If you won a trip on a cruise ship would you risk going on a ship that had recent illness outbreak?

Question

Lately quite a few cruise ships have had outbreaks of everything from stomach flu to food poisoning... if you won a cruise to go on one of the ships where people either got very sick or even died, would you go on the ship?
No, turning in the winning cruise tickets for cash would not be an option.

Answer 1

Working on cruise ships I can tell you an 'outbreak' can occur on any ship at any time. With reference to gastrointeritus related illnesses, stomach bugs etc once its onboard it spreads incredibly easily.
As a cruise ship crew member now i guess would be a good time to say its rather offensive to us to be told the illness is present because our ship is unclean :( those illnesses spread so quickly because of poor personal hygiene of those onboard.... most specifically not washing hands after using the bathroom (ever wondered why the ratio of passengers to crew becoming sick is over 85% to 15%?)And sadly it seems to be north americans as the biggest culprits - i have done 3 tours in the baltic/med/europe, months at a time and no illness with a large percentage of non north american passengers, but on all 3 occassions, when we crossed the atlantic to the US, we got an 'outbreak' within 2 weeks :s
With reference to how spooked you should be going on a ship thats had an outbreak, well...not alot really. the main source of the illness are the passengers onboard - but they will be off by the end of the week and the crew will 'super sanitise' EVERYTHING before the new load board.
If you ARE concerned about the sanitation of the ship you might be cruising on then you can check out how clean they really are by going to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website....
Periodically we (cruise ships visitng or based in the US) will be inspected by USPH (United States Port Health) and are given a score out of 100 - ie, 100 being perfect.
EVERY cruise ship has their scores posted on the CDC website and is a much better guide of just how clean and sanitary that ship is, rather than have they had unclean passengers on recently......
Oh, and to give you a clue about just how strict USPH are in their inspections (trust me, they terrify the crusie industry) - 99% of your homes would never score above 80

Answer 2

You should not be scared and you should take it. The illness that spreads on ships is called the Norovirus or mostly known as the Stomach Flu. This is passed to you only by eating the virus. this happens because most people do not wash their hands. I am not saying you, but take this example.

You wash you hands and start down to the dining room. On the way you touch you door knob, the railing in the hall, the elevator buttons, and the dining room door. The person who left 2 mintues before you, went to the bathroom and did not wash their hands. The just touched the same rail, elevator buttons and dining room door. Now you go eat. Most lines keep a sanatizing gel inside the dining room doors. USE IT!

Go. Thousands of people cruise daily and you only hear about the one or two ships that got the illness where there are hundreds of ships sailing at the exact same time that were fine.

Answer 3

This is a VERY common virus, more common on land than on cruise ships. There was a recent article released that cited that 8% of americans get this virus every year on land, and less than 1% of cruise ship passengers contract the virus. It is HIGHLY contagious. Here is the info from the article:

“Norovirus is not an illness unique to cruise ships, but rather an illness commonly seen in many settings throughout the United States,” Forney noted. “The reason you hear about norovirus on cruise ships is because they are required to report every incidence of gastrointestinal illness,” Forney said. “There isn’t a required national reporting system for land-based outbreaks of norovirus in the United States.”

"As the second most prevalent illness in the United States, second only to the common cold, the CDC estimates that 23 million people – or 8 percent of the country’s population – develop symptoms of norovirus annually. Each year, less than 1 percent of all cruise ship passengers are impacted by norovirus. Whether on land or sea, simple personal hygiene practices, such as frequent hand washing, is a strong start to avoiding contagion and spreading of the virus. "

According to the CDC, You can lessen your exposure by making sure you wash your hands and use hand sanitizers that are provided by the cruise line.

I wouldnt give it a second thought! I would just go. Just make sure you take every precaution you can -- you will have a great time.

Answer 4

I would go. There are so many people on a single cruise ship that your chances of getting sick are still small. When they say 200 people on a ship are sick, that is less than 10% of the people on a ship. Typically, ships have at least 2000 passagers and when you add crew, that number is very low.

Go and have fun! Don't worry about it and bring the hand sanitizer along with you!

Answer 5

It seem like that would be the safest time to go because they would be a lot more alert to what they were serving and the ship has to be totally disinfected from top to bottom after such incidents, so there would be no chance of catching something that was lingering around.

Answer 6

I'd go...Just be careful and wash your hands a lot and stuff. And 99.9999999% of the time even if you do get sick it will last 1 or 2 days and won't be too serious. Of course you dont want to get sick though. Just be careful and it's not too likely you will get sick

Answer 7

Yes. I'd just avoid eating the shellfish and the undercooked chicken.

Answer 8

yes, but like anywhere else, i'd make sure to take probiotics and keep myself as healthy as can be. i'd wash my hands religiously and stay away from those obviously with a cold or flu.

Answer 9

Heck yeah! There's risks in anything adventurous!

Answer 10

Yes, go for it.
Are you kidding? They have cleaned it thoroughly and completely. This is the absolute best time to go.