment of a cruise ship means rapid spread of cold like illness. Starting to look like if one wants to do long cruise they need to plan on catching something a good percentage of the time.

 

Over the past two years I have been on for 17 days, 20 days, 31 days, 14 days, 17 days and 12 days on three different cruise lines. On all of them I have noticed that early in the cruise only a small percentage are coughing, but as the cruise goes on the numbers increase, and by the end a pretty high percentage seem affected. I have caught something about 2/3's on the cruises. I have taken similar length lands tours and river cruises and have never come home ill. I hardly ever catch anything at home, only on longer cruises.

 

What are your experiences?

[paul929207]

We have been on about 30 Princess cruises that were longer than 10 days and not had any problem

[TracieABD]

I have gotten sick on one cruise. I am hyper vigilant about hand washing, touching very little in the common areas, avoiding the buffet...

 

I also now carry Zicam nasal swabs. When I think I am getting sick, I begin to use them. It has been working...

 

On airplanes??? That is a whole different story!:eek:

[Micahs Grandad]

On about half of our 14 day or longer cruises DW has gotten a cold or worse.

 

Seems like quite a few passengers on Regal last week were coughing and hacking away

[cruzsnooze]

Never gotten any respiratory illness on any cruise and I've got dozens under my belt. Have you considered you may have a compromised immune system, the time of the year for illness, and of course in a contained environment things do spread.

Edited September 28, 2016 by cruzsnooze

[CineGraphic]

I avoid the elevators as much as possible. Coughing and sneezing in the elevator helps to spread the "creeping-crud" quickly.

Taking the stairs also helps burn off my daily cheesecake intake. :D

[RDC1]

Never gotten any respiratory illness on any cruise and I've got dozens under my belt. Have you considered you may have a compromised immune system, the time of the year for illness, and of course in a contained environment things do spread.

 

My immune system is just fine. Do not get ill at home, do not get ill flying, do not get ill on other trips, do not have an issue on shorter cruises. Only on longer ones where fairly large number of other passengers also appear to have been infected.

 

Not just my immune system, but apparently large numbers of other people as well based upon 1. The number of people coughing and sneezing and 2. the number of people indicating that they have come down with something.

 

The problem with upper respiratory illness is that it is usually spread by air born particles. A single person coughing or sneezing in a space like the theater can expose most of the people attending a show to some level of exposure. Even if only a small percentage develop, a few days later that one can be 10 or 15 and the exposure level goes up.

 

One contributing factor might also be that a cruise has passengers from many different countries. So the odds of encountering a bug that you have not been previously exposed to increases. The virus going around at home, might not be the same virus in the UK or Japan for example. One of the reason while international air travel can have its own issues.

[Murphey]

I agree with the elevator thing. Stay out of them when you can. One little sneeze in there and.....not to mention the buttons!!

[skynight]

Have taken numerous long cruises without any illness, but have also gotten sick on both shorter and longer cruises.

My feeling is that sometimes when I get sick I have picked up the cold on the plane flying to the cruise. The timeline seems to fit, no illness until 4 or 5 days after getting off the plane.

[hpeabody]

I am one who seldom gets colds or flu or stuff like that. I have in the past come down with what I call the "cruise crud" a mild sort of cold, that does not seem to last long. I have never gotten the dreaded noro virus, though I have been on several cruises with significant outbreaks.

 

This past February I sailed on the Sapphire in Southeast Asia for 21 days. IME, she was a truly "sick ship" at that time. Days 2-3 the coughing and respiraitory stuff started. I got a cold on day 2 ..... Dang! Lasted about 4-5 days for me. Throughout the whole cruise it got worse, much worse. It seemed everyone on the ship was down with it, mostly respiraitory stuff and lots and lots of coughing. I tried my best to keep my hands washed and not touch too much. But, I got a cold AGAIN and far worse than the first time ... DOUBLE DANG! I always have Coldeze and Vitamin C, but had already used up nearly all of it. On day 20 I got it again. Disembarkation and very long flight home the next day. I did not have any respiraitory issues. This time I was really sick, my ears immediately got "clogged up" on the first flight, I coughed quite a lot and I lost my voice. It developed into or contributed to me having a rare syndrome called Mal de debarkment, which I do not wish on anyone.

