I just returned from sailing on a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on board Royal Caribbean's largest ship Liberty of the Seas. It was the ships 5th sailing.

Embarkation: We arrived at the Miami cruise port at noon. About 400 or so passengers made it through security and check-in fairly quickly. Once we were checked in, all 400 of us were escorted to a "holding area". It was my understanding and many other passengers as well, that we were not allowed to board the ship early because it was being sanitized. The previous voyage had an outbreak of the noro virus. We were allowed to board some time around 2:00 - 3:00p.m.

Noro Virus: Lucky for us this sailing only had 6 to 8 cases reported compared to the previous weeks where more than 200 cases were reported. According to our dining room waiter our cruise was the "healthiest" since the 1st sailing. He said weeks 2, 3 and 4 were pretty bad. Unfortunately the 2 families in the cabins across from us were asked to leave the ship. We were told that their son vomited on deck and they were told they had to leave the ship right away. RCCL did not want to take a chance that this little boy had the noro virus. My thought is that maybe he ate something that did not agree with him. I suppose better safe than sorry. Read more