Cruise Illness Outbreaks on Fred Olsen Liner
11/03/2010
A leading travel law solicitor has expressed further concern at falling hygiene standards on board Fred Olsen cruise ships after reports of yet another illness outbreak.
Irwin Mitchell is already supporting more than 80 customers from five separate cruise illness outbreaks on Fred Olsen cruises in just a matter of months. The firm has raised further questions over health and hygiene standards on board the Boudicca liner.
Clive Garner, Head of Travel Law at Irwin Mitchell, has even claimed that this latest in a spate of cruise illness outbreaks calls into question whether Boudicca should be withdrawn from service until it receives a clean bill of health from independent hygiene experts.
“That yet another outbreak of Norovirus has occurred on the Boudicca cruise ship is extremely worrying and must raise doubts about how seriously Fred Olsen cruises take their primary duty of care to their passengers,” he said.
“We first raised the alarm about standards aboard this ship months ago. We remain very concerned that there does not appear to have been any review of hygiene procedures on board all Fred Olsen cruise ships since we first began hearing about serious outbreaks of illness last October. It is about time the Fred Olsen management started to take this ongoing problem seriously.”
Irwin Mitchell is currently managing cruise illness claims for more 80 frustrated tourists who holidayed on five different cruises between October last year and January on board the 449-cabin Boudicca¸ which the firm’s website claims is “world class”.
The passengers were all struck down with illness on board the 205-metre vessel, which on one recent voyage was forced to dock a day early after reports that 500 passengers were suffering from Norovirus.
Clive Garner continued said: “The firm advertises this ship as offering ‘an air of dignity’. Most of our clients spent days at a time being told they couldn’t even leave their cabins because they had fallen ill. That doesn’t sound very dignified to me.
He added: “It’s not the first time we’ve come across this problem with cruise liners. Their image may be luxurious but they have to live up to that, and it appears the Boudicca has fallen some way short. It’s appalling that they have to go through this when they’re supposed to be enjoying a relaxing holiday.
“Although victims of Norovirus often suffer only short term symptoms, for some their illnesses can be severe, long lasting and sometimes permanent. We urge Fred Olsen to take immediate action to ensure that all relevant steps are taken to prevent further illness among passengers on their ships are taken.”
Among the passengers affected were Derek and Marina Eaton, who spent £10,000 on a New Years break which they believed would be the cruise of a lifetime. But both became seriously ill and have now admitted that they would have rather have just given the money to their family.
Mr Eaton, 75, said his 70-year old wife was confined to her cabin for two whole days while staff in full bio-hazard suits came to clean the room.
When Mrs Eaton was released from her cabin confinement, Mr Eaton then began to suffer from diarrhoea, meaning that the couple missed more excursions and the New Years Eve celebrations.
Mr Eaton says “We feel that Fred Olsen have been very negligent in subjecting us to a health hazard knowing full well that there had been Norovirus outbreaks on several previous cruises on the same ship. We should have been given this information and been allowed the opportunity of deciding if we wished to proceed with the cruise.”
Thomas and Eileen Carr took the Christmas cruise as an opportunity to celebrate Mr Carr’s 80th birthday. The couple however had their holiday cut short by an illness that they claimed spread like wildfire throughout the ship.
Douglas and Margaret Holmes also came home early and have described the response to the outbreaks as being ‘total chaos’.
“The whole holiday was a disaster,” 73-year-old Mr Holmes said. “The standard of cleanliness on the ship was very poor. In some of the toilets you saw vomit on the floor. They were mopping sick and diarrhoea up. All Fred Olsen wanted was the money”.
Procedures to deal with the management of Norovirus and outbreaks of other gastric illness on board cruise ships have been established for many years and demand strict adherence to enhanced hygiene standards. These include quarantining those with illness symptoms, increasing cleaning and disinfection measures on board, warning all passengers to take special care with hygiene and a range of other measures to reduce the risk of infection.
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