Questions about a Code Red

[papergypsy]

OK, so I now know that a Code Red is what you DON'T want to have happen on your cruise. But in case it does:

 

Is room service still available?

 

Is your fixed dining still available?

 

What happens with Lido dining besides long lines?

 

Are ports cancelled?

 

Are on-board activities affected?

 

Will I be keel-hauled if I slap someone that I see coughing or sneezing into their hands then touching stuff?

[Krazy Kruizers]

OK, so I now know that a Code Red is what you DON'T want to have happen on your cruise. But in case it does:

 

Is room service still available? yes

 

Is your fixed dining still available? yes

 

What happens with Lido dining besides long lines? They will have servers serving you all the food. You just point to what you want and they place it on your plate. There will be no salt, pepper or sugar on the tables -- you have to ask for them. The silverware that is usually wrapped in a napkin and on the table will be handed to you. The lines weren't that bad.

 

Are ports cancelled? Have never had a port cancelled because of the virus.

 

Are on-board activities affected? Some yes -- it depends on the activity. There were a few water activities that were cancelled.

 

Will I be keel-hauled if I slap someone that I see coughing or sneezing into their hands then touching stuff?

YUP!!

In the dining room -- there will only be silverware and napkins on the the table. Your roll and butter will be placed on the plate. Everything is served to you. Nothing is placed on the table -- we didn't even have any flowers on the table.

There were times when the spa, pools and whirlpools were all closed. The library will be shut down. In the casino you can wear thin plastic gloves. The boutiques will ask you to use the purell machine before you enter them.

There will be lots of purell machines around the ship -- use them.

When you use the rest room -- wash your hands!! Sing Happy Birthday through twice -- that is the amount of time you are suppose to wash your hands.

If your ship is in Code Red -- you will get a letter from the captain telling about what is open and what is closed and what to do.

[garydm]

It is pretty much business as usual for passengers, except in the dining areas you will be served everything rather than just some things, salt and pepper may be in little packets etc. Have never had a port cancelled and we have never gotten sick in 100 days on HAL. YMMV. Crew members will be evident everywhere sanitizing everything and cloth towels in the rest rooms will be replaced with paper.

 

Your comment does remind me of the woman in front of me on a Crystal ship who was putting her finger in each of the salad dressings, tasting, and then going on to the next. The only time I could not find a crew member to intervene. I did not have another salad on that trip.

 

Gary

[papergypsy]

Thank you both for your quick responses.

 

I have no problem asking someone to stop an annoying or potentially dangerous activity. I consider the finger in the salad dressing to be both annoying and dangerous.

[jer_l]

In addition you will see the staff working extra hard to make sure the passengers are comfortable. We were on the Veendam last summer for 14 days when it was code red. All the crew pulled extra duty. Even the naturalist and the captain's wife were seen dishing up foo dint he Lido.

[redjoan]

Can someone say exactly what a code red means? Is there a certain percentage of passengers and crew who must be "sick" to get to code red? Who determines code red?

Just curious....

[Nutrioso]

Code Red is the extraordinary measures taken by the crew when a norovirus outbreak has occured. It includes all kinds of sanitary measures as well as involves routines intended to break the cycle of contamination among those onboard. CDC (Center for Disease Control) requires that a cruise line report the outbreak when more than 3% of passengers becomes ill. All the measures taken during a Code Red were designed by CDC. HAL goes beyond the basic measures. ----Penny

[kitty'sAuntie]

When a code red ship comes into port, does the CDC require the port to go through the extraordinary sanitizing too?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Not that I know of.

[happy cruzer]

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm

 

Some CDC details.

[timothy998]

We were on ms Westerdam March 22-29, 2009. It came into port (FLL) in Code Red. Although boarding normally begins at 11am, we were not able to board until just after 2pm (thank goodness we took our time, thanks to a poster onboard who told us all on here about the Code Red).

 

That said, the crew spent the extra time cleaning up one side & down the other...extra measures so that when we boarded, it was the cleanest aspect of the trip thus far, including taxi, airport, airplane, rental car, and hotel room!

 

We had to run a gauntlet of crewmembers with hand sanitizers before meals, and afterwards, plus going into the kids club or just about any room onboard.

 

The crew did go above & beyond the call of duty, also working during their breaks to serve passengers their meals. We saw the kids club counselors serving lunch at times they should've been on break. Plus the bartenders, etc.

 

There were no baskets of rolls in the dining room & the servers handed them to us with tongs. When we asked, we received packets of salt and pepper at meals. They also had clear plastic wrap around the Lido buffet so people wouldn't reach out and grab. They had crewmembers who were pouring and serving drinks (If they had larger glasses we wouldn't have had to wait so long!)

 

Once code red was lifted midweek, we in a way wanted to go back to it, as now we had to contend with "sticky" handles on Lido serving spoons, and people touching the rolls, etc. Of course when we flew home we all just felt the germs crawling back onto us on the plane...the ship was absolutely the CLEANEST and probably safest part of our vacation.

[jtl513]

Sometimes extra precautions are put in place even before the 3% reporting point is reached. We were on the Veendam the week after a Code Red, and were encouraged to do many of the things done in a C-R. The Captain requested elbow-touching in place of handshaking, use of paper towels to open public bathroom doors, diligent use of Virox wipes in the Exploration's Cafe, etc. We had zero cases that week! I know that because our room was right across from the infirmary, and I would ask the nurse regularly. :)