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Wednesday, October 13th – A cold/virus has been going through the ship like wildfire and so many are walking around coughing, sneezing, blowing their noses and looking glassy-eyed. Part of the staff is sick with it so service is slow everywhere. The infirmary is dispensing antibiotics like candy – I can't believe how many people have been given antibiotics! And at a very high price! Under the best of conditions service in the dining rooms and other areas on this ship has been excruciatingly slow (consistently slower than I have ever seen on any cruise ship) but today service is almost non-existent. If you want a glass of juice, water or a cup of coffee its best to get up and get it yourself because it can take up to 20 minutes to even get an available server to bring you anything to drink in the buffet or dining room. There are just not enough servers able to work today.

We left our cabin early in the morning to go to breakfast and put the “Service Please” sign on our door. When we returned to our cabin after lunch every day the bed is always made and the cabin is always cleaned. However, today it still wasn't cleaned and the bed wasn't made when we came in to get ready for dinner at 6:00PM. So many cabin stewards are sick with this cold/virus that the few cabin stewards who are not sick are doing 2-3 times as many cabins. However, after dinner and a show we went back to our cabin around 11:00PM and the cabin steward had taken care of our room. We heard that some people did not get there cabin cleaned or the beds made at all that day.

Our next door neighbors in Ocala, Susan and Kevin, recently took a cruise and Susan was concerned about getting a cold on the ship because if one person gets on the ship with a cold or comes down with something it spreads around the ship in a matter of days. She asked their family doctor before leaving on their cruise if there were precautions they should take. He told to avoid the steam rooms and saunas – they were the germiest places on the ship. When people get congested and their noses get stuffed up that's where they go to try to get some relief so they can breathe. Then they cough and sneeze and the germs proliferate in the warm damp environment. Those are the best places on a cruise ship if you want to get sick. The gym and hot tub are also good places to get sick.

Susan's doctor told her to take Safeguard soap and use that for hand-washing in the cabin and for all showers rather than using the soap in the cabins, spas, or locker rooms. In fact he said not to shower at all in those areas, but to go to their cabin and shower immediately anytime they use the pool, hot tub, or gym. Thanks to Susan's advice I bought 2 bars of Safeguard, one for our sink and one for our shower. Every time Bill gets out of the hot tub or pool he comes straight to the room and showers thoroughly head to toe.

We really think that is helping us stay healthy – we know it can't hurt! We are definitely in the minority in not having this cold/virus. There are rumors that they may have everyone get off at the next port and sanitize the entire ship! Almost everyone has it or has had it. Many of our friends have been so sick with it there aren't even able to get off and enjoy the some of the ports. The only thing we have done differently is to use the Safeguard soap every time we wash our hands and every time we shower. I don't know why else to guess that everyone is sick and we aren't.

The cruise has been going on for 22 days now; we have worn all our clean clothes as well as all our almost clean clothes. We have these cute washer/dryer sheets that Jane and Terry gave us. Today we actually tried them out. Bill did the laundry (I do laundry at home, he does laundry on vacations – not planned, just always seems to work out that way.) The sheets are great! We will definitely be buying a box of them for our next cruise!


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