The P&O Pacific Dawn and Mystery Illness
Posted by Meggs | Fishing and Boating Posts | Posted on November 4th, 2009
Skipper Meggs crew in Lifou with the Pacific Dawn in the background
Greetings all,
Well what a couple of weeks it has been – with Skipper Meggs and his family celebrating his daughter’s 21st birthday on the high seas with the sensational P&O team and the Pacific Dawn. For those of you that have never been on a cruise I can thoroughly recommend it – the staff are absolutely fantastic and there is just too much to do on and off the ship to possibly fit everything in. My special thanks go out to people like Cheryl on the front desk, Madlene in the casino bar, croupiers Joah, Bunny, Gerald and Preciville and of course our cleaner Roy.
We did have a bit of a false start and lost a day of the trip which meant that we bypassed Luganville which was unfortunate because I had a mate who ran a plantation across from there on Aore Island and I was looking forward to that port of call. Anyway there is a different reason for this post…
Many years ago I read a book called “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston and I always remember the opening where he paints a picture of a guy on a plane throwing up in a brown paper bag. He describes in detail how a disease can travel around the globe quite easily if the germ associated with it spreads through a plane full of people simply by having them breathe it in. An airborne virus could have tragic results.
So what has this to do with The Pacific Dawn?
Well the ship has been made infamous in the past with its connection to Swine Flu and I’m not making any accusations that there is still evidence of any continued epidemic on board. What I will say is that all three people in my cabin and several others in nearby ones were all struck down by a mystery bug that caused vomiting, diarrhea and flu like symptoms (sore throat, cold, runny nose etc). None of our crew took advantage of a rumored $500+ doctor visit and diagnosis and the illness took place on the second or third last day of the trip. The staff explained to us that it was just sea sickness but clearly this wasn’t the case. I for one love the sea and the rocking of the boat actually sends me to sleep. I didn’t even notice any movement of the ship whilst I was sick because I was too worried about throwing up again! Both my mother (a veteran of many cruises without any hint of sea sickness) and I fell ill last Thursday night vomiting and going to the toilet every hour. My wife fell ill the following night.
I mus be one of the very few people in the world to have spent 10 days on a cruise and actually lose weight!
To further prove the point that it couldn’t have been sea sickness I got a call from my son last Sunday claiming he had “Land sickness” with the exact same symptoms as us. A few days later his prospective in-laws fell ill as well.
The dynamics of the cruise are thus; roughly 2000 passengers and 700 staff visiting 4 ports of call across a ten day cruise. The cleaning staff are fantastic. It was said that one guy’s cleaner was so good that when he went to the toilet in the middle of the night he came back and his bed was made! The cruises turnaround pretty quickly – they come into port one day and are gone the next. The cabins aren’t tiny but it’s not as if you can open a port hole to let some air in either. I’m not sure I’d like to be amongst the bunch of people staying in our cabin for the next trip and I wonder about the history of our room before we got on board.
Anyway, like I said – we did have a ball! I was upset that I couldn’t get to eat the chili mud crab at the Steak House because of my wife and I’s illness. I would have no hesitation in recommending the cruise and the Pacific Dawn to everyone and the proof of this is the answer to the question would I ever go again?
Too right I would!
If you’ve had a similar experience on the Pacific Dawn or any other cruise liner let me know by sending through your comments below.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs