No Magic On The Disney Cruise

[AngryPatricia]

I know that many of you or should I say most of you Disney Magic Cruisers had a wonderful time on the Disney Cruises and made wonderful life long memories. I planned our trip on the Magic July 13 -20 over a year ago. I wrapped up the paperwork in a large box at Christmas and presented it to my Daughter, Son-In-Law and my 3 grandchildren. Everyone was thrilled that my husband and I could make this happen for them. We saved our money, asked for gifts of money for the trip on birthdays etc., as it got closer to the date I even had to sell my new car (the old one is an SUV and on one wanted to buy it) to raise the money. We came to the port a day early as to rest up for the trip the next day. We woke up so excited and when the children saw the ship for the first time -- well that was magical. To make a long story short, on Wed the 16th with hours of each other we (except the men) we came down with a terrible virus. The doctor at the clinic said it was the Norwalk Virus and that about 200 were ill. There were people on IV's etc. Even the nurse got sick. The staff began to wear gloves and only they could serve any type of food and drink. They were handing out hand wipes everywhere we went, even holding open the bathroom doors for folks. We received a letter of that we were quarentined to our rooms (2 adjoining) for 48 hours. They didn't need to send another notice as we remained ill up to the day we left the ship and a few days after we got home. We sought our on family doctors and mine told me that I might have to go to the hospital and get and IV if I did not improve. Now this is the real upsetting fact, we we disembarked our luggage porter asked us "what happened on that ship?" He told us that they called a special meeting in the a.m. and told the staff "that a few kids" got sick and they were to wear gloves when handling our luggage. I told the porter the real truth. I contacted the Disney Cruise Lines (no person you can talk to and you must send an email or letter). I did both and had a registered letter sent. I requested that my money be refunded. The representative called me to say,"I have your letter and email, the doctor's report and your travel agents letter, but unfortunately we are unable to assist you with any type of refund" However, she then offered me 15% off our next trip with Disney. To quote my granddaughters, "Meme we never want to take a cruise again." Now that was my magical memory for my family, being so ill with vomiting, diarehha, horrible stomach pains, saddness, lots of crying by all. We missed the magical dinners, most of the magical shows etc. On top of this, the representative accused me of lying. She told me that what happend with the porter, "did not ever happen." A COVERUP PERHAPS! I have contacted the Center for Disease Control to inform them of what happened. It was so scarey to my family to see customers boarding the ship - the same ship we were on just hours before with our illness. I pity the family that were put into our state rooms. No warning!! I believe it will take a death of ill person aboard the ship before Disney will do anything about this. I'm just asking for part of my money to be returned as we did have 2 nice days before we got sick. One of my granddaughter's magical memories was when she threw up all over the dinner table that Wed night.
Were any of you on this cruise and ill. I saw many of you ill. You may not get a chance to read this as I am sure they DCL will remove it once they see this message. I will never again be able to afford to take my family on such a dream trip at the cost of over $10,000. I am a Sad Grandmother. Patricia Branham

 

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

I have no words of advice for you just wanted to offer a hug and say sorry your cruise was ruined. Unfortunately Norwalk can happen anywhere!

 

[terri01p]

All I can say is goodness how sad...I can imagine how dishearting this was, maybe someone here can direct you on some help. And I thought that my 10 day trip to WDW with my dd sick the whole time was bad but I beleive even this takes the cake.

Good Luck to you !

 

[yazee1]

I am very sorry to hear that your family's dream vacation turned into a nightmare. There was a bug going around when we last sailed but it didn't appear to be as widespread as you experienced on your trip. We dodged that bullet but one of the families on the train coming home (and who cruised with us) was struck ill. In fact, right before the train left Sanford, the youngest son was racing to the restroom. We hastily found a porter and changed cars.

So many questions pop into my head about what went on with your sailing and the outbreak. One being, if the ship's doctor told you what it was and he would obviously have notes and records of all the other sick passengers, how can a cover up be possible? There has to be a paper trail, right? Does your travel insurance cover this kind of disasterous occurrence?

 

[Jubilee]

I am so sorry - wow, this is very sad. I think you should be persistent with Disney.

 

[Lehuaann]

What a terrible situation...I am assuming you did not have any kind of travel insurance?

Did you book your cruise with a credit card?

Under the U.S. Fair Credit Billing Act, you have the right to dispute charges on your credit cards (but not your debit cards) and to request a “chargeback” (a refund) if you do not receive travel services as promised.

How they (cc company) interpret the law to your situation may be another thing but it is definitely worth a try.

I really hope things work out in your favor.

 

[wkeithr]

Sorry about your troubles.

 

[AngryPatricia]

As I thought, my post about the illness (Norwalk Virus) aboard the ship was removed. It's title was "No Magic on the Disney Cruise" Reader's may not see this message either. I will see how fast this message is taken off.

 

[AngryPatricia]

For two days the cruise was nice until my family and I came down with the Norwalk Virus. We were quarantined to our cabins and spent a miserable time in cabins that smelled of vomit etc. The doctor told us that around 200 were sick. When I reported this to Disney they told me it NEVER HAPPENED! Travelers Beware!

 

[cdhheidi]

As I thought, my post about the illness (Norwalk Virus) aboard the ship was removed. It's title was "No Magic on the Disney Cruise" Reader's may not see this message either. I will see how fast this message is taken off.

Your message is still there, but it is not on the cruise board. I think I saw it on the welcome to the dis board? Or something along those lines....

I am sorry you had a hard time on your trip.

 

[lovetoscrap]

I am going to move this to the Cruise Line Forum. If it needs to go somewhere else the moderators there may move it again.

