Fred Olsen in the Press again!

Fred Olsen are in the Press again  today and  unfortunately for the wrong reasons.

It’s not the first time Fred olsen’s Balmoral has been hit by norovirus but it certainly seems to be a severe case this time around with  hundreds of passengers on the cruise to North America having  fallen ill with norovirus, health officials say.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said 252 of 919 passengers on board the Balmoral cruise ship had had the stomach virus since leaving the UK.

Most of those on board are British, it’s owner, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines says.

The ship – which left Southampton in the UK on 16 April – had been subjected to “extensive sanitisation measures and cleaning”, the firm added.

It docked in Portland, Maine, on Sunday, before leaving for Saint John, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

A man, who did not want to be named, told the BBC his parents were on board and had contracted the virus.

“They have been confined to their cabin for 48 hours,” he said.

“My father said the ship was not allowed to dock in Hamilton and St George’s in Bermuda because of the virus. They have missed out on two of the highlights of this cruise.

“They are quite fit but they’re in their late 70s, which is always a worry. This was supposed to be a cruise of a lifetime for my parents but has turned into a worrying and marred escapade.”

Fred Olsen said the ship had at no point in the cruise been quarantined.

CDC experts boarded the ship whilst it was docked in Baltimore on 30th April and 1 May to carry out tests on people who had fallen ill, since then, the number of people with norovirus had increased to a staggering 252 passengers and 8 crew members the CDC said.

The company said it was “cooperating fully” with maritime authorities and would “continue to make every effort possible to ensure the safety and well-being of all its guests and crew”.

Fred olsen isn’t the only ship to have reported norovirus  the CDC has reported 10 outbreaks on ships docked in the US so far this year, compared to 12 for the whole of last year, it’s just unfortunate for fred that its ships are smaller and have therefore impacted on a higher percentage of customers.

I myself was on a ship last year P&O Azura that suffered an outbreak of norovirus and the cruise lines generally do all they can to prevent it. Self service buffets became no longer self service, barriers around the Photos so no one could touch them and a warning from the captain that his staff would no longer shake hands with the guests to stop the spread of the disease. Luckily it didn’t really impact us that much a bit of a nusance perhaps but a lot better than coming down with the virus our selves.