Hello.
It i always nice to say a few words to say hello.

Nile sickness?

Is that tummy upset.

John

Hi Dennis
when we booked a Nile cruise (travelling September 2003), quite a few people who'd been before said to us 'You'll be ill, EVERYBODY is, at some stage or another'.

We were on a small boat (Rosa Bianca) and most people had a bit of an upset tummy at some stage during the cruise.
One older chap was ill, got better and then was ill again.
We had a further week in Luxor and a lot of people who'd been on the boat upgraded to half-board in the hotel.
We opted out as we'd had enough of buffet meal and although we ate in some very small, local restaurants and cafes for the second week, we were both fine. We ate freshly cooked, piping hot food.
Some of the people from the boat who were having evening meals in the hotel were ill again.

The second time we went in October 2005 (on a larger boat, Semiramis II) we were pretty much fine.

I don't know the reason for this, maybe some of the uneaten food reappears in a dish the next meal or day.
We are always very careful wherever there is a buffet not to eat anything that looks like it may have been served before in a different guise.

I'd be interested to hear what the content of your actual claim to the Small Claims court actually is.

Good luck with it, anyway.
Polly

Unfortunately cruises on the Nile have a reputation for tummy upsets. Indeed a lot of other cruises have these bouts of illness on board. It doesn't help when there are so many people in a confined space.

I suspect that you won't get too far with a claim - probably have to be put down to an unpleasant experience.

Pippa

Hello Dennis,

In Feb 2006 my wife and I sailed on the Etoile Du Nil - III also I think - booked via Fastrack also. It was evident that some of the buffet food was undercooked (meat balls raw in the centre) and often cool. We avoided such dishes.

Had a trouble-free week apart from the entire electrics being turned-off at about 2:00am - 5:00am on at least two nights. This resulted in inability to flush toilets, no flowing water in cabin bathrooms and no lighting of course.

In my opinion, I'd save yourself the hassle and the cost of lodging a County Court claim. I doubt you'll have a case unless you can prove conclusively that Fastrack are aware of actions being undertaken on the boat that are hazardous to health. This would require more than the belief that the food was bad quality.

We spent our second week at the Sonesta St. George in Luxor - extremely good hotel with excellent food including breakfast and dinner buffets. Again we suffered no ill effects whatsoever and I ate traditional Egyptian food (metzes ?) on 3 lunch times.

There is a lot of information on the net about cruise ship sickness. Google 'norvo virus' and there are heaps of links to cruise ships and complaints about passenger sickness.
A couple of years ago my work collegue went on the P&O cruise ship Pacific Sky that leaves Sydney for the Pacific Islands. This was to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary and so they took their two teenage sons and shared a cabin. My friends husband and two sons came down with the norvo virus and was so ill on the cruise she ended up nursing all 3 (good job she was a nurse) They were quarantined on the ship (not complaining about that necessity) However, they missed visiting some of the islands and all the pleasures the ship had to offer other passengers who had not been infected. They were not given any house keeping support and had to beg for extra linen (after her 18 year old soiled the bed because there were 3 of them all needing the same toilet at the same time) This is the abridged version of events as it's far worse.
I helped her compose a letter to P&O and they offered her a discount on her next cruise with them... but it had to be used up within a time frame. When she refused their offer they then reduced the time frame making it virtually impossible to use anyway... like she wanted another cruise with them anyway.
Passengers from Melbourne rang up the talk back radio station 3AW and complained that it was a nightmare cruise and hundreds of passengers were very sick. I heard this and knowing my friend was on that ship at that time I asked her when I got into work how her cruise went.... AGH! shouldn't have done that because it was dreadful and far worse than the 3AW report.
P&O claimed that another passenger brought the virus on board ... that old chestnut.
There is an Australian consumer web site called 'notgoodenough' and although NGE took up the cause I'm afraid P&O just ignored them.
I guess it's all down to proof when you became infected... and they know it.
Cheers Gerry

Hi Dennis,

Often this is a case of being on a different diet, overeating, the heat and eating from buffets. There is loads of advice on HT as to what to avoid at buffets.
It's often very hard to prove a case in situations like this and sadly I don't think you'd get far. You'd need to prove the company were aware of the conditions, food hygiene and cleanliness problems etc.
Sorry but my advice would be to accept it as one of those things and put it down to experience.

we went on the nile cruise last year (2006) posted on this page and had sickness plus most of the ship had it as well it ruined our holiday. anyway i am just telling everyone that after going to the small claims court. whe have won our case and got all our money we paid for the so called holliday and plus all cost involved with the small claims court.
people think that you go on holidays and if it goes wrong you put it down to bad experience. not the case. buy something from a shop and it is faulty you take it back and get a refund. we should all do the same with faulty holidays. never mind that the holiday is abroad as long as you booked with a uk travel office or in our case via a advert plassed on teletext your are entitled to make a claim, see your doctor on return this also helps...
dennis

Thank you for letting us know the outcome Dennis - pleased that you received your money back