I just spent a dozen days on a cruise ship that had an outbreak of norovirus. That’s the virus that causes much of the short-term intestinal illnesses around the world in closed communities such as dorms, prisons, hospitals and cruise ships. It is extremely infectious.
Lucky for me, I missed the virus by one cruise. Which means that whatever the passengers left behind on the Norwegian Jade when they disembarked in Barcelona the morning of Feb. 14, 2010, did not infect the 2,000 or so passengers on my trip.
For that I am grateful and impressed
I watched a huge cruise ship mobilize against the virus. And win.
Norwegian Jade is based in Barcelona year round. The ship is alternating winter cruises of 12 days and 9 days in the Mediterranean. When my son, his family and I arrived at the ship Feb. 14, we were met with a letter from the captain, who warned us that norovirus infected more than 40 people on the previous voyage. He offered a credit for a future cruise if we wanted to call the whole thing off.
Following a housecleaning that kept us from our cabins until about 3 p.m. that Sunday, we left Barcelona in the evening with a full ship.
For the next few days, hotel manager Armando Da Silva canceled time off for his crew, who cleaned and guarded every surface on the ship normally touched by passengers.
Crew handled the tongs for every food item in the buffet, pushed the buttons on the coffee and juice machines, wiped disinfectant on elevator buttons, stairway railings, door knobs, the keyboards on public computers. They filled the water glasses and the coffee mugs, scooped out the scrambled eggs, and handed out the cookies, slices of toast and each foil packet of butter.
They sprayed gallons of hand sanitizer, spritzing the hands of passengers at the entrances to nearly every public room, and once again at the exits.
Public bathroom doors were propped open so no one had to touch them to go in or out.
The captain stuck out his elbow
At the captain’s cocktail party for frequent cruisers, Captain Haavard Ramsoey taught us how to touch elbows instead of shaking hands.
“We are not shaking hands on this ship,” he said.
So we elbowed. Quite a sight to watch folks all dressed up, touching elbows.
By Athens, four days later, the Norwegian Jade began to trust us to push buttons for juice and coffee, to pour a glass of milk and to spoon out our own scrambled eggs in the buffet line.
But the hand-sanitizing never did let up, nor did the oversight by the ship’s officers. When we docked in Alexandria, Egypt, for bus tours into Cairo, the ship’s doctor got off the Norwegian Jade and personally inspected the bathrooms on the tour buses.
I had never seen that before.
Twelve days later, we pulled back into Barcelona, without another serious outbreak of norovirus.
We passengers were relatively clean, and thanks to the work aboard the Norwegian Jade, we did not infect each other.
How to protect yourself
Though infections of norovirus seldom are as large as the recent outbreak on Celebrity Mercury on a cruise out of Charleston, S.C., it makes sense to protect yourself on a vacation the same as you would do in any other public place. Think about it this way: If 400-500 passengers are infected and more than 1,000 are not infected, which group would you choose?
When I think of norovirus, I am reminded of the famed comment by comic strip character Pogo, who said: We have met the enemy and he is us.
For vacations, cruise ships are among the cleanest places in the world. Unfortunately, your fellow passengers are not.
These are the rules that I follow in nearly 30 years of traveling around the world:
Wash your hands often and thoroughly and insist that your children (and your older parents) wash as well. Hand washing is an effective method to reduce the spread of norovirus. Frequent hand-sanitizing certainly won’t hurt.
Don’t worry about getting dirty. That could spoil your vacation. But don’t touch your face or eat food without cleaning up. Wash your hands after shaking hands, touching handrailings, elevator buttons, food dispensers or door knobs. That includes the outer door on public bathrooms. After you wash, if the door pulls in, use a towel on the handle. If it pushes out, use your forearm or elbow.
Sorry for the insult
Once, in the dining room of a fine cruise ship, I met a man who was insulted when I declined to shake his hand as we were sitting down to dinner. I had just washed my hands and I was considering a dinner roll.
I told him I would like to shake hands after dinner, as I don’t shake hands when my hands are about to touch food.
“What? You think I am dirty?” he asked.
“Of course not,” I replied. “The problem is, I don’t know.”
