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CNN Live Today
Cruise Authority President Discusses Illness at Sea
Aired November 22, 2002 - 14:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More people are cruising into sickness. Some 100 passengers now aboard a Disney cruise ship have come down with a contagious stomach virus. This comes shortly after hundreds of people came down with a similar illness on a Holland America cruise.
So, what can passengers do if this happens to them? Let's ask our guest. Howard Moses is president of The Cruise Authority, a national travel agency.
Hi, Howard.
HOWARD MOSES, PRES., THE CRUISE AUTHORITY: Hi. How are you?
PHILLIPS: Well, I'm all right. I'm glad I'm not on a cruise. I don't feel like getting sick right now.
But let me ask you, is this unusual, mass sickness like this at sea?
MOSES: It is a fairly rare occurrence. It does pop up from time to time, but for the most part, it's not something you see on a very regular basis.
PHILLIPS: Oh, well, that's good news. Now, on this Disney cruise, I'm told that the sick people are being quarantined. Does that mean that everybody on the ship has to be quarantined? How does that work?
MOSES: No. My understanding is that it is just those individuals who are directly affected. The other people are going about their cruise and enjoying themselves. And our understanding is that everybody else is having a very enjoyable time.
PHILLIPS: Well, has Holland America done?
MOSES: Well, the cruise is coming into port, and they have canceled the next sailing of the Amsterdam in order to give the cycle a chance to break of itself, for them to have the chance to clean up the ship, and give it a little bit of time. They've gone -- this is an extraordinary measure for a cruise line to do this, and we very much in the industry applaud them for taking these steps. And their plan is to continue with the following cruise, and that ship will be probably the cleanest ship sailing the ocean.
PHILLIPS: Well, what are our rights when something like this happens? I mean, can we definitely get our money back if, indeed, we get sick, or maybe not even get sick, but we just want to end the cruise or were upset by what happened, the disturbance? I mean, can we buy insurance? Does it just happen automatically? How does it work?
MOSES: Well, there is no insurance per se. I mean, there is medical insurance that will cover you for bills associated with this. I'd be, quite honestly, very surprised if the cruise lines charged any fees for this sort of medical service.
In terms of getting money back, I think the cruise lines traditionally over the years have always done the right thing by their passengers, and they are taking the steps to ensure that there's a good action on their part and to make sure that everybody's happy and treating it like that.
PHILLIPS: OK, Howard, we've got two statements. First this one from Holland America. I'm taking a bit of this: "We took extraordinary measures to ensure the comfort of our guests. Although those efforts reduced the number of new cases dramatically, we decided to cancel the Amsterdam's November 21 sailing to break the person-to- person cycle."
Now let's talk about this. They're saying 450 people out of 56,000 guests have gotten sick. Is this a person-to-person cycle? Is this being downplayed at all?
MOSES: My understanding is that that is, indeed, the case. This is a very, very common virus that many of us probably have gotten through our contacts at work, in your office, perhaps sitting next to someone on an airplane where you're actually in much closer proximity than you would be on a cruise ship, or even in the mall. So, it is a very common occurrence.
The fact that people are on a cruise ship for a week, I think, gives the virus a chance to incubate, and it becomes more obvious than in our regular lives.
PHILLIPS: All right, this was a letter to the passengers on the Disney Magic Cruise. It said, "The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that people planning cruise ship travel, especially anyone older than 65 years of age and anyone with acute or chronic illnesses, should consult with a health care provider prior to travel for advice and possible prevention medication."
I guess you think when you go on a cruise, you don't want to have to worry about that. You would think it's clean and it's up-to-date with its health inspections. Are they sort of covering themselves here?
MOSES: Not at all. The cruise lines very much answer to the CDC, and there are regular inspections, both for the food, the water, and the general environment of the ship. And what we find is that the ships are actually much cleaner environments than in a lot of the more commonplaces that all of us go to on a day-to-day basis.
So, the comment that cruise lines are going through extraordinary measures to make sure that this doesn't continue I think says a lot about the industry and their concern about passenger safety and well- being.
PHILLIPS: Real quickly, Howard, I know the CDC has a vessel sanitation program. You can go on online, find out when the health inspections were done, the conditions of these ships. How often are those inspections done? Are they are done faithfully?
MOSES: They are done faithfully. The CDC, obviously, is a fantastic organization. The cruise lines work hand-in-hand with them, and in a lot of cases, the CDC has really commended the cruise lines for how they've handle these sorts of activities and what's been going on.
So, there are regular inspections to my understanding, and there is a Web site that you can go to and check into the actual inspections and how each ship ranked.
And I should add that both Holland America and Disney are some of the highest-ranked ships in terms of the CDC ratings that they receive.
PHILLIPS: Howard Moses with The Cruise Authority -- thank you so much for your time.
