Virus-Shortened Cruise Started Late Due to Snow, Ended Early by Illness

WILDWOOD – “It was a nightmare from the beginning,” said Anne Vinci, former Wildwood Historical Society president and passenger aboard the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas cruise ship that was hit with a virus outbreak that sickened almost 700 guests and employees. Vinci was joined on the cruise by her daughter and son-in-law, Joanne and Joe DeRuvo.
“Driving to Bayonne, the parkway was treacherous and when we arrived at the ship, snow and sleet were coming down. We were supposed to leave port at 4 p.m. but the weather delayed us until 5:30,” she said.
The ship left Cape Liberty in Bayonne Jan. 21 and returned Jan. 29, two days earlier than planned, due to the virus. The ship was scheduled to stop in Labadee, Haiti, San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.
A day or two into the cruise, reports began surfacing of guests suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. The captain decided to skip Labadee and continue sailing to San Juan, with the idea that extra sailing time would help to contain the virus, sanitize the ship and get people well, said Vinci.
She said the numbers of those who became ill were just the cases reported. It doesn’t include people, like her daughter, who was down for two days with the virus.
“My daughter is young and had brought medicine so she was fine, however, I feel bad for the older people. I talked to an older woman in a wheelchair on the way to dinner one night. She was recovering from the illness and when I asked how she was feeling she said, ‘I just want to be in my home.’ It made me so sad.”
“They were constantly wiping down everything,” said Vinci. The sides of chairs were often still wet when entering public areas because they had just been cleaned. Employees stood at the doors of dining areas and squirted those entering with a dab of hand sanitizer before and after meals.
“In the dining room, salt, pepper and sugar packets had been removed from the tables as a way to stop the outbreak. Employees came by and asked what you would like and handed these packets to you with tongs, touching nothing,” she continued.
Vinci said food was brought to diners or was dished out by an employee at the buffets. “There were so many ill crew members they had to cover for one another. Entertainers were dishing out food and the cruise director was handing out utensils. Royal Caribbean and its employees really bent over backwards in their attempt to contain the virus,” she said.
After stopping in St. Thomas, the captain announced that the Center for Disease Control and other agencies recommended the ship head back to New Jersey.
Royal Caribbean offered guests 50 percent reimbursement for this trip, 50 percent off a future cruise and assistance with accommodations for those needing hotels because of arriving back in New Jersey two days earlier than expected.
“These cruise contracts signed by passengers are iron-clad and there is expected to be some amount of sickness on a ship carrying over 3,000 people. However, Royal Caribbean really went out of its way to promote good will,” said Vinci.
“As my daughter pointed out, we had good food, entertainment, electricity and flushing toilets. I was looking forward to sunny beaches and disappointed that we didn’t hit all the ports, but it could have been much worse,” concluded Vinci.
To contact Heather Burns, email hburns@cmcherald.com.