That's what happened in Italy. Premature evacuation.

TV's Vinnie: Makes you wonder if the cruise lines are operating much the way General Motors did (at least, I hope they're still not doing that). They know they're sending out dangerous crap and they know they're gonna take a hit from lawsuits, but they balance the sh*tload of money they'll make and just regard the impending settlement money as part of the overall expense.

(Assuming they'll get sued at all. Seems there's some real legal voodoo going on where the people who were on board the Costa Concordia may not be able to sue for anything).

I have only one datapoint here: Mrs. Warthog and I took a cruise on Royal Caribbean. A day or two into the cruise, she got sick with Norovirus (which she'd likely contracted before leaving home -- it was making the rounds in our area). She went to the ship doc, who gave her a bunch of gatoraid and a 48 hour quarantine order. I was quarrantined for a day too. They gave us a simple choice: 1) spend two days quarantined in our cabin, get a credit for the cost of those two days, watch as much free pay per view as we could, use unlimited free internet for two days (usually expensive on board), and have meals delivered to our cabin; OR 2) get put off at the next port (Antigua, I think), get handed to the local health authorities, stay in quarantine with them, and then pay our own way home. We picked 1.

So my sense is at least some cruiselines take noro seriously, do whatever they can to mitigate it, and don't just say "ha ha too bad" to the passengers.

/CSB

they have an ointment for that