Take a cruise? No thanks, not me

By Joel Widzer

Travel columnist

updated 12:34 p.m. ET June 4, 2007

Joel Widzer Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

I've never taken a cruise.

Friends rave about their relaxing days at sea experiencing cruise-ship luxury and fabulous food, but I don't see the appeal. I originally balked because being stuck on a boat for days at a time just isn't my cup of tea. I'm more of an out-and-about kind of guy. But after the recent rash of stories about such cruise-industry problems as noroviruses, missing passengers, pirates and sinkings, I think my chances of taking a cruise are now slim to none.

Am I being too hard on the cruise industry? Are the stories all overblown? I don't think so. In fact, I think my landlubber resolve is well warranted. I am concerned about both health and safety aboard ship. I also think cruising is costly, inconvenient and environmentally unfriendly.

Let me tell you why.

Disease and danger
Reading recent news reports, it's hard not to see cruise ships as anything but bacteria-filled tubs. In just the past two years, reports of cruise passengers falling ill have filled the pages of newspapers and travel blogs. Many of the reports center on noroviruses, a group of viruses that causes gastroenteritis, whose symptoms are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. According to a fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cruise ships are frequently affected by outbreaks of norovirus because they dock in countries where sanitation can be poor and because the tight quarters aboard ship facilitate transmission of the virus. Further, the boarding of "new and susceptible passengers every 1 or 2 weeks" creates a condition where the disease can be sustained over successive cruises; in fact, the CDC says that outbreaks extending beyond 12 successive cruises have been reported.

Not even the iconic grand luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 is immune from the virus. A news report in January said that 276 passengers and 28 crew members on an around-the-world cruise aboard the ship experienced symptoms of norovirus — that was 17 percent of the passengers, a particularly high number according to the CDC. One Web site that tracks the cruise industry states that there were 53 reports of norovirus aboard cruise ships in 2006, sickening 6,698 passengers and crew members. Another 117 passengers and crew were reported to have been afflicted with E. coli infections.

Safety is another big concern. Indeed, a litany of dangers might await you on your voyage — everything from sinking ships to missing passengers. In April, a Greek cruise ship sank off the coast of Santorini, and a U.S. cruise ship recently ran aground off the coast of Alaska, forcing the evacuation of all the passengers. And what about pirates? No, I'm not kidding. One recent story reported pirates wielding machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the Seabourn Spirit off the east coast of Africa two years ago but were foiled when the ship took evasive action and sounded an ear-splitting alarm.

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As for missing passengers, who can forget George Smith, the honeymooner who disappeared from a Royal Caribbean ship two years ago, leaving blood behind on a metal overhang. Despite claiming that the family's lawsuit was false and frivolous, Royal Caribbean settled with Smith's wife for nearly $1 million in January 2007. Commenting on the case during a congressional hearing in 2005, Rep. Chris Shays, from the couple's home state of Connecticut, said, "We think that people are not aware of some of the challenges [on cruises] and some of the potential problems they encounter."

I think that's putting it mildly.

Another pressing but often unreported problem is the rising incidence of sexual assault on board cruise ships. During a March 2007 Congressional hearing, Professor Ross Klein of Memorial University of Newfoundland, who monitors the cruise industry, used the industry's own numbers to demonstrate that cruise passengers may have a 50 percent greater chance of being sexually assaulted aboard ship than on land. According to the International Cruise Victims Organization, many incidents of shipboard sexual assault go unreported because passengers "often feel alone and frustrated by the jurisdictional uncertainties and poor treatment by cruise companies."

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