Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
8 September 2009
13:1328593Im reading on the BBC website that the luckless Balmoral, of the Fred Olsen Lines, and operating very regularly from Dover, has been struck again by a further bug outbreak. I say again as Im sure this ship has been blighted before with the same or similar illness. This time they reckon it to be the Norovirus Bug.
Isnt this the one Roger W and Jean went on just a few weeks back, the ship is currently off Scotland as I understand it...and riddled with illness. Only left Dover a few days ago.
I dont like to knock any vessel operating from Dover but I would be very wary if I was a customer thinking of taking a cruise with Fred Olsen, until they get their act sorted out.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
8 September 2009
13:2928594Fred Olson lines are not going from Dover next year but going to Southampton,it is a shame because they are the biggest in so far as the number of calls.The Balmoral is my favourite ship but does seem to have lots of problems,next year it sails on the same dates and timings as the Titanic,anyone fancy it
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
8 September 2009
13:3728595Quote JHG "Next year it sails on the same dates and timings as the Titanic, anyone fancy it"
I would be so up for that. Seriously!
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
8 September 2009
16:0228596I didnt know Fred Olsen were moving to Southampton..thats a shame as I hate to see Dover losing any cruise landings. There is an almighty whopper in today called The MSC Orchestra..gosh its so big its blocking out the sun! I would put up a picture of it but the ship might get confused with the Balmoral and that would never do.
Jeane really. How many takers would you get to go with you ?? lol
Surely that might be just tempting fate a little.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
8 September 2009
16:2028597Well on the bright side PaulB I would have most of the ship to myself.
I guess I'm not afraid of tempting fate in that way, maybe because of what I do. I survived the Bermuda Triangle! The myth of the triangle first arose after the disappearance of a US Navy bomber squadron, the famous Flight 19 was on a routine training flight on December 5 1945.
I was in the Bahamas a few years ago and went on a trip to where the edge of one part of the area where all the disappearances occurred and also flew over it. I must admit to feeling a little nervous at first but I was more fascinated. What struck me about it whilst being on the water was that it was eerily quiet - not a sound from the water, nor a bird and even the people I was with fell silent where a minute earlier it was all "Look how blue the water is.....blah, blah, blah".
I've also been to Area 51 outside Las Vegas and didn't get abducted! I did see a lot of men in black though - security men!
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
8 September 2009
16:3328598Jeane you have certainly got about. Yes I was always fascinated myself about the tales from the Bermuda Triangle. So many rumours and so on and actual disappearances too, but is it fact or fiction or co-incidence. I can well beleive people becoming eerily quiet on reaching the location as its legend proceeds it kind of thing. Is there some sort of magnetic force in this area, some weird science in action. There are allsorts of forces around the planet which pattern the development of weather systems and so on, so it could be really some sort of force we are not familiar with as yet...the third dimension..to quote one of Ricks films. Who knows...is there anybody out there..??
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
8 September 2009
16:3528599paulb,as in a post i started the other week,there seems less cruise ships calling at dover.this begs the question are cruise operaters loseing faith in dover.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
8 September 2009
16:4528600Lol yes I have been about!!
One of the theories is that this is the location of the lost city of Atlantis. According to local legend Atlantis was powered by mysterious crystals and some people think that they still rest on the seabed and send out strange waves of energy which destroy planes and ships or that it is the methane gas that is trapped in the seabed, which if it exploded, the water beneath would lose buoyancy and any ships could end up buried at the bottom of the sea.
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
8 September 2009
16:4828601My parents are currently on the Balmoral, I hope they don't get struck down with this bug. It's a truly ghastly affliction, I had it a couple of years ago and couldn't keep anything down or in for three or four days.
I think they must be fated - they were onboard the Balmoral last January when the ship got caught in a hurricane in the Bay of Biscay on the way to the Med. After suffering casualties from being tossed about in the storm, the ship was forced to turn back and they spent a few days in Normandy and Holland instead. The current blight-stricken round Britain trip they are currently on was offered to them for a substantial discount given what they endured in January.
How unlucky can you get? What next, Somali pirates?
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
8 September 2009
16:5028602Gosh Phil that's unlucky. I do hope they are ok.
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
8 September 2009
16:5728603Thanks Jeane. Apparently at least 72 persons have now gone down with it onboard so I'm not rating my parents chances.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
8 September 2009
17:3928604I have got a feeling that the Balmoral has already had a little problem with Pirates on a previous trip.Perhaps I can work with Fred Olson as a P.R rep.
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
8 September 2009
18:1628605Yes, you are right John, just checked. The ship must be jinxed -
January - Hurricane in the Bay of Biscay
March - Somali pirate attack whilst en route from Jordan to India
September - Norovirus.
It wasn't like this on the Loveboat. I think I'll stick to the bus.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
8 September 2009
18:4728606the novovirus could explain the mystery of the "marie celeste".
had their grub, then chucked themselves overboard rather than face another meal.
seems plausible to me.
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
8 September 2009
19:3428611Doesnt sound good for them
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
9 September 2009
07:4028650Gosh sorry to hear your parents are on there Phil, cant be very pleasant but hopefully they will avoid it. Always a shame when you go on an expensive cruise and less face it none of them are cheap, the chances of a person becoming ill onboard seems to have increased alarmingly in recent times. Fred Olsen say they have increased their efforts on hygene but a tad late i would venture.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
9 September 2009
11:2928670Yes indeed Phil, I do hope that your Mum and Dad will be OK and manage somehow to avoid this awful bug. The Balmoral has certainly had its fair share of bad luck this year. I dont think I fancy its chances next year then, JHG, especially if those timings you quoted are for real? Jeane, please dont go, a cat may have nine lives but ...........
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
9 September 2009
11:3428671It is the passengers who bring norovirus onboard so it is probably a bit of a lottery whether even the best run ship gets hit with it. My mother-in-law had to be moved out of her ward in the QEQM hospital in Margate so that it could be disinfected after an outbreak of norovirus. The "pirate attack" mentioned above was just suspicious targets noted on the radar, no pirate was even seen let alone delivered an attack. Gave the passengers something to talk about, should have charged them extra.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
10 September 2009
09:5128700Well I dont know Ed ..it may be the passsengers who bring it onboard or it may not, it may be proliferated by the crew, its just that this ship has a higher regularity of it happening than anything else.
Just this minute spoke to my neighbour immediately below. He was on The Balmoral last year during the outbreak. Not only did he and his wife get it, so did almost everyone else. He also said that the people getting off the ship as he was boarding, also had it.
In the meantime he has been on the Cap Verde, I think that was the name he mentioned, and no virus at all...I dunno...the Balmoral - jinxed or just lack of hygene??
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
10 September 2009
10:5128701According the BBC and other news sources the outbreak stemmed from a single passenger who announced she was ill prior to boarding at Dover. The doctor confined her to her cabin, but she ignored the advice and freely went walkabout thus spreading the virus far and wide.
How to make friends and influence people - she should never have been allowed to board.