This summer, I’m going on a family cruise! Woo-Hoo! Hooray for me…except for all these stories I keep hearing about cruise ships becoming floating gastro-intestinal horror shows from which there is no escape.
Unlike the cruise in the story, I’m cruising out of New York & heading north (Up to Nova Scotia) and avoiding any tropical regions. So my question is: Are these outbreaks due to the ships traveling through the tropics? I haven’t heard a story about a north-bound non-tropical cruise meeting this gloomy fate, so…Am I safe? Safer? I know about preventative steps to take to avoid such sickness, but I’d love to re-assure certain members of our party (especially my SO) that our little Nova Scotia cruise will have a very good chance of being disease-free.
IANAD but I would think that the disease is not comign out of the air of the tropics but more likely being carried by crewmembers who then infect the food or other passengers inadvertently.
Indeed, your article suggests as much saying it is the norovirus that is affecting passengers.
The above suggests any ship could get nailed this way regardless of environment. Perhaps tropic cruises tend to have more ability for food left out to harbor the virus more easily but that is probably a stretch. More likely the ships could use better food handling and general sanitary conditions.
Well, if you are worried about the creeping cruds [food or water born pathogens] you could avoid drinking anything other than bottled water with no ice, and insisting on opening the bottles yourself, or just soda that you open yourself [or hell, just beer and wine=)] and avoiding any food that isnt piping hot, no salads, desserts, no food buffets…
Or you could take reasonable precautions to wash your hands frequently, try to avoid eating off the ship in port, and trust that the food prep people are using reasonable sanitary practices. I would wonder about the potability of the water on the vessel and perhaps only drink bottled waters and sodas, or only hot tea/coffee, and perhaps have a hikers plastic bottle that will disinfect/filter the water for nasties to prcess water for brushing your teeth, and drinking while walking around off the boat in port.
I know that I am fairly resistant to nasties [I survived the Pennsic Plague numerous years - Pennsic is a camping event thrown every year that from 8000 - 15000 people show up. There is extensive use of portojohns, but many people are not careful about personal sanitation and a few times there have been small outbreaks of the creeping cruds, though one year it literally was a plague area=\. I have never gotten the cruds at pennsic, though I did pick up a case of poison ivy once before i developed an immunity to it.] and would probably resort to the water bottle with filter for basic water, and stick to hot tea and coffee with an occasional glass of wine myself. YMMV
In the start of the cruise there might be a chance to meet the captain, where people go and line up to meet him - let me just say you should never go up and shake his hand in that kind of situation.
I was on a Holland America cruise in 2003, they were careful about clean hands. Everytime you got on board, you were given a hand wipe to clean your hands.
Out of how many thousands of cruise voyages in a year, how often does this happen? I’d venture not very often. You’ve probably got a much better chance of getting sick at home. Heck, got any ideas of what goes on behind the scenes at restraunts? Ever think about that sponge you wipe your dishes with? There’s no way to eliminate risk from your life, and as long as you are a non-elderyly adult and don’t have an immune illness, there is no reason to do anything more than the basic precautions. There are worse things than a few bad nights on the pot.