Royal Carribean Cruise Illness Dec 27 - Is it true?

[Cap]

Has anyone factual information about a RC Cruise ship that reportedly came into Key West today, Dec 27, and unloaded some passengers to buses because of illness? A DCL rep casually mentioned this to me today when I was inquiring about the need for medical documents for prescription medicine.

 

[tstobb]

Not entirely true:
A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean, Lynn Martenstein, said 70 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the Majesty of the Seas reported flu-like symptoms during the four-day cruise to the Bahamas.

About half of those passengers chose to get off the ship at Key West, the last stop before returning to Miami. They were bused with their traveling companions to Miami.

Complete article here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/021227/leisure_cruise_illness_2.html

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

<font face="times new roman,arial" size="3"><B>About 75 sick passengers taken off cruise ship, bussed to Miami</B>

<i>Associated Press</i>

KEY WEST - Officials from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines removed about 75 passengers from a ship and sent them to Miami by bus from Key West, after those guests fell ill during a four-day sail to the Bahamas, officials said.

The Majesty of the Seas, an 880-foot vessel which can accommodate 2,744 passengers, was making a scheduled stop in Key West Thursday morning when the sick passengers, many of whom had been quarantined in their cabins aboard the ship, were loaded onto two Miami-bound buses.

"This was handled terribly," said Adam Hoffman, a Connecticut man who was among the passengers sent to Miami on the buses.

The trip was scheduled to end at the Port of Miami on Friday morning.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein said she could not confirm whether the passengers were suffering from a Norwalk-like virus which has plagued numerous cruise ships in recent weeks.

"It could be anything from guests staying out too late, drinking and eating, to the stomach flu people refer to as the Norwalk-type virus," Martenstein said. "It is not unusual. It's not a particularly high number of people with flu symptoms."

Martenstein said there had been a "limited number" of stomach flu cases in recent weeks aboard the Majesty, adding that the cruise line had kept officials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed of the situation.

"The CDC is not taking any action," Martenstein said.

Officials from the CDC could not be reached for comment early Friday.

The Norwalk-like virus strikes suddenly and violently, typically lasting 1-2 days. It can cause vomiting, headaches and nausea, according to health officials, and is considered to be one of the most common gastrointestinal viruses.

<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-4">Copyright 2002, The Associated Press.

 

[AnnMorin]

Interesting how no one has heard of this one. I didn't see it on the news! Maybe the news types have finally figured out it is not that big of a story.

 

[rae519]

If it was a Disney ship, we'd probably hear about it. They love to "rat on the Mouse".


Rae

 

[tstobb]

I was flipping thru the news channels earlier on tv & one (can't remember which) had on their ticker at the bottom that the "cruise ship virus sickens many in Alaska"