| dd/mm/yy |
2009 |
Incident |
| 12.12.09 | ABC News (Australia) reports hundreds of cruise ship passengers had their travels disrupted this afternoon while police investigated a suspicious package at Melbourne's Station Pier. The package was found just after 3:00pm (AEDT) and as a precaution the pier was closed to all pedestrians and vehicles. Operations resumed as normal several hours later after the bomb squad investigated. It is believed that package contained military uniforms. | Bomb scare |
| 16.6.09 | The West Australian reports ill passengers aboard the cruise ship have been tested for swine flu before docking in Fremantle tomorrow. The ship, which departed from Sydney on May 2 for an Indian Ocean cruise. is the first international cruise ship to arrive in Perth since the outbreak of the A/H1N1 virus. It is due to dock at Fremantle Port at 7am tomorrow and is expected to leave at 4pm. A Princess Cruises spokesman said he did not know how many swabs had been taken from passengers for testing at a WA health laboratory but confirmed the ship’s doctor had sent swabs to for testing as precaution. He said during the 46 night cruise, which made stops in Asia, South Africa, India and Mauritius, only seven people had shown flu-like symptoms of which five were confirmed to have contracted influenza A. In line with national protocols, all passengers will be required to fill out health declaration cards before being allowed off the ship. All sick passengers will be assessed by WA health communicable disease control staff and people sharing the same cabin will be offered Tamiflu as a precaution if appropriate. | Swine flu |
| dd/mm/yy |
2008 |
Incident |
| 2.10.08 |
The Juneau Empire reports that each ship reportedly violated its wastewater discharge permit in August (2008), according to Alaska state regulators. Wastewater samples from the ship had higher-than-permitted ammonia (twice on Island Princess, once on Sapphire and Sun Princess. | Environmental |
| 25.8.08 |
The Sydney
Morning Herald reports about 1,600 Australian cruise ship
passengers were forced to wait in a Russian port for five hours as
local authorities took hours to make a series of passport inspections.
The ship, which left Sydney on July 14 carrying 2,000 passengers -
mostly Australians - was held in the port of Petropavlovsk on Russia's
east coast as the Russian navy checked and re-checked every passport.
The ship was blocked from leaving the port by two naval frigates. The
ship was scheduled to depart at 4:30PM but was still at dock past
9:30PM. Local authorities did not explain why they had kept the boat so
long. |
Delayed in port |
| 24.2.08 |
The ship's arrival/departure (debarkation/embarkation) from Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia) was delayed by more than eight hours. The reason for the ship's late arrival is not known.Accoridnmg to a passenger: We learned in the morning that the ship was running late and instead of a midday embarkation we would have to wait until 18:00. On arrival at the Passenger Terminal at about 17:30, we were met with chaos -- passengers were still in the process of disembarking and check-in was terribly long with a huge degree of confusion at all points. We were issued with a number and then promptly stood around trying to look intelligent but feeling distinctly like a herd of sheep. There must have been about 1500 people in an area designed to hold about 500. The public toilets were over loaded and much to be desired, in fact were disgusting. There were attempts to distribute water bottle amongst the crowds with the occasional fruit and crisps, however this was not a very effective exercise either. We finally cleared check-in and boarded the ship at 20:00 with tempers flaring; the ship offered late dinning which I suppose was a small compensation. We set sail at 23:00 and left Sydney in the dark. I think our baggage was finally delivered to our stateroom at about 03:00 in the morning. We were then woken at 10:00 in the morning with a Fire Drill, so not much sleep for many! |
Delayed
Debarkation & Embarkation |
| dd/mm/yy |
2007 |
Incident |
| 24.7.07 |
A sightseeing plane with a pilot and four cruise ship
passengers (2 sisters and their husbands) crashed in steep Alaska
terrain and all were killed. The floatplane left Ketchikan
(Alaska) Tuesday afternoon for a tour over Misty Fiords National
Monument. The ship was on the second day of a 7-day roundtrip
cruise from Seattle. |
Shore Excursion Plane Crash |
| dd/mm/yy |
2006 and earlier |
Incident |
| 16.7.06 |
Passengers were advised, with the final onboard statement
delivered the last night of the cruise, that a passenger had contracted
an illness presumed to be Meningococcal Meningitis and was taken to
hospital in Victoria. They were alerted that though the risk of
catching the illness was low, they should consult a physican
immediately if the experience any of several symptoms. The
passenger in hospital is expected to fully recover. |
Meningococcal Meningitis |
| 3.11.05 |
A power outage while docked at St. Thomas, USVI, left
passengers mostly in the dark for more than 2 hours in the
evening. Backup generators provided limited power. Power
was restored and the ship left port two hours later than scheduled. |
Power Loss |
| 22.10 - 1.11.03 |
A
passenger reported that
during this 10 day cruise they were told that 1 of the 4 engines were
not
working. Consequently, they left ports of call early and arrived late.
