Another Year, Another Norovirus Outbreak Sickening Hundreds Of Cruise Ship Passengers

(Royal Caribbean)

The good news? We made it an entire month into 2015 without having to report on yet another norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship. The stomach-turning news? That break hasn’t lasted long, as a Royal Caribbean ship was forced to return to port earlier than planned after more than 200 onboard fell ill with a bad case of the barfs.

The Grandeur of the Sea’s scheduled nine-day cruise to Jamaica was cut short when the ship returned to Baltimore, reports WTOP.com, carrying 193 passengers and nine crew members who were sickened by the norovirus.

“Those affected by the short-lived illness are responding well to over-the-counter medication administered on board the ship,” says a Royal Caribbean spokesperson.

And as these things go, it doesn’t sound like it was a fun time for those involved.

“High fever, extreme stomach flu, I guess you could call it. You’re in your room for more than a day,” one passenger told the news station.

It’s not the ship’s first brush with barf, or bad luck in general — last April more than 100 passengers on the trip came down with norovirus. In May, it caught fire at sea. No one was injured.

The cruise line says the ship is being cleaned and disinfected, and a shaman will be attending it to cleanse it of further bad juju. That last part is actually just my advice.

More than 200 sickened aboard Baltimore cruise ship [WTOP.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist