Norovirus cruise ship passengers keeping positive

A cheerful Sydney family is not letting an outbreak of Norovirus spoil their cruise aboard the Celebrity Solstice that docked at Mount Maunganui today.

John Harrison, who is cruising with his mother and sister, said the crew was working an extra three hours every day just to sanitise the ship.

"They are doing very well."

Harrison said they were not aware when they boarded the ship at Sydney that norovirus had been present aboard the Celebrity Solstice on three previous legs of the cruise.

"A lot of passengers are on multiple legs."

Harrison said he was satisfied with the huge efforts being made by the crew to try and contain the outbreak and they weren't letting it spoil their holiday.

Sister Katy said cabin doors with little dots on the outside indicated that a quarantined passenger was inside. However she had seen a lot of passengers leaving rooms with dots on the doors.

"Big bosses have flown in from the USA to inspect the ship because cases were increasing rather than decreasing. It's up to 150 from 115."

She said the Celebrity Solstice held 3000 passengers.

In a statement provided to the Bay of Plenty Times, it said more than 200 passengers and crew had been struck by the vomiting and diarrhoea bug but it's shipping scheduled was not affected.

Chris Webber from Sydney said he would not eating from the buffet because you could never be too sure.

A couple who declined to be named said norovirus had not affected the enjoyment of their cruise, saying there were hand sanitisers everyone on board the ship to prevent the spread of the illness.

They had experienced the same precautions on previous cruises where norovirus had broken out. It was caused by some people not being hygienic and then it spread because hundreds of people were living in such close proximity to each other.

An American couple Marc and Jan Brashares also said the outbreak was not impacting on the enjoyment of holiday, saying they were happy with the extra precautions being taken on board ship. It included cover being put over the buffet food dishes and staff dishing out the food from the dishes so that passengers were not handling the serving utensils.

"They are keeping things very very clean. Every day they are stressing washy, washy washy," she said.