So sorry to hear about your illness. I have to say I can sympathize a bit. I finally went on my dream Disney Cruise in April and we had TERRIBLE weather. DD and I were seasick the entire time and the ship didn't get into to Castaway Cay. While we were not as sick as you, we certainly didn't have a good time and she and I vow to never step foot on a ship again!

To prepare you for the reaction you will likely get on the Cruise Board, in Disney's defense Norwalk is a common illness on cruise ships--all lines have been affected at various times. And if you read your contract of carriage with Disney, they are not obligated to do anything for you--- the 15% was a good will offer. But I do understand how you feel.

Stick to WDW land vacations with me from now on!

 

[lovetoscrap]

Sorry, I didn't realize that this poster has already posted this story here. I have reported it to the cruise mods so they can deal with it as they see fit.

LTS

 

[Mickeyhugger]

While I feel sorry that you got sick I do not see how this is Disney's fault. This is just one of the hazards of confined travel whether you travel on an airplane or a boat. I picked up a bug on RCCL a few years ago in no way was it their fault,I was down for 6 days and missed three ports. Cruise lines ask people not to board if they have been ill in the last 48 hours, they have no control who lies about their health and boards the ship.

Rob

 

[dolphingirl47]

I really feel for you and I understand that you are disappointed and upset. I do not even want to think that this might happen to us on either of our cruises next month.
However, where we are going to have to disagree is that this is in any way shape or form the fault of DCL. You admitted yourself (even so you seem to see this as negative) that DCL did everything to confine this by making their staff wear gloves, only allowing staff to handle food and drink, making people use sanitizing hand wipes and confining ill people to their staterooms. There is nothing else DCL could have done. It is a credit to DCL that by your own admission only about 200 people were ill. I had to manage an outbreak of the Norwalk virus when I was working at a boarding school. In the whole of the school only 25 of ca. 500 people did not get any symptoms even though we followed all the rules (isolating affected students, cleaning frequently with chlorine based sanitizer and using hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes pretty much non stop). The problem is that this is highly infectious and you are already infectious 24 to 48 hours before you get any symptoms and about 48 hours after you feel completely well again. So somebody might have been exposed to the virus prior to the cruise and not become ill until they were already on board. There is also people that will never develop the illness, but can still be carriers. So there is really nothing that DCL or anybody else could have done to prevent this short of maybe putting everybody in isolation for 48 hours prior to the cruise and introducing compulsory blood tests to weed out any carriers.

dolphingirl47

 

[JsMom2]

Patricia,
I am so sorry this happened to you! I hope you and your family recover quickly.

You might not be aware of this, but if you purchase travel insurance sometimes you can be reimbursed for unused portions of your vacation. I know that's too late for this trip, but I hope that helps in the future.

Wendy

 

[WDWLVR]

First off welcome to the DIS and the DCL forums. I've moved this to our cruise trips report board for you as this is discussing a cruise you just finished. I've also merged the other two posts you started about this into this one.

I'm really sorry that you and your family got sick. Sadly viruses like this do happen in the close quarters of the cruise ships (all lines not just Disney). Disney does try and keep an eye on things which is why they confine people to their cabins when it happens. From what I have heard from past cruisers during that time the staff try to make things as comfortable for them as possible with in room DVD's, meals, etc.

As Wendy mentioned if you had trip insurance it should reimburse you for that part of your trip that was ruined. I know when we sailed a few years ago one of the women in our group was confined to her cabin on the last day and got that reimbursed by her insurance.

 

[SLK1]

This is a heartbreaking story...but unfortunately has happened to many cruise lines. I think Disney does a really, really good job of keeping their ship clean and free of most viruses. They are standing at every restaurant/food place handing out wipes, policing that you clean your hands! I would definitely take advantage of the 15% off offer if you can. You should try to really enjoy the Disney Cruise because it is something for everyone, and you should enjoy it virus-free!

 

[goofyboyzmom]

I am very sorry that this happened on your cruise! We cruised in 2002 and 2004 and I think it was 2004 that all the other cruise lines were reporting massive illnesses? While we were on the ship, they were cleaning non-stop. Wiping down every door-knob, door, window, bathroom, elevator buttons, railings, decks, gym equipment. And, we all know that no way does any hotel, motel or cruise wash the bedspreads between customers, when we were leaving the ship, they were TOTALLY stripping the beds. The crew handed out wipes. They dished up the food at all buffets. They even poured the condiments on your food at your table (ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper). They literally stood behind you and "serviced" you. Plutos self-service ice cream was not self-serve. The self-serve pop machines were not self-serve.

They seemed to do everything they could and this was with NO reported virus' on the DCL.

 

[cmash95]

I don't think the OP blamed DCL for the outbreak, she just didn't like the way they handled it. That being said, when we boarded for the repo cruise, there were signs on each deck and papers in our cabin talking about virus outbreaks and reminding people to wash their hands and report any of the simptoms listed on the paper to the clinic. It is common to quarentine passengers during an outbreak in order to attempt to get control of the virus.
the best advice to anyone going on a cruise is to make sure they wash their hands thoughouly(SP) at least 4 times a day and definitely every time you use the restroom. also make sure your kids do as well. Oh and as far as those wipes, they are anti bacterial wipes so they will help stop the spread of bacteria but do very little to kill viruses. During the repo, I was unfortunate enough to catch a cold that was going around the boat, I was bed ridden for three days including the day we went through the canal. Thank heavens I had a balcony and my wonderful DH stayed in the cabin to take care of me. Unfortunately he came down with it later in the cruise and missed pirate night. I am not surprised that dcl didn't want it spread around that they had an outbreak onboard. I thought they had to report outbreaks to CDC though.

 

[Sully]

I think this story reinforces the need to have decent travel insurance. I am not sure if this party had insurance, if they did they should file a claim.