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Old June 22nd, 2005, 06:49 PM
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Default Royal Caribbean - They operate some 'infected' ships, these ships are 'risky' to many, and they're not people friendly

Have you had a very bad cruise experience and the cruise company
thought nothing of it? Did you ever feel Royal Caribbean was thinking,
'So what, we don't need you. We have many other people who will take
your place. You mean so little to us.'

Well, my discussion topic centers on these 4 questions:

(1) Should Royal Caribbean warn you before boarding that they had a
sickness and disease outbreak on its last sailing?

(2) Are you entitled to a full refund if you're told the ship had a
sickness and disease outbreak on its last sailing and you decline to
board?

(3) Are you entitled to a full refund if you're on an infected ship,
you're personally impacted, and you lose a substantial amount of
pleasure and ports-of-call?

(4) What responsibilities do you think the cruise line should have for
exposure, possible injury, or prolonged convalescence after the cruise
due to any of the items listed above?

These were important issues to me because I discovered Royal Caribbean
does operate 'infected' ships, their ships are 'risky' places to be -
especially for me and many older citizens, and they're not very people
friendly. Even the President of Royal Caribbean is unsympathetic and
cold-hearted.


[ Background story ]

I boarded Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas with a long history of
gastrointestinal sicknesses. I have had esophagitis, acute gastric
ulcers, erosive inflammatory gastritis, and a hiatal hernia for over 40
years. The effects of my long list of medications for my stomach and
heart look like and have exactly the same reaction as a viral
infection. I didn't have a viral infection. I had stomach
poisoning. My wife dragged me to the ship's doctor - my stomach was
'crampy' and my chest hurt. She was worried. I just had a pacemaker
put in. I provided the ship's doctor with my medical history and list
of medications. I was grossly misdiagnosed by the ship's doctor, if
you call him that.

The virus wasn't present in me, but I had gone to the ship's doctor for
'relief' and he prescribed 'pain'. He isolated both me and my wife in
my cabin for 3 days at the very instant we docked for 3 consecutive
days ashore at different ports.

The ship gave us a dish of chocolates and strawberries and a small note
of apology for our trouble. Being stuck on the boat for all 9 days
ruined our good time. We were celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary
and my 65th birthday. The ship absolutely didn't resolve the situation
in a people friendly way. I was especially frustrated after shelling
out $4,200 hard-earned dollars for the cruise.


[ Was Royal Caribbean responsible? ]

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta monitors and
administers control of potential disease outbreaks aboard ships. The
CDC runs a Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP). I made a request for
information to the CDC. The CDC informed me a disease outbreak did
occur aboard the Voyager of the Seas (my ship) on three (3) cruises in
a row (in sequence) this spring (2005). Royal Caribbean and the
'Voyager of the Seas' provided the information below to the CDC's
Vessel Sanitation Program. Here are three (3) very recent outbreaks
and the 2005 cruise dates:

(1) For the cruise starting May 15 and ending May 20, there were 45
passengers and 14 crew infected. I believe this was a Bermuda sailing
from Cape Liberty NJ.

(2) For the cruise starting May 20 and ending May 29, there were 85
passengers and 14 crew infected. This was our Western Caribbean
sailing from Cape Liberty NJ.

(3) For the cruise starting May 29 and ending June 3, there were 3
passengers and 0 crew infected. I believe this was a Bermuda sailing
from Cape Liberty NJ.

Were you sick on any of these cruises, or after you got home from them?
Did you have an extreme stomach illness or bowel ailment? Did you
leave the ship throwing up?

The numbers in the three (3) listed items above are only for those
passengers who reported to the Voyager of the Seas' ship Medical
Center. I personally saw the list of the people actually isolated,
interfaced with some of them, and spoke to many others who chose not to
see the ship's doctor for fear of being similarly isolated,
rightfully or wrongfully. The population of infected passengers was
under-reported between 50 and 100 percent. Did Royal Caribbean
possibly have a financial motive for conducting 'business-as-usual' and
for being dishonest with the CDC? What conclusion would you draw from
this? If the choice to the cruise lines was to lose millions of
dollars versus possibly making hundreds of innocent people sick, what
choice do you would they have chosen if the CDC didn't intercede-
which it didn't? It doesn't take a 'rocket-scientist' to decide.

