Sickest Cruise Ship

May 22nd, 2010 |

I booked a cruise vacation with Celebrity Cruise Line for what was to be a ten day Caribbean cruise with 5 ports of call. As the date for my cruise approached I could not help but pay attention to the evening news when they flash headlines about a cruise ship with the outbreak of norovirus on its last sailing. That ship is the Celebrity Mercury, the same ship I expect to be on a few short weeks. I dismissed the outbreak because of course, they will clean up and all will be well when my time to board comes. BOY WAS I WRONG! Three cruses in a row prior to my scheduled cruise had hundreds of passengers and crew alike sick with this virus. Since I had already had vacation time off approved at work, I decided to roll the dice and go on that ship anyway.

The Mercury docked early from the cruise prior to my cruise. The C.D.C. took an active role by inspecting the clearing and certifying the thoroughness of the ships disinfecting before lifting the quarantine so Celebrity could board the next group of passengers. While I waited in Charleston for the ship to be cleared I saw daily news programs reporting of the virus outbreak, the number of passengers and crew affected, and the on going clean up. The long and short of it is that instead of leaving port Friday March 19 as scheduled, the ship was not cleared until 4:00 pm Sunday March 21. We could not even start the check in process until that clearance was given by the C D C.

As one would imagine, check in was disorganized and confusing to say the least. There were at least 3 groups of people acting as if they are in charge and none seemed to know what the others were doing; or of what instructions either group was giving. Charleston Police direct me one way only to have the Port Police stop me and direct me another, then the people from Celebrity had something else to say about where to go to get checked in. Do you think that this is frustrating? You bet it was. As if I needed another obstacle to deal with, it was raining. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the car is parked and I board a shuttle from the parking area to the terminal where the ship is docked.