Just for laughs....

[MPS516]

Not sure about DCL. We were on HAL when we missed all our ports, spent the whole time sea sick and had the norovirus outbreak. Thankfully, we avoided it as we were traveling with one of two children on the entire ship...and she was 20 months old at the time. They handled the whole thing very well though, so I had no complaints in that regard.

MunFam, I am sure you are great people but could you tell me when you are sailing again, I do think I want not to be on that cruise.

 

[JenPinks]

I'd book the second one while on board so you can get the discounts, etc. You'll have 24 months to cruise so maybe Alaska 2017?

Definitely will be taking advantage of the onboard booking!

 

[JenPinks]

Having looked at the stats, when people worrying about Noro on cruises I think they're doing that human thing of not evaluating risk properly (going on emotion not data). Noro on cruises gets overblown by the media because cruise ships are required to report to the CDC. Land based incidents don't end up in that database, the way I understand it. Even still, I'd done some research about best practices (hand washing, mostly, and a few sanitizers that work against Noro) ... And then I found that page I linked above where apparently DCL hasn't had a big enough "outbreak" to report it in 15 years anyway.

So, yeah, I'm spending more time worrying about seasickness.

I am a germaphobe in general so I am pretty good about hand washing so I am more worried about the seasickness as well

 

[MunFam]

MunFam, I am sure you are great people but could you tell me when you are sailing again, I do think I want not to be on that cruise.

Haha! You and me both!

 

[Dug720]

MunFam, I am sure you are great people but could you tell me when you are sailing again, I do think I want not to be on that cruise.

The ironic thing is that HAL treats the first 48 hours of every cruise as if it is in Noro state - no salt and pepper shakers on the tables. No buffet - it is all served by the workers. (Honestly other than a taco bar they started putting out lunch/afternoons I never saw a change in the "buffet" though there was no Noro on the Alaskan cruise I was on last summer...it remained complete cafeteria-style.) And they have had more Noro incidences than Disney.

Things that make you go hmmm...

 

[jrabbit]

Go ahead and book your second cruise now - DCL actually has pretty "lax" payment / cancellation / refund policy. If you decide to cancel before the PIF date, you get all the money back that you have given them.

and then you can Reshop your next cruise to see if the onboard discounts and credits make cancelling your prior booking and rebooking worth it or not.

 

[AquaDame]

We booked a four night just in case either of us got sea sick. We did a tiny bit the first night (we were in Animators and the motion of the sea + not being able to look out the windows didn't work well for me) but it was fine. We LOVED everything else and have now been on four more, two 7 nighters which were lovely, and one 3 night which was a mistake.

 

[artnerds]

How often has the norovirus struck Disney? Now that is one thing I am afraid of. Oh and being seasick!

All instances of illness outbreaks on cruise ships are tracked by the CDC. You can look at the full list at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

Disney has one of the best track records when it comes to preventing illness outbreaks. One outbreak of Salmonella in 2000 and one outbreak of Norovirus in 2002, both on the Magic. Nothing since then.

Edit: Fixed link.

 

[artnerds]

Outbreaks of illness on cruise ships over the past 5 years:

Princess - 15
Celebrity - 13
Holland America - 10
Royal Caribbean - 8
Cunard - 4
Norwegian - 3
Carnival - 2
Crystal - 2
Prestige, P&O, Lindblad, Oceania, and Fred Olsen - 1 each

Considering the sizes of their fleets, NCL and Carnival aren't doing too badly. Holland America and Celebrity have about the same size fleets as NCL, with 3 or 4 times more outbreaks. Meanwhile, Carnival has more ships than Princess (24 vs. 18) but is making Princess look like a fleet of floating petri dishes.

 

[Rogillio]

Presumably your next cruise will be out far enough that if you don't enjoy your frist one you can cancel for a full refund.

