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PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - All aboard the Oasis of the Seas.
The Royal Caribbean cruise ship welcomed its newest group of vacationers one day after returning to port because of an outbreak of norovirus that sickened nearly 500 passengers and crew. The ship's captain confined a hundred people to their quarters as the sickness spread.
Some of the folks coming off the boat on Saturday told FOX 35 what that was like. “To be honest, for the last four days, we've kind of felt like caged dogs,” said William Gleed, “we're not allowed off the ship, there's people being sick. We're being told little information, granted, Royal Caribbean did clean the ship a lot.”
Workers were seen scrubbing the ship both during the voyage and after it docked to clean it all up. Sunday's new flock of travelers said they're confident the oasis of the seas is now ship-shape.
“We feel this is about the cleanest ship we've ever been on. We have absolutely no concern at all,” said passenger Tom Krawczyk.
Passengers said Royal Caribbean handled the outbreak exactly the right way. “I think their customer service was top notch,” said John Michael Brewer, boarding the ship, “they came back a day early, the cleaned the entire boat, and everyone got refunded.”
New passengers said they were taking some precautions. “We brought our hand sanitizer, spoke to the kids about washing their hands,” said Lisa Sheridan, “to be honest, we have no worries.”