North Attleboro Man Sickened At Sea Praises Ship's Crew
NORTH ATTLEBORO (CBS) - A North Attleboro couple is back home after surviving a cruise ship loaded with norovirus. "Some people were sick for three or four days, it was pretty rough," says Dennis Boutin.
He was one of 700 on board the Explorer of the Seas, who came down with the virus, which causes nausea and diarrhea. Like the others who caught the devastating virus, Dennis was quarantined. "They put a yellow dot on your door, if you had it. Funny thing, though, my wife never got it. But one day, in the beginning, there were 300 people in line outside the medical office. It wasn't pretty."
The ship was in the Caribbean, and tried to dock at several ports, but was turned away until they were welcomed in the Virgin Islands. That's when officials from the CDC boarded, to start their investigation. Then, the ship headed for it's home port of Bayonne, New Jersey.
But Boutin says the ship's crew did all they could to contain the virus. "They were disinfecting everything, even the bottoms of chairs," he says.
He said officials went so far as to hand out free alcohol, the kind you drink. "Yea, everyone got free drinks," he said. "So the people who weren't sick were very happy!"