Solstice a Sick Ship

[2020]

We sailed on the Celebrity Solstice from 1/30 – 2/6, there were a significant number of cases of the virus. Several people throwing up right in the common areas, even in the dining room. I know this happens on all ships but I thought that the Solstice management people were entirely unprepared to deal with it.

From the beginning when boarding people were forced to wait in a line that stretched around the building and across a main street in the hot sun for hours. No food, water or shelter from the sun was provided until very near the end – this could have been tragic for elderly folks if it were hotter.

Once on board they went into their sanitation mode, removing salt pepper, butter, rolls etc from the table. In the Café they removed all the trays and served everything to everyone individually. These should have been good things but the crew was totally understaffed, overworked and untrained. Ask for salt and wait 10 minutes, want more water – forget about it until after dinner. In the Café with no trays, try balancing a dinner plate and a salad plate while waiting 20th in line for a drink, trying to find your spouse, and then looking for a non existent clean table.

Guests got angry and the crew got surly, many standing around not knowing or caring what to do next. It is incomprehensible to me that there was not a viable contingency plan in place for this sort of thing which is a well known potential for any ship.

Bad planning, bad execution, bad ship, bad management, bad cruise line

 

[BSeabob]

Let me start with this. It is not something that you want to happen on a cruise and that's deal with Norwalk or whatever it was. It takes away relaxation time and fun for sure.

Even I knew that the Boarding of this ship would be late about a week before the sailing and I sure wasn't sailing on her... I would blame the TA or who you booked with for not advising you. If you booked with the cruise line I agree ..not good. Options were given to all those booked in the days before this cruise and included info on the delays.

I have sailed on a Noro cruise with Celebrity and all those things like no salt/things on the table, etc. that are usually shared being removed are normal precautions on all cruise lines. If you make staff do all those extra things for you then to maintain the actual service you need more staff. They are not able to come up with more staff so yes service will go down. We supplied ourselves with the wee packets of salt etc and took them to dinner with us.

Persons being ill in the dining room is not a great situation. Why were they there if they were ill.?

Not to make light of your concerns but Cruise Lines (in this case Celebrity) have little control over passengers and how they react to such situations.

Lots of people that I know were not happy with the buffet set up without trays on the Solstice...I guess you are just another. But for your info there are never any trays on a S class ship. I personally like their new set up and had no difficulties at all getting my share of food to a table. Except for boarding day when I found the buffet too crowded period. M class ships retain their trays. (so far)

Most important you left out whether or not you were able to cruise without getting ill. Did that system work for you ? Were you able to get through the cruise without illness?

It's clear you came to share your thoughts and they are all negative in your two first posts. Please come back and participate in our forums on this and other matters in the future. I am hopeful that should you cruise again things go better and you. Come back and inform us of what happens.

 

[sherrylynn]

My husband and I where on the Solstice at the same time. I could not have said it better than you did! It was such a bad experince and people really need to know not to waste their money or time. We spoke to several people on the ship and most of the people stated they could not wait to get off the ship. I really feel bad for the people that where getting on the ship when we got off. Happy sailing next time!:doubledown:

 

[2020]

To Sea Bob, Thank you for responding to my posts and for the information you provided - though it was a bit on the condescending side. While not an avid cruiser, I have been on a few and I know what to expect and what we experienced was far from anything acceptable even under these circumstances. People throwing up in public places seems to be due to the sudden onset of symptoms - as the lady in a dress evening gown rushing into the public restroom while pulling back her hair would likely attest.
The servers should have the packets of salt and other requirements in their aprons or close by instead of having to run into the kitchen to get them and then forgetting to come back - its called planning! And the is no excuse for the abuse of standing in line in the hot sun for hours - tents and temporary shelters should have been available because every ship and cruise has the potential for sickness - its called planning.
I have run into contributors on other forums who were really spokespersons for the cruise line, I hope you are not one of them, but your pat answers make me suspect. I see from another reply that at least one person agrees with me. My wife did get sick.

 

[Judi]

2020, I see you only have four posts, so I'd first like to welcome you to Cruise @ddicts. Pull up a deck chair, order a cocktail and join in the conversations. And Sherrylynn, the same goes for you! :cheer:

I think those of us who have been fortunate enough to cruise often tend to protect our favorite lines from being taken to task on message boards. That's just a natural reaction.

I am not even close to a spokesperson for Celebrity...we cruised them two times and found them to be a middle-of-the-road cruise line. In fact, after our first cruise on Celebrity, we embarked on a Carnival ship the following month. We found the latter to be head and shoulders above Celebrity in all aspects, with the possible exception of not having 42 pieces of silverware and 16 glasses in front of us!

