3.5% of passengers getting sick really isn’t that bad, considering the close quarters. Could have gone a lot worse.
Anyone riding cruise ship should get sick
Some of those people didn’t have a choice though so that seems excessive.
I will truly never understand why people pay money to hang out on a crowded boat full of disease.
My son has celiac and Royal Caribbean specifically accommodates him super well. We did a Mediterranean cruise, visited 4 countries, didn’t have to constantly search for gluten free food in languages we didn’t know, and didn’t have to repack out stuff every other day.
I have been on a few of them. (My parents love cruises, so I have gone with them a few times). It’s basically a floating summer camp, for kids and adults, with alcohol and a casino. While they are constantly trying to upsell you on stuff, basic meals are included. And they plan a bunch of activities on the boat, even if most of them are the type of “forced social interaction” that many Lemmings tend to avoid. But nobody will care if you just hang out on the deck and read the whole time.
So if you don’t drink alcohol or gamble, you can get a week away from work where you don’t have to cook and can see some new stuff, for a decent price. (And if you do those things, you can do it all to excess, it will just cost you a lot more).
This boat had a norovirus outbreak, but they run lots of boats every year and most of them are fine. Honestly, I was more concerned with the drunks than the disease. One cruise I was on (might have been to Bermuda) was full of 19 and 20 year olds whose only goal was to get plastered when they got to shore, where the drinking age was 18.
So what’s the benefit over an all-inclusive resort? Because I had a blast doing all that at my all-inclusive. But I could also go out and do stuff if I wanted. And I wasn’t trapped.
I assume everyone is banging on those boats.
You get to visit multiple countries without unpacking and repacking your room and organizing transportation.
Very good explanation. I’ve been on 6 or so, never got sick. And quite frankly, the Healthcare on board is generally decent by American standards. They have a monetary interest in getting you back on your feet. We only hear about cruises full of disease when there’s a cruise full of disease. Nobody reports “Carnival docks home with insignificant amount of illnesses today, again”.
It shouldn’t be hard to imagine the benefit of essentially bringing your hotel to the destination(s) with you and avoiding/reducing flying.
