Our Pacific cruise was over and more sick than ever, and ungodly early in the morning, we slouched ourselves to LAX for a flight back to Nashville, where our car was parked with friends Ric and Kay. It was going to be a long road back up to Beaver Island and another season of managing the Beaver Island Lodge.
It was the first time (and definitely the last time) we sailed on the Crown Princess, which in a deeper study of events, had been prone to serious illness events from the day she was launched. We had taken Delta Airlines from Nashville to LAX the day before the Crown sailed, took a cab from the airport and stayed in a San Pedro hotel that was known for catering to cruise ship guests. The advantage of that approach is that these people offer free shuttle service, know the perfect departure times and have experience in getting your luggage to the ship on time. The night before the cruise we had dinner in a little Mexican Pollo restaurant a block up the street from the hotel, which was excellent.
The cruise ship port of Los Angeles is much smaller that Ft. Lauderdale and probably because of that a bit more chaotic. The check in lines were long and tiring, but once on the ship we went on a search for a smoking area and that became a nuisance because the smoking area on this ship is a cramped and covered area next to a bar on deck 16 with no open air flow.
The problem with this cruise was less the floorpan of the ship or even the small indoor smokers area with little to no ventilation. No, the problem was that the entire cruise was doomed by sickness and a ship hospital that was not prepared, or even equipped, to handle a daily onslaught of patients getting sicker and sicker.
We went on a handful occasions at least to find medicine like cold and flu, Vicks, Nyquil or Dayquil, nose spray, but there was simply nothing available. We checked the stores on the ship for any cough or tight chest relief. Nada. Every port of call became a quest for medicine, but nothing really worked.
Then we heard from crew members that their nickname for the ship was the Death Boat. Turned out that ambulances waiting at our ports of call was for guests, who could not be helped on board anymore. At some ports we detected 3 to 4 ambulances on the pavement, waiting for passengers to be transferred.
It became so bad that fatalities were reported, at least 4 guests died from various causes such as drowning and heart attacks. What’s worse is that the Crown Princess medical staff was not up to facing this situation and when they ran out of medication they closed the hospital wing.
Eventually we made it back to San Pedro, took a tax to LAX and were back in Nashville by late afternoon. We did not want to get our friends sick with this ugly illness so we decided to check into what was a backwater Holiday Inn and drove the next morning to Berea, Kentucky where we stayed for 5 nights in a motel we’d been before. Since TJ was still not getting any better we went to an emergency clinic, where she got a steroid shot and antibiotics. The nurse made a mistake and administered a 15mg shot instead of a 6.5mg shot, so poison control was on our schedule that day, together with the doctor’s sincere apologies. But…the shot worked, because after almost 20 days of coughing and wheezing, she was better the next day,
The most important advice we can pass on after this trip is, to stock up on medications as much as you can. You know there are clothes you’re going to pack for your trip, that you will never wear. Use the space for medications.
It’ll pay off.
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