How Clean is Your Ship?

Norovirus is often associated with cruise travel and is often in the news as an outbreak hits yet another ship,  it is an extremely common and highly contagious virus that causes gastroenteritis and vomitting but Norovirus is not a cruise ship illness – it is a land-based illness that gets brought on to cruise ships mainly by passengers.

The virus is usually passed on indirectly, typically though surface contamination,  somebody who has the virus on their hands can easily contaminate a surface — a hand rail, the button on the elevator, eating utensils – then another person comes along and touches that same surface, gets it on their hands and ends up contracting it, symptoms typically last for up to 48 hours and usually mean being confined to you cabin to reduce the risk of contamination other passengers

Legally Cruise ships have to report outbreaks that affect 3% or more of the total number of passengers or crew on board so often the smaller ships seem to have more cases 

Only 133 of the more than 29,000 cruises that set sail between 2008 and 2014 cited an outbreak – that’s just 0.5 percent. And of the 74 million passengers that travelled during the same time, an even smaller 0.18 percent were affected.

If an outbreak is reported the ship will undergo a deep clean, disinfecting hand railings, door handles and elevator buttons and distributing sanitizing gel around the ship 

Hand washing is the number one way to protect yourself on a cruise ship you should Never eat without washing your hands immediately before going to dinner, hand sanitizers can help but they absolutely cannot replace hand washing

Self-serve buffets can also be a problem area serving your food with tongs, ladles, and spoons that have just been touched by hundreds of fellow passengers

It can be off putting seeing the hand sanitizers but I would much rather see them than not see them – although I dread the amount of weight I usually put on during a cruise having Norovirus is a very drastic weight of losing a few pounds!!