JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Carnival cruise that sailed off from Jacksonville’s port on a five-day trip to the Bahamas turned into a nightmare for a lot of people as they became ill on the first night.
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Patrick Welsh was on the cruise with his wife when he heard the captain on the loudspeaker announcing the discovery of the illness.
“He said that there’s a large portion of the passengers and crew that has what they believed to be the norovirus,” Welsh said. “We noticed a lot of people were missing and then we weren’t feeling very good.”
Welsh also said they mentioned food poisoning so he avoided the buffet bars.
“It didn’t matter what you were eating on there. It wasn’t safe,” Welsh said.
Welsh’s family and other passengers getting sick caused a lot of things to get canceled.
“I just wanted to get off the ship,” Welsh said. “We were looking forward to this for nine or 10 months, and we were all excited. Now we’ve got people they’re like, ‘Oh, no way.’”
He encouraged people planning on taking a cruise to carry their own hand sanitizer, and medicine, and to wear a mask in crowded areas.
Welsh said everyone he was with either has the flu or covid and they are currently recovering.
News4JAX reached out to Carnival and hasn’t received a response at the time of publishing this article.