No telling how many onboard the Summit are affected since the crew is quite tight lipped about the matter. However, 3 days ago there was an obvious attempt to prevent people from entering any dining venue until they had received a squirt of anti-bacterial gel. Throughout the cruise the crew had been stationed at the entrances to the dining rooms, but were not very insistent about the gel.

All self serve beverage stations have been closed or now are manned by crew. Salt and pepper shakers have been removed in most dining areas. All buffet items are now served by crew. See my article below on swine flu, which addresses cruise health issues. It is known to be a tricky situation because of the close living/dining/entertainment quarters of hundreds or thousands of people. I have long been an advocate of buffets aboard ships that are manned by crew only.

The Summit is offering complimentary consultations and treatment if a passenger becomes ill with a gastrointestinal illness. From the obvious extraordinary efforts to disinfect everything onboard, one could assume that the medical facility is quite busy.

Personal efforts to stay well aboard a ship are important. Washing your hands each time you enter your cabin, use a bathroom, before and after you eat and after visiting a venue where you contact surfaces that have been touched by many people such as elevator buttons, door handles, casino machines, etc. A demonstration of effective hand washing is shown on one of the ship’s television channels.

Damian de Lorenzis today said that “1% of passengers have been ill from the norovirus.” He went on to say that the CDC in the US would be notified, as per standard operating procedure. A skeptic might wonder why the ship is going to such extremes if only 20 people have become ill.

Always trying to maximize my credits and discounts in travel, the purchase of about 100 shares of cruise line stock to receive online credit is a win-win situation. Because of our upcoming transatlantic cruise on the Celebrity Summit (watch here for blog reports on the cruise – great itinerary and great ship) we purchased 100 shares of parent company Royal Caribbean’s stock. It was trading for a little over $19 that day. We purchased it online from Scottrade and only paid $7 for the trade. Notification to Celebrity required a fax and a phone call – easy. Because our cruise is 14 days, we have received an onboard credit of $250. Here’s the real kicker: we made $110 on the stock!

This is also available from Carnival Corporation and applies to their family of ships, including Carnival, Holland America, Seabourn, Princess, P & O, Costa and Cunard. A couple of years ago we made a purchase of their stock and received a $250 onboard credit from them.

The onboard credit amount is determined by the length of your cruise. Go to the corporate site of the parent company and look for investor relations/shareholder benefit. Don’t miss this easy opportunity for a freebie. Maybe you will make money on the stock trade like us as well!