That being said, I find it inconceivable that anyone over the age of 10 doesn't know ahead of time they're going to be physically ill. Any virus I've ever had has always given me enough advance pangs to keep me close by the porcelain god.

When we went on another line on our last cruise in April/May, we discovered they took extraordinary precautions for the first two or three days, then went back to their normal, somewhat cautious practices with regard to trays, food handling, etc. Their logic is if someone gets on the ship sick, he/she will be over it by the third day.

I can't say whether or not it worked. All I can say is no one in our group got ill and we had a fantastic cruise.

Once again, welcome aboard, and hope you join in the lively conversations around here.

 

[BSeabob]

To make things clearer X is indeed my favorite cruise line and as a long time cruiser with them I do indeed know that they screw up and sometimes planning is one of those things.

Just wanted to put a few things in perspective that's all that my post was trying to do and I think I did that.

 

[bob]

Well from comments about the previous cruise, 1/23-1/30it looks like the Solstice came off of a cruise that had NV onboard. No cruise line in their right mind, including Celebrity, would have failed to notify all passengers and advise all passengers to take extra and utmost precautions, some passengers just fail to heed or even ignore those advisories, throw in a mix of those that get just plain seasick and you have a sick ship....... ship happens

 

[ShipMaven]

I wasn't on the ship in question and, yes, even the top cruise lines can mess things up at times. So I'm not speaking with any authority.

However, as an experienced cruiser (as are many on Cruise @ddicts), I always find it rather interesting that a person's first - and oftentimes ONLY post - on a cruise board is to complain strongly about their cruise and the cruise line.

Simply an observation... Perhaps warranted, perhaps not.

 

[Jeanie]

Good point Maryann

 

[2020]

I wasn't on the ship in question and, yes, even the top cruise lines can mess things up at times. So I'm not speaking with any authority.

However, as an experienced cruiser (as are many on Cruise @ddicts), I always find it rather interesting that a person's first - and oftentimes ONLY post - on a cruise board is to complain strongly about their cruise and the cruise line.

Simply an observation... Perhaps warranted, perhaps not.

Hello ShipMaven, Since I do not take cruises very often (although over several years I have been on a few) I don't have the much reason to comment in these forums. I see that the avid cruisers are pretty protective of the industry and I apologize if I have offended anyone. However, it is my belief that if a problem is not made well known it will never be addressed or corrected.

 

[bob]

Hello ShipMaven, Since I do not take cruises very often (although over several years I have been on a few) I don't have the much reason to comment in these forums. I see that the avid cruisers are pretty protective of the industry and I apologize if I have offended anyone. However, it is my belief that if a problem is not made well known it will never be addressed or corrected.

Yes to a degree some people are somewhat protective of their favorite cruise line, it is just human nature, but.
Your statement that "if a problem is not made well known it will never be addressed or corrected" might be a little misguided in the fact that to the cruise lines, ALL cruise lines, including Celebrity, they are aware of it, this is an issue that has affected cruise ships for several years, norovirus is an equivalent of the Bubonic plague of times past and in defense of all of those cruise lines, the do take it serious, both in customer concerns and let's face it the effect on the bottom line.
Biggest problem they have is the passengers themselves they come onboard sick every day, the cruise lines have to deal with that but it is an unknown. Thankfully it really doesn't happen that often but that is of little consolation when it happens on a ship that you are on.
When you board you sign a statement that you have no symptoms of any kind, you probably answered that questionnaire honestly and signed away, BUT how many didn't answer it honestly, that is the unknown that all cruise lines have to deal with, if you don't have sweat running off of you and your not doubled over with cramps or have diarrhea running down your leg, they kindof have to take you at your word, trouble is a $2000 investment that somebody doesn't want to loose because of a last minute illness can be a driving force in going on a cruise when they should be home in bed. Trouble is that driving force affects everybody they come in contact with and lets face it, a cruise ship is a contained environment so things can spread fast. But no cruise line just betting on the come, is going to have barf bags laying around all over the ship, really what kind of an impression does that leave, they all have reaction teams that will descend on an area or a cabin for a total disinfection if there is a virus issue, there are sanitizers all over the ships, there are warning signs in the bathrooms about washing procedures, there are notices left by the stewards in the cabins, (if anybody bothers to read them) there are times when you are not allowed to touch the serving utensils on the buffet line, the list can go on and on, but if you are looking for people walking around the ship in hazmat gear and a waiter handing out barf bags with dessert, not going to happen, 95% of virus containment is handled behind the scenes, they are trying to work on containment while still allowing those that are not sick to enjoy what they can of their vacation. I have been on a cruise where the smell of chlorine was so bad and the hand rails on the stairwells where white from residue that you used the elevator whether you wanted to or not, and no it wasn't Celebrity, we boarded 3 hours late because of the extra time to disinfect, it just happens
The cruise lines, ALL cruise lines, take this very seriously, and it is all fed through the CDC who are actually the ones that determine the response levels depending on the percentage of ill passengers and crew.

