WAYMART -- Jane Varcoe of Waymart looks back at photos from St. Thomas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. She just returned from a nine-day Royal Caribbean Cruise last week with about 100 others from the Honesdale area.
"It was the first thing on my bucket list. I didn’t know I was going to kick the bucket. That’s what I felt like, believe me," said Varcoe.
She said by the last day of her trip, she was starting to feel rather ill, but once she returned home from the Explorer of the Seas...
"I was feeling so ill and then all of a sudden the most violent cramping, diarrhea, throwing up, projectile throwing up,” said Varcoe.
That same ship, Explorer of the Seas just cut its next Voyage two days short. At least 600 passengers felt the same way Varcoe did last week.
Travel agents at AAA office in Honesdale said 111 people from this area were on that cruise ship. They’re now reaching out to each and every one of them to find out just how many people got sick.
At the Trackside Grill in Honesdale, owner Jeff Hiller said he too just returned from the Caribbean Cruise. He helped organize the trip and didn’t get sick. He said the ship itself was spotless.
"They were doing everything they could to not let something like that happen regular maintenance that they take care of the thing, they’re constantly cleaning," said Hiller.
Waitress Chistine Noti of Honesdale said she would return to the ship in a heartbeat, saying the vacation was nothing but a dream.
We had the best time ever, best food, the best shows, we had the best time everything was very good," said Noti.
The CDC is investigating just what made so many passengers on the Explorer of the Seas sick, while Varcoe and others back in Honesdale just want to stop this nasty bug from spreading any further.