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Holiday turned into a voyage to hell
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Friday 7th Nov 2003.
TWO Swindon passengers on the cruise liner turned into a "prison ship" by a horrendous stomach bug have spoken of their nightmare trip.
Leigh Payne, 28, and Julianne Horgan, 24, were among the 600 passengers on board the P&O Aurora who fell victim to a highly contagious virus, forcing the ship to be quarantined.
The liner docked in Southampton's Mayflower Terminal yesterday, marking an end to the ill-fated voyage.
Mr Payne, a sales executive for an IT firm, and Mrs Horgan, a recruitment consultant, were both struck down by the Norovirus, which causes severe vomiting and chronic diarrhoea.
They were both sick for three days and ordered to stay in their cabin for fear of spreading the contagious virus.
Mr Payne said: "If you touched anyone else, it would pass on the bug. It was so contagious, it would spread at the slightest contact."
He described how passengers kept each other at arm's length.
He said: "After we had recovered we sat down for dinner and you could tell everyone was scared to touch the same things as anyone else."
Many of the passengers, who paid between £1,500 and £5,500 for the 17-day cruise are now said to be seeking compensation from P&O for their "holiday from hell."
Mrs Horgan was disappointed she was unable to leave the ship when it reached Greece because she studied the country's history at college.
She said: "It was such a shame to be told we couldn't go onshore. I had been looking forward to it for ages."
Some 580 of the 1,800 holidaymakers aboard P&O's £200 million flagship caught the virulent stomach bug after she left Southampton for a 17-day cruise on October 20.
A total of 29 crew members also came down with the Norovirus.
Greece refused Aurora permission to dock at the port of Piraeus because of the virus. Only holidaymakers free of the bug were allowed ashore during stops at Dubrovnik in Croatia and Venice.
When the ship finally docked in Gibraltar it sparked a major diplomatic dispute, as Spain closed its border with the Rock for the first time since it fully opened 18 years ago.
The 76,000-tonne Aurora has an unhappy history, dating back to its official naming ceremony in May 2000, when a bottle of champagne swung by Princess Anne failed to smash and fell into the dock a traditional sign of bad luck.
On her maiden voyage the German-built liner broke down, leaving P&O with a £6 million compensation bill.
P&O have insisted that there are no sanitation problems on board the ship. The firm believes that the Norovirus was brought on board by a passenger before it left.
l A passenger has said she will be suing P&O Cruises for taking her "hostage" during her voyage.
Michelle Seaborn, who appeared on Channel 4's Wife Swap, said that she and her husband Barry had been denied permission to leave the ship at Gibraltar and fly back to the Uk, even though they were given the all clear that they didn't have the virus.
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