Medical-Norovirus-Beware!

[mdcruisers]

Just returned from Alaska (Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Sea) Sept 2-9 - where a HUGE portion of us got very very sick with the norovirus. What we did NOT know is, once you go to their Medical Dept., they have a record of you/your roommate - and you are under FORCED quarentine for 48 hours, with your roommate quarentined for 24 hours--with only room service--and NOT allowed to leave ship! My advice: pack your own Imodium AD and other necessary medicines to avoid going downstairs to Medical. You will be so sick, you won't be leaving your cabin and infecting anyone anyway! After 24 hours, you'll be feeling better anyway; just keep drinking liquids, eating saltine crackers, and you'll survive this horrible norovirus! It was insane how many of us got sick - our first (and possibly last?) cruise !! Check out CDC website with the list of all the cruise ships infected for 2006 alone!

[Cruising Nole]

What a shame! I've been so lucky on my cruises and have never gotten ill but I do understand the need to quarantine sick passengers. At least that prevents others from getting sick. I see on the CDC website that 127 passengers of 2131 (5.9%) and 4 of 870 crew (.5%) were affected.

A good friend of mine teases me each time I go on a cruise about the threat of illness. He tells me to wear a mask like Michael Jackson and use hand sanitizer. Well,he's vacationing in Ireland right now (not on a cruise) and he came down with food poisoning. Sometimes you just can't avoid illness on a trip.

It would be a shame if you never cruise again. The nanovirus isn't caused by a lack of cleanliness on the ship. It's caused by someone who is ill coming on the ship and passing it around. I seem to get ill after every time I fly.