MOSES: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 22, 2002 - 14:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More people are cruising into sickness. Some 100 passengers now aboard a Disney cruise ship have come down with a contagious stomach virus. This comes shortly after hundreds of people came down with a similar illness on a Holland America cruise.
So, what can passengers do if this happens to them? Let's ask our guest. Howard Moses is president of The Cruise Authority, a national travel agency.
Hi, Howard.
HOWARD MOSES, PRES., THE CRUISE AUTHORITY: Hi. How are you?
PHILLIPS: Well, I'm all right. I'm glad I'm not on a cruise. I don't feel like getting sick right now.
But let me ask you, is this unusual, mass sickness like this at sea?
MOSES: It is a fairly rare occurrence. It does pop up from time to time, but for the most part, it's not something you see on a very regular basis.
PHILLIPS: Oh, well, that's good news. Now, on this Disney cruise, I'm told that the sick people are being quarantined. Does that mean that everybody on the ship has to be quarantined? How does that work?
MOSES: No. My understanding is that it is just those individuals who are directly affected. The other people are going about their cruise and enjoying themselves. And our understanding is that everybody else is having a very enjoyable time.
PHILLIPS: Well, has Holland America done?
MOSES: Well, the cruise is coming into port, and they have canceled the next sailing of the Amsterdam in order to give the cycle a chance to break of itself, for them to have the chance to clean up the ship, and give it a little bit of time. They've gone -- this is an extraordinary measure for a cruise line to do this, and we very much in the industry applaud them for taking these steps. And their plan is to continue with the following cruise, and that ship will be probably the cleanest ship sailing the ocean.
PHILLIPS: Well, what are our rights when something like this happens? I mean, can we definitely get our money back if, indeed, we get sick, or maybe not even get sick, but we just want to end the cruise or were upset by what happened, the disturbance? I mean, can we buy insurance? Does it just happen automatically? How does it work?
MOSES: Well, there is no insurance per se. I mean, there is medical insurance that will cover you for bills associated with this. I'd be, quite honestly, very surprised if the cruise lines charged any fees for this sort of medical service.
In terms of getting money back, I think the cruise lines traditionally over the years have always done the right thing by their passengers, and they are taking the steps to ensure that there's a good action on their part and to make sure that everybody's happy and treating it like that.
PHILLIPS: OK, Howard, we've got two statements. First this one from Holland America. I'm taking a bit of this: "We took extraordinary measures to ensure the comfort of our guests. Although those efforts reduced the number of new cases dramatically, we decided to cancel the Amsterdam's November 21 sailing to break the person-to- person cycle."
Now let's talk about this. They're saying 450 people out of 56,000 guests have gotten sick. Is this a person-to-person cycle? Is this being downplayed at all?
MOSES: My understanding is that that is, indeed, the case. This is a very, very common virus that many of us probably have gotten through our contacts at work, in your office, perhaps sitting next to someone on an airplane where you're actually in much closer proximity than you would be on a cruise ship, or even in the mall. So, it is a very common occurrence.
The fact that people are on a cruise ship for a week, I think, gives the virus a chance to incubate, and it becomes more obvious than in our regular lives.
PHILLIPS: All right, this was a letter to the passengers on the Disney Magic Cruise. It said, "The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that people planning cruise ship travel, especially anyone older than 65 years of age and anyone with acute or chronic illnesses, should consult with a health care provider prior to travel for advice and possible prevention medication."
I guess you think when you go on a cruise, you don't want to have to worry about that. You would think it's clean and it's up-to-date with its health inspections. Are they sort of covering themselves here?
MOSES: Not at all. The cruise lines very much answer to the CDC, and there are regular inspections, both for the food, the water, and the general environment of the ship. And what we find is that the ships are actually much cleaner environments than in a lot of the more commonplaces that all of us go to on a day-to-day basis.
So, the comment that cruise lines are going through extraordinary measures to make sure that this doesn't continue I think says a lot about the industry and their concern about passenger safety and well- being.
PHILLIPS: Real quickly, Howard, I know the CDC has a vessel sanitation program. You can go on online, find out when the health inspections were done, the conditions of these ships. How often are those inspections done? Are they are done faithfully?
MOSES: They are done faithfully. The CDC, obviously, is a fantastic organization. The cruise lines work hand-in-hand with them, and in a lot of cases, the CDC has really commended the cruise lines for how they've handle these sorts of activities and what's been going on.
So, there are regular inspections to my understanding, and there is a Web site that you can go to and check into the actual inspections and how each ship ranked.
And I should add that both Holland America and Disney are some of the highest-ranked ships in terms of the CDC ratings that they receive.
PHILLIPS: Howard Moses with The Cruise Authority -- thank you so much for your time.
MOSES: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
