Fred. Olsen Cruises - Braemar Cruises Reviews

Hi Mr/Hughes - I'm sure the medical staff were following an absolute zero tolerance policy as defined by some higher authority ~ the doctor said as much to me. We've has the vomiting bug before as a family and all gone down like flies with it and experienced the symptoms. This was not it. Neither were the later incidents. Quite frankly it would have been masochistic in the extreme to have voluntarily banged ourselves up by reporting this. Incidentally as a doctor is there any mileage in the comments below from Mr. Purvis and the attached answers? Could Malarone be the cause? This was something that persisted on and off for over a week and has stopped since the weekend when we all stopped taking Malarone.

Hello Mr Walters. Malarone could be the cause as diarrhoea is one of its many side effects, however unfortunately for your wife/daughter, again once reporting diarrhoea on a ship, the medical staff simply have to follow protocol. If an outbreak later followed and it turned out to be Norovirus and protocol wasn't followed, there would be big problems for the ship. Port health authorities are very strict, particularly in Brazil where I assume you were. All records are often carefully checked at the ports. Please do not blame the medical staff. Even if the doctor suspected another cause, if you fit the criteria (ticking the boxes as you say) you must be confined. I know from experience that the worst part of our job is having to confine people. We hate it. We hate spoiling passengers holiday. It's actually very draining and upsetting when the passengers get upset with us. After all usually our job is to help people. On the other hand an outbreak is horrendous for all concerned. I really feel bad for you and i'm sorry you had a bad experience but please do that just that. Put it down to experience.

Hello Liz, thank you yes we had an amazing time. What an experience. My only regret is that I was too daft not to have arranged to meet you on board. I often wondered if I had spoken to you and not realised it. I would like to thank you again for all the advice you gave me beforehand. The dance floor was a nice size, but we didn't do as much dancing as we'd hoped as my partner had a bad knee for the first week. We did a bit of dancing on the second week - not exactly Fred and Ginger though, more like Fred and Wilma. I also enjoyed the sea days more than I thought I would. I had planned to do lots of classes and things but in the end I got extremely lazy and hardly moved from my sun bed for 4 days. I went into the pool a few times and had fun bobbing up and down with the huge surf that the rocking of the ship was creating. We didn't have anything to compare so we were ecstatic the first time we saw a huge moth. It was easy to spot the first-time Amazon cruisers as there was a great crowd of us pointing and going "oooooh" around the moth. We took off from Bournemouth and landed 20 or so minutes later at Cardiff where we were on the ground for 2 hours. At the time the 2 hours felt like 2 days, but in hindsight it wasn't really a big deal. The toilets were open, refreshments were available and we were sitting in surprisingly comfy seats. On the return journey we were only on the ground in Cardiff for an hour which was much better. I hope you enjoy your next holiday and that your pick up in Durham is not too lengthy. Thank you again for all you advice. I'd love to know if I met you!! Wendy x

Wendy - I spent most of the days on a sun bed too!! We ate in the Thistle on table 112 - in the middle section of the restaurant on first sitting. My husband wore the Bob Marley hat with dredlocks (!) on tropical night. Sadly never went near the gym - far too energetic for us ha ha!! however, we did take the stairs most of the time and not the lift. We were on deck 4 so the only time we got where we were going "on the flat" was in the evening, aiming for the Thistle, and also we were the far end of the corridor (near to the pointy bit as I call it) so it seemed like a mile long hike to get there - breakfast and lunchtimes we ate in the Palms Cafe. Liz x

Hi Liz, I must have come across you then. I wish in hindsight that I'd asked everybody if they were you, although I'd probably have got a few strange looks. We were first sitting in Thistle too, table 8 in the same row as the two lovely little girls. I think I recall your husband! I was also at the floating restaurant on that rather soggy Friday. I expect I sat next to you on a sun bed one day without even realising it. We were also on deck 4 - 4061 - in the middle of both the pointy end and the blunt end. I'm still gushing with wonderful memories of the cruise and all the incredible things we saw. I've written a review but seem to be in trouble for writing too much waffle. Oh well. Best wishes, Wendy x

Hi again - we were all on Malarone as well. There were a few stomach wobbles throughout the cruise and when we got back. Having learnt from bitter experience and being 100% confident it was not the gastro bug we didn’t report anything again - probably not what the ship's medical staff would have wanted but then they shouldn't have been so over the top with our initial incident. Thank you all for your kind comments about the girls. I think they stored up all there bad behaviour for when we go home!