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Outbreak Ruins Cruise Ship Vacation

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By Kesshia Peyton Anchor/Reporter

M30o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Outbreak Ruins Cruise Ship Vacation

Published: Mon, January 28, 2008 - 6:32 pm

Kesshia Peyton

Last Thursday they left Mobile for Mexico, but less than 24 hours into the trip, 121 passengers and 22 crew members came down with a gastrointestinal illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is analyzing lab specimens to determine what may have caused the illnesses. They have not confirmed whether it is the Norovrius, as News 5 first reported Monday. Gastrointestinal illnesses, like the Norovirus, are often spread through food, water, and surfaces such as stair rails, door handles, and elevator buttons
Donna Urban told News Five she couldn't eat anything and when she sought medical attention, there was a line of passengers in the ship's infirmary.
Urban said her vacation was ruined.
"I don't feel like I want to ever want to go on another cruise. I just didn't feel that this ship was clean. I just don't really think it was clean. I never saw anybody wiping down the handle bars where you walk down the stairs railing. I never saw anybody doing that," said Donna Urban of Blairsville, Georgia.
Carnival Cruise lines says it has sanitized the ship and is working closely with the CDC to determine what caused the outbreak.
The holiday left Monday afternoon on a five-day voyage to Mexico.

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I was on the ship that left on 1/24/08 and was very fortunate in the fact that none of our group became ill. My husband is currently taking chemo and it could have been deadly for him to have gotten this. I went to the infirmary on Sunday evening and questioned them as to what exactly was going on. When I informed them that my husband was taking chemo, I was told that he needed to be in his room. He had been out of his room all weekend. On Thusday when we were sent to the buffet, all of my group got the fish. We did not eat it because it was not done. We informed one of the waiters of this. We also did not drink any of the water that came out of the faucet. We only drank bottled water.God help those poor people who boarded that ship on Monday afternoon. I will never cruise with Carnival again!

Posted by pamh on 01/31/08 - 4:48 pm • Report Abuse .

(cont.) I don’t know how carnival can sleep at night. And yes,the ship was clean on Sunday they cleaned it aggressively. but it def. was not clean when we boarded on thurs. And that cleaning didn’t do a damn bit of good and they know it because that “virus” came from something contaminated in the kitchen or silverware, spread by the consumption of food and they KNOW it! they just can’t say so because then they are looking at a lot of refunds if it was not a virus. All I can say is God Bless those poor people stuck on that hellhole right now. They deserved to be warned and they walked blindingly onto a pukemobile of the sea. I am praying for them all.

Posted by cbarton on 01/30/08 - 4:06 pm • Report Abuse .

freebyjesus I am so glad you posted the comment saying that you were sick on the cruise before ours. I was also sick and there is NO WAY that this was a virus spread by people. all who roomed with the sick ones in my party, shared a bathroom, and slept in the same tiny little space, did NOT contract it. is that just coincidence? i think not. it is so obvious there was something bad in the kitchen, fecal matter on silverware, batches of spoiled food here and there, or lettuce,etc. something caused my body to try its best to rid of whatever was in there. this was no stomach bug. Plus I literally saw a women vomit into a tray they use to bus the table with in the dining hall on fri night at dinner. she told the employees about it, and NO ONE moved it, it was still there when my party got up to leave. even the maitre’d saw her vomiting. but oh yeah carnival did EVERYTHING possible to control this. that ship should have NEVER left back out on monday, i don’t know how they sleep at

Posted by cbarton on 01/30/08 - 4:01 pm • Report Abuse .

I am writing this for my wife who was on the cruise. On Friday the 25th at 7:30pm she started the vomitting severly. At 12:00 am her friend took her to the nurse. The nurse gave her two shots and she still vomitted twice more. Then on saturday she had bad diarhera and went back to the nurse and she gave her 4 pills. She was quarantined, so she missed going to Mexico. Sunday she felt a little better. I picked her up at the dock on Monday morning, by early Monday evening it started all over again and we still had to fly home on Tuesday. It is Wednesday we made it home, but she is still very sick.

