September 3, 2003
Viral Stowaway in Brig, Cruise Ship Staggers Home
By PATRICK HEALY
t began as a jaunt across the North Atlantic, but by the third day of the cruise, when the virus had taken hold aboard the Regal Princess, it was more of a lurch.
Passengers threw up in the pastel hallways. They threw up beside the buffet. They punched elevator buttons with their shirt sleeves, gambled with disinfected poker chips and watched cleanup crews scurry about in white suits, masks and gloves.
When one passenger reached for a croissant one morning, his wife said, a crew member slapped his hand with a pair of tongs. He was told that the passengers could not touch the food.
"It was like being in a prison," said another passenger, Barbara Evans, as she left the ship yesterday at Pier 92 near West 52nd Street in Manhattan. "They were treating us like pariahs on that ship."
The Regal Princess's two sick weeks at sea came to an end yesterday at the pier. The ship slipped silently up the Hudson River at 6:30 a.m., treading through the early morning mist like an ailing apparition. Its bow was dark and its sides were lit. A few figures could be seen on the deck.
The 16-day voyage was abbreviated by one day after an outbreak of what has been identified as the Norwalk virus sickened at least 302 of the ship's 1,538 passengers and 45 of its 679 crew members, said Julie Benson, a spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, which owns the Regal and 10 other cruise ships. The virus, which causes a gastrointestinal ailment that is usually not life-threatening, apparently boarded the ship with a few passengers when the cruise began in Copenhagen, Ms. Benson said.
Yesterday, officials from Princess Cruises played down the scope of the illness and its effect on the cruise, saying most people enjoyed the trip. The cruise line gave all passengers a $300 credit, and it will refund the price of the lost day of travel, Ms. Benson said.
"It was a positive cruise experience for the vast majority of people," said Steve Nielsen, the company's vice president of Caribbean and Atlantic operations. "I think they got the cruise experience they wanted."
But perhaps not the experience they expected. When passengers poured onto the street yesterday morning, some praised the crew, boasted that they had dodged the virus and said they had had a wonderful time. Others were not so amiable.
"It was a trip from hell," said Al Levine, as his wheelchair was pushed toward a fleet of buses that shuttled passengers to airports and hotels. "I'll never do that again."
The passengers boarded on Aug. 18, eager to see, along with the 10 ports in the itinerary, the jagged coasts of Iceland and Greenland and the verdant vistas of Ireland. Roger Houpt, a retired carpenter from Akron, Ohio, said he had waited 20 years to visit Greenland, one of two destinations the ship skipped.
The first days were occupied by bingo, line dancing and gambling in the ship's casino, but soon, passengers like Aileen Mulligan said they began to notice telltale signs of illness. Cleanup crews appeared, bottles of sanitizer came out at mealtimes, and Joanne Serafini said her husband had his hand whacked as he reached for that croissant.
When Mrs. Mulligan asked a crew member whether there had been an outbreak of sickness, she said she was told, " `Absolutely not.' "
Soon, though, her stomach told her otherwise. She was stricken with severe cramps and nausea, and spent three days confined to her cabin. Yesterday, as she waited for a limousine to take her back to Long Island, Mrs. Mulligan said she believed the crew had been less than honest.
"They should have told us the truth," she said. "It was a nightmare. This is my fifth and last cruise with Princess. I'm going back to Holland America."
On board, the buffet, sauna and steam room were shut down and the ceramics class was canceled, said Gary Reing, 51. To prevent the spread of the virus, bottles of ketchup disappeared from the tables, as did salt and pepper shakers, and passengers became familiar with the redolent cocktail of vomit and disinfectant in the hallways.
Passengers and crew members did all they could to dodge the virus. Lee Strickland, a passenger from San Francisco, used her shirt sleeve to push elevator buttons, and other passengers used their knuckles.
Before meals, passengers squirted a bead of green sanitizer onto their hands, said one, Joseph Dauber, 52, of Neptune, N.J. The captain came on the intercom frequently to urge the passengers to wash and disinfect, Mr. Dauber said. The crew disinfected walls and railings, the bottoms of seats and even poker chips, passengers said.
How intense was the cleaning?
"Like Lady Macbeth," said Mariellen Brown, 77, of San Mateo, Calif.
Ms. Benson, the cruise line spokeswoman, and several passengers praised the medical staff members, who diagnosed the virus within four hours. At the height of the outbreak, the third day at sea, 60 people sought treatment from the two doctors on board, Ms. Benson said. By yesterday, only two people were still sick, and they and their spouses recuperated on the ship as the rest of the passengers disembarked.
Passengers who came down with the virus were urged to stay in their rooms for 72 hours, the period when Norwalk-type agents are most contagious, Ms. Benson said.
"People didn't obey the restrictions," said one passenger, Betty Noonan, 74, of Barrington, R.I. "One man was sitting in a table next to me and said, `I can't keep anything down, but I can't stay in my room any longer.' "
Several passengers disputed the company's estimate that just 347 people fell ill. John Abbate, a passenger from Long Island, said many more than those who had seen a doctor had taken ill.
"That doesn't take into account those treated in their rooms, like me, or those who weathered through it, who had a mild case without seeing the doctor," Mr. Abbate said.
By 1 p.m., the passengers had all been taken to hotels and airports, and crews were disinfecting the ship, which scored 98 out of a possible 100 in a September 2002 sanitization inspection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They must work quickly: tomorrow, the Regal Princess departs for Montreal, with a new set of passengers.