Sick at sea

Sunday, March 12, 2006

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Passengers returned to the Port of Tampa Saturday.

More than 100 Royal Caribbean cruise passengers are back in Tampa this weekend after getting sick at sea on the Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship.

The Winrows waited anxiously for family members on the ship to disembark at the Port of Tampa Saturday morning. Danielle Winrow has already learned her brother is one of the passengers who was hit with the Norovirus, which is a gastrointestinal illness that's highly contagious.

"We're waiting to see when he comes off if we have to take him to the hospital or what I need to do for him," Winrow said.

Royal Caribbean said the ship departed Monday. Passengers started complaining about vomiting and diarrhea on Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control suspects a passenger brought the virus on board and it spread quickly in close quarters.

"It was vomiting, really bad fever, it was not cool at all," passenger Megan Wade said.

By the time the ship docked in Cozumel Thursday, an extra doctor had to be brought on board. More than 100 sick passengers were quarantined and unable to leave the ship.

"We went down to the infirmary and that was a three-hour wait," passenger Rick Renwick said. "They took your blood pressure, your temperature and made you fill out paperwork just to swipe your card so you couldn't get off. They de-magnetized your card."

Royal Caribbean said it implemented a three-stage illness prevention program including notifying passengers about the problem, treating the sick and using special cleaning products in high-touch areas of the ship.

"I think they did what they could to prevent it from getting any worse," passenger Judy Vergosen said.

However, some passengers complain the cruise line isn't doing enough to make up for their rocky trip.

"They gave us a letter explaining we would be compensated at the end of the trip, then they said it wasn't actually compensation, it was that if we bought another cruise we get a discount," passenger Jessica Marshall said.

The Winrows said they're soured on cruising.

"I guess we won't be doing a cruise ever again," Winrow said.

Royal caribbean and the CDC said they will work together to make sure the ship is completely disinfected before any new passengers get on board.

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