It’s only the first month of the year but a fifth US-based cruise ship has confirmed a gastrointestinal outbreak taking place on a current voyage to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, just days after another cruise line returned to the city’s Port Everglades with 3 percent of its ship passengers ill.
Princess Cruises’ 91,627-gross-ton Coral Princess, which departed on a 16-night journey from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale on January 20, 2025, reported the outbreak to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on January 27.
The ship was calling in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, when the medical team revealed 59 of its 1,894 passengers and 12 of 885 crew members had symptoms of gastrointestinal illness.
Symptoms of the illness, officially referred to as acute gastroenteritis (AGE), predominantly include vomiting and diarrhea, as well as abdominal cramps, muscle aches, headache, or fever, according to the CDC.
The CDC reports the illness is due to norovirus and that Coral Princess is now increasing its cleaning and disinfection procedures to follow the CDC’s outbreak prevention response plan.
Ill passengers and crew have been isolated as the vessel continues its itinerary, which includes calls to Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Panama City, Panama, ahead of a crossing through the Panama Canal; and Cartagena, Colombia.
Coral Princess is scheduled to arrive in Fort Lauderdale on February 5.
Although afflicted passengers can recover from the illness in one to three days, the CDC reports they may still spread norovirus for up to two weeks from recovery, which is well after the Princess Cruises ship arrives at port.
This has prompted the cruise line to announce that the ship would conduct a deep clean during its call in Puntarenas.
“We recommend that you disembark the ship during the cleaning operations,” stated Princess Cruises in a public health advisory. “If you are unable to leave the ship, please vacate your stateroom when requested to.”
The letter also warned that some “services and facilities may be temporarily unavailable while the cleaning operation is complete.”
Most cruise ships also conduct a deep clean between cruises, which may delay Coral Princess’ subsequent embarkation on February 5 ahead of its 16-night Panama Canal passage to Los Angeles.
Rising Tide of Cruise Ship Illness
January is seeing a surge in gastrointestinal outbreaks, with the CDC receiving word of six additional situations aboard cruise ships since January 1, 2025.
The incidents began on January 3, when Oceania Cruises’ Nautica reported that 15 guests and 16 crew members were experiencing symptoms of an unspecified gastrointestinal illness.
A day later, Holland America Line’s Eurodam announced that 86 passengers and eight crew members were ill with norovirus.
Both ships departed on their voyages in December 2024, keeping the official outbreak record in the CDC’s 2024 roster, although the illnesses were reported in January.
Read Also: Cruise Ship Illness: How to Protect Yourself
Earlier this month, the government health agency witnessed an outbreak aboard Sea Cloud Cruises’ Sea Cloud Spirit, where a presumed and similar ciguatera outbreak hit 30 percent of the vessel’s crew. No passengers were affected.
Additionally, Silversea Cruises’ Silver Ray, Holland America Line’s Volendam, and Viking Ocean’s Viking Mars have experienced gastrointestinal illnesses, although the causes have yet to be determined.
Unfortunately, the surge follows a harsh December, during which, in addition to the two aforementioned ships on December departures, five more vessels reported norovirus outbreaks.
Holland America Line has experienced the most outbreaks, with five of 23 outbreaks between January 1, 2024, and January 28, 2025, taking place aboard its ships.
Despite the reports, the likelihood of getting sick on a cruise ship is generally low, says the CDC. In fact, it shows an average of 12 outbreaks per year between 2006 and 2019.
