Princess Cruises: Swine Flu Statement

10:30 am PDT: The health and well being of our passengers and crew is our foremost priority, and therefore we are monitoring the swine flu situation closely. Our ships and medical staff are already well equipped to prevent and contain the spread of contagious diseases, including swine flu. Even though the risk of contracting this illness is very low, we will be taking extra precautions, and will be guided by advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Six Princess ships are currently scheduled for calls in Mexican ports through next month. In light of yesterday's CDC's travel health warning for Mexico, we cancelled the two calls scheduled for Mexican ports today--Puerto Vallarta (Sapphire Princess) and Cabo San Lucas (Coral Princess). Further, we have revised the itinerary for Sapphire Princess, replacing the Mexican ports with San Diego and Catalina. We hope that our passengers will understand that these changes were beyond our control and that we have provided them with an attractive, alternative itinerary.

We are in the process of reviewing the other close-in sailings that include Mexican ports and making itinerary changes, and these details will be communicated by tomorrow. In the meantime, some of the actions we are taking onboard all of our ships include:

• We are enhancing our screening practices for passengers and crew embarking our ships.
• We are adhering to CDC guidelines for reporting and treatment of persons with suspect swine flu.
• We will isolate and treat passengers and crew with suspect swine flu. Anti-viral medications that effectively treat the swine flu are currently available onboard all Princess ships.
• We will continue our rigorous cleaning and sanitization of our ships to minimize the spread of any contagious disease. Our ships are routinely cleaned with a disinfectant proven to be highly effective against the flu.
• We are communicating to our passengers and crew that they should take extra care to practice healthy habits such as washing their hands often.
• We are asking passengers and crew to report to the medical center immediately if they exhibit any symptoms of flu.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and will do everything possible to protect the health of our passengers and crew. For US passenger inquiries, contact 1-800-PRINCESS.