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Live From...
Interview With Max Rosenbach
Aired September 02, 2003 - 13:19 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: The Regal Princess isn't looking quite so grand today. Many of its passengers spent more time in their state rooms than enjoying the ocean views. Days into a European cruise, hundreds of passengers became ill. The cruise was cut short and now back in New York where we find our Maria Hinojosa -- Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, well, this morning, when the Regal Princess docked here right behind me -- that's the Hudson River over there and behind that, of course, you can barely see the ship.
But they came in at 6 a.m., they were met by ambulances, they were met by the Centers for Disease Control, they were met by the Coast Guard, everyone here to meet this boat that had been at sea now for two weeks.
About six days in they started having some of the passengers explaining of a stomach virus. And they tested immediately and found out it was, in fact, the Norwalk virus which is essentially a 24-hour stomach virus. At its peak there were about 60 people who were sick at the same time, at any given time. But a total of 296 passengers became ill, including -- actually, separately, 44 members of the staff.
Now, there were a lot of people who said that this put a real damper on their trip. There were two spots they were not able to stop in, Newfoundland and in Greenland. And they cut the trip short by one day.
Now Max Rosenbach was on the trip. Max, how bad was it? There were some queasy moments there.
MAX ROSENBACH, PASSENGER: Some people were badly affected and were laid up for about two or three days, four days. Most people overcame the virus within 24 hours. But they were quarantined for about 36 hours.
HINOJOSA: What was the sense on the ship? Was there a lot of frustration there? Give us a sense of what it was like.
ROSENBACH: Anger. Disappointment. Frustration. Normal, to be expected.
HINOJOSA: Did you feel at anytime that you were a danger or somehow it wasn't being handled well? A virus being passed from one passenger to another? ROSENBACH: I must compliment the people on the -- who ran the operation. They did whatever they could. People were instructed to wash their hands, sterilize their hands. The staff was excellent. They washed down all the things they had to wash down. I had no complaints.
HINOJOSA: But would you take another cruise?
ROSENBACH: Apart from other factors on the ship, we've been traveling on Princess about a dozen times. So this wouldn't affect our opinion at all.
HINOJOSA: OK, thanks very much. And you stayed healthy the whole time?
ROSENBACH: Most of us were healthy.
HINOJOSA: OK, well thank you so much.
Now what's going to happen now is that they will be taking the ship over and out actually here on Thursday, is when the ship leaves port again for a ten-day cruise to Canada.
Now some of the passengers had complained that they were concerned one of the reasons they had lost a day on their trip was so that the cruise ship could get cleaned up and back out to part. So there was some concern there.
And we do know there was a special cleanup crew that was brought in, and they are washing down, they say, everything. We even heard they're replacing all the mattresses. We haven't gotten that confirmed. Replacing some of the carpeting as well.
So at least Princess Cruise Line is saying they will make this ship into a clean ship when it ports out again Thursday -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Maria Hinojosa, 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 September 2, 2003 - 13:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The Regal Princess isn't looking quite so grand today. Many of its passengers spent more time in their state rooms than enjoying the ocean views. Days into a European cruise, hundreds of passengers became ill. The cruise was cut short and now back in New York where we find our Maria Hinojosa -- Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, well, this morning, when the Regal Princess docked here right behind me -- that's the Hudson River over there and behind that, of course, you can barely see the ship.
But they came in at 6 a.m., they were met by ambulances, they were met by the Centers for Disease Control, they were met by the Coast Guard, everyone here to meet this boat that had been at sea now for two weeks.
About six days in they started having some of the passengers explaining of a stomach virus. And they tested immediately and found out it was, in fact, the Norwalk virus which is essentially a 24-hour stomach virus. At its peak there were about 60 people who were sick at the same time, at any given time. But a total of 296 passengers became ill, including -- actually, separately, 44 members of the staff.
Now, there were a lot of people who said that this put a real damper on their trip. There were two spots they were not able to stop in, Newfoundland and in Greenland. And they cut the trip short by one day.
Now Max Rosenbach was on the trip. Max, how bad was it? There were some queasy moments there.
MAX ROSENBACH, PASSENGER: Some people were badly affected and were laid up for about two or three days, four days. Most people overcame the virus within 24 hours. But they were quarantined for about 36 hours.
HINOJOSA: What was the sense on the ship? Was there a lot of frustration there? Give us a sense of what it was like.
ROSENBACH: Anger. Disappointment. Frustration. Normal, to be expected.
HINOJOSA: Did you feel at anytime that you were a danger or somehow it wasn't being handled well? A virus being passed from one passenger to another? ROSENBACH: I must compliment the people on the -- who ran the operation. They did whatever they could. People were instructed to wash their hands, sterilize their hands. The staff was excellent. They washed down all the things they had to wash down. I had no complaints.
HINOJOSA: But would you take another cruise?
ROSENBACH: Apart from other factors on the ship, we've been traveling on Princess about a dozen times. So this wouldn't affect our opinion at all.
HINOJOSA: OK, thanks very much. And you stayed healthy the whole time?
ROSENBACH: Most of us were healthy.
HINOJOSA: OK, well thank you so much.
Now what's going to happen now is that they will be taking the ship over and out actually here on Thursday, is when the ship leaves port again for a ten-day cruise to Canada.
Now some of the passengers had complained that they were concerned one of the reasons they had lost a day on their trip was so that the cruise ship could get cleaned up and back out to part. So there was some concern there.
And we do know there was a special cleanup crew that was brought in, and they are washing down, they say, everything. We even heard they're replacing all the mattresses. We haven't gotten that confirmed. Replacing some of the carpeting as well.
So at least Princess Cruise Line is saying they will make this ship into a clean ship when it ports out again Thursday -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Maria Hinojosa, 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
