P&O Cruises has just announced that its parent company Carnival Corporation is about to build it a superliner. The cruiseliner will be capable of carrying 3,611 passengers, 600 more than any of its current fleet. Quite impressive! But how easy is it to catch an illness or virus while on a cruise?

It’s yet to be named, but delivery is expected around March 2015. The announcement from Carnival explained that the liner offers
“…an unprecedented number of passenger facilities, along with many of the brand’s classic features.”

Our experience at accidents-abroad.com is that sadly, there are an increasing number of holiday illness claims being made, many of them as a result of cruise complaints. Long gone are the days when holidaymakers will accept being told that they are suffering from “traveller’s diarrhea” or that “it must be the hot weather”.

The advent of superliners of the scale that P&O Cruises will be bringing into service mean that the scope for large scale infection and illness increases. One of the great things about liners of this size are that there is fantastic scope for many high quality facilities. The not so great, but inevitable thing is that when so many people are together within a reasonably confined space, it’s a breeding ground for bacteria. This means that there is a huge susceptibility to an outbreak of disease or illness. Sometimes it can be controlled easily, but sometimes it’s more difficult.

One of the other issues is that the demographic of your typical cruiseliner customer tends to be a bit more mature and sadly, that makes them more susceptible to contracting various illness or diseases.

Statistics from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention require any outbreak (defined as 3% or more of the vessel’s population) is reported if that ship is due to dock at a US port. There have been 5 outbreaks reported so far this year, but no doubt many more vessels that don’t dock in the US have been affected.

One of the most disappointing aspects of becoming ill on holiday is that you are usually confined to your cabin to prevent further infection to other passengers. Whilst this course of action does help protect others, it is bitterly disappointing for those who were looking forward to a holiday of a lifetime and often end up with the holiday from hell.

We have helped a significant number of people who have been affected by these issues to bring holiday compensation claims. Most of them do so on a no win, no fee basis. Let’s hope that having a bigger doesn’t mean a bigger proportion of people getting ill!