Washing Hands Prevents Illness

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October 15, Global Handwashing Day

The 2020 Global Handwashing Day theme is “Hand Hygiene for All.”  

Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an easy, effective, and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

Source:  Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing
 

Cruise Ships & Norovirus

In past years, cruise industry headlines centered around ships delayed due to the need to have a deep clean following an up tick in the gastrointestinal illness, known as Norovirus.  Perhaps news stories like that have prevented you from enjoying a cruise vacation.

Coronavirus Brought Attention to Handwashing 

Symphony of the Seas

This year’s theme follows the recent global initiative calling on all of society to scale up hand hygiene, especially through handwashing with soap. This year’s theme reminds us that we must work toward universal access and practice of handwashing with soap for now and for a healthy future.

Keeping cruise ships clean and sanitary has always been a top priority for Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) members. While this longstanding cruise line practice may sound minor, COVID-19 has reaffirmed the critical importance of hand hygiene to protecting public health. 

Who is to Blame When Norovirus Hits?

The first inclination when you hear about an outbreak would be to blame the cruise line. Clearly, they have let you down - you expected a healthy cruise, and you got sick.   In fact there's a group of passengers that were on sister cruise line's Independence of the Seas that are suing Royal Caribbean International for £500,000 after contracting norovirus while onboard the ship.

The cruise line is responsible - right?

The cruise line IS responsible  for cleaning the ship and providing the facilities for passengers and crew to maintain proper hygiene onboard the ship.   They do that - you'll notice signs posted in all the rest rooms and crew members pointing out sanitation machines and washing stations, such as the one in the picture above posted outside the restaurant entrance.  

Keeping Cruise Ships Clean and Sanitary (Read More)

But, ladies and gentleman - I suspect that YOU are to BLAME.   Did you stop to wash your hands after using the bathroom?   Did you sanitize your hands every time you entered a restaurant onboard the ship.   Did you do so all but one time?   That one time would be enough to kick off this sort of outbreak.

During recent cruises on Disney Dream and Carnival Sensation, we noticed the sanitizing materials and signs.  Sadly, we also noticed many passengers disregarding the signs and avoiding the sanitizing of their hands before entering the restaurant.

Working together, the cruise lines and passengers could Prevent Norovirus and other illness.

USEFUL LINKS ABOUT NOROVIRUS

Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships  -  gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses can be prevented

Wash hands often. Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.  Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer along with hand washing.

Norovirus outbreaks, when they occur on a cruise ship, always make the news.  The truth is these outbreaks can occur anywhere there are groups of people in a small area such as nursing homes, restaurants, catered events, hotels, and cruise ships.

Vessel Sanitation Program - prevention and control of spread of gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses on cruise ships  

 

Click the banner above for the latest cruise promotions

 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

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Dare to Make a Wish Come True

2019 Dare Conference

Giving Back

Wishes make life better for kids with critical illnesses.  This simple, but powerful belief drives Make-A-Wish. 

Granting Wishes

In 2011, the world’s largest cruise agency and award-winning leisure travel company World Travel Holdings forged a partnership identifying Make-A-Wish® as its signature charity. Since then, the travel company has raised more than $100,000 each year, and in 2018 reached a fundraising milestone exceeding $1 million in donations and granting more than 100 wishes to children with critical illnesses.

“My brother Jeff and I believe in the importance of instilling a strong corporate culture of giving back and because of our shared values and the fact that more than 75 percent of wishes involve travel, Make-A-Wish proved to be a natural fit,” said Brad Tolkin, Co-CEO/Chairman of World Travel Holdings. “I am in awe of how our employees have rallied together around one cause and shown support year-after-year.”

Exceeding our Goal

The goal for this year's National Conference for Cruises Inc., CruiseOne, and Dream Vacations, the home-based arm of World Travel Holdings,  was $120,000.   Throughout the conference several events and a silent auction were held to raise funds.  As of this writing the total raised was $136,000.

I'm proud to be a part of this corporate initiative to make wishes come true for children with critical illnesses.   Watch this video to learn more about Make-A-Wish and visit their website.




Symphony of the Seas Playlist (click here)

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Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Wash Your Hands Tis the Season

October 15, Global Handwashing Day

The 2019 Global Handwashing Day theme is “Clean Hands for All”  

Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an easy, effective, and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

Source:  Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing
 

Cruise Ships & Norovirus ...Tis the Season

You've heard the stories in the news about cruise ships delayed due to the need to have a deep clean following an up tick in the gastrointestinal illness, known as Norovirus.  Perhaps news stories like that are preventing you from enjoying a cruise vacation.

