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Princess Cruises Changes Ports of Call due to Swine Flu Concerns

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Posted : Tues, 28 Apr 2009 10:30 am PDT
Author : Princess Cruise Line
Category : Press Release | Travel Advisory

The health and well being of our passengers and crew is our foremost priority, and therefore we are monitoring the swine flu situation closely.

Our ships and medical staff are already well equipped to prevent and contain the spread of contagious diseases, including swine flu. Even though the risk of contracting this illness is very low, we will be taking extra precautions, and will be guided by advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Six Princess ships are currently scheduled for calls in Mexican ports through next month. In light of yesterday’s CDC’s travel health warning for Mexico, we have cancelled the two calls scheduled for Mexican ports today — Puerto Vallarta (Sapphire Princess) and Cabo San Lucas (Coral Princess). Further, we have revised the itinerary for Sapphire Princess, replacing the Mexican ports with San Diego and Catalina. We hope that our passengers will understand that these changes were beyond our control and that we have provided them with an attractive, alternative itinerary.

We are in the process of reviewing the other close-in sailings that include Mexican ports and making itinerary changes, and these details will be communicated by tomorrow.

In the meantime, some of the actions we are taking onboard all of our ships include:

· We are enhancing our screening practices for passengers and crew embarking our ships.

· We are adhering to CDC guidelines for reporting and treatment of persons with suspect swine flu.

· We will isolate and treat passengers and crew with suspect swine flu. Anti-viral medications that effectively treat the swine flu are currently available onboard all Princess ships.

· We will continue our rigorous cleaning and sanitization of our ships to minimize the spread of any contagious disease. Our ships are routinely cleaned with a disinfectant proven to be highly effective against the flu.

· We are communicating to our passengers and crew that they should take extra care to practice healthy habits such as washing their hands often.

· We are asking passengers and crew to report to the medical center immediately if they exhibit any symptoms of flu.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and will do everything possible to protect the health of our passengers and crew.

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Posted in Cruise News, Princess Cruises, Travel Warnings | No Comments »

Carnival Cruise Update

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Carnival Cruise Lines has suspended stops at Mexican ports over concerns about swine flu.

The company says it canceled Mexico stops for three ships scheduled to visit the country Tuesday.  Full details will be available by 5pm Wednesday, April 29th. Once final details are confirmed for cruise itinerary changes, we will forward the information to our clients. In the unlikely event that our new itinerary options are not to your clients liking, Carnival will give you the opportunity to reschedule their cruise
at a later date.  Those details will also be made available tomorrow.

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Posted in Carnival, Cruise News, Cruises, Travel Advice, Travel Warnings | 3 Comments »

What you need to know about the Swine Flu

Monday, April 27th, 2009

As you know, the swine flu situation has led a few countries to discourage travel to Mexico and the United States. The U.S. Travel Association will take a lead role in addressing this challenge. While it is important not to minimize the seriousness of the threat, it is critical to be prepared, but not panicked.

  • Click here for Swine Flu talking points
  • Click here for U.S. Travel’s statement.
  • Click here for the CDC website with more information on Swine Flu.
Practice healthy habits to help stop the spread of swine flu
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water.  This removes germs from your skin and helps prevent diseases from spreading.
    • Use waterless alcohol-based hand gels (containing at least 60% alcohol) when soap is not available and hands are not visibly dirty.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and put your used tissue in a wastebasket.
  • If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.
  • Wash your hands after coughing or sneezing, using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand cleaner (with at least 60% alcohol) when soap and water are not available.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs spread that way.
  • Try to avoid close contact with sick people. (Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.)
  • It is important to follow the advice of local health and government authorities.  You may be asked to restrict your movement and stay in your home to contain the spread of swine flu.

If you have specific questions about the swine influenza cases see http://www.cdc.gov/contact/  or call 1-800-232-4636, which is 1-800-CDC-INFO.

To learn more about travel health, visit www.cdc.gov/travel.
More information will be provided as the situation develops. Please continue to check our website on a regular basis for updates.

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Posted in Travel Advice, Travel Warnings | 1 Comment »