Did Camilla Create a New Titanic?

By Pamela Mortimer

This is how it all starts. A brand new luxury cruise liner prepares to set sail for a 16 day Christmas cruise. Camilla, the infamous Duchess of Cornwall, prepares to christen the new ship with the traditional bottle of champagne. Nothing happens. Legend has it that if a champagne bottle refuses to break across the bow of a ship, there will be bad juju. Apparently, the ship’s captain is not superstitious since the ship set sail on schedule. While on the high seas, 78 passengers were stricken with a vicious intestinal bug.

The Queen Victoria, a $600 million ship, was named in a ceremony in Southampton, U.K. It was during the naming ceremony that Camilla was unsuccessful in smashing a bottle of champagne against the bow. This is known as a traditional omen of bad luck.

The 90,000-ton ship launched on its journey for a Christmas cruise around the Canary Islands. Mere days into the ship's maiden voyage a great number of passengers were inflicted with the vicious norovirus bug. Noroviruses, or Norwalk-like viruses, are a group of viruses that are the cause of stomach flu or gastroenteritis. Symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps, with some people also suffering from headache, chills, muscle aches, fatigue, and a low-grade fever. While the illness often shows a rapid onset, most people are able to recover in one or two days.

A spokesman for the ship's parent company, Cunard, stated that the ailing passengers have been quarantined and that the crew was thoroughly disinfecting all public areas.

The intestinal bug is highly contagious and "meticulous" personal hygiene regimes must be maintained if it is to be controlled, the spokesman explained. He added that it was a possibility a passenger brought the bug onto the cruise liner. There have been cases of similar outbreaks on previous cruises, all of which have been linked to poor hygiene by the ship’s food-related staff.

The UK Daily Mail reported that ship passenger and Formula 1 motor-racing champion Sir Jackie Stewart referred to the voyage as the "cruise from hell". The Daily Mail also reported complaints from passengers complaining about "appalling" service and clogged toilets. Others relayed terrifying tales of a woman collapsing in the ship's dining room and of a man who died on board from a heart attack. Authorities state that the death was not related to the virus.

Many passengers plan to seek compensation over the outbreak. The cost of the voyage on the five-star liner ran between $2,200 and $48,000 per person.

Jean Trainor, 49, a resident from Blackburn, Lancashire, claimed: "No hygiene rules were implemented until people fell ill. If they had been, maybe this could have been avoided."