Bottom line is, yes it was unfortunate that you happened to be on one of the 5 or so percent of the cruises that are affected by norovirus, ya the cruise lines, including Celebrity, are so in tune to this that the actual percentages are really low but none the less it was your cruise, it was your vacation and you got stuck with the short percentage.
But you know, when it happens, if those affected would notify the medical center, stay in their cabin, follow the guidelines for a noro outbreak, it would prevent a lot of overall sickness, and the ship would be able to deal with it far more effectively. But let's cut to the chase here, what are the chances of that happening. Absolutely none, and that is NOT the ships fault, they only have to clean up the mess.
It is pretty much an excepted condition that NO ship creates a norovirus, it is brought onboard by a passenger, or in very small cases an crew member that acquired it while on shore, but the crew are smart enough to notify medical and hunker down in their cabin for a couple of days, that is not always so for the passengers.

 

[2020]

Yes to a degree some people are somewhat protective of their favorite cruise line, it is just human nature, but.
Your statement that "if a problem is not made well known it will never be addressed or corrected" might be a little misguided in the fact that to the cruise lines, ALL cruise lines, including Celebrity, they are aware of it, this is an issue that has affected cruise ships for several years, norovirus is an equivalent of the Bubonic plague of times past and in defense of all of those cruise lines, the do take it serious, both in customer concerns and let's face it the effect on the bottom line.
Biggest problem they have is the passengers themselves they come onboard sick every day, the cruise lines have to deal with that but it is an unknown. Thankfully it really doesn't happen that often but that is of little consolation when it happens on a ship that you are on.
When you board you sign a statement that you have no symptoms of any kind, you probably answered that questionnaire honestly and signed away, BUT how many didn't answer it honestly, that is the unknown that all cruise lines have to deal with, if you don't have sweat running off of you and your not doubled over with cramps or have diarrhea running down your leg, they kindof have to take you at your word, trouble is a $2000 investment that somebody doesn't want to loose because of a last minute illness can be a driving force in going on a cruise when they should be home in bed. Trouble is that driving force affects everybody they come in contact with and lets face it, a cruise ship is a contained environment so things can spread fast. But no cruise line just betting on the come, is going to have barf bags laying around all over the ship, really what kind of an impression does that leave, they all have reaction teams that will descend on an area or a cabin for a total disinfection if there is a virus issue, there are sanitizers all over the ships, there are warning signs in the bathrooms about washing procedures, there are notices left by the stewards in the cabins, (if anybody bothers to read them) there are times when you are not allowed to touch the serving utensils on the buffet line, the list can go on and on, but if you are looking for people walking around the ship in hazmat gear and a waiter handing out barf bags with dessert, not going to happen, 95% of virus containment is handled behind the scenes, they are trying to work on containment while still allowing those that are not sick to enjoy what they can of their vacation. I have been on a cruise where the smell of chlorine was so bad and the hand rails on the stairwells where white from residue that you used the elevator whether you wanted to or not, and no it wasn't Celebrity, we boarded 3 hours late because of the extra time to disinfect, it just happens
The cruise lines, ALL cruise lines, take this very seriously, and it is all fed through the CDC who are actually the ones that determine the response levels depending on the percentage of ill passengers and crew.

Bottom line is, yes it was unfortunate that you happened to be on one of the 5 or so percent of the cruises that are affected by norovirus, ya the cruise lines, including Celebrity, are so in tune to this that the actual percentages are really low but none the less it was your cruise, it was your vacation and you got stuck with the short percentage.
But you know, when it happens, if those affected would notify the medical center, stay in their cabin, follow the guidelines for a noro outbreak, it would prevent a lot of overall sickness, and the ship would be able to deal with it far more effectively. But let's cut to the chase here, what are the chances of that happening. Absolutely none, and that is NOT the ships fault, they only have to clean up the mess.
It is pretty much an excepted condition that NO ship creates a norovirus, it is brought onboard by a passenger, or in very small cases an crew member that acquired it while on shore, but the crew are smart enough to notify medical and hunker down in their cabin for a couple of days, that is not always so for the passengers.

