Topic: Princess Get Issued Virus Alert!

How effective are the hand sanitizers / alcohol rubs? On our last cruise there was little or no supervision over their use - an RCI cruise.
My oh and I always use them but I succumbed to sickness so confined myself to the cabin with some 'sprite' and it soon passed. Agree the hygiene of many passengers leaves an awful lot to be desired particular in the toileting and lack of hand washing / sanitizing departments.

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The Sea Princess is not the only Princess ship to have the virus.Middle of last month I was on the Emerald Princess sailing from Copenhagen and she had just arrived from the USA!and It had a virus and many passengers were ill.and had to be scrubbed down before we were allowed on board, also could not help your self to food for the first 3 days.Far as I know nobody had problems.I think it going to be ongoing thing ,as some people do not wash there hands, after using the toilets.British people are the worst offenders.Some even refuse to use the alcohol dispensers as they do not like the smell, or other excuses,they should be put of at the next port of call.

Perhaps they should put a large sign up "free alchol" maybe a lot more would use it, although the alchol based hand gel is no defense against noro it does stop many of the other bugs, Noro knocks you flat, many of the other ones lay you low for 24-48 hours these are the ones that most people get.

I noticed on a recent Royal Caribbean cruise that they were handing out wipes at the entrance to all of the dining areas in addition to the usual alcohol gel dispensers. I got a look at the container for the wipes and they contained Benzalkonium chloride, which is one of the few things that kills norovirus, they also never stopped cleaning the public areas - so I guess that they were taking things very seriously.

I suspect the 'it can't happen here and general penny-pinching company culture' that we experienced on the Golden Princess (April/May 2011) is to blame. We were amazed by the lack of hand sanitizers - none when boarding the ship - ever - and none in the restaurants. The only place they were in use was the self service buffet and then it seemed to be an 'optional extra'.

We thought this was a temporary oversight when we ate in the restaurant the first time and mentioned it to the Maitre De who was off-hand to the point of rudeness and said "...we don't need it here because we serve you...we've never had a problem..." He clearly didn't understand the possibility of cross-contamination passenger/passenger or passenger/staff.

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I suspect the 'it can't happen here and general penny-pinching company culture' that we experienced on the Golden Princess (April/May 2011) is to blame. We were amazed by the lack of hand sanitizers - none when boarding the ship - ever - and none in the restaurants. The only place they were in use was the self service buffet and then it seemed to be an 'optional extra'.

We thought this was a temporary oversight when we ate in the restaurant the first time and mentioned it to the Maitre De who was off-hand to the point of rudeness and said "...we don't need it here because we serve you...we've never had a problem..." He clearly didn't understand the possibility of cross-contamination passenger/passenger or passenger/staff.

I think I saw this in your review last month but I agree in the hand sanitizers were not present. They are all over the doors to our malls these days.

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Princess Cruises have been issued an alert by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).



In a May sailing of the Sea Princess Alaskan cruise, 44 passengers became ill, 2 percent passengers and under 1 percent crew.

CDC will issue an alert when 3 percent of passengers or crew members become ill. So when Sea Princess returned from a 10-day sailing with 128 passengers falling ill, despite Princess�s increased efforts to disinfect the ship CDC had to intervene. And then when on her next outing 142 passengers became ill! CDC then issued an alert.

According to msnbc.com when the Sea Princess docked in San Francisco on June 9, Princessheld the ship for a �prolonged and intensive sanitization,� according to a statement released by the company. Due to sail from San Francisco at 5:30 p.m. that day, the ship was held until 8 p.m. so that it could be disinfected.

Princess Cruises believe that norovirus is the bug causing passenger�s to fall ill and tests they have carried out have confirmed that the bug that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain is to blame. CDC are investigating the matter.

Norovirus thrives in contained places: schools, nursing homes and hospitals. Cruises are at no higher risk.

CDC also went on board and supervised the cleaning of all cabins and public area�s to check their wasn�t any other reason�s for this high number of ill passengers.

After a thorough cleaning CDC let the ship set sail on its next cruise. A week into this cruise and it has been reported that the situation has improved with just 13 passengers and 2 staff falling ill with norovirus.

CDC haven�t just let this issue go, they are receiving daily reports from Sea princess and have given advice on new techniques when washing hands and cleaning surfaces and areas.

Lets hope this issue has been sorted!

Have u been on board a Princess Cruise and fallen ill?

Do you think CDC done enough?

We were on the Grand Princess med.cruise in May last year, the virus was rife. You could tell by the number of yellow bags and the protective clothing being worn by medical teams as the desinfected the cabins

I went down with it on Solstice in March. The ship was full of children and many picked over the food in the buffet and then put it back.