The Cruise Lines International Association, the cruise industry trade association, insists that you’re less likely to get ill from norovirus on board a cruise ship than in everyday life. Apparently, the Centers for Disease control disagrees — at least when it comes to Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas.
The government has issued a rare no-sail order for the vessel after it returned to port with 97 passengers and 11 crew members who had suffered from a norovirus outbreak. Last Sunday, the same ship came back to Miami from a Caribbean cruise with about 380 recovering passengers and ship employees, according to reports.
While I certainly respect CLIA’s position as the designated representatives of the cruise industry, I think its approach to the debate about cruise sanitation is ill-advised.
Rather than dismissing the Norwalk issue as something routine (see the full text of CLIA’s letter for its arguments) and suggesting that the cruise industry is somehow being unfairly singled out by the government because of the CDCs reporting requirements, I think it should consider a different approach.
I mean, does the average passenger care that norovirus cases happen on land? Does it give a hoot that the CDC requires ships to report outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnessess?
Come on. Of course not.
What they do care about is: Will I get sick on my next cruise?
To that end, CLIA should be acknowledging a problem that is obvious to everyone else. And it should be introducing a new industry-wide initiative to reassure its customers that everything possible is being done to make sure their next cruise is a healthy one.
Heck, they wouldn’t even have to actually do anything. Just a few honest words of reassurance would go a long way to calm an increasingly nervous public.
Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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