Nearly 100 people have been sickened by an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on a Royal Caribbean cruise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 89 passengers of the 2,164 aboard the Radiance of the Seas cruise have been affected by the stomach bug, which is about 4.1% of the passengers, the CDC said. Only two of the 910 crew members have been affected.
The CDC did not specify what type of gastrointestinal illness caused the outbreak, but the victims reported having diarrhea and vomiting.
James D. Morgan/ Getty Images
The cruise left Tampa, Florida on Feb. 1, setting out on a seven-day voyage that would see stops in Mexico, Honduras and Belize before returning to the U.S. on Saturday, according to CruiseMapper.
The CDC said the outbreak was reported to its Vessel Sanitation Program on Tuesday.
The sick passengers and crew members have been isolated from the rest of the people on the ship, the CDC said. The ship has also “Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures” and “collected stool specimens … for testing.”
“Enhanced measures have been implemented onboard in an abundance of caution to protect the health and comfort of all our guests and crew,” a Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson told CBS News on Friday.
Tracking outbreaks on ships
The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program tracks illness outbreaks on cruise ships each year.
While it did not specify what caused the latest outbreak, it says norovirus is often the culprit for such outbreaks.
“Finding the agent that caused an outbreak (causative agent) can take time,” the CDC said.
Norovirus, which is sometimes called the “cruise ship virus,” causes more than 90% of diarrheal disease outbreaks on cruise ships, according to the CDC. However, norovirus outbreaks can happen anywhere, and outbreaks on cruise ships account for only a small percentage of all reported norovirus outbreaks.
There are about 2,500 reported norovirus outbreaks in the U.S. each year.
In 2025 so far, the CDC has logged six outbreaks on cruise ships — three of which were attributed to the norovirus. One of the outbreaks this year, on Silversea Cruises’ Silver Ray voyage in January, was caused by E. coli, the CDC said.
A voyage is included on the CDC’s list if it reported more than 3% of its passengers or crew reporting gastrointestinal symptoms.
Norovirus outbreaks are usually more common during cooler months, typically happening from November to April in countries above the equator, according to the CDC.
