A mysterious illness recently hit over 140 passengers including crew members on a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the ship as the Navigator of the Seas that was voyaging from July 4 until July 11, and the outbreak of the illness was reported on the cruise’s final day.
“Number of passengers who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 134 of 3,914 (3.4%),” the agency said, adding, “Number of crew who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 7 of 1,266 (0.6%).”
The symptoms passengers and crew suffered were identified as diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. However, the CDC said the causative agent was unknown.
The cruise was on a round trip from Los Angeles, California, to Mexico, per Fox News. Meanwhile, the CDC referred to the bout of symptoms as a gastrointestinal illness.
According to Fox, “This incident is one of 18 gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships in 2025 that met the CDC’s threshold for public notification, with most linked to norovirus. The same number of outbreaks was reported in 2024, while 14 were recorded in 2023.”
In 2014, a cruise ship had to dock in San Pedro, California, when over 170 passengers became sick with the norovirus, Breitbart News reported at the time.
“The patients became ill over the course of a nearly monthlong trip which traveled from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tahiti,” the article said.
This norovirus outbreak is reminiscent of other times cruise passengers have become ill in large numbers, such as the incidents AFP reported in February 2020:
Cruise-goers have fallen sick en masse in the past, their predicament on the high seas coming into sharp focus because the holidays can cost thousands of dollars and are often marketed as trips of a lifetime.
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged eight outbreaks aboard cruise ships last year of the highly contagious norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea — hardly the stuff of a dream holiday.
Measles, E. coli, chickenpox and salmonella poisoning have all broken out on cruises in recent years.
In a statement to USA Today, the Royal Caribbean Group said of the most recent illnesses, “The health and safety of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit are our top priority. To maintain an environment that supports the highest levels of health and safety onboard our ships, we implement rigorous cleaning procedures, many of which far exceed public health guidelines.”