In order for the CDC VSP to devise and implement effective strategies
to prevent recurrence of similar outbreaks, the cruise line must first
be factual and straightforward about their reporting statistics. If a
serious disease outbreak is 'under-reported', effective remedies cannot
take place.

The real question is, what were the actual levels of these outbreaks?
If Royal Caribbean's medical center statistics are either 'artificial'
or have been intentionally manipulated to minimize the actual
population affected, the outbreak would not appear on the 'radar'. The
absence of a thorough inspection after three (3) successive infectious
outbreaks favors Royal Caribbean financially. Does Royal Caribbean
return your lost cruise costs? No, they haven't as far as we know.

Did the Voyager of the Seas give boarding passengers at Cape liberty NJ
a choice before sailing on three infected ships? From other postings
on Google, it appears Royal Caribbean acted more humane in calendar
2004, but not in 2005. No, boarding passengers were denied the choice
three (3) times. Where is the cruise lines responsibility? Is this
the way to intentionally run a business?

If you want to discover what ships are infected and how often, go to
this URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm#2005

If you want to read about how really dirty and infected your cruise
ship is, go to this URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/default.htm

I don't pretend to be very fragile. But I have noticed many discussion
forum postings from people concerned about their health while on the
ship. Some people have Lupus and other immunity issues. The broad
spectrum of passengers on my cruise consisted of infants through people
in their 80's. The youngest and the oldest were those most at risk.
People get sick in any environment. But the real issue is, would
people of their 'free' intentionally board a 'sick' ship any more than
they would willingly walk into a fire?

There was no 'free' will when the 'Voyager of the Seas' kept their
knowledge of the three (3) infected sailings 'under-wraps'. Passengers
had no choice! If Royal Caribbean had said before we boarded there was
an infection, we would have not boarded. With my bad heart and
previous gastrointestinal issues, I would have stopped in my tracks,
and returned home rather than board the ship and be held captive for 9
days. Royal Caribbean didn't say anything. So, not given that choice,
we would have preferred to have been allowed to leave the ship during
the cruise immediately upon the ship's doctor's wrong diagnosis,
finish our vacation at one of the ports-of-call and then flown home at
our own expense. Seems like a simple solution, but the ship refused to
even allow us to do that.

We had a miserable time, and we thought we could recover something
afterwards. Reliving the moments of our wedding anniversary and
birthday were not retrievable, but Royal Caribbean's good will was.
Maybe a voucher for another cruise would have calmed our feelings. I
think the cruise line should have done something better than offer us a
dish of candy, don't you think?

I wrote Adam M. Goldstein, President of Royal Caribbean International.
Adam Goldstein's letter to me in response stated, "I apologize that
your cruise was not at all what you had hoped for..." Now that is an
understatement! Mr. Goldstein should just advertise the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) sanitation reports on the Royal Caribbean web
site. That should make for increased business!

Royal Caribbean is in the business to make people 'happy'. That is
their only business. When they make people 'unhappy' for whatever
reason, for every unhappy person, the negative story they tell others
propagates and they (RC) lose the potential business of 10 other
customers. I know this is true in every other business model.

Royal Caribbean, as with any person, has an implied responsibility to
right a 'wrong' in some fashion. It should have been a voucher for
another future cruise, not a dish of candy and a few hundred dollars
falsely labeled as 'resolution credit'. We got that because we stayed
in our cabin. Many people didn't. Royal Caribbean's small
insignificant gesture may have been meant to intentionally spite their
customers even more. Royal Caribbean calls this 'Risk Management'.
They prefer to take a risk because they only expect a very small number
of people who were made unhappy to carry their complaint to an end
point that will bring financial harm to Royal Caribbean. The odds are
in their favor. If you're in the 97 percent that didn't get sick,
you're happy. If you're in the 3 percent that got food poisoning or
actually got the virus, you're miserable. When your sickness is no
fault of your own in the latter situation, then you're doubly
aggravated.

Most people in this country believe they have no responsibility for
their negative actions. Big businesses like Royal Caribbean think the
same. It is time to stop this notion.