Cruise ship with sick passengers docks in Halifax
Posted Sep 16, 2013 07:01:17 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s one of the busiest days of the cruise ship season in Halifax, but a familiar and unwelcome problem has popped up for one of the ships steaming into town from Saint John.
A gastrointestinal illness is affecting some people aboard the P & O Cruises ship Aurora.
At this point, it sounds like only about two dozen of the nearly 2,000 passengers have been affected and while there may be some people who are quarantined; the ship isn’t planning on changing its itinerary.
The illness isn’t raising a full alarm, but it might have some Haligonians on edge after an encounter with the norovirus in Aug. 2012 when the carnival glory, which carried some 200 people who had the norovirus, docked at the Port of Halifax.
The Bicycle Thief and Ristorante aMano, had to close after at least 26 staff and customers became ill with what appeared to be the norovirus that was brought off the boat.
Word of the illness comes as cruise season really ramps up in Halifax.
Lane Farguson with the Halifax Port Authority told News 95.7, today is the first time all season four ships will be here at once.
“Our busiest cruise ship day this year is Oct. 8 and on that day we’re expecting approximately 8,700 passengers to be coming through the Port of Halifax,” he said, explaining there’s a reason tourists wait until September and October to come to Nova Scotia.
“One of the big things that really drives our cruise industry here in Nova Scotia is the changing of the fall colours,” explained Farguson.
He added we’re pretty much on pace to host as many people as last year.
“We’re looking at approximately 240,000 cruise ship passengers in addition to all the cruise ship staff who would be visiting the city during those days as well,” he said.
It’s estimated the cruise industry brings in $50-million in spin-off tourist spending each year.