Hello Bob,
You may be correct that my premise may be somewhat misguided, but I think you misunderstand my basic complaint. It is not that the virus occurred, but that the ship's management of it was quite inadequate. Considering that this is a known potential for any ship, and the virus appeared on previous cruises of this ship they should have had an emergency contingency plan in place. What excuse is there for not having some protective shelter, or even water for people waiting in the hot sun? The same lack of planning led to the crew being overworked and overwhelmed.

 

[bob]

What excuse is there for not having some protective shelter, or even water for people waiting in the hot sun?

Whoe............. whole different issue here, this sounds like a problem with embarkation, not issues on the ship. Entry ports are designed for a given amount of flow, when that flow is interrupted, as in a boarding delay, there are bound to be some issues, envision, back ups, the cruise line will advise the Port Authority but if the Port Authority is not equipped to respond, well........... guess what,
ship happens, but it is not always the total fault of the cruise line, anything that happens off the ship will depend on the Port Authority, and their ability to respond as well as a cruise line.

As far as onboard the ship, realize that just as passengers, crew are also affected by the situation, so it is possible that the crew is cut by a percentage due to several being confined to cabin with noro as well till they become functional and as well safe for interaction with the passengers. This becomes a matter of one crew member having to do the job of three till their shipmates get back in business.

 

[2020]

Hello Bob,
Again my complaint is not with the sickness itself but with the ship's reaction to it. The problem with the embarkation was a direct result of the virus requiring a prolonged cleaning of the ship. That was a good thing, the bad thing was that Celebrity was totally unprepared to deal with it and left elderly people out in the hot sun etc. So it is not a different problem, it is the same - a total lack of a reasonable plan to deal with a known situation.

 

[2020]

Hello Again Bob,
Sorry I didn't see your whole message before my prior response. While I understand that the port authority runs the port facility, the cruise line should have plans to assist its customers under these conditions. At a minimum they should provide water and some food for those who need it. A reasonable plan would include portable pop up shelters that are stored offsite if necessary but can be obtained when needed, even if it is only on a rare occasion. I suspect that the first time someone expires in line due to heat exhaustion or exertion and files a lawsuit such precautions will be in affect the next week. So if the cruise line doesn't care for its customers comfort, they should do so in their own self interest. Yes, ship happens - but buckets of ship shouldn't. Again bad planing, bad management, bad ship, bad cruise line. No offense intended, just my opinion.

 

[bob]

One last injection here before I start beating a dead horse, then the rest of you can discuss it till the horse dies.

Port personel are not always cruise line employees, in many cases they are contractors and in just as many cases they are contracted by the Port Authority as well as the cruise line, yes the cruise line may set procedures but and a big BUT things don't always go right and by the time the cruise line finds out it can be a moot issue, it is too late. As far as old people sitting out in the sun in wheel chairs, ummmmm there are inside terminal areas, and areas set aside for handicap, I would put the blame on that failure right on the Port personnel not Celebrity. No cruise line has any control or authority over the port, the just rent space so to speak they are also required to use port personnel for some functions, all part of contracts and agreements, blame the ports for than not the cruise lines.
I realize and understand your frustration but your focusing the blame, and you really need to look a little farther than you are looking. And no :LOL: before you think, Celebrity IS NOT my favorite cruise line, but I have cruised on them and I feel they are right in the game as far as customer concern.

 

[2020]

Hello Bob,

Well, thanks for taking the time to express your opinion - I guess we will have to agree to disagree. If this is the best the cruise industry in general can do they may have trouble filling up those big boats in the future. The horse is dead - thanks again - 2020

 

[bob]

One last thought here...... wheeee

One cruise, one ship, one port, one instance...........

Tag your it.

Not all cruises, conditions, instances are the same. You may well have gotten caught up in a bad one. Bummer

Believe me, I'm in the position that you can not offend me, so don't worry, and I appreciate your opinion as much as I hope you appreciate and accept mine, as an opinion, nothing more nothing less, that's what forums are about, opinions. When I get into a discussion like this I set aside my position within the forum, I am simply expressing my opinion based on 20 some years of cruising so that's probably why it is so easy to say "ship happens" because I have seen most of it at one time or another, just as most of the other regular members of the forum.
So my bottom line would be........... don't give up on cruising, if your uncomfortable with Celebrity, there are 15 other cruise lines out there to choose from, one of them is going to fit your niche.

 

[bob]

I always agree to disagree, I just don't argue

go forth and cruise, you can only prosper.............
or something like that

You killed the horse.........??