They
also did not stop at Princess Cay as planned. |
Engine
problems |
| 27.8.03 |
A
61 year old man is indicted on six felony counts of
sexual abuse on a minor. It is alleged that he
forced sexual relations on a 15 year old boy while the boy was in the
sauna and the cruise ship was near Juneau. |
Sexual Assault (Pax on Pax) |
| dd/mm/yy |
Reported Illness Outbreaks |
| 18.11.08 | From a passenger: I have recently cruised from Sydney to Sydney on a 28 day Tahitian Pearls cruise to South Pacific Islands, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tahiti & Fiji. From day 2 of the cruise many of the passengers and crew people began getting very sick. Flu like symptoms. Very bad throat and cough, it was a Respiratory Infection/Influenza 1. Every day the medical centre on the ship had many people seeking medical help. When passengers asked the medical team on the ship what they should do - they told them to get off the ship ASAP! the medical staff appeared to be overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the scale of the outbreak. The Captain even got the Respiratory Infection. I was prepared as I had a supply of antibiotics from my doctor prior to going on the cruise. We witnessed two coffins being taken off the ship in full view of passengers at Papeete and being loaded into the ambulance. Our holiday was spoiled as we tried as best as possible to isolate ourselves. For 26 days of the 28 day cruise most of the passengers continued to get around the ship with little concern for spreading the coughs & sneezes! The Norovirus outbreak was also a problem passengers were told not to use the public toilet facilities - to use their cabin facilities - that may have worked except that on many occasions we had no water in our cabins. The worrying thing is that the illnesses where taken to each of the islands we visited, unfortunately the islanders do not have access to our medical services. The ship should have been quarantined in the first week when these illnesses turned into an epidemic! |
| 27.5.08 |
A passenger reports there was a large outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the cruise from Freemantle (Australia) to Vietnam/Asia. Exact numbers have not been reported and are not required by the CDC to be reported given that the cruise does not include any US ports. |
| 9.3.08 |
The cruise ending today (14 day Sydney to New Zealand return) reportedly had an outbreak of norovirus affecting approximately 100 passengers. According to a passenger, The increased sanitisation program that was put in place made things unpleasant; instead of relaxing on board you were constantly on guard not to touch the banisters, walking the stairs instead of using the lifts, avoiding contact with any other passenger, waiting in long queues for food because services were disrupted, having to walk around with hand sanitisation gel etc. Staff attitudes were also affected -- deck hands were used as sanitisation crews and were putting in many hours extra, and Wait staffs had to do much more as well, like putting salt and pepper on food, as all salt and pepper pots had been removed. All SPA baths were closed; so were the laundry facilities (which made things unpleasant as under clothes had to be washed in the staterooms and after 14 days at sea fresh clothes were becoming a problem). |
| 10.12.06 |
The ship reported that 7 of 862 (0.81%) crew and 112 of 2013 (5.56%) passengers had reported ill on the 30 November - 10 December Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale. Symptons were consistent with gastrointestinal illness (e.g., norovirus) |
| 14.5.05 |
The CDC reports that 121of 2000 passengers (6.05%) and 4 of 852 crew members (.47%) reported ill during the May 9 - 16 cruise ending in Whittier, AK. |
| 18.1.05 | The CDC reports that 93 of 2,035 passengers (4.57%) and 5 of 865 crew members (.58%) reported ill with norovirus during the Jan 8 - 18 cruise beginning and ending in Fort Lauderdale. Plans were to have the ship "fogged" before the next cruise. |
| 2.11.04 | The ten-day cruise was struck with an outbreak of illness. According to one passenger: I was confined (quarenteened) to my cabin for 5 days with the Norwalk Virus. I got it 4 days into the sailing and at the 1st port we arrived at. I never left the ship. We were later told that the service in the dining room was so poor because everyone was sick. Then we heard from the entertainer that she had the flu and a fever and was the whole crew was given a vaccine(flu shot). Representatives of the CDC boarded the ship, but no information has yet been released. |
| 20.9.04 | The ship will go through a "super-sanitization" for any
traces of Norwalk-like virus when its arrives at Vancouver today.
101 passengers and 14 crew were reported ill by September 17. The
cruise left Whittier September 13. |
| 13.9.04 | Princess Cruises reported that that 145 of 1998 (7.26%) passengers and 5 of 855 (.58%) crew members were ill. The predominant symptoms were diarrhea and vomitting.. The ship's voyage will ended on September 13, 2004, in Whittier, AK (sailing dates: September 6 - 13). |
| 2.2.03 |
265
passengers and 29 crew came down with a gastrointestinal
illness during the ship's voyage from Los Angeles to Hawaii (Jan. 25 -
Feb. 1). It is suspected to be Norwalk-like virus. After
new cases continued to appear, Princess decided to cut the cruise short
(ending it on February 4th in Honolulu) and to fly passengers back to
the mainland from Hawaii. The ship will be sanitized on its five
day voyage back to Los Angeles (arriving February 9th). |