Who is to Blame When Norovirus Hits?

The first inclination when you hear about an outbreak would be to blame the cruise line. Clearly, they have let you down - you expected a healthy cruise, and you got sick.   In fact there's a group of passengers that were on sister cruise line's Independence of the Seas that are suing Royal Caribbean International for £500,000 after contracting norovirus while onboard the ship.

The cruise line is responsible - right?

The cruise line IS responsible  for cleaning the ship and providing the facilities for passengers and crew to maintain proper hygiene onboard the ship.   They do that - you'll notice signs posted in all the rest rooms and crew members pointing out sanitation machines, such as the one in the picture above posted outside the restaurant entrance.  

But, ladies and gentleman - I suspect that YOU are to BLAME.   Did you stop to wash your hands after using the bathroom?   Did you sanitize your hands every time you entered a restaurant onboard the ship.   Did you do so all but one time?   That one time would be enough to kick off this sort of outbreak.

During recent cruises on Disney Dream and Carnival Sensation, we noticed the sanitizing materials and signs.  Sadly, we also noticed many passengers disregarding the signs and avoiding the sanitizing of their hands before entering the restaurant.

Working together, the cruise lines and passengers could Prevent Norovirus!

USEFUL LINKS ABOUT NOROVIRUS

Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships  -  gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses can be prevented

Wash hands often. Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.  Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer along with hand washing.

Norovirus outbreaks, when they occur on a cruise ship, always make the news.  The truth is these outbreaks can occur anywhere there are groups of people in a small area such as nursing homes, restaurants, catered events, hotels, and cruise ships.

Vessel Sanitation Program - prevention and control of spread of gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses on cruise ships  

 

National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

Follow Us On

        

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Wash Your Hands Tis the Season

October 15, Global Handwashing Day

The 2016 Global Handwashing Day theme is “Make Handwashing a Habit!”  

Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an easy, effective, and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

Source:  Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing
 

Cruise Ships & Norovirus ...Tis the Season

You've heard the stories in the news about cruise ships delayed due to the need to have a deep clean following an up tick in the gastrointestinal illness, known as Norovirus.  Perhaps news stories like that are preventing you from enjoying a cruise vacation.

Who is to Blame When Norovirus Hits?

The first inclination when you hear about an outbreak would be to blame the cruise line. Clearly, they have let you down - you expected a healthy cruise, and you got sick.   In fact there's a group of passengers that were on sister cruise line's Independence of the Seas that are suing Royal Caribbean International for £500,000 after contracting norovirus while onboard the ship.

The cruise line is responsible - right?

The cruise line IS responsible  for cleaning the ship and providing the facilities for passengers and crew to maintain proper hygiene onboard the ship.   They do that - you'll notice signs posted in all the rest rooms and crew members pointing out sanitation machines, such as the one in the picture above posted outside the restaurant entrance.  

But, ladies and gentleman - I suspect that YOU are to BLAME.   Did you stop to wash your hands after using the bathroom?   Did you sanitize your hands every time you entered a restaurant onboard the ship.   Did you do so all but one time?   That one time would be enough to kick off this sort of outbreak.

During recent cruises on Disney Dream and Carnival Sensation, we noticed the sanitizing materials and signs.  Sadly, we also noticed many passengers disregarding the signs and avoiding the sanitizing of their hands before entering the restaurant.

Working together, the cruise lines and passengers could Prevent Norovirus!

USEFUL LINKS ABOUT NOROVIRUS

Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships  -  gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses can be prevented

Wash hands often. Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.  Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer along with hand washing.

Norovirus outbreaks, when they occur on a cruise ship, always make the news.  The truth is these outbreaks can occur anywhere there are groups of people in a small area such as nursing homes, restaurants, catered events, hotels, and cruise ships.

Vessel Sanitation Program - prevention and control of spread of gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses on cruise ships  

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc for more ideas.  Sign up for our eNewsletter to get updates.

#CruiseSmile #Sweepstakes – A Cruise-A-Day Giveaway (click here)

National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now.

We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.  Click here to see current offers.

