Cruise Talk: Christmas/New Year's QM2 & Norovirus outbreak

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»	Cruise Talk » Ocean Liners and Classic Cruise Ships » Christmas/New Year's QM2 & Norovirus outbreak

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Topic: Christmas/New Year's QM2 & Norovirus outbreak

Sky Room
First Class Passenger
Member # 1976

posted 01-10-2011 01:59 PM

Just returned from a Christmas/New Years cruise on the QM2. The ship left NYC on December 19 and returned to NYC on January 3rd. This was my second time being on the QM2 for the holidays. The first being over the 2005-06 period.

Not much has changed with the exception that; Santa is not as big a deal for our kids, the QM2 now sails out of Brooklyn vs. the West Side, Commodore Warwick has long retired from QM2 and they now celebrate New Years eve in 3 areas vs. only 1 back then. Before they celebrated New Years eve in the Queens Room now they celebrate in G32, Grand Lobby and Queens Room. A welcome change! Visions of dancing and spelling out YMCA in the QM2's Grand Lobby still haunt me!

The only thing that I was not expecting was that there would be a full scale outbreak of the Norovirus virus on board. First I am thankful that no one in my family got sick. Unfortunately though we did have many friends that did get sick.

At first I was unaware of the outbreak. About 5 days into the trip the first sign of a change was when I was in the Kings Court. Early that morning the staff started dispensing all food from the line. Also all the salt & pepper shakers and sugar dishes were off the tables. Frankly I thought nothing of it at the time. I didn't formally know about the outbreak until later that day (6PM) when the ship's doctor announced it over the PA there was an outbreak. From then on the ship was in lockdown mode. All public toilet doors were propped open to discourage use, Purell was everywhere, some of the room Stewarts wore face masks, and sugar and salt & pepper shakers were no where to be found. Ironically even at the party for Gold/Platinum & Diamond members the Captain reprimanded passengers who shook his hand. I thought it was kind of odd seeing there was a lady beside the captian squirting each passenger's hands with Purell before they greeted the captian.

In the end I must applaud CUNARD for their success in containing the spread of this virus. It could have been allot worse! Unofficial counts are about 10% of passengers and 3% of the crew had it.

If one did get sick they were quarantined to their cabin for 3 days. Fortunately most of the passengers who got sick did obey the doctor's orders. Unfortunately some didn't. One family comes to mind that did not follow the doctor's orders and was booted off the ship in Curacao.

Finally things were back to normal on the second to last day of the trip. Thankfully the virus was halted and all was back to normal. The public bathroom doors were closed, passengers could dispense their own food in Kings Court and best of all my 11 year old son could make his own "mega" ice cream cone in the Kings Court

I was just wondering if there is anyone else on this board who was aboard this trip?

[ 01-10-2011: Message edited by: Sky Room ]

Posts: 62 | From: Boston | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

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