More than 120 passengers and crew members on a Princess Cruises ship that docked in San Francisco on Thursday were infected with a stomach virus while on their voyage, federal health officials said.
The Ruby Princess was on a 20-day round trip journey from San Francisco to Canada and Alaska when 102 passengers and 23 crew members were stricken by norovirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Norovirus is highly contagious, often spread by food or on surfaces, particularly in crowded conditions. It is a short-lived illness for many people, but can be dangerous for people with underlying health conditions, young children and those aged 65 and older.
Noro ripped through the vessel I work on a few months back, that was a fucking miserable 72 hours. We’re a client/crew mix of about 86 souls and it took out about 60 of us.
It’s always the Ruby Princess. Always.
So it was a normal cruise. Norovirus and cruiseships, name a more iconic duo.
As these behemoths become larger and larger, the odds of an outbreak of disease goes up and up. As does the negative environmental impact. It’s gotta stop.
Cruises are great… until they aren’t.
No one could pay me enough to go on a cruise. They’re environmentally destructive floating dens of plague.
How about ferries? They’re way better than flying in terms of environmental impact and costs, and some are quite nice.
I once took a ferry from Alaska to Washington. 4 days in open ocean/international waters. There was a full dining hall, museum/library, and movie theatre on board. Plus all the cars underneath! There were cabins, but I just put my sleeping bag on the deck. Some people had little cots and some people tied up hammocks. $300 USD (i didnt have a car), plus I had to pay for food once I was on board. I’ve never been on a cruise, but I would do a long ferry ride again in a heartbeat
Cruiseferries. When ferry operators figured out, hey we can up sell all of these ferry travelers for extra profit.
It was cheaper, more fun, and had more amenities than a flight 🤷♀️ plus there was whale sightings every day and I got to meet a lot of cool people. I’m sure you are right, but it didn’t feel like an upsell. The cabins were upwards of $1k but they fit four people, and most people just slept on the floor like i described above.
If you ignore all the sinkings of ro-ro ferries…
They got life boats, and I can still tread water for hours, I’m not particularly concerned.
Well the safety has gotten better since 80’s and 90’s. sadly exactly due to the sinkings. More compartmentalising, stricter automatic safety measures and alerts. For example actually mandating on bridge “hey captain, your barn is open” alerts and so on. Mostly getting rid of the dangerous upward opening visors, which own buoyancy is constantly pulling it open.
Well there is still the overcrowded small ferries issue. Which is down to old worn out ferries badly maintained and overloaded. nothing one can do about that. One can sink any ship by exceeding carrying capacity and not maintaining the things that should be watertight, watertight.
Ditto
