I got back from a fantastic Caribbean cruise celebrating my parent’s 50th anniversary and find myself sick all week! I went to the doctor for antibiotics and left work early after I met a deadline. (That’s the only reason I drug myself there in the first place.) Now I know why I’ve been sick. Here’s author John Derbyshire’s explanation of what happened to him after a cruise:
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“Cruising for health A cruise ship is the healthiest place you can be. Imagine an outbreak of, say, stomach flu on a cruise ship. With a high proportion of oldsters on board, there would likely be a death or two, and consequent lawsuits. Even without that, the cruise line would lose millions from the publicity.
Those in charge are not going to let this happen. The crews on these ships are trained rigorously in hygiene. All surfaces are scrubbed and inspected constantly. Food with the least mark of unfreshness will feed the fishes. The air quality is likewise closely monitored: Legionnaires’ Disease is another nightmare for the owners.
So strong are these obsessions that seasoned cruisers whisper dark tales of people taken ill on board ship who mysteriously vanish — hustled away to an airtight room somewhere in the bowels of the vessel. I haven’t yet heard a version in which the invalid’s cabin itself disappears, as in one telling of the classic Paris Exposition urban legend, but if there is not currently such a story going round, I am sure there soon will be.
The downside of all that hygienic purity is that one’s immune system, seeing that there is nothing for it to do, does an automatic power-down. It’s still slumbering when you reach dry land at the end of the cruise and get on a plane to go home. Now, the cabin of a plane is one of the least healthy places on earth. Passing from cruise ship to plane cabin is like going from an iPod assembly room to the Congo basin. Result: I spent much of the post-cruise week moaning and coughing in bed with a savage bad cold.”
This makes me feel better. Cruise pix to follow.
Notes from Aunt Gem 