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Sick at Sea
Aired September 02, 2003 - 14:15 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's back. The virus that wreaked havoc within the cruise industry last year reared its ugly head again.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa joining us from New York with details on such things as gastroenteritis.
These are things they don't teach you in journalism, school, right, Maria?
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, Miles.
But, if you travel around the world, you usually are going to come up with a bout or something like that. It's the Norwalk virus. It's a pretty common flu. But, of course, when you're stuck on a boat with about 1,500 people, the chances of you getting it probably do increase. Now, behind me -- the reason why there are cars behind me is because we're separated from the Hudson by the West Side Highway.
And right behind the West Side Highway is where the cruise docked earlier this morning, about 6:00 a.m. It was met by four ambulances. There were members of the CDC that were here and members of the Coast Guard. Almost immediately, the members of the CDC and the cleaning crews went on board and started cleaning down this ship, where, at any given time, according to the Princess Line cruises, there were 60 people who were sick at the height of the Norwalk virus that hit this Regal Princess on its tour through Europe.
Now, we are hearing a couple of different numbers. The CDC is giving us numbers that are just about six more than what we're hearing from Princess Line. But, in general, about 300 passengers and about 45 crew members got sick. But when they docked this morning, according to the Princess Cruise Lines, there were only two people who were sick. That, they say, is because they helped get people staying to their rooms, kept them, not in quarantine, but telling them to stay in their rooms, a lot of hand-washing going on.
And depending on who you talked to, this is how they felt about their cruise that was cut one day short.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hundred people got sick. The dining room was half -- at times, it was half empty. My wife got sick. I got sick. I still have an upper respiratory. She has the same thing. It's just...
QUESTION: What kind of symptoms did you have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I tell you something. The crew were fabulous, fabulous. So don't say anything wrong with the crew. They really did a great, great job.
QUESTION: When you got sick, what happened?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went to doctor right away.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stomach. Both ends. Headache. It was just a 24-hour stomach virus. And it came on, I understand, in Copenhagen.
QUESTION: How many days were you sick?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was sick for three days. My wife was sick. We were quarantined for a couple of days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't that bad. Everything was OK and taken care of. We had a good time.
QUESTION: Did you get sick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. Only a few people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We didn't get sick. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, there were some people that we spoke to who did not have a good time whatsoever. They said this was the most horrible cruise that they have ever been on, that they will never go back on any cruises.
What the Princess Line is going to do is, they'll be giving people a one-day credit, because they did cut the trip short by one day to dock here to get the boat cleaned. And that's because this same ship takes off on Thursday for a 10-day cruise up through Canada -- Miles and Kyra.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, that whole notion of both ends, I guess, in this case, it would be bow and stern. But the notion right now of how the cruise liner can get ready in time for that kind of boggles the mind. I presume, at this juncture, given what happened last year, they know a lot about cleaning these ships very quickly.
HINOJOSA: Well, we've also heard from some reports that they may be taking out all of the mattresses and removing some of the carpeting. But we haven't seen any of that happening now.
But, again, they are set to dock on Thursday, so they have got a lot of work to do between now and then.
O'BRIEN: I should say.
All right, Maria Hinojosa, along the West Side Highway, thank you very much.
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 - 14:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's back. The virus that wreaked havoc within the cruise industry last year reared its ugly head again.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa joining us from New York with details on such things as gastroenteritis.
These are things they don't teach you in journalism, school, right, Maria?
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, Miles.
But, if you travel around the world, you usually are going to come up with a bout or something like that. It's the Norwalk virus. It's a pretty common flu. But, of course, when you're stuck on a boat with about 1,500 people, the chances of you getting it probably do increase. Now, behind me -- the reason why there are cars behind me is because we're separated from the Hudson by the West Side Highway.
And right behind the West Side Highway is where the cruise docked earlier this morning, about 6:00 a.m. It was met by four ambulances. There were members of the CDC that were here and members of the Coast Guard. Almost immediately, the members of the CDC and the cleaning crews went on board and started cleaning down this ship, where, at any given time, according to the Princess Line cruises, there were 60 people who were sick at the height of the Norwalk virus that hit this Regal Princess on its tour through Europe.
Now, we are hearing a couple of different numbers. The CDC is giving us numbers that are just about six more than what we're hearing from Princess Line. But, in general, about 300 passengers and about 45 crew members got sick. But when they docked this morning, according to the Princess Cruise Lines, there were only two people who were sick. That, they say, is because they helped get people staying to their rooms, kept them, not in quarantine, but telling them to stay in their rooms, a lot of hand-washing going on.
And depending on who you talked to, this is how they felt about their cruise that was cut one day short.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hundred people got sick. The dining room was half -- at times, it was half empty. My wife got sick. I got sick. I still have an upper respiratory. She has the same thing. It's just...
QUESTION: What kind of symptoms did you have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I tell you something. The crew were fabulous, fabulous. So don't say anything wrong with the crew. They really did a great, great job.
QUESTION: When you got sick, what happened?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went to doctor right away.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stomach. Both ends. Headache. It was just a 24-hour stomach virus. And it came on, I understand, in Copenhagen.
QUESTION: How many days were you sick?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was sick for three days. My wife was sick. We were quarantined for a couple of days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't that bad. Everything was OK and taken care of. We had a good time.
QUESTION: Did you get sick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. Only a few people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We didn't get sick. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, there were some people that we spoke to who did not have a good time whatsoever. They said this was the most horrible cruise that they have ever been on, that they will never go back on any cruises.
What the Princess Line is going to do is, they'll be giving people a one-day credit, because they did cut the trip short by one day to dock here to get the boat cleaned. And that's because this same ship takes off on Thursday for a 10-day cruise up through Canada -- Miles and Kyra.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, that whole notion of both ends, I guess, in this case, it would be bow and stern. But the notion right now of how the cruise liner can get ready in time for that kind of boggles the mind. I presume, at this juncture, given what happened last year, they know a lot about cleaning these ships very quickly.
HINOJOSA: Well, we've also heard from some reports that they may be taking out all of the mattresses and removing some of the carpeting. But we haven't seen any of that happening now.
But, again, they are set to dock on Thursday, so they have got a lot of work to do between now and then.
O'BRIEN: I should say.
All right, Maria Hinojosa, along the West Side Highway, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