Posted by d_m_nj on 01/30/08 - 11:57 am • Report Abuse .

well, i just want to add that i was there with the ‘SISTER’S group for my first cruise. i got sick mon night after getting home and missed a day of work. i feel the crew members could have at least added a note / warning of the illness to the daily capers. instead we learned from other passengers of the illness and of shows being cancelled. i was a little disappointed that there were no activities 2 of my 4 days on the ship. i looked forward to the pool which was closed. after we returned to the ship from our day in cozumel, we just wanted a shower and room service. (and yes, several times the water in the sink of our room was brown) we ordered sandwiches from room service which took 2 1/2 hrs to get there. i called twice to see where our sandwiches were and was never told there was a problem with sick passengers and there might be a delay in room service, other than that, thank goodness byron and matt were there to add humor ! the good times outweighed the bad for me

Posted by peprkins on 01/29/08 - 10:45 pm • Report Abuse .

We had two more folks become ill today that got off this ship on Monday, 1/28/08. The total number of folks sick from our group is now 12 out of 38. After reading some of these remarks, it appears the “Holiday” had the same problem with the Noro virus on the cruise prior to 1/24/08. If this is an accurate statement, then Carnival should be held accountable. People did not pay to become contaminated while on vacation with this virus. This ship’s staff knew they had a problem and failed to protect the safety of its passengers. There is no way the ship was cleaned to a high state of cleanliness prior to our departure. If so, we would not have had as many folks get this sick so quickly. I have sailed with several other major cruise lines and have never seen this many sick folks. It would be interesting to know how many folks that sailed on the evening of 1/28/08 has now become infected with the virus.

Posted by rshiflett on 01/29/08 - 9:36 pm • Report Abuse .

my husband and I with 4 other family was on the holiday jan, 24-27.
we were sick and my husband could not get of the ship at cosmuel.
my sister had to go to the hospital before she was even taken home. she is still in the hospital. I went to the dr. today and am still sick as a dog. i think the total was far more than any one knows. for the sake of other unaware passagers this should be known. we have taken other cruises and loved them, but this was a nightmare.

Posted by Lavelle Black on 01/29/08 - 9:07 pm • Report Abuse .

I think that all I saw employees do was clean! I even joked that the reason they cancelled the show on the last night was because they had cleaned all day and were unable to perform. People always want to blame somebody or something for everything. Before I boarded the boat I can tell you of 10 people I know of who ahd a stomach virus in the last week. Don’t think that the schools are not seeing the same numbers. On our baseball team last week 4 kids out of 11 missed school. If you were sick on the boat I am sorry for the horrible trip you had to endure, but while you were quarantined to your room--- the ship was cleaned, cleaned, and recleaned! I would have eaten off of the deck on the back of the boat Sunday night. And FYI I run a restaurant and know the severity of vorus and the public. Heck I may have gone so far as to have eaten off of the railing in the hallway! They reacted efficiently and quickly.

Posted by Jwilliams on 01/29/08 - 9:04 pm • Report Abuse .

Please exuse typo in the previous ... oops

Posted by Mishelle on 01/29/08 - 7:56 pm • Report Abuse .

I have now found out that it was not just on this cruise that it was also a large number on the previous cruise that left on the 19th and returned on the 24th ... the day that we left. There were a large number ... also unknown at this time. But they disembarked left and starting hitting the local doctors and hospitals around town. There wer also passengers or atleast one that I know of at this time that was asked to leave the ship in Cozamel (84 yrs old) and not return until he knew he was safe to return. This could possibly be the start of something really bad if this ship gets in the same shape again at sea. It returned after the 5 day with a large number having the same symptoms to pick us up with a large number and now it will be interesting to see what happens to the guest on board now. I hope the CDC is inspecting and we have someone contacting other government agencies today. Please contact all of the news agencies you can to get someone to get answers.

Posted by Mishelle on 01/29/08 - 7:55 pm • Report Abuse .