We were on the Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas 19-26 Nov over Thanksgiving when there were 4,300 guests on the ship 1,000 of whom were children and that week also had hundreds of guests sick. Everyone we talked to on the ship was either sick or one of their traveling companions was sick. My wife was sick for three days; I came down with it the last day as did the kid; just as WFTigers said: about a third of the people crew and passengers got sick over the week. I think that Rae's comments about not bashing the cruised lines because there is nothing they can do is wrong. There is plenty that the cruise lines can do.

The cruise lines do a very poor job of protecting guests from diseases. The only message was to frequently wash your hands (there were hand sanitizers in key locations). However, at the buffet you have serving spoons that drop into the bowls such that the spoon lays in the food getting sticky so that when you pick-up the serving spoon you transfer anything on your fingers onto the sticky spoon that then rests back in the food. Our assistant waiter served us when he was sick and then missed the next day, but was right back the following day despite a supposed rule about taking time off for intestinal disorders. Many guests reuse their dirty plates at the buffet – if you think about this it means that saliva transferred to forks and spoons while eating is transferred to the plate. Using the dirty plate can transfer saliva to the serving spoons when the dirty plate is used to take a second helping. Some food such as slices of cheese and slices of meat are laid out flat and are so difficult to grab with the tongs (which rest on the food) that people use their fingers. Children sample food with their fingers and rearrange food items with their hands to get to the item they want.

I understand that many of these issues have to do with poor practices by guests, but there are plenty of steps that the cruise lines could take to minimize the risks: smaller serving bowls with large spoons that physically won't fit to fall into the bowl; Tongs on "bungee cords" that won't rest on the food. Rolls of food that can easily be grabbed with tongs; Clear signs about not using fingers and taking clean plates.

We spent an hour at the muster station learning evacuation procedures in the very unlikely event the ship sinks, but not five minutes learning how to protect ourselves and others from diseases that are very likely. Perhaps the cruise lines could have a Stay Healthy orientation to emphasize safe food handling practices for guests. After working through the buffet and watching people get their hands all over the food we were ready to put our plates down and go to the dining room to be served by waiters. I don't understand how the kitchen staff could possible watch their food be repeatedly contaminated by dirty hands and not immediately implement procedures where the guests even at the buffet are served by food server personnel.

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