 

Mal de debarkment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal_de_debarquement

Edited September 28, 2016 by hpeabody

[easyboy]

On all of our 14 day cruises, we did not have any respiratory problem. We did experience severe colds during a 7-day spring cruise.

[SteveH2508]

I spend quite a bit of time in the outdoor smoking area and have never yet caught a respiratory infection. I also drink a fair amount, so any germs would have an uphill struggle getting established.

 

Is their a causal connection? Probably not...:rolleyes:

[elliair]

I agree with the elevator thing. Stay out of them when you can. One little sneeze in there and.....not to mention the buttons!!

 

Not only the elevators, the buffet. Sit and watch how many people lick their fingers then they go through the buffet line picking up the serving spoons. Then watch some of them nibble away at their plates as they're walking around the food area. I've gotten sick from the airplane flight - the woman behind me hacked and coughed the whole way. It's not only at the buffets, just sit and watch people eating in the dining room licking away on their fingers. That really annoys me.:eek:

[thistledoo]

Have taken numerous long cruises without any illness, but have also gotten sick on both shorter and longer cruises.

My feeling is that sometimes when I get sick I have picked up the cold on the plane flying to the cruise. The timeline seems to fit, no illness until 4 or 5 days after getting off the plane.

 

Exactly! DH regularly gets ill after long flights. We are flying long distance to meet our next cruise and I am trying to convince him to wear a face mask.

[Hlitner]

The good ole "Cabin Cough." We take lots of long cruises (to us long is longer then a month) and on some ships many passengers do get URIs. DW has had several bouts and it took weeks (after returning home) to get rid of the cough (which sometimes required the use of steroids).

 

But in the past 3 years we have managed to avoid any URIs on our cruises..and we do cruise a lot (103 days in 2016). To avoid URIs we have taken a few simple precautions...but one could argue that not getting sick is just anecdotal. Our main avoidance procedure is to actively try to avoid being near folks who are coughing :). One such area (we think its the worst of all) are elevators. Get crammed into an elevator with a dozen passengers...and if one coughs or sneezes it is not good :(. So we now try to avoid elevators (on ships) and use the steps. This is a win-win since we have stayed healthy, the steps help keep us in shape, and the extra exercise also helps with weight.

 

On a related note we always smile when folks use elevators to get to or from the gym! Think about it....people hop in an elevator to go to the gym to use the stairmaster or elliptical. Makes little sense.

Hank

[Cruiser Bruiser]

I only caught a cold on one cruise...and it was 16-nights long! Of course it was also during Hurricane Sandy, and I might have worn insufficiently warm clothing on a 2-hour boat tour of Naval Station Norfolk. But given that huge numbers of folks on the ship ended up with the same cold, I'm inclined to support the OP's theory. (And no, I don't think I was patient zero.)

Edited September 28, 2016 by Cruiser Bruiser

[iceleven]

How does one avoid cold virus by avoiding elevators when using the stairs? I am not able to go down stairs without holding onto the railings and what makes that safer if the person before you, using the railings, had just blown their nose or coughed into their hand? One would have to immediately then find a bathroom to wash their hands once they arrived to their intended floor.

 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am quite a bit claustrophobic and will not use an elevator that is full or crowded. Maybe that is one reason I haven't gotten sick on ships. :)

 

I've taken several semi-long cruises (two weeks) yet never came down with any type of URI. Hubby and I do spend a few weeks prior to cruising fortifying our immune system with certain herbal solutions and trying to get more rest than usual. I avoid children (worst little germ buggers) as best I can. :p

[ksm77]

We have been on 36 cruises 4 - 27 days. Very lucky never been sick. We do not ride in the elevators, touch the hand rails on the stairs. We also do not eat in the Lido very much, wash our hands alot. If you watch people especially in the lido their habits around food are awful. That being said never say never because when you are traveling with that many people anything can happen.

Edited September 29, 2016 by ksm77

[cruisequeen4ever]

The elevator theory is interesting. Usually DH and I exclusively use the stairs, and we have avoided the aptly dubbed "cruise crud". Last cruise, I injured my foot, so we had to take the elevator, and it was the one time I did get sick on a cruise. It was a 14 day cruise, and the 28 day B2Bers were really coming down with it and spreading it to all of us. My mother-in-law almost always gets sick on cruises, and she uses the elevator. I never touch the buttons with my hand, but I can see how the air must be full of germs in that small enclosed space.

