Some ships are just sick-struck. Take Celebrity’s Mercury, virus stricken for the third year in a row. This time, as with the other two, it’s believed to be the despised norovirus.
So instead of its scheduled top in Tortola today, the Mercury heads back to Charleston, from whence it came, to arrive on Thursday. The Centre for Disease Control has people on-board to supervise cleaning the ship.
As we write this, 342 passengers are reported to be down with the illness, confined to their staterooms. This, despite the fact the ship’s cleaning was supervised by the CDC and approved to sail. Apparently there are elevated outbreaks of the disease in Carolina.
When 2% of the passengers are ill, all cruises line are compelled to contact the CDC.
The compensation package for Mercury’s passengers is a credit for one day and a 25% credit for another cruise.
That’s it…we’re done.