Don’t shake hands with the captain! Bid to beat cruise bugs

DINING at the captain’s table is, for the lucky few, perhaps the glamorous highlight of a cruise.

But don’t be surprised if he doesn’t stretch out a gold-braided arm in greeting. Some cruise ships have banned passengers from shaking hands with the captain for fear that highly contagious stomach viruses might be passed on.

Outbreaks of norovirus have been known to turn cruises into a nightmare for holidaymakers, leaving them suffering chronic vomiting and diarrhoea.

The attempt to prevent the bug being passed to captains at dinners, cocktail parties and receptions was noted by Margaret Thatcher’s official biographer Charles Moore when he went on his first cruise recently.

Writing in The Spectator magazine about his time on board the £225million Crystal Serenity on a 12-day, £3,700 per person, cruise from Lisbon to London he said: ‘Every effort was made to look after us courteously. Modern standards, however, put things under some strain.

‘As our voyage neared its end, the daily ship newspaper, Reflections, delivered to the door of our cabin (‘stateroom’) said: ‘‘All guests are cordially invited to join Captain Birger J Vorland and Crystal Society Hostess Isabell Wagner in the Palm Court at 7.45pm.

‘While the captain is pleased to meet you, he and the other staff receiving you refrain from shaking hands in order to provide the most effective preventative sanitary measures’’.’

Yesterday a Crystal Cruises spokesman said: ‘It used to be that the captain would shake everyone’s hand. But because norovirus is spread so easily it’s just standard now that when the captains are greeting lots of people they don’t shake hands. They are not being rude, it’s a preventative measure. It’s been the case on our two ships since at least 2008.’

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said the decision was up to individual firms.

A spokesman for Fred Olsen cruise lines said: ‘We can confirm the following wording that we use on our Formal Night entertainments programme: “Captain [insert name] is very pleased to greet all of you; however, he and the other staff receiving you shall refrain from shaking hands. This is in order to provide the most effective sanitary measures”.’

But P&O said: ‘We would encourage everyone to wash hands regularly and always before eating, but the captain certainly does shake hands at his cocktail parties and receptions.’

And a Cunard spokesman said: ‘While I was on Queen Mary 2 last week the captain shook hands with passengers attending the many cocktail parties.’

The CLIA said norovirus outbreaks on ships are uncommon, affecting ‘just one out of every 12,000 cruise passengers’.