Passengers Hit By Wave of Sickness — Again

May 7, 2004
By Matthew Taylor

Dozens of Norwegian Crown cruise passengers have been hit by a stomach bug for the second week running and the third time this year.

Last week a virus struck 33 passengers and two crew members during the week-long holiday from Philadelphia to Bermuda and back.

And yesterday Norwegian Cruise Lines admitted that another 24 passengers caught gastro-intestinal 'flu this week, suffering vomiting and diarrhoea.

Linda Inman, 51, was struck with the bug on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"I still have some problems with my bowel and I am very tired. I have to nap every four hours," she said.

"I am not coming on this ship again, we are trying to get our money back. It's ruined our vacation totally. The rain cancelled one of our excursions."
She said she and her husband were not told about last week's problems until they boarded the ship on Sunday and it was too late having flown up from their home in Atlanta, Georgia.

"They said you can cancel the trip but it's hard to go back to work and say I am not taking this week off I am taking next week off."

Her husband Steve, 51, said: "They were making such an effort to keep everything clean, sterilising gloves and saying don't touch this and that. I don't know how she got it.

"I can't be something superficial. They seem to be trying so hard but success is better than trying."

His wife added: "We have a penthouse apartment where there are not many people about. I never get sick."

Every passenger The Royal Gazette spoke to said sterilising hand washes were spread liberally around the ship while staff were careful not to let people serve themselves at buffets.

The outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the Norwegian Crown is the third this year.

On a 13-day Spring voyage to South America 45 German passengers and eight crew members became ill.

According to a Centre for Disease Control website the vessel underwent extensive cleaning and dis-infection following the outbreak.

In Dockyard Arthur Gross, from Tempe, Arizona, said he and his wife had been struck down by the bug and when his four-year-old son Miles was afflicted there was no medicine for him.

"He was vomiting ñ they said only bring him down if he gets diarrhoea. A couple of hours later he did and they said come down.

"But they didn't give him any treatment. They just took his profile, they didn't take his temperature."

He said he was told suppositories in the medical centre had expired and more had to be ordered.

"I said they must have known there would be kids so why not have them in advance but they said they didn't know if kids would be on the ship until they see the manifest.

"That's ridiculous, you will have kids no matter what."

He said he was thankful that his seven-month old son had not suffered but he said having the family quarantined in their rooms for 24 hours had spoiled the holiday for his parents.

"My father can't fly. This is the only vacation they can have but it's ruined.
"I am 45 but I feel about 90."

He said hygiene standards had been fastidious but staff were continually giving his kids high-fives and ruffling their hair and exposing them to germs.

"I said you can't be doing that, you cannot be killing people with kindness."

He has been offered $200 compensation for the day spent in quarantine but is teaming up with New York lawyers Eitan Ogen and Natalie Sedaghati, who suffered the same sickness aboard the Norwegian Crown last week and are now filing a class action lawsuit.

Last week passengers also complained of fumes in cabins and power outages.

Public Relations Director Susan Robison yesterday said the Bermuda health department had checked out the ship and declared it to be fine and that the Centre for Disease Control had been informed.

She said the more than 23 million Americans are diagnosed with this type of 'flu every year.

"It can be stopped if people wash their hands after using the bathroom. It's a very common in schools, nursing homes and hospitals."
But she said only cruise ships were required to report it.

Ms Robinson denied claims the ship had been fined for the Spring outbreak. She said: "The ship isn't sick, it's really the passengers who are sick."

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