Source: Cruise Junkie dot Com

Events at Sea by Amsterdam

Events by:
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The events listed have been reported in the public domain or to cruisejunkie by passengers or crew members onboard.  The list is by no means comprehensive.  For that reason it is necessary to be cautious in drawing conclusions from the potentially limited data.  Keep in mind that some companies may be more transparent than others about things that go wrong; conversely, some companies may be better at concealing events and thereby project an appearance that is inaccurate.  With that said, the following list is still interesting, as are the patterns when viewed separately by ship.



dd/mm/yy
Events
Incident
19.2.06
A 30 year old crew member (galley worker) apparently fell overboard early Friday about 1100 miles northeast of Hilo.  The ship was assisted by the Coast Guard in a search, which was called off mid-day on Saturday.  The ship is now en route to San Diego and will arrive one day later than scheduled. Crew member missing
1.4.05
A California woman and her son have sued Holland America Line after getting sick on a South America cruise in March 2004 where they said toilets overflowed and crew members were seen with prostitutes at ports of call.  Their lawsuit alleges: "Not long into the cruise, the toilets on lower decks overflowed several times," and it took crew members 15 hours to clean up the mess, which "created incredibly unsanitary conditions on board, separate and apart from a piercing stench."  See Reuters for details and judge for yourself. Lawsuit
2.2.05
Tenders brought passengers ashore to Port Stanley (Falkland Islands) to explore for the day with a planned 5pm departure. However, the wind picked up and by 1pm, conditions in the outer harbour had deteriorated, suspending launch operations. Conditions deteriorated still further with gale force winds whipping up white-caps, leaving 936 passengers and 63 crew stranded overnight in a town with two tiny full hotels where the population is normally under 2,000. The drill hall of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, the parish hall and the secondary school gymnasium were converted into temporary shelter while all commercial kitchens were pressed into service to feed the thousand stranded people.  Conditions improved by morning and passengers returned to the ship.
Stranded ashore
21.11.02
Cruise cancelled for thorough cleaning of ship.
Cancellation




Illness Outbreaks at Sea by Amsterdam

dd/mm/yy
2009
14.1.10 The CDC today reported the following illness outbreak last month: The ship reported 8 of 610 (1.31%) crew and 56 of 1317 (4.25%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 21 day cruise ending December 23.
dd/mm/yy
2009
30.5.09 The ship reported 8 of 587 (1.37%) crew and 101 of 1546 (6.53%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 7 day cruise ending today.
23.4.09 The ship reported 19 of 600 (3.17%) crew and 119 of 1318 (9.03%) passengers had reported ill with gastrointestinal illness on a 22 day Panama Canal cruise ending in Vancouver April 24.UPDATE April 28: CDC has revised the numbers to 25 crew (4.17%) and 135 passengers (10.24%). The cause of the illness is Cyclospora cayetanensis.
dd/mm/yy
2006
7.4.06
For the second cruise in a row the ship has reported an elevated number of passengers and crew with gastrointestinal illness.  On April 6, the ship’s medical staff reported that 8 of 605 (1.32%) crew and 76 of 1294 (5.87%) passengers were ill.  The 15-day Hawaiian cruise ended in San Diego on April 6.
21.3.06
On March 13, 2006, Holland America Cruise Line reported that an elevated number of Amsterdam passengers and crew were experiencing symptoms that were consistent with acute gastroenteritis. The predominant symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting.  On March 21, the ship’s medical staff reported that 8 of 606 (1.32%) crew and 142 of 1360 (10.44%) passengers were ill.   The ship returns to San Diego from a 15 day Hawaii cruise on March 22.
dd/mm/yy
2005
14.3.05 A passenger wrote:
There was an outbreak of influenza and bronchitis on the cruise from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Valparaiso, Chile. It was very widespread, as it seemed that nearly everyone was coughing severely.  Nearly everyone we met on the ship was infected.  The doctor on the ship diagnosed me with “what everyone else has”, influenza/bronchitis, and the flu shot was ineffective against this flu.  I know of one hospitalization in Puerto Montt, and the person was left there.  I was given an antiviral med and Z-Pak antibiotic, as was nearly everyone that I talked to.  At no time during the cruise did the captain or any other crew member acknowledge that there was a problem, except the doctor.  Rumor has it that several people got off the ship in Buenos Aires with possible pneumonia.
dd/mm/yy
2004
16.4.04

On April 16, the ship reported that 75 passengers and 11 crew had reported gatrointestinal illness.  It was later confirmed that the illness was caused by E. coli.  The cruise ran from March 31 - April 17, ending in San Diego.
dd/mm/yy
2003
16.8.03
According to Alaska state's epidemiology lab, about 25 passengers have been afflicted with a gastrointestinal virus.  Cruise line officials wouldn't say how many passengers were ill.  They did say that an undisclosed number of passengers were removed from the ship in Sitka and Juneau and flown home at the cruise line's expense.
dd/mm/yy
2002
14.11.02
36 people (28 pax and 8 crew) were offloaded at Cuacao (day 3 of the cruise)  because they exhibited the symptoms associated with Norwalk-like virus.  8 more passengers and 3 more cruise contracted the disease in the following 24 hours.  By the end of the cruise, 64 passengers and 18 crew had reportedly been sickened.
1-11.11.02
Upon arrival onboard, passengers were handed a printed notice that the ship had been contaminated with Norwalk virus during the previous cruise.  On this cruise, 163 passengers and 18 crew were confirmed sick from Norwalk-like virus; 52 passengers (25 who were ill) disembarked at Bonaire (8) and St. Thomas, USVI
(44).
22.10 - 1.11.02
41 passengers and 8 crew became ill from Norwalk-like virus during the cruise.  Some were offloaded at ports during the cruise.
1-22.10.02
Outbreak of a gastro-intestinal virus on the October 1 repositioning cruise from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale. The company said that 196 passengers and about a dozen crew had contracted the Norwalk-like virus.  CDC: 192 passengers (14.3%) and 23 crew (3.82%)
28.4.02
Gastrointestinal outbreak reported to CDC -- 12 pax (2.19%) and 18 crew (3.48%)


Illness Outbreaks by: