Now that the Royal Caribbean Puke 'n Poop Cruise—the one that left hundreds of passengers and employees erupting bodily fluids from every orifice thanks to a suspected norovirus—has returned to its rightful New Jersey resting place, the lucky few thousand who were trapped on the Big Boat of Bile are speaking out about their week-plus vomit voyage. And, shockingly, it doesn't sound like they'll be getting back out on the high seas any time soon.
Passengers say the mass vomiting and diarrhea started almost immediately after the Caribbean-bound Explorer of the Seas ship departed New Jersey just over a week ago, sickening as many as 900 people within a matter of days. "When we were in the sick bay, people were getting nervous and they started showing up there to try to get help," one sick passenger told NBC News. "Suddenly, there was influx of 150 people." And after a few days, the sick bays were overflowing. "People were puking into their barf bags while waiting,” passenger Tom Gianino told the Daily News. “I only had to wait two hours. Some other people had to wait three or four hours."
Though the cruise stayed at sea for eight of its scheduled 10 day trip, officials from the Center for Disease Control hopped on in the U.S. Virgin Islands in hopes of containing some of the illness; norovirus hasn't officially been declared the culprit, but authorities are testing for the highly contagious disease, which has turned more than one cruise into a cesspool of diarrhea and despair. It is unknown who or what brought the sickness onboard.
The ship docked in Bayonne, N.J. yesterday afternoon, and still-sick passengers are being housed in local hotels and/or hospitals to prevent the spread of symptoms. Meanwhile, if you happen to be looking for a little colonic cleanse of your own, the newly-sanitized Explorer of the Seas will be departing on its next adventure tomorrow afternoon, a nine-day trip to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti—get your tickets while they're hot!