We have cruise 14 times - 9 DCL, 1 NCL, 1 CCL, 2 HAL, 1 RCCL - and have never had a bad cruise! What not to like about a cruise? You go to dinner that you didn't have to cook and when you are done, you just leave and someone else cleans up and does the dishes. Somone cleans your room 2x a day and provides clean towels. You big decision every days is deciding what fun activities you want to do. You are not tied to a desk, email, phone calls, appointments......you don't have to vaccum the house or mow the lawn or take out the trash. Some of the shows will be good and some not as good but most off the shows are fun/entertaining.

Enjoy your cruise and start planning and dreaming about the next one!

 

[kbovenizer]

Just an FYI on seasickness...

I've been on 5 cruises and didn't get seasick until the last one. It's always been a concern for me though, so I had Bonine and some of those wrist band things. I don't know if the wrist bands were really doing anything other than irritating me, but the Bonine worked great. You only take it once a day and I didn't notice it making me more tired than without it.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Well, some people really do find out they don't like cruising after the fact. I can't tell you how many people I've met who thought they would love cruising.

That being said, you should wait to book again until you're on the ship. I hear you can get good deals that way.

 

[Ariel484]

We booked a four night just in case either of us got sea sick. We did a tiny bit the first night (we were in Animators and the motion of the sea + not being able to look out the windows didn't work well for me) but it was fine. We LOVED everything else and have now been on four more, two 7 nighters which were lovely, and one 3 night which was a mistake.

I've sailed the 4-night itinerary twice (I assume you're talking about the Dream one that goes to Nassau and Castaway Cay) and both times I really felt the movement the most on the first night during dinner. I guess because the ship is really moving to make it to Nassau.

And FWIW...both times I was in Enchanted Garden. Second time we were near a window and looking out the window with the sea pretty much at eye-level made me feel worse. Different for everyone, I guess!

 

[JenPinks]

Just an FYI on seasickness...

I've been on 5 cruises and didn't get seasick until the last one. It's always been a concern for me though, so I had Bonine and some of those wrist band things. I don't know if the wrist bands were really doing anything other than irritating me, but the Bonine worked great. You only take it once a day and I didn't notice it making me more tired than without it.

Is that a prescription?

 

[jrabbit]

Bonnie is OTC as is Dramamine

 

[com_op_2000]

Did anyone "see" the report of the high school kids from Virgina.
They were at WDW and US last week, got on the bus to head home, before it got 40 miles out of town, everyone on the bus kids, adults, and driver were sick with noro. They pulled into a hospital and the whole bus was quarantened there.

 

[JenPinks]

Bonnie is OTC as is Dramamine

Gotcha thanks. My co worker also mentioned to me a patch that goes behind your ear. Has anyone used that?

 

[JenPinks]

Did anyone "see" the report of the high school kids from Virgina.
They were at WDW and US last week, got on the bus to head home, before it got 40 miles out of town, everyone on the bus kids, adults, and driver were sick with noro. They pulled into a hospital and the whole bus was quarantened there.

Oh no! I didnt hear about that! I bet that bus was ewwwwwww

 

[jrabbit]

Gotcha thanks. My co worker also mentioned to me a patch that goes behind your ear. Has anyone used that?

Patch is a Prescription - need to see you doctor for a "note"

I used to be able to say that I didn't ever get seasick on a DCL ship - no longer. in 2013 we had a sea day where the ship was rocking and rolling. I've been on it when it was worse, but by mid afternoon my head / stomach had enough. I didn't bring enough Dramamine (my drug of choice) for daily use on the cruise (I max dose for snorkeling or being out on smaller boats). Our tablemates had the patch and I used one for the most of the trip up the Mexican Coast to LA. Worked fine for me (I think that I would have been fine without it but my wife and our friends insisted ...) I didn't experience any of the side effects - going blind (or at least fuzzy eye sight), drowsiness (its just a stronger Dramamine) etc. It appears to have worked fine for me - as it does for many cruisers.

 

[MunFam]

There was also a report today that two separate cruise ships headed to San Diego via the Panama Canal have norovirus outbreaks of 200+ passengers. Ack! I leave on a DCL Panama Canal Cruise in 2 weeks! I know HAL had an outbreak coming through the canal in 2012 as well.