Am I just a weakling on the Westerdam

[esther e]

Interesting.  I'm sure it's coming through the a/c vents.  Although I have been fine on HAL, I have always come off Oceania with a terrible infection -- having to use the infirmary and being put on a nebulizer, etc.  I guess it depends on the line.  The other ship that brought me down was a Fred Olsen one.

[sevenseasnomad]

As a previous poster stated, the CDC does not recommend using hand sanitizers at all.  First, Noro virus is totally unaffected by hand sanitizer unless it has so many drops of bleach in it per galleon.  I forget the ratio.  Second, the ubiquitous use of hand sanitizers has caused bacteria and viruses to mutate, making the sanitizers less effective.  

 

The only effective method of killing bacteria/viruses on the hands is washing.  Not just washing but washing the CDC way as seen in video.  Unfortunately all the washing in the world could be for naught if someone walks past a place where another passenger has gotten sick, and it hasn't been cleaned up yet.  A second uninfected passenger breathes, taking in the virus.  Sad reality, according to the CDC, and most unfortunate for the unsuspecting passenger who has religiously washed his/her hands.

 

Of the 36 cruises we've taken, most of them with HAL, I got the coughing crud only once, but it ruined our time in Athens.  I could not enjoy the sights I had waited my whole life to see, so I need to go back and am planning to do so at some point.  It is daunting, to say the least, to be that sick when away from home.  I sympathize with anyone who's had their cruise impacted by illness.

[Tapi]

I’ve never been as violently ill on a cruise as when I sailed on the Westerdam. I missed Juneau because I couldn’t leave my stateroom due to severe vomiting and diarrhea. I thought that I’d need to be disembarked. Thankfully I got better but after that, I became hyper-vigilant about sanitation. And that’s when I noticed so many things that were wrong, that a CDC inspector would’ve had a field day.

 

I do blame some fellow cruisers though and not the cruise line completely. Never, in my 35+ years of cruising, have I seen so many passengers exhibiting such poor hygiene practices and disregard for fellow passengers, not even when we’ve sailed on budget cruise lines with younger and rowdier clientele. The “crowning” moment was when I was in one of the public bathrooms near the buffet washing my hands, and a man was in one of the stalls defecating. He exited the stall and the bathroom without washing his hands and proceeded straight into the buffet and stood in line ahead of me. That’s when I realized that this man was about to spread his own feces on the utensils that everybody would be using to serve their food. Needless to say, I lost my appetite and left, specially after what I’d gone through a few days prior. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Tapi

[catl331]

I once went to the doctor with "cruise crud" after a short RCCL cruise.  His first question was "Have you been on a cruise?"

 

DH got a bad case once on the Prinsendam final segment of a Grand Med.  When we boarded we immediately noticed the high number of people that were coughing and sneezing.

 

In neither case did we have a vent blowing on us all night like on Vista ships.

[Taters]

And for the folks who block the air vents with tape, paper, etc. - Do you remove these things prior to disembarking?  I only ask because DH and I get warm easily and he's had to search the vents himself and has removed these items, which eats into our cruise time.  So please, if you must plug or redirect the air flow, I would ask that you remove these things as a kind gesture for the next passengers.  Thank you! 😊

[Chinook Wind]

My latest cruise was the Amsterdam's 17-night repositioning itinerary from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver, en route to Seattle for the Alaska season. This ship had just finished its World Cruise with a lot of port stops Down Under where their "flu season" hit early and hard. 😧  There was a nasty bug that had been making its way around the ship (both pax and crew) that I managed to fend off until the day I flew home.  Man was I sick: upper respiratory tract virus. Lost my voice! (...to the relief of some people I know, lol) My family doctor says it was probably the H1N1A strain that's particularly strong down there this year and will be making its way to the Northern Hemisphere this Fall. I will still get my flu shot 💉 just to be sure but reckon that I'm already immunized -- the hard way!

World travel exposes us to everything imaginable so be sure to have all of your shots up to date, especially flu and Hep A&B.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Chinook Wind

[bennybear]

Two years ago I got very sick on a ship that had just come from Australia  to Alaska as well.  The ships doctor diagnosed me right away but I was quarantined and had to spend over a week in Anchorage causing us to miss our return cruise tour.  

