My Love of Cruising Part 3

So in My Love of Cruising Part 2 I talked about cruising without Canberra and finding out about starting a family whilst we were on board P&O's Oriana in July 2002.

Well Sophie was born in April 2003 and very shortly afterwards, we booked to take her on her first cruise, shortly after her reaching six months old which is the youngest that you can now take a baby. For the first time we decided to try P&O's Aurora and little did we know, we were to become a part of her infamous history with a 17 night cruise to Greece and Italy.

On preparation for the cruise, despite us travelling with a six month old baby, we had little to worry about as P&O were to provide a cot, a baby bath, milk formula. bottle cleaner, whatever food we required and night nursery services for little Sophie. Again our friend's John (the DJ from Canberra) and Gillian also booked to join us on board and we met them down in Southampton on a sunny October day to head off to the Mediterranean. The cruise started trouble free and we enjoyed ourselves stopping off in Majorca before heading on too a lovely day in Sicily and then on up to Venice. Sophie appeared to be settling into life at sea and was no bother when we took her to the night nursery every night before we headed off to dinner. We met up with Elvis our waiter from Arcadia on board and he very quickly took a shine to Sophie and would enjoy every evening sorting out some dinner for her in the Orangery.

Sadly on our way to Venice, the chap who was in the cabin next to us suffered a heart attack and passed away. His poor wife left the ship shortly after arriving in Venice taking her husband home on his final journey.

Following this, we became aware of rumours of an outbreak of the dreaded norovirus on board ship. For those that don't know what norovirus is, its a bug that gives you a lovely dose of sickness and diarrhoea for approximately 48 hours and is highly contagious, usually leaving you confined to your cabin and feeling very weak for a few days afterwards. The Captain, the lovely Ian Walters made an announcement to passengers that as well as being sensible with washing hands when using the toilet and using the anit-bac gel when entering the restaurants, he went to the length of saying the passengers and crew should avoid shaking hands. Sadly Gillian came down with it the day we arrived in Durbovnik  and was unable to join us ashore for a walk around the old town.

Little did we know when we left Dubrovnik that evening and headed towards Athens we were going to fall into the middle of not one but two diplomatic instances and appear as news headlines around the world. The following morning as we approached Piraeus harbour our entry to the harbour was blocked by a Greek naval vessel and the Greek authorities were refusing to allow us entry until Greek doctors had boarded the ship to inspect us. Well the Doctors boarded us while the navy continued to block us and we were beamed live on TV around the world, following discussions on board the Doctors reported back to the Greek authorities and we were refused entry into Greece and we were sent packing, spending the day cruising along the Greek coastline to see some of the scenery instead of visiting the Acropolis.

The following evening we decided to visit Café Bordeaux for a romantic meal whilst Sophie was up in the nursery. Whilst sat there, Nicola commented that she wasn't feeling great and would need to return to our cabin so I went with her to make sure she was ok. As soon as we got back to the cabin it was very clear that Nicola had succumbed to the Norovirus and she started to be really unwell. Thankfully John and Gillian agreed to look after Sophie for me as I wanted to reduce her chances of exposure to the Norvirus. The following day, Nicola continued to be unwell and I ended up requesting the ship's doctor to visit her as she was clearly dehydrating and suffering as a result of the norovirus. The doctor was also concerned about Nicola and he admitted her to the ships hospital and placed her on IV fluids and medication to try and stop the D&V and improve her overall condition. 

In the meantime, between John, Gillian and Elvis they were doing an excellent job in looking after Sophie for me and in fact all three appeared to be revelling in their roles as carers. I spent time with her when I could but my main concern was for Nicola as the virus had really knocked the stuffing out of her.

Nicola remained in the ships hospital in the best possible hands and Capt Walters kept passengers updated on a daily basis on the Norovirus and the number of passengers affected. We picked up from the news that the Spanish authorities were going to close the border to Gibraltar upon our arrival there as they did not want the virus spreading into mainland Spain and this was causing another diplomatic issue. As we arrived in Gibraltar I was unable to disembark as I had been spending time with Nicola and she remained unwell. I heard from other passengers that the port had turned into a media circus with passengers being asked to comment on life on board. One couple who had semi celebrity status from appearing on a reality TV programme in the UK revelled in the circus and appeared on GMTV and in the British Press, claiming that we were all being held hostage on board and the ship's company were doing nothing to help. This was so far from the truth and upon returning to the ship in Gibraltar I understand that a number of passengers were rather un-polite in their comments to the couple.

As we headed back to Southampton, Nicola remained very weak and still in hospital on IV fluids. Both myself and Sophie remained Norovirus free and I accredited my avoidance of it to my daily pint of stella which appeared to kill all known germs dead !!

The night before arriving in Southampton whilst visiting Nicola in the hospital, I overheard an announcement by Capt Walters to the crew areas only thanking the staff for their tireless work on what had been a very difficult cruise for the ships company and the passengers. At the time I remember thinking that this was really nice of Capt Walters to thank his crew as I had seen first hand just how hard they had been working to firstly try and stop the spread of the virus but secondly to still try and ensure that passengers enjoyed their holiday. Later than same evening, Capt Walters made a public announcement across the ship to apologise to passengers and also to warn us that upon arrival in Southampton that there would be a press storm and members of the press may wish to interview us.

Upon arriving in Southampton, Nicola was released from the ship's hospital and she was disembarked in a wheelchair as she was too weak to walk. As we cleared customs we were met by a wall of press and were interviewed by Radio 5 and we told them just how good the ship's company had been and it had just been unfortunate. As we were led to our awaiting car, the semi celebrity couple were being interviewed ... again and I will always remember an elderly lady walking up to them and the gentleman interviewing them and saying to him 'don't believe a word they say it's all lies' !! This made us laugh so much.

With thanks to John, Gillian and Elvis especially as well as the crew on board, Sophie had completed her first cruise and had appeared to enjoy it. When we got home we made a point of writing to P&O to praise the crew for their help and we were disappointed to receive a standard letter back from P&O which sounded as is we had complained. They did however provide us with a substantial credit off of a future cruise. Not letting the norovirus put us off of cruising, we booked to go on the Oceana the following May to the med where little did we know, we were going to meet a family from Southampton who would become amazing friends for life and whose children would go onto to grow up with our own as we holidayed many times together.

Happy reading and I hope that you look forward to Part 4

Canberralover