Anthem and Noro - sailing today?

[familycruzer]

1100 kids? This is worse than Carnival!

 

Why would be so many kids onboard outside from school vacation?

 

 

 

NJ week - no school and kids sailed free

 

 

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[nolesrule]

1100 kids? This is worse than Carnival!

 

Why would be so many kids onboard outside from school vacation?

 

 

Jersey week. No school Thursday or Friday in New Jersey and many schools have short days Monday to Wednesday. My kids essentially missed 1.5 days, so an off-peak week in terms of rates combined with a Kids Sail Free promotion and you end up with some great deals for New Jersey families on what otherwise would be an expensive ship to travel on.

[kthom88]

I would love to know who told you they stopped serving drinks with fruit, as one of the standard sanitation procedures, even when there is no noro, is that all "ready to eat" food, like fruits and vegetables for salads are sanitized before leaving the provisions area.

 

 

They stopped serving fruit in drinks. I was unable to get a mojito from late Weds on. And as it continued no cherries in a manhattan, no margarita with lime, no lime for gin and tonic , and the list goes on. This was at multiple locations. The bartenders told us they are not permitted to serve fruit in drinks. I am assuming because they dont wear gloves and actually handled the fruit versus it being prepped in a kitchen.

[nolesrule]

I noticed three different stages to the what they were doing on the ship. First they were wiping tables and hand rails much more frequently then usual. This was before they put the letter about the noro in the cabins. After a day or two of that they stepped it up to wiping down public surfaces almost constantly, including support columns. By the last day or two they were having crew serving beverages, moving some of the food that would normally be in public spaces behind counters and served by crew and there were extra crew out everywhere with sanitizer.

 

Like I said earlier, when I first noticed phase 1, I warned my wife and kids to be extra careful with what they touched. On the last night I asked around to see if anyone knew what the count was of sick passengers, but all I got was that they were above the acceptable threshold and had to take the extra precautions. For the people that got sick, I know it must have been terrible, but it seems to me it wasn't a huge outbreak like what I've read about in the news on previous cruises.

[eric135i]

You can blame my sailing of 10/28 for Noro!:( Not sure if it was also on the previous sailing since only a small number of passengers on the 10/28 sailing had been on the previous sailing. It was present on our 10/28 sailing and the Capt. even announced that a lot of passengers were seeing the doctor. Unfortunately for me, I had a mild case of it and went to the doctor near the end of my sailing. This visit resulted in my being put in isolation in my cabin while my cousin who was sharing the same cabin was not????

 

MARAPRINCE

 

Anthem 10/28 cruise had about 40 ppl that were sick. On my sailing, 11/04, there were rumored to be 600 sick. It was only obvious during the last 1.5 days that they were taking extra steps in sanitizing. Crew member(s) were wearing hazmat looking suits somewhere on Deck 13 staterooms.

[eric135i]

We were docked next to the Anthem while on the Majesty last week. We were advised not to mingle with the passengers or crew of the Anthem due to the outbreak.

 

 

i was on the Majesty like 15 yrs ago! saw you guys docked by us in Nassau, i think in Weds. We (on Anthem) did not know about the sick passengers til the last 1.5 days.

 

 

current LEO

[nolesrule]

Anthem 10/28 cruise had about 40 ppl that were sick. On my sailing, 11/04, there were rumored to be 600 sick. It was only obvious during the last 1.5 days that they were taking extra steps in sanitizing. Crew member(s) were wearing hazmat looking suits somewhere on Deck 13 staterooms.

 

 

If you knew what to look for, you could see them stepping up the cleaning and sanitization in the evening on Day 2. It was the last day and a half when they stepped up the inconvenience-level precautions to passengers.

 

 

ETA.... We received a letter about the norovirus on Day 4 in our cabin, November 7th. The letter is dated and I kept my copy.

[eric135i]

I would love to know who told you they stopped serving drinks with fruit, as one of the standard sanitation procedures, even when there is no noro, is that all "ready to eat" food, like fruits and vegetables for salads are sanitized before leaving the provisions area.

 

 

would love to know how one "sanitizes" fruits and vegetables.

[chengkp75]

would love to know how one "sanitizes" fruits and vegetables.

 

A chlorine bath and rinse.

[chengkp75]

They stopped serving fruit in drinks. I was unable to get a mojito from late Weds on. And as it continued no cherries in a manhattan, no margarita with lime, no lime for gin and tonic , and the list goes on. This was at multiple locations. The bartenders told us they are not permitted to serve fruit in drinks. I am assuming because they dont wear gloves and actually handled the fruit versus it being prepped in a kitchen.

 

If the bartenders weren't wearing gloves during a GI outbreak, that's a problem. They are handling dirty glasses and then clean glasses? Serious opportunity for cross-contamination.

[xcell]

If the bartenders weren't wearing gloves during a GI outbreak, that's a problem. They are handling dirty glasses and then clean glasses? Serious opportunity for cross-contamination.

I wonder which ship in the RCCL fleet has had the most cases of noro?

 

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[familycruzer]

I wonder which ship in the RCCL fleet has had the most cases of noro?

 

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My research leads to Anthem

 

 

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[EmTeeNesters]

If you knew what to look for, you could see them stepping up the cleaning and sanitization in the evening on Day 2. It was the last day and a half when they stepped up the inconvenience-level precautions to passengers.

 

ETA.... We received a letter about the norovirus on Day 4 in our cabin, November 7th. The letter is dated and I kept my copy.

