At least 25 passengers on the Disney cruise ship Magic have contracted a flu-like illness, just days after the ship was scrubbed for hours because 275 people fell ill on an earlier trip.

...

A Norwalk-like virus is suspected of sickening more than 500 passengers and crew aboard the Holland America Line cruise ship Amsterdam the past few weeks. Last week Holland America canceled 10-day cruise out of Port Everglades to allow time for a thorough decontamination of the Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen people fell ill aboard the Amsterdam's sister vessel, which arrived in San Diego on Monday. About 10 passengers on the Statendam complained of fever, nausea and other flu-like symptoms.

Earlier this month, 42 passengers on a cruise to Hawaii also became sick aboard the 720-foot Statendam.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,71465,00.html

Makes one wonder what might be behind this sudden rash of illnesses.

I wonder the same thing. I wish they had more recent results of the sanitation inspection scores of the ships. I read the cruisecritic board every time that I have a cruise booked and I know about some incidents in the Sun but there's no recent info here. I would like to know if there's something going on before my cruise.
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Wednesday that flu-like symptoms seen in passengers and crew members on a Disney cruise ship last week were caused by the Norwalk virus.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/11/27...ise/index.html

Disney Cancels Next Launch Of Cruise Ship Magic

http://www.local6.com/orlpn/news/sto...27-141106.html

You have to realize this is a very common virus, and why it is only the cruise ships we are hearing about it on is beyond me. 181,000 people get it in the United states every eyar, within the last week it's closed a hospital in Toronto, seven outbreaks in Iowa, and closed several schools in North Carolina and 29 people at a restaurant there, got 64 people at a Salt Lake City Buffet, etc, etc, etc. For some reason the news is making a huge deal out of a copuple of dozen people getting it on a ship, and not about the other cases that are coming up every day. Do a search at news.google.com on the Norwalk Vuris, you will be totally amazed at how many places this is infecting. Given some of the numbers, a dozen people on a cruise ship may be the safest place to be.

The CDC has also said that they believe it was brought on by a passenger and spread, not something that came from the ship.

Maybe so, but it cerrtainly seems that these are more than isolated cases on the cruise ships, and certanly more than a few dozen people affected.

Nearly 200 passengers ill after Carnival cruise:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4649287.htm

Also:

Federal officials say there is no evidence that bioterrorists are behind the spate of gastrointestinal illnesses that have plagued cruise ships.

Norwalk-like viruses have infected more than 1,000 people on cruise ships in the past few months. On Monday, a Carnival cruise ship returned from a three-day voyage carrying more than 170 people sickened by a gastrointestinal virus similar to those experienced by other cruise liners. It was not yet known whether they, too, had the Norwalk virus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002Dec2.html

[This message has been edited by cactuspete (edited 12-03-2002).]

Nearly 120 people have been sickened with symptoms consistent with a Norwalk-like virus on a fourth cruise ship to report an outbreak of a stomach ailment in recent weeks.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72225,00.html

Here's another opinion (that this could be a "dry run" by terrorists in order to test our response:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/arti...2/222543.shtml

Another:

Outbreaks of stomach ailments are common and not unique to cruise lines, say officials of Carnival Cruise Lines, whose ship Conquest is the latest to return to port with sick passengers.

The Conquest arrived Sunday after a west Caribbean cruise on which about 260 passengers and crew members got sick. It had carried 3,160 passengers.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) reports that the viruses make 23 million people sick in the United States each year.

...

"You can't put it in perspective until you understand how common it is in the general population," said Tim Gallagher, a Carnival spokesman. "When you see a spike in the NLV on cruise ships, that means there's a spike in the general population."


The CDC is looking into more than 20 outbreaks on cruise lines, more than it has seen in the four previous years combined. The agency considers an outbreak to be 3 percent or more of a cruise ship's passengers or crew members getting an illness.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...us/sick_cruise

Well I'm glad cactuspete mentioned a dry run for terriorst because I've been considering that possibility long before the first outbreak. I've been on a cruise this year and am insulted how our government has not given the same security attention to it's cruise ships and railways as it has the airlines. I just recently canceled a cruise on the Conquest scheduled to sail on January 19th. The Conquest is a brand new ship that sailed directly into New Orleans just before Thanksgiving from the shipyard in Italy where it was built. Although it does not rule out the possibility of being previously contaminated or infected one certainly wouldn't expect an outbreak on a new ship with less than a month of sailing and no change or rotation of crew.

The outbreaks (and yes I do consider it outbreaks) have spanned across cruise lines, cruise ships, and departure locations. Since any terrorist can go to website and get government statistics on what is considered an outbreak or (any government information for that matter) it's very possible to plan an attack and stay well below the radar. I'm fairly certain that terrorist won't attack those areas that we so often publicize are extremely secure. Paranoia? I don't think so, just a patriotic way of CYA and looking out for each other. History has proven that we've had enough information to be proactive in preventing disaster but either didn't process it in time or admonished those federal employees who had solid information and a darn good hunch from going public.

As long as the terrorists have people believing that everything that happens in the counrty is a result of terrorism, then they are winning.

Norwalk and Norwalk like virus's have been around for thrity something years, with over 180,000 people in the country getting it each and every year. The 180,000 is the confirmed number of cases, the CDC estimates that 23 million people get it a year in this country.

We hear about it from Cruise ships because the cruise ships are required by law to report gastrointestinal complaits to the CDC, and recently tests were developed to be able to confirm it was the Norwalk Virus. Ever have a 24 hour "Stomach Flu"? Probably the Norwalk Virus.

You don't hear about it on the national news from the restaurant in Utah, the hospital on Long Island, the schools in North Carolinia, the Hospital in Toronto, the rafting Camp in Colorado, the two facilities in Michigan that officials won't yet name, the 1,000 people in Minnisota in 25 outbreaks that have suffered from it since November 1, the nursing home in New Hampshire with 4 dozen people sick, and on and on and on.

So unless the terrorists have been working for 30 something years on this, it's not terrorism, it's the news going nuts with something that isn't news.

300 people sick on a Princess cruise earlier this month:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...55E401,00.html