This year I had the high dose flu shot,  when we were sailing in April a large number of the Australians had a horrific cough.  I was fortunate to not catch it this time.  

So high dose shot for me again, as it seems to have really helped.  

[RuthC]

10 hours ago, Chinook Wind said:

My latest cruise was the Amsterdam's 17-night repositioning itinerary from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver, en route to Seattle for the Alaska season. This ship had just finished its World Cruise with a lot of port stops Down Under where their "flu season" hit early and hard. 

There were a great many weeks between the time the Amsterdam was in Australia and when it complete its World Cruise in Ft. Lauderdale. From the time I boarded, rather late in the cruise, there was no inordinate amount of coughing, sneezing, or other cold or flu symptoms left, if they were ever apparent.

I'm sorry for whatever it was you caught, but highly doubt it was because of the previous passengers or the ship itself.

[Chinook Wind]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

There were a great many weeks between the time the Amsterdam was in Australia and when it complete its World Cruise in Ft. Lauderdale. From the time I boarded, rather late in the cruise, there was no inordinate amount of coughing, sneezing, or other cold or flu symptoms left, if they were ever apparent.

I'm sorry for whatever it was you caught, but highly doubt it was because of the previous passengers or the ship itself.

Well "RuthC" I stand by my comments.

I met and spent time with several pax who had been on the World Cruise who either had been sick with the same "bug" or talked about people who had been sick.  One woman in particular was hit with it when we reached San Francisco and had lost her voice.  So while you were lucky to not get it please don't brush off my experience as rubbish.

[STLUCIELADY]

On 8/7/2019 at 8:05 PM, Rosmerta said:

Let me first say we loved our Alaskan northbound cruise, the scenery, the crew, fellow passengers but—I have never seen a word posted about the ventilation coming out of the ceiling, hot and cold 24-hours a day—just over our beds. I should have had the beds separated by day two, giving a few inches relief, but I didn’t. By Ketchikan, I had a full blown sinus infection. Am on antibiotics now.

Meanwhile, good friend of mine got the flu on the Westerdam in early July and was led off with all the other sickies and their spouses to a separate train car, sent to a resort to recover for 3 days before Denali.

 Oakman58 in his wonderful Westerdam report from early June ended up at the Denali Clinic from cruise crud https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2677658-westerdam-alaskan-cruisetour-jun-2-13-2019/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-57890076 

So do all the ships in this class have this type of ventilation? Am I the weakest link in our biological cruise-chain. I’m hesitant to book the Volendam for a 35 night Amazon cruise.

 

 

I just came on here looking to see if anyone else got very ill on the Westerdam.  I don't normally get sick on a cruise at least not for a very long time and I did 11 cruises last year.   I was on there June 16th - 23rd.  I wasn't immediately sick but got very ill within a week.  I have no idea if it was from the ship or something after that...that's what I'm attempting to figure out.  My daughter swears now that I had Covid back then.  Had every single symptom except death although there were a few days when I thought about Doctor Kevorkian.  We continued traveling for many weeks but it was a struggle each and every day.  Some days I was completely bedridden and my daughter went off on her own.  It lasted 5 weeks when it finally broke.  Tried antibiotics.  Inhaler.  Herbal remedies from every country we visited.  Nothing worked except hot liquids and a lot of them.  I kept blaming it on having a flare but it was like no flare I had ever had.  😞  Many days she asked if I needed to go to the hospital but we were traveling in non English speaking countries so I was afraid.  

Did you ever figure out what you had?  Did anyone else message you?

[USN59-79]

We were on the Westerdam from 7-21 December and 1-16 February plus a week in Cambodia and did not get sick.  There were about 400 passengers with us after we got off for a week and I didn't notice anyone who was sick at that time.  At the time the authorities were quite interested in our health.

[Rosmerta]

8 minutes ago, STLUCIELADY said:

 

I just came on here looking to see if anyone else got very ill on the Westerdam.  I don't normally get sick on a cruise at least not for a very long time and I did 11 cruises last year.   I was on there June 16th - 23rd.  I wasn't immediately sick but got very ill within a week.  I have no idea if it was from the ship or something after that...that's what I'm attempting to figure out.  My daughter swears now that I had Covid back then.  Had every single symptom except death although there were a few days when I thought about Doctor Kevorkian.  We continued traveling for many weeks but it was a struggle each and every day.  Some days I was completely bedridden and my daughter went off on her own.  It lasted 5 weeks when it finally broke.  Tried antibiotics.  Inhaler.  Herbal remedies from every country we visited.  Nothing worked except hot liquids and a lot of them.  I kept blaming it on having a flare but it was like no flare I had ever had.  😞  Many days she asked if I needed to go to the hospital but we were traveling in non English speaking countries so I was afraid.  

