Mercury Travelogue, March 27 Mexican Riviera

[Travelers]

Hi,

Glad you were able to enjoy your cruise. On boarding the Mercury, did you have a buffet lunch?

 

Thanks for the info

[Buckeye Geo]

Mercruiser: Thanks for your detailed report. We will be on the April 17th cruise and I know we will have a great time.

[edieredmann]

Thanks Mercruiser for the travelog! I really appreciated all of your hard work and efforts to document your cruise for us!! I also am enjoying your pictures. I wish I was computer literate enough to do half as well as you do! Thanks again, we will be boarding Mercury on Monday, for our very first cruise!:D :D :D

[edieredmann]

Hey George, and all the rest, only a couple of days left! I wish all of you traveling into town, a comfortable journey. It is currently raining, but is supposed to stop within a couple of hours. All weather reports indicate a sunny and bright departure. See everyone soon. Edie.:D :D

[FinelyCruising]

I don't know where you are getting your information, but it is not coming from the CDC website where they report such information: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm

 

If you have other sources for CDC information, you really should post them.

 

Susan

 

Susan, CDC/VSP web site does not go into that level of detail. I had an extensive conversation with the CDC before I left which I shared before we left for our pre-cruise stay in San Diego, on a much ealier thread. Additonal information was provided by the cruiseline while we were in the terminal boarding, and while on board during the cruise while in discussions with the various staff.

[FinelyCruising]

CDC offers ideas, including disclosure

 

By Cheryl Clark

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

 

March 29, 2006

Federal officials have asked the Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury to follow its own rules in hope of quelling a viral outbreak that has sickened hundreds on two recent voyages from San Diego to Mexico. “It's very rare that we would see an outbreak on consecutive cruises,” said David Forney, chief of the Vessel Sanitation Program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “The company has an excellent protocol for dealing with outbreaks like this, (but the Mercury staff) were not real successful in implementing some of their own protocols.”

 

That's an interesting read particulary since it seems to be contrary to what is posted as Noro patterns for the ships that are noted for the 2005 and 2006 cruise seasons, so I am wondering if this quote may have been taken out of context.

 

Having said that, when I was speaking with the CDC, they confimed as was reported, that two team members boarded in PV to manage the efforts for sanitization protocols. I did in fact take away from that conversation that the staff of the ship needed to be better trained on how to sanitize and that was only but one aspect of what the two CDC personnel were there on-board to do. Another aspect that was explained to me was to provide data collection to assist in determining if there were particular common denominators on locations of outbreak of illness, or places on board or in port where some may have eaten or visited.

 

As it turned out they determined that there were two particular cabins that were suspect which we learned of after we were on board.

 

In addition, in discussions with the staff, we came to learn that until the CDC boarded in PV, that the entire staff was not 100% effective in their protocol management, and I took away from that there was clearly a need for intervention for the portion of the staff that was not following the protocol for what ever reason.

 

I read no where, and had no discussion with cruiseline staff or the CDC when I spoke with them that the cruiseline was 'cited'. I do beleive that there was a determination made quite possibly by both the ship's staff along with the CDC that another level of involvement was needed, and I believe that was productive and proactive and appears to have been the lions' share of the success in combating the virus and its spread on the 3/27 sailing, and hopefully since.

[FinelyCruising]

What I did not plan on was finding myself embroiled in the “Bleach Cruise” controversy. The most awkward, and even disappointing part of writing this travelogue was feeling that I had to apologize for not having a sufficiently bad time.

 

I am reminded of the bumper sticker often seen on old pickup trucks, “The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work!” Perhaps if I had an old truck, my bumper sticker would read, “The worst day cruising is better than the best day on land!” Anyone who can go on even one cruise in their lifetime is a wealthy person by world income standards. I consider myself especially blessed to have been able to go on two cruises thus far. If the March 27, Mercury cruise was the “cruise from hell” then it is a hell that I would gladly endure on a regular basis.

 

THE END

 

:) Terriffic ending...wonderful perspective!!! :)

[elsje]

That's an interesting read particulary since it seems to be contrary to what is posted as Noro patterns for the ships that are noted for the 2005 and 2006 cruise seasons, so I am wondering if this quote may have been taken out of context.

 

Having said that, when I was speaking with the CDC, they confimed as was reported, that two team members boarded in PV to manage the efforts for sanitization protocols. I did in fact take away from that conversation that the staff of the ship needed to be better trained on how to sanitize and that was only but one aspect of what the two CDC personnel were there on-board to do. Another aspect that was explained to me was to provide data collection to assist in determining if there were particular common denominators on locations of outbreak of illness, or places on board or in port where some may have eaten or visited.

 

As it turned out they determined that there were two particular cabins that were suspect which we learned of after we were on board.

 

In addition, in discussions with the staff, we came to learn that until the CDC boarded in PV, that the entire staff was not 100% effective in their protocol management, and I took away from that there was clearly a need for intervention for the portion of the staff that was not following the protocol for what ever reason.

 

I read no where, and had no discussion with cruiseline staff or the CDC when I spoke with them that the cruiseline was 'cited'. I do beleive that there was a determination made quite possibly by both the ship's staff along with the CDC that another level of involvement was needed, and I believe that was productive and proactive and appears to have been the lions' share of the success in combating the virus and its spread on the 3/27 sailing, and hopefully since.

 

My email is elsjeW@cx.net and I will email you the email I received from the CDC this morning that Celebrity was out of line with their bleaching procedures. May be then you can give it a rest! ~ Els

[FinelyCruising]

Thank you, but I will decline. I have I have no issue with the cruiseline that I need to have support documents for, fortunately.

 

That I have offered addtional information regarding my observations of the techniques utilized by the cruiseline was, my intent was to balance any misunderstanding to others reading these threads that the only technique used was spraying of bleach, because that is how it sounded to me from what was written.

 

While spraying was one method, or spraying into rags was another, there were still others, and that kind of rounds out what I saw. It was not solely a spraying of bleach and if I were reading these threads, I'd want to have a full and accurate picture.

 

Some may very well need the document that you offered me and perhaps it will assist them in thier claims with the cruiseline to point at who was to blame.

[susierailroad]

Attn: Mercruiser:

 

Today was the first time I revisited this thread since we returned from the 3/27 sailing. I was so pleased to read your accounting of the trip and view your beautiful pictures. I applaud your successful efforts at recounting your adventures and capturing the beauty of the Cabo. Your ability to tread lightly through all the controvery is awsome and I am appreciative of your stance. We, too, made the best of a difficult situation, had a great time and have booked two more cruises with Celebrity. I will check back to see your additional photographs as you post them. Thanks,

[hardingk]

Hi Mercuiser!

 

I just returned from the 4/7 sailing and had a great time! Thanks so much for your updates! I really appricated it!!

[stinsowm]

Hardingk,

 

Am on the sailing leaving on the 28th and also can't wait. I am so glad that things are back to normal with the Mercury. Mercurycruiser looking forward to seeing the rest of your pictures.

 

Walter

[Mercruiser]

I took several days off since finishing the travelogue. Thanks for your patience.

 

I have posted my photos, with captions, for March 30, Mazatlan.

 

For best viewing of these photos, I recommend changing the "style:" option once you bring up the web page. The "style" option is located near the upper right corner of the web page. Click on the drop-down menu next to "style:" and select "journal" from the list of choices.

 

Here is the link to Mexican Riviera Cruise, March 27, 2006 galleries

 

I will be adding photos for the other ports and cruise days over the course of the next few weeks. I will post an update as new sections are added.

[hardingk]

Hey Everyone!

 

I just finished my review. Here is the link to it.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=336193