My fiancé and I booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess from November 24 thru November 29, 2014. Since I had never cruised before, and she had cruised upwards of 30 times and had reached Platinum level benefits, she advised me about what to expect on a cruise. One of the things she could not stress enough was to wash my hands, wash my hands, and wash my hands. Additionally, she told me there would be Purell anti-bacterial stations all over the ship and highly suggested I use them as often as possible.

We boarded the Caribbean Princess early afternoon on Monday November 24th and as we approached the Horizon Court a little while later, I did see Purell stations in the dining areas. They were located on the dining room walls as well as the entrances and exits of the buffets lines. The entrance lines to the buffets had a ship employee standing by the Purell stations as a reminder to use them, however, it was not communicated as a must. Nevertheless, I always took advantage of using the Purell at every opportunity I had.

As the first day became the second and the trip continued, I started to observe things that I initially tried to overlook like the yellow staining on the bottom of the toilet seat in our stateroom. As a man, I always put the seat up when I urinate. Therefore I immediately noticed this stain and pointed it out to Tracy. We tried our best to put it out of our mind, along with the cracking of the caulking around our stateroom’s sink and what strongly appeared to be black mildew in the cracking caulk. If a toilet seat is yellow stained, especially near the front of the seat, it is not something that just occurred, but has been building up for some time. The same goes for black mildew on caulk. Read more