Or maybe more to the point, have you ever cruised with Fred Olsen? On the Balmoral maybe?
If you have then there's a good chance you'll have come across it before without even realising what it is.
If you're wondering what on Earth I'm talking about then maybe I should explain a little........
I was talking to a passenger of mine yesterday who'd just returned from a cruise holiday on Fred Olsens cruise ship the Balmoral. We were discussing how the cruise had went, (he'd had a great time by the way), when he mentioned a few of the guests onboard had come down with the 'Balmoral bark'.
The Balmoral bark is a phrase that regular guests, (apparently), use to describe the cough they invariably catch when they cruise on the Balmoral. My passenger said he's even heard the ships Doctor use the phrase in the past.
From what he's heard onboard, (and I should clarify at this point this is all cruise gossip and rumour), there's a problem with the air conditioning on the Balmoral drying out the air and causing a cough amongst the guests.
at this point that I think it says a lot about Fred Olsen and the Balmoral in general that even knowing this he continues to cruise on the ship but it did leave me curious -
Is this true? Have any of you ever heard this phrase before? Have you been on the ship and caught the Balmoral bark?
I'll be shocked if it is true as it seems to me Fred Olsen should have replaced the air conditioning a long time ago if they're aware of this. So what do you think? Can any of my readers shed any light on this subject?
Happy cruising
It's most definitely completely true. We were on three Balmoral cruises in 2012, and we have just got back from one segnment of its current world cruise. We boarded the ship at Acapulco, and immediately the cough could be heard everywhere. I did hear that the new passengers were blamed for this which as far as I am concerned that was totally untrue. The 'shop' on board was full of cold and cough products, and there seemed to be a vast trade in these products.
ReplyDeleteAt our evening dining restaurant (Spey)a lady who was on our table who was on the complete world trip had a dreadful cough, she said she had had it for over three weeks, caught on the boat. After a further four weeks (when we left the ship at Sydney), she still had the cough? She been to the ships doctor a number of occasions, including two courses of antibiotics! I seriously wonder what her medical fees were, quite considerable I imagine.
Two weeks into the holiday I had a seriously sore throat, and a cough which was at it very worst at night. I noted that my bed position was immediately under the linear grill of the air conditioning, and that my coughing started as soon as the system came on. Fortunately I managed to rid myself of the cough after 4 or 5 days, BUT it could be heard at everywhere and at every juncture, including lectures, breakfast, lunch and dinner, on trips, even on the aeroplane returning to the UK! It even became a 'standard' joke by some of the entertainers?
What happened on the world cruise is exactly the same as happened on the round UK cruise, the Norway/Iceland cruise, and the garden cruise to the canary isles, all of which we were passengers.
I do believe there is a serious problem here, and I also believe it does involve the ventilation system. If you venture on deck, you will find there are many locations where extracted air is being extracted from the ship OVER SEATED PASSENGERS, and I do wonder what sort of filtration is used and how often it is serviced?
Maybe the passengers shortly returning from the complete world cruise should be asked for their honest opinion? Despite all of this what do Fred Olsens staff say? I THINK THE MEDICAL STAFF and THE SHOP HAVE A GOOD REVENUE RETURNS FROM THIS ISSUE. HAS ANYONE ELSE ANY COMMENTS REGARDING 'THE COUGH'.