I wanted to take a moment to put down some thoughts regarding our recent cruise on the Crown Princess. We cruised 2/4 through 2/18, our first planned back to back...which mostly went as planned minus a few well documented days. Much has been stated regarding the Noro outbreak and I probably can't add anything new. It certainly made for a strange first week, but the second week went well.
General Thoughts
The ship was the cleanest we have ever sailed on. After a 6 hour cleaning on 2/4 and then a two day sanitation from 2/9 through 2/11, we weren't surprised. Every inch was sparkling, the shower curtain seemed new each time, everything was stripped and replaced, etc. A major shout out has to go to the crew for everything they had to go through. They were short staffed to begin with and all the extra work really took its toll. It was obvious people were stressed the week of 2/4. It seemed like the Noro outbreak continued to escalate starting on Day 1 and the week was probably doomed from the start, but the CDC did give Princess the OK to sail. In retrospect, they probably shouldn't have, but it's easy to look back now and second guess some of the decisions that were made.