Insurance Awareness Day 2015

Insurance Awareness Day exists to remind you that things go wrong, and that generally, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan.  If you are like most people, you have health insurance, life insurance, and house or apartment insurance.  We'll talk about Travel Insurance in this post and suggest why it is a good idea to consider it before traveling.

Expect the Unexpected

I'd like to make a few suggestions to anyone planning a cruise vacation.   Similar considerations go for other (land) vacations as well.   As the title suggests, one should plan for the unexpected in advance so that the situations I describe, should they occur to you, would not ruin your vacation or at the very least you would have assistance before, during, and after the vacation.

Situation 1 - Weather Impacting Departure for Cruise

If you've been watching the news lately, I'm sure you've watched in horror as flood waters washed homes away, houses were destroyed in minutes by tornados, and various other disasters that are going on across the world. We always like to think that this can't happen to us and hopefully that is the case. Unfortunately situations like these do occur and no one is exempt from the possibility.

What does this have to do with cruising you might ask? Well, if that were your home, or if you lived in that neighborhood, odds are that you wouldn't be able to depart on schedule for your cruise. Several possibile situations come to mind from roads being blocked, airports being closed, flights delayed, family members injured during the storms. All of these would most likely prevent you from arriving in the cruise departure city prior to the ship sailing.

Suggestion 1 - Leave Early

I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating: Plan to arrive in the embarkation port the day before your cruise (domestic cruises) and at least the day before your cruise (overseas cruises).

Assuming that you are flying to the embarkation city, you can either book airfare with the cruise line or on your own. In most cases, I suggest that my clients book on their own since they have full flexibility and can often save money (perhaps using frequent flier miles, or finding special pricing). I'm more than happy to assist them either way.

That's not to say that you can't use frequent flier miles or get good prices through the cruise line, but you will have to make arrangements through the cruise line's "custom air" department. In some cases, there may be extra fees to tailor your flights to your schedule. The "non-custom" air arrangements typically arrive the day of the cruise which doesn't provide any room for delays.

We've personally had many occasions where we arrived the day before the cruise, so we didn't have any issues. However, our return trip was delayed as many as 4 hours due to weather. Had that been the day of the cruise, we could have missed the ship (assuming it was on the same day as ship departure).

Suggestion 2 - Purchase Trip Insurance

In the above example, depending on the length of the delay and other factors, had you missed the ship your insurance may have provided assistance in rejoining the cruise or reimbursement for unused portion of the trip.

If your house had been damaged or if a family member had ended up in the hospital, due to the storm as described above, the trip cancellation clause of the insurance policy may have come into play providing some financial relief.

Insurance policies vary, so you need to read the policy and compare them to your needs.

Situation 2 - Injury During Cruise

The following situation DID occur to one of the passengers on one of our cruises and we have been on many other cruises where similar situations occured.

The ship sailed on time, we had dinner and had gone to the welcome aboard show. The captain came on the loud speaker system and made an announcement. The ship was turning around and returning to New York because there was a medical emergency onboard. It was necessary to get closer to New York so that the passenger could be transferred to a hospital onshore.

From what we can gather, the injury wasn't life threatening but it required medical attention that could best be provided in a hospital. The passenger was transferred from the ship to a hospital by the U.S. Coast Guard.

A medical evacuation is a very expensive procedure - often costing tens of thousands of dollars. These costs are typically not covered by your personal health insurance policies and could have a very negative impact if you had to bear the cost yourself.

I'm not trying to scare you out of booking a cruise. In fact, these situations I describe could happen any day and on any vacation. I hope that the cruise specialist, or other travel consultant that you work with, recommends insurance to you and that you seriously consider purchasing a policy. Besides the financial protection, there is the intangible benefit of having someone to turn to in the time of crisis. The majority of the policies available offer a 24 hour assistance line.

Top Ten Reasons to travel with the LeisureCare Travel Protection Plan

1. You have to cancel your trip due to an unexpected event such as bad weather, an illness in the family or the financial default of your airline, cruise line or tour operator.
2. You have to return home early due to an unexpected emergency such as an illness or death in the family.
3. Your luggage is lost or delayed, forcing you to purchase necessary essentials, or prescription medications.
4. Your luggage or personal effects are damaged or stolen.
5. You become ill or injured and learn that your health care plan doesn't cover you outside the U.S.
6. You need an emergency medical evacuation due to an accident or sudden illness.
7. You run into flight delays and miss a portion of your trip or cruise.
8. Your trip is interrupted due to an unexpected hurricane or storm.
9. You lose your passport, leaving you stranded abroad.
10. You need assistance with replacing a prescription or an emergency cash transfer.