Did you ever figure out what you had?  Did anyone else message you?

How awful. If you had a Covid19, it would have spread through the ship.  My friend and most of the ill people led off the Westerdam after your cruise, and housed at a closed ski resort until they could travel, tested positive for the flu. She said it had come up from Australia on the ship. She had bronchitis, too. I’ll forward your message to see if she has anything to add. She did say they were the last to disembark, told to stay in their cabins, and when they left the names of the new occupants were already outside the door. She was concerned that her virus and germs would still be in the cabin to greet the new occupants.
I had a cold and sinus infection, definitely nothing like you had. My concern was to be aware of air vents from then on.

[catl331]

35 minutes ago, STLUCIELADY said:

 I was on there June 16th - 23rd.  ... My daughter swears now that I had Covid back then. 

That was five months before it first appeared in Wuhan China.

Edited April 17, 2020 by catl331

[STLUCIELADY]

7 minutes ago, catl331 said:

That was five months before it first appeared in Wuhan China.

 

Yes it was.  That doesn't really mean anything. 

Most people believe it will take lots of research to figure out exactly what happened.  Kind of like the Spanish Flu.  Identified in Spain but didn't start there.  Many believe it started in North America. 

They are still looking for where Covid started.....Patient number one.  Geneticists from Cambridge University show it back to mid September so far and possibly not starting in Wuhan.  Wuhan was possibly the second mutation or Type B.  They are still trying to place type A which is closest to the bat mutation.  Possibly Guangdong which is 500 miles away but they are still researching and testing and that will take much more time.  Apparently Wuhan was just the first city it was actually identified.  IDK.  I'm not a forensic scientist or geneticist.  

[Rosmerta]

19 hours ago, STLUCIELADY said:

 

Yes it was.  That doesn't really mean anything. 

Most people believe it will take lots of research to figure out exactly what happened.  Kind of like the Spanish Flu.  Identified in Spain but didn't start there.  Many believe it started in North America. 

They are still looking for where Covid started.....Patient number one.  Geneticists from Cambridge University show it back to mid September so far and possibly not starting in Wuhan.  Wuhan was possibly the second mutation or Type B.  They are still trying to place type A which is closest to the bat mutation.  Possibly Guangdong which is 500 miles away but they are still researching and testing and that will take much more time.  Apparently Wuhan was just the first city it was actually identified.  IDK.  I'm not a forensic scientist or geneticist.  

Here is a summary of the Cambridge study. At the bottom it say mis-September to esrl December for first cases. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200409085644.htm

[STLUCIELADY]

7 hours ago, Rosmerta said:

Here is a summary of the Cambridge study. At the bottom it say mis-September to esrl December for first cases. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200409085644.htm

Yep that's the one.  

[sassy12]

We were on the Volendam for her last voyage.  A day or so after we boarded I started losing energy and just wasn't myself.  Plus our room was very cold.  Asked for an additional blanket during week two after we contacted maintenance twice and they found nothing wrong.  Didn't help much and I was tired of wearing my night clothes, a heavy sweater, bathrobe and the extra blanket folded in half.

 

Finally went to Guest Services.  Two days later a lot of time was spent by maintenance poking around the ceiling and vent. Never another problem.  Never saw him change a filter.  We actually lowered the temp a couple degrees and were comfortable the rest of the cruise.

 

I did end up in Medical and had to go to a clinic for further tests.  Nothing found.  Got my energy back the first week in February.

 

Something was definitely wrong with the system. 

 

Have to say everyone was very kind and helpful.

 

 

 

 

[catl331]

On 4/17/2020 at 6:10 PM, catl331 said:

That was five months before it first appeared in Wuhan China.

 

22 hours ago, Rosmerta said:

Yes it was.  That doesn't really mean anything. 

 

Covid-19 is extremely contagious, even in asymptomatic cases.  If you had it you would have caused an outbreak on the ship.