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

My friend goes on eighth 10 day cruises in a row every year B2B (80 days total) and never got sick on anyone of them. I have been on five B2B 10 days cruises. Never sick. Are we just lucky???

Tony

[Times Prince]

After several years of cruising it became terribly obvious to us that we caught something (respiratory illness) on the flight home, starting to manifest itself within days of our return. The was consistent enough and severe enough we almost gave up cruises.

 

Then Princess moved to a port in Texas and we were able to drive to/from the cruise. Using our own car to get to/from port, guess what? We didn't get ill.

 

From our experience, airplanes are problem #1 with respiratory illness, as the air recirculates inside these flying incubators, and there is little to no sanitation of the seating areas, with other passengers coughing in close proximity. This is also indicated by the time for a virus to kick in - a couple of days, typically, but sometimes quicker - so those people coughing or norovirusing a couple of days into the cruise probably were infected on the airplane beforehand.

 

The only time both my DW and I ever really got sick with colds/bronchitis ON a cruise we had opted for an "Ocean View" cabin. The ship's doctor cited that these cabins are part of an air circulation system that only contains a percentage (about 1/3) of fresh air at any given time and the rest is recirculated. His recommendation to my DW, who is susceptible to respiratory problems, is to only book balcony cabins, where we can refresh the entire room's air by opening the balcony door for a while each day.

 

So, while shared surfaces and elevators are likely problem #2, it is likely followed by cabin air circulation systems as problem #3.

 

For us, it is worth paying a little more for a balcony cabin.

 

Now if we could think of a way to avoid those airplanes...

[Sacto Rick]

We have gotten sick several times. We take all the necessary precautions talked about to the point I don't think we could realistically do much more. It worries me every time I cruise now.

[Loreni]

I have noticed that on longer cruises, longer than 10 days, that a very high percentage of the passengers come down with upper respiratory illness by the time the cruises end.

 

Does not matter which cruise line, or even where the cruise is. The combination of a large number of passengers (from different parts of the world), in the closed environment of a cruise ship means rapid spread of cold like illness. Starting to look like if one wants to do long cruise they need to plan on catching something a good percentage of the time.

 

Over the past two years I have been on for 17 days, 20 days, 31 days, 14 days, 17 days and 12 days on three different cruise lines. On all of them I have noticed that early in the cruise only a small percentage are coughing, but as the cruise goes on the numbers increase, and by the end a pretty high percentage seem affected. I have caught something about 2/3's on the cruises. I have taken similar length lands tours and river cruises and have never come home ill. I hardly ever catch anything at home, only on longer cruises.

 

What are your experiences?

 

I usually get influenza on longer cruises. I noticed when we began sailing Princess, the welcome letter from the ship's Doctor only mentioned Noro...now it mentions both Noro and influenza. Additionally, I sought medical treatment onboard the last time it happened and the ship's Doctor told me it tends to happen on longer cruises. So yes, I think it is a real issue. I have a one week cruise coming up and we'll see what happens. Of course on such a short cruise it is easy to blame the plane.

 

It is getting to the point that we are considering other forms of travel. In the meantime I intend to skip the main theater (no loss, I usually skip it anyway), try to avoid elevators, and, as others have suggested, wear a mask.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Loreni

[mrs and mrs]

My friend goes on eighth 10 day cruises in a row every year B2B (80 days total) and never got sick on anyone of them. I have been on five B2B 10 days cruises. Never sick. Are we just lucky???

Tony

 

 

 

No, not lucky, but probably healthy.:)

[WatchHill]

We've been on far too many cruises to keep count, and so far, no serious illness. Travel starts with a flight, and once on the plane, I pull out a few "germ disinfecting cloths," and wipe the arm rest and tray. If I need to use the toilet on the flight, a few wipe come with me for door handles, etc. Call me paranoid, but I do have a compromise immune system so I need to be careful.

 

Once in the cabin, I use the wipes on the TV remote, light switches, door handles, and telephone, plus a quick wipe down of counters, etc.

 

I tend to avoid the buffet, but then, there's the issue of those heavily handles menus in the dining room, yuck! I saw a slide show on a local TV webs site of the most germ infected places we encounter - menus, carpets, [no bare feet], elevator buttons, public rest rooms, grocery carts, door handles, lemon/lime wedges in your beverage, etc. Washing your hands is a must.

 

Darcy