British couple 'locked in cabin' for 48 hours on 'nightmare' cruise
A British couple say they were "treated like dogs" when a vomiting bug broke out while they were on a cruise holiday.
Shaun and Elizabeth Shields, from Leicester, said they were locked in their cabin for 48 hours as staff attempted to control an outbreak of norovirus on a ship called Island Escape.
The couple are among nearly 200 passengers who have received compensation for the incident, which occurred near the Canary Islands in January 2010.
Shaun, 56, caught the bug four days into the holiday. He said his wife was not allowed out for a cigarette, even though she wasn't ill, and they were only fed crackers and cheese.
Speaking to the Leicester Mercury, Shaun said: "We were treated like dogs.
"My wife wasn't even ill but we were both locked in our cabin. We were told it was so we didn't spread the disease."
When they were finally allowed out, the couple saw "people being sick everywhere" with around 100 people being ill.
He described the cruise, operated by Tui, as the "the worst holiday we have been on", and the couple received more than £1,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Tui UK Ltd has agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to around 200 passenger claiming compensation for holidays ruined by norovirus outbreaks on the Island Escape between December 2009 and June 2010.
However, the company does not admit liability.
Back in March, over 130 passengers who fell ill on board nine separate cruise ships between October 2009 and May 2010 won a £280,000 group settlement.
Travel law specialists Irwin Mitchell, who also worked on Shan and Elizabeth's case, launched the legal action on behalf of the passengers who suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting and severe stomach cramps on board Fred Olsen's Boudicca cruise ship.
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MORE! Back in January, around 300 passengers became ill on a Royal Caribbean cruise. See the story below:
