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Cruise Sickness

luv2sparkle

luv2sparkle

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
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We recently took our first cruise. The last night, our dining room server was sick and didn't work. The cruise also had a huge group of 15 year old girls and we noticed a lot of them were sneezing and coughing. I returned and didn't get sick, but our friends went with us and the wife was sick the last day and when she got home was admitted to the hospital for 6 days with influenza A.

Just wondering if others have taken a cruise and taken sick upon returning or if this was just her bad luck. My husband was not feeling great for a day or so but nothing like my friend.
 
wow, that's horrible for your friend! I've only taken 1 cruise, and likely won't again, because no matter how much medication I took I was still queasy (or felt sick from the meds themselves, ugh). That said, no one we know of got sick from other passengers on the boat, but it's something I've heard about happening on some cruise lines. My guess is that it isn't particularly common, because if it were people would stop going on cruises.

But the most common thing I've heard is people getting flu-like symptoms (norovirus), because it's so hard to contain and people are stuck on a boat together. Every time there's an "outbreak" it makes the news, which means that it isn't happening too often. I know this is likely no consolation to your friend, but I'd have her contact the cruise line and ask for $ back, or doctors bills paid. Or even if she doesnt get anything it's important for the cruise line to know that this happened, and that they need to take better steps to disinfect everything.
 
I have been on four cruises and haven't been sick during or after any of them. A food server on one of them told DH and me there was a group onboard quarantined for norovirus, though. Luckily it did not impact our trip.
 
I have gotten sick on two cruises. I joke to my husband that I can't leave home at all anymore.

Both times I was diagnosed with pneumonia. First cruise was out of Spain, we spent a week in Spain touring before getting on a ship for a trans Atlantic trip, I felt like I had a bit of a sore throat on the flight over to Madrid. The 2nd time was when we were cruising out of New Zealand to Australia - that ship was full of sick people.. I came down with pneumonia, and my husband both times was fine. After the second cruise I begged my doctor for the pneumonia shot (as I wasn't 65 yet) and she relented and I got it. I just got over something as I am in Austin TX and flu is yuge! here.. but it was over in 6 days, so I guess the shot worked.

I'm cruising from Greece to Barcelona in June so I am hoping to make it through without sickness.
 
My sister and her husband were on a cruise in January. Both came home and were sick within a day or two with a nasty virus. Cruise flu is not a myth, apparently.
 
Oh dang it. I want to take an Alaskan cruise so bad but am fearful of being sick. I have only been on one larger ferry in big water in the English Channel and I slept to make sure I would not get sick. This is not making me happy to hear this.
 
I have been on 14 cruises all over the world. I'm taking my third transatlantic in May. I have never returned sick. Make sure you always use the hand wipes they pass out and never touch a doorknob without a paper towel or tissue. Sea sickness can be overcome by taking Dramamine an hour before boarding and every 12 hrs afterwards. I am to the point where I now have sea legs and never need it. Last years crossing we had 30 ft swells and I was fine.
 
We took our kids on a Disney Cruise several years back. We did not make it to a lot of our sit-down dinners and ended up eating
in the buffet. I think this was a big mistake (hindsight). The last day I ended up with these braxton-hicks like cramps (but they
made me nauseous). I never threw up but slep for half a day and felt just awful. Then that night my son got sick and
threw up all over his bunk.

Its unfortunate because my family (nor I) ever want to do a cruise again. That was Disney which I thought it would be clean and
chances of getting sick would be low but NOPE!
 
We've been on six cruises; four with our children who go to the kid's club in the evenings. We were on one cruise with a norovirus outbreak, but fortunately no one in our party got sick.

We've had two episodes. One, my son had a high fever and we went to the infirmary and he was diagnosed with an ear infection. Honestly? I think he brought that one onboard with him. The second time we were fine on the cruise, but my son had gastro the night we returned home, and proceeded to have it three times over the next two weeks. It was awful.

It's just proximity. People from all over the country/world are largely confined to a smallish area, bringing their regions' germs with them. It's like my kid's school, sometimes there are gastro outbreaks or influenza outbreaks. Right now, there is a major influenza A outbreak at the elementary school.

I'm so sorry your friend got sick. Apparently the flu is pretty nasty this year.
 
We've been on six cruises; four with our children who go to the kid's club in the evenings. We were on one cruise with a norovirus outbreak, but fortunately no one in our party got sick.

We've had two episodes. One, my son had a high fever and we went to the infirmary and he was diagnosed with an ear infection. Honestly? I think he brought that one onboard with him. The second time we were fine on the cruise, but my son had gastro the night we returned home, and proceeded to have it three times over the next two weeks. It was awful.

It's just proximity. People from all over the country/world are largely confined to a smallish area, bringing their regions' germs with them. It's like my kid's school, sometimes there are gastro outbreaks or influenza outbreaks. Right now, there is a major influenza A outbreak at the elementary school.

I'm so sorry your friend got sick. Apparently the flu is pretty nasty this year.
 
HI:

Simple truth is, people don't wash their hands and many travel when they are sick.

Sani wipe everything (I never toughed banisters) and where you can, drink from straws. And wash your hands!!!

cheers--Sharon
 
Thank you everyone who posted. I do think cruises are a petri dish of germs. This was my first cruise and many things surprised me. I really thought the food would be better and healthier. I have always heard that people gain a lot of weight on cruises. I imagine that is true if you eat all the sugar. Desserts were plentiful. I have been avoiding sugar and had only a bite or two of DH's desserts. Even the dinners were only so so.

I did use a lot of hand wipes and hand sanitizer but I really think the viruses came from the other passengers. My friend is out of the hospital now and sounds like she still wants to take another cruise. I am thinking she may have to go without us. The one thing I did enjoy was talking to new people, and our friends really don't like to do that. We didn't get to do as much of that as I would have liked. As much as we love them, I really like being on my own a little better.

It sounds like cruise illnesses are pretty common. I think it might be healthier to travel a different way.
 
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