My husband and I were passengers on the Queen Elizabeth for the San Francisco to Sydney Cruise which took place on February 5, 2018 to February 28, 2018 to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary. This was meant to be a trip of a lifetime. We are both in our mid/end-70’s and generally in good health, up to date with our vaccines, and pride ourselves on our immune strengthening nutrition. We truly appreciated the frequent reminders on board regarding sanitizing our hands and the general cleanliness on the ship.

However, as the Cruise went on and we were well into the main part of our trip, we both caught a severe and deep seated cough that lasted well beyond our trip and after we returned home. We had noticed that an ever-increasing number of passengers were apparently plagued by the same, very nagging, illness. About a week after the situation had gotten worse, we visited the Medical Office on board. We were reluctantly told that we might consider a shot of some sort. However, after talking to a passenger who been given this shot, we were told that they had felt no improvement. Based on this information and lack of contact to our physician, we stuck to cough medication bought on board and on land to at least suppress the cough when we left our state room. Needless to say, our ‘trip of a lifetime experience’ was dampened by an illness we had not prepared for but was obviously known to occur. Unfortunately, we were not able to fully enjoy the beautiful offerings this cruise, the ship and cruise line had to offer.

Furthermore, while visiting Sydney afterwards, we noticed that the ‘Cunard Cruise Ship Cough’ was a well-known reoccurrence. We were repeatedly approached, while waiting for our luggage, by other passengers asking us whether we caught the ‘Cunard Cruise Ship Cough’ as well. This was an eyeopener for us since we then realized that many other passengers had the same symptoms! Read more