A peaceful vacation turned into an emergency situation for a number of people onboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas cruise ship.
According to CNN, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a gastrointestinal outbreak this week on the cruise, affecting almost 100 out of 2,164 passengers onboard.
The CDC did not specify the type of gastrointestinal illness but mentioned that the predominant symptoms were vomiting and diarrhea.
This particular journey for the Radiance of the Seas started on February 1 and is scheduled to end on Saturday, February 8.
The outbreak was first reported to the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) on Tuesday, February 4.
Along with isolating sick passengers from the rest of the ship, the cruise has “increased cleaning and disinfection procedures” and “collected stool specimens…for testing.”
The VSP said in its report that “norovirus is often a cause of gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships, but we don’t always know the cause of the outbreak when we begin an investigation. Finding the agent that caused an outbreak (causative agent) can take time.”
Norovirus cases saw an increase at the start of 2025, with 2024 being the worst year in over a decade for stomach bugs on cruise ships.
To help avoid the spread of illness, the CDC encouraged in the shared report to wash hands frequently and get plenty of rest and water.
