Hundreds of Cruise Ship Passengers Infected by Norovirus Outbreak

With another challenge facing the world’s biggest cruise company, a cruise ship operated by Carnival Corp. now has more than 100 people onboard that have fallen ill with a stomach virus. This setback comes just weeks after the company’s Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in Italy. This is one of the three ships that docked in Florida and Louisiana over the weekend with outbreaks of Norovirus

A reported 90 passengers and 13 crew members on the Ruby Princess cruise ship have contracted the Norovirus. A Princess Cruises spokesperson described the virus as a contagious, gastrointestinal illness that causes vomiting and diarrhea for 1 to 3 days.

The ship, the Ruby Princess, set sail on January 29 from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean and returned to Florida on February 5 as scheduled. As of Sunday, the ship has been cleaned and has departed again; passengers waiting to board were informed of the virus and cleanup.

The Crown Princess, another Carnival-operated ship, was infected by the same virus last week, but officials say that vessel has already been sanitized thoroughly and is on its next cruise. This Caribbean cruise has 364 sick passengers, as well as 30 sick crew members out of the 3,100 people on board.

Carnival is still dealing with the financial implications of the Concordia shipwreck, which has caused a lot of questions and concerns regarding the brand and the overall safety of the entire luxury cruise industry. The company is estimated to take a profit hit of over $150 million because of these costs.  They are also now working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify the cause of the outbreaks and to monitor cleaning procedures.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Sea left New Orleans a couple of hours late Saturday because of the same illness where about 200 passengers were infected.