KESQ NewsChannel 3 Palm Springs, CA: More than 250 passengers aboard cruise ship fall ill — Isn’t this story repeating itself too often? What’s going on on these ships. I hate the idea of being stuck on a boat for days on end with everyone sick. Can you imagine?
Michael Sheehan, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean International, described the illness as “your typical 24-hour stomach virus and nothing more.” He blamed a sick passenger for bringing it on board.
The Mariner of the Seas is also being checked for bacteria.
Typical?
I live in Key West, where we see some of the cheapest people in the world on these cruise ships–some dont even go ashore, they dont want to miss a single free buffet. The word is that the symptoms appear after the cruise is over half completed–in fact they are faking the illness to get another free cruise.
If you had to deal with these people you would believe it
dave –
Yes, I’m familiar with that type. It causes a lot of resentment down in the Islands. They get off the ship, go on a quick sightseeing tour, take a dump, and return to the ship after contributing exactly zero dollars to the local economy.
You honestly believe that 250 people are faking being sick?! Come one. A much more reasonable explanation is that it occurs half way through the cruise because it takes that long for the illness to spread.
Um, a “stomach virus” isn’t exactly contagious. On the other hand, I can see an airborne illness spreading quickly on a ship when everyone is bunched up close together.
Meanwhile, I am still shocked at how many adults do not wash their hands after using the bathroom. It’s really gross. Then Dateline or somesuch hires a lab tech to swab bathroom door handles and is “shocked” at the amount of fecal matter and bacteria on common bathroom fixtures. They blame the maintenance of the bathroom, but I think my fellow rich-country citizens do not believe the laws of germs and nature apply to them.
From my personal observations, college-educated whites (I fall into that demographic) are consistently worse than any other socioeconomic group in terms of bathroom hygeine.
Yes, I’m familiar with that type. It causes a lot of resentment down in the Islands. They get off the ship, go on a quick sightseeing tour, take a dump, and return to the ship after contributing exactly zero dollars to the local economy.
Hell, with the cost of cruises & airfare, I’m not surprised the tourists consider anything/place they are “herded” as part of the package. 🙂
A co-worker took a cruise with his teenage daughter, and was floored by the soda-pop bill when he got back – since only water and ice tea was gratis.
He also bemoaned his own stupidity at forgetting to pack his camera, and – on the few port excursions he could afford to pay for – had to pay a few dollars a pop for a polaroid “keepsake” of himself and his daughter. 🙂
They can eat all they want on the ship. What should they be doing to “support the local economy”? Buying souveniers?