Plan for Unexpected - Leave Early, Purchase Travel Insurance, Enjoy Your Cruise

Explorer OTS Undergoes Deap Clean

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas

Current Sailing Cut Short

Norovirus Outbreak

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has terminated the current 10-night voyage of the Explorer of the Seas two days early to allow the ship to undergo a "barrrier" cleaning at its homeport of Cape Liberty.  This follows several previous attempts to clean the ship in hopes of stopping the spreading of Norovirus, a gastrointestinal illness, that start affecting passengers and crew last week.  More than 500 people became ill.

Cruise Ships & Norovirus ...
Tis the Season

Norovirus is a very contagious virus that can infect anyone. You can get it from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed. This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up. 

Despite what the news media may lead you to believe, this isn't just a cruise ship issue.  We encourage you to read this entire article and refer to the links to be well informed.

CDC Featured Podcast

Dr. Aron Hall discusses six tips to help prevent the spread of norovirus. Listen To This Podcast (4:09)

Travel Pulse published a very informative article: 

Attention Media: Norovirus Isn't Just On Cruise Ships

Who is to Blame

The first inclination when you hear about an outbreak would be to blame the cruise line. Clearly, they have let you down - you expected a healthy cruise, and you got sick.  .

The cruise line is responsible - right?

The cruise line IS responsible  for cleaning the ship and providing the facilities for passengers and crew to maintain proper hygiene onboard the ship.   They do that - you'll notice signs posted in all the rest rooms and crew members pointing out sanitation machines, such as the one in the picture above posted outside the restaurant entrance.  

But, ladies and gentleman - I suspect that YOU share some BLAME.   Did you stop to wash your hands after using the bathroom?   Did you sanitize your hands every time you entered a restaurant onboard the ship.   Did you do so all but one time?   That one time would be enough to kick off this sort of outbreak.

On two recent cruises onboard Disney Dream and Carnival Sensation, we noticed the sanitizing materials and signs.  We also noticed many passengers disregarding the signs and avoiding the sanitizing of their hands before entering the restaurant.

Working together, the cruise lines and passengers could Prevent Norovirus!

USEFUL LINKS ABOUT NOROVIRUS

Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships  -  gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses can be prevented

Wash hands often. Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before eating or preparing food.  Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer along with hand washing.

Norovirus outbreaks, when they occur on a cruise ship, always make the news.  The truth is these outbreaks can occur anywhere there are groups of people in a small area such as nursing homes, restaurants, catered events, hotels, and cruise ships.

Vessel Sanitation Program - prevention and control of spread of gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses on cruise ships

Passengers to be Compensated

All Explorer of the Seas passengers will receive a 50 percent refund of their cruise fare, as well as an additional 50 percent future cruise credit. Passengers who were confined to their cabins by the illness also will receive a credit of one future cruise day for each day of confinement.

Royal Caribbean also will reimburse airline change fees and accommodations for passengers whose travel home was impacted by the ship's early return to port.

Ships Still Skipping Grand Turk

Grand Turk Cruise Center

Not Busy These Days

Q: What's missing in this live webcam image?

A: People

This once busy cruise center has been quiet since early March due to an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, commonly known as Norovirus.

Carnival Corporation, in an abundance of caution, discontinued stops in Grand Turk for all their brands through the end of March shortly after the outbreak March 11th.

Additional Port Cancellations 

While investigations are still underway by Carnival Corporation, Grand Turk Cruise Center, and local authorities,  Carnival Corporation changed the itineraries of several more voyages for this week:

• Carnival Breeze April 1 -  replaced with Nassau
• Carnival Victory April 4 - replaced with Freeport
• Carnival Liberty April 4 - extended port time in San Juan to 10 p.m., added sea day 
• Ruby Princess April 5 - replaced with Nassau
• Holland America's Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam visits - sailing to San Juan instead

UPDATE:
Carnival Corp. confirmed that Carnival Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises ships will begin calling on Grand Turk on Monday, April 8.

Read More: 

Health Ministry Reports Decrease in Vomiting and Diarrhoea Cases in Grand Turk
Grand Turk Cruise Center