Princess Crown tarnished

[jacketwatch]

- Crown Princess will end its current cruise two days early following a spike in cases of gastrointestinal illness for the second straight week.

In a statement, Princess Cruises said the 113,000-ton, 3,080-passenger ship will return to its Fort Lauderdale homeport on Thursday instead of Saturday, where it will undergo two days of sanitization in consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At last count, 114 passengers (3.7 percent out of 3,078) and 59 crew (5 percent of 1,178) on the weeklong Southern Caribbean cruise have reported a gastrointestinal illness believed to be Norovirus, said the line.

Impacted passengers will receive full refunds for the cruise, flights home, coverage of change fees if air was not booked through Princess, hotel accommodation if necessary and a 25 percent future cruise credit.

A total of 364 of 3,103 passengers and 30 of 1,168 crew were infected on last week's cruise, after which Princess undertook what it describes as "rigorous sanitization measures ... [including] a comprehensive disinfection of all cabins and public areas." The sanitization, which delayed the ship's February 4 departure by some six hours, was overseen by the CDC together with the line's public health, medical and onboard departments.

[coloradocruisers]

That doesn't sound like a very fun cruise. Hope the sanitizing works for the next group!

[Jason]

It would be interesting to see some photos of how the "comprehensive disinfection" goes!

[DebbieandJerry]

Yikes. Norovirus has to be weather related as well. Not cold enough to kill all those germs!

[rogue]

Yikes. Norovirus has to be weather related as well. Not cold enough to kill all those germs!

Except, if you read the news, there are quite a few schools andcolleges having similar outbreaks. Many of them are in cold climate cities. I gueass that they all must have been sailing in the last week on the Crown

[RayColey]

We have seen here on CC how the crud gets to all...

[scalise12]

JUST A BUNCH OF BAD GERMS GOING AROUND RIGHT NOW, ON OUR CRUISE WE GOT HIT WITH THE VIRUS ABOUT 75 PASSENGERS WERE DOWN FOR THE COUNT ON THE ROTTERDAM, HAL AND CREW DID A GOOD JOB CLEANING THE SHIP WHILE AT SEA AND IN A WEEK ALL WAS BACK TO NORMAL.

JOHN & JACKIE