 

Just off the Anthem too. Our cabin steward supplied us with a letter dated 11/3/17 with the same info. He also warned us very distinctly about it when we first met him. Our bathroom reeked of a chemical smell as well as the floor was sticky from a spray. We wondered if someone from our cabin on the last cruise had been afflicted. :o

 

P.S. We heeded the warnings and were okay.

[suesnake2002]

Im not surprised that noro was present on anthem. It seems ive read many reports here that anthem is understaffed and not that clean. Dirty dishes and glasses everywhere

Most important thing is dont touch ur face anywhere with your hands

[nolesrule]

Im not surprised that noro was present on anthem. It seems ive read many reports here that anthem is understaffed and not that clean. Dirty dishes and glasses everywhere

Most important thing is dont touch ur face anywhere with your hands

 

They seemed to be pretty quick about picking up glasses and dishes this past week.

[plum24]

Ugh... Hope virus doesn't hang around for the Dec sailings...

 

 

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[trev71]

Was on there this past week. Word is 400 people had noro. You could nit even use the free style Coke machines or anything. They wanted to do it for you while wearing a soiled glove. My wife and i never got,sick. Knock on wood

 

 

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[connie433]

We never received the letter this week on our sailing. However, we encountered 3 men in white hazmat suits spraying our hallway on Wednesday night. They stopped to let us through, saying there was nothing to be concerned about. REALLY?!??

[D.B.]

Just got off of the Anthem on 11/11 as well. As with others, we received a noro outbreak warning letter in our cabin midweek. And the staff was on high alert during the last two days or so. Luckily, no one in my party became ill, although early in the week I saw evidence around the ship that people were becoming sick.

 

We talked with one staff member about it. He said that the staff has different noro alert levels -- they reached level 1 by Tuesday, and it progressed very quickly to level 3 by Thursday morning. And as noted above, it seems likely that it spread so fast due to the large number of children onboard on break from NJ schools. But I would say that the Anthem crew handled it reasonably well.

[mollyeilis]

Most important thing is dont touch ur face anywhere with your hands

 

 

Yep!

 

My son ordered a mojito and could not get one because the mint was taken away because it sits out in the open all day. Airborne germs

 

 

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Airborne? Ok.

 

Why would other cruise line ships be warned of the outbreak? Makes you wonder just how many passengers were affected as well as how effective the sanitizing efforts really were that at least 3 sailings were hit with Noro.

 

 

 

MARAPRINCE

 

 

All it makes me wonder is why people are touching things then putting their hands to their mouths without washing their hands.

 

Nothing like actually experiencing and owning one’s poor hand washing habits to make a true change! Thankfully my son and I had that experience while at home.

[Jerseygirl1416]

Im not surprised that noro was present on anthem. It seems ive read many reports here that anthem is understaffed and not that clean. Dirty dishes and glasses everywhere

Most important thing is dont touch ur face anywhere with your hands

 

We were on the 10/28 sailing. My husband ended up getting noro but didn’t go to medical so they’re number of cases isn’t correct because I’m sure others didn’t seek medical.

 

We never felt the ship was understaffed or unclean. We didn’t experience dirty dishes and glasses everywhere.

 

There were a TON of younger kids on this sailing. I believe the “kids sail free” was to blame!

[parrotfeathers]

I've never been sick on a cruise, but do know how sick a virus can make someone. What do they do on the day you disembark if you are too sick to get out of bed? I know you have to leave, but do they push you out in a wheelchair? How do you get to transportation? Surely you cannot get on a plane and fly home if you are that ill. I've been that ill and cannot imagine even trying to stand. What happens?

[lysolqn]

Saw Anthem from a distance as it sailed from Bayonne right on time yesterday, so noro protocol didn't appear to cause a delay. Hopefully the virus has been contained and things will return to normal on the current sailing. That said, I'm not crazy about posts about noro outbreaks and even less happy about media reports of noro outbreaks on cruise ships. I understand and appreciate that folks in the know want to give others a heads up but no one bothers to get his/her knickers in a knot when schools, offices, hospitals and other semi-contained environments experience an outbreak. We've been on several cruises during which there were noro outbreaks, including Celebrity's infamous "Bleach Cruise." The cruise experience is altered to an extent and not for the better - especially with respect to food and beverage; but with the exception of those who fall ill on vacation, no one hates a noro outbreak more than the cruise line. It's disruptive, expensive, a publicity nightmare and people have a tendency to place blame squarely the ship! Cruise ships don't cause viruses, people do - whether on land or at sea. Not sure that's newsworthy. JMHO.

Edited November 12, 2017 by lysolqn

[lbjen]

If the bartenders weren't wearing gloves during a GI outbreak, that's a problem. They are handling dirty glasses and then clean glasses? Serious opportunity for cross-contamination.

 

Wearing gloves to do that wouldn’t stop cross-contamination. Changing gloves in between each activity, or washing hands in between each activity would. People mistakenly assume gloves are some kind of magic shield. If your glove touches something with germs on it, then it now has germs on it. If you don’t replace it, then you might as well have not bothered.

[jptoz]

first i'd like to say my family and I had a great time (great weather, ship beautiful,and I thought the crew was wonderful. The crew did everything they could to slow down the virus. This falls on the people cruising. Some of the people are gross. not washing hands after using bathroom, eating with bare hands while on buffet line, not using soap. just water. And my personal favorite was to watch a adult with 2 cups in there hands sneeze directly into coke freestyle machine. I'm not a germaphobe, but come on people.