Over 100 Folks Sick in Outbreak on Princess Cruises Ship within the Caribbean

Norovirus strikes once more. Greater than 100 passengers onboard Caribbean Princess have fallen ailing from the infamous abdomen bug throughout the vessel’s present 13-night Southern Caribbean voyage, which embarked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 28, 2026.

This marks the fourth outbreak of the yr for US-based cruise ships, and is the second outbreak for a Princess Cruises’ ship. Cruise Hive beforehand reported that the brand new Star Princess skilled a norovirus outbreak that sickened over 150 folks in March.

The present outbreak was confirmed by the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) on Might 7, 2026. For context, cruise ships are required to report gastrointestinal outbreaks as soon as 3% of the onboard inhabitants turns into ailing.

On the time of this writing, 102 of the three,116 company onboard have skilled gastrointestinal signs, which equates to three.3% of the passenger inhabitants.

Moreover, 13 of the 1,131 crew members onboard, or 1.2% of staff, have fallen ailing. Which means that a complete of 115 folks have grow to be sick, and it’s all the time doable that extra circumstances will floor earlier than the one-way voyage disembarks in Port Canaveral on Might 11.

Caribbean Princess will proceed with its deliberate calls to Amber Cove, Dominican Republic, on Might 8 and Nassau, Bahamas, on Might 10 earlier than the crusing concludes, with no itinerary modifications reported because of the outbreak.

The 112,894-gross ton ship has already visited Princess Cays within the Bahamas, a number of of the islands within the Netherlands Antilles, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Enhanced Cleansing and Sanitation Underway

Princess Cruises has rolled out enhanced cleansing and sanitation procedures onboard in accordance with the model’s outbreak prevention and response plan and below the steering of the VSP.

This contains elevated cleansing of high-touch surfaces and public areas, in addition to isolating ailing passengers and crew members to mitigate additional unfold.

Moreover, stool samples have been collected from symptomatic passengers to verify that the causative agent was certainly norovirus.

Subsequent, the Grand-class ship and cruise terminal might be totally disinfected on Might 11 earlier than a brand new spherical of company are welcomed onboard in Port Canaveral.

Passengers booked on the Might 11 departure ought to hold a watch out for communication about potential modifications to their embarkation. Typically the cruise line will ask company to delay their arrival on the port when deep cleans are required.

Nevertheless, there are not any anticipated itinerary modifications for the upcoming 6-night Jap Caribbean crusing because of the outbreak or associated cleansing.

Nassau is the primary port name on the subsequent itinerary, and the Bahamas’ capital is barely round 180 nautical miles away from Port Canaveral.

Ought to Cruisers Fear About Outbreaks?

Between information of Caribbean Princess’s outbreak and the hantavirus disaster unfolding onboard MV Hondius within the Atlantic Ocean, it’s solely pure for some cruisers to really feel nervous about getting sick throughout their cruise.

Nevertheless, the variety of outbreaks for ships below the VSP’s jurisdiction is definitely trending down in comparison with final yr, and CDC officers have continued to affirm that the hantavirus poses a very low threat to most of the people.

When it comes to gastrointestinal outbreaks, 17 outbreaks had been confirmed by the VSP by mid-Might of 2025. To this point, solely 4 have been reported in 2026, which is a 76.5% lower in outbreaks when evaluating year-over-year.

Outbreaks on ships exterior of the VSP’s jurisdiction are usually not mirrored in these numbers, nevertheless it’s nonetheless encouraging to see the sample trending downward.

For context, the VSP solely oversees ships which have 13 or extra passengers, are working worldwide itineraries, and name at US ports.