180+ Royal Caribbean Passengers Sick with Gastrointestinal Illness
More than 180 people onboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas reported being sickened from a gastrointestinal outbreak. Symptoms included abdominal cramps, diarrhea, headache, and muscle aches. The ship was on an Alaskan cruise at the time, sailing from Vancouver, Canada.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged 10 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on cruises that met its threshold for public notification in 2024. Norovirus was listed as the causative agent in every instance but three.
The gastrointestinal outbreak onboard the Radiance of the Seas affected over 8% of its passengers and crew members. The illness occurred during the ship’s September 20 to 27 sailing, according to CDC.
With 8.29% of passengers and 0.34% of employees affected, 8.03% of the ship’s total population had fallen ill, surpassing the CDC’s 3% requirement for filing an official report.
Common Types of Illnesses Caused by Cruise Line Negligence:
- Norovirus
- Food poisoning
- Legionnaire’s Disease
What Is Norovirus?
Norovirus is more commonly known as the stomach flu. This illness involves nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, and abdominal cramps. It is not the type of illness someone wants to contract while confined to a boat out at sea. Norovirus is extremely contagious and can spread from physical contact with someone who has the illness or by touching something that someone who had the illness touched. It can also spread by contaminated food or water. Therefore, if a cruise ship employee had norovirus and spread this illness through food he or she handled or prepared, the cruise line could be held liable.
What Is Food Poisoning?
Food poisoning is quite common when it comes to any type of industry where food is prepared and served. If a sanitary violation occurred by one of the ship’s personnel when preparing food for passengers on the ship, it is possible that the cruise could be held liable for food poisoning illnesses contracted by passengers on board.
What Is Legionnaires’ Disease?
The previous two illnesses are serious, but Legionnaires’ disease is an extremely devastating health condition. The disease has a fatality rate of around 15 percent, and even if someone does survive after contracting the disease, getting back to “normal” can take years. Legionnaires’ disease comes from bacterium, specifically the Legionella bacterium. It is commonly found in warm water, like in hot tubs, but it also can grow in larger, more complex heating and plumbing systems found in hotels, cruise ships, or office buildings. The bacterium is killed by hot water. An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease is serious, and it can be caused by cruise ship negligence, such as when the ship does not heat the pools or hot tubs on board sufficiently enough to kill the bacterium.
We recommend that before you book your cruise, you visit the CDC’s website where you can research different cruise ships to see how they performed in their last inspection. Ships are graded on a 100-point scale. Points are deducted whenever a safety violation is found. Certain violations are easily fixed immediately, often during the actual inspection. Other more complicated issues may take longer to correct. These random inspections verify that ships are maintaining a healthy and safe environment on board. If you are about to take a cruise, we urge you to review your ship’s annual inspection report.
HOW DO I AVOID THE NOROVIRUS ON MY NEXT CRUISE?
Preventing the Norovirus should be relatively easy, but it has proved to be surprisingly difficult for cruise lines like Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). The level of liability that falls upon the cruise line depends on how serious the illnesses are, as well as the circumstances through which the illness was contracted. We believe that most cruise ship-related accidents and illnesses can be avoided.
Passengers can help prevent the spread of Norovirus by washing their hands frequently (with soap and water for at least 20 seconds) before eating, after using the toilet, and changing diapers; at the same time, the cruise lines should continually disinfect and clean common surfaces like toilet handles, banisters, elevator buttons, and slot machine pull handles, as well as maintaining adequate levels of chlorine in pools and hot tubs.
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