The recent outbreak of gastrointestinal illness aboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas has been confirmed as salmonella, a relatively rare causative agent for cruise ship disease reporting.
The outbreak occurred on the ship’s last sailing of the 2024 Alaska season, a 7-night voyage that departed Vancouver, Canada on Friday, September 20. During the week, the ship visited Sitka, Icy Strait Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan.
Throughout the week, a total of 180 passengers and 3 crew members reported gastrointestinal symptoms, predominantly diarrhea and cramps, along with headaches and muscle aches.
These numbers are higher than originally noted several days ago as additional reports were confirmed at the conclusion of the sailing.
The final numbers mean that of the 2,172 passengers aboard, 8.29% reported illness at some time during the cruise. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requires outbreaks to be reported when the threshold passes just 3%.
Three of the 894 crew members (.34%) also reported symptoms. When all persons aboard are combined, 5.97% of them reported illness during the sailing.
Onboard Radiance of the Seas, protective actions were taken immediately once the symptoms began being reported. This included encouraging travelers to practice frequent and thorough hand washing, increased cleaning and sanitation of public areas and high-tough surfaces, and announcements to ensure everyone was apprised of the situation.
While being ill on a cruise is certainly no one’s idea of the perfect vacation, the outbreak was not severe enough to curtail activities onboard Radiance of the Seas and there were no changes to the ship’s overall operation as she closed out her Alaska season.
Read Also: The Best Time to Cruise Alaska – Months to Choose
The ship has since departed on her next sailing, the first leg of her repositioning sailing for the winter season. The ship is now enjoying an 8-night, one-way trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, visiting Victoria, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Catalina along the way.
After this voyage, a 16-night trip will move the vessel to Tampa, with the full transit of the Panama Canal a key highlight of that repositioning cruise. From Tampa, Radiance of the Seas will offer Bahamas and Caribbean itineraries before returning to Alaska for the 2025 summer season.
An Unusual Outbreak
Testing has now confirmed the outbreak as salmonella, which is relatively rare for cruise ship illness outbreaks. The most frequent and familiar disease noted onboard ships is norovirus, one of the most common viruses to cause typical “stomach flu” symptoms.
According to the CDC, salmonella is a bacteria that causes similar symptoms that may appear from 6 hours to 6 days after a person becomes infected. Symptoms typically resolve within 4-7 days. Contaminated food or water is the most common source of salmonella, along with poor restroom cleanliness.
The recent outbreak aboard Radiance of the Seas is the first cruise ship salmonella outbreak noted in 2024. Previous infections have been confirmed as norovirus, as well as one outbreak of E. coli.
To be clear, one outbreak – 124 reported infections aboard Allure of the Seas in May – did not have an overall causative agent confirmed, and therefore could have been any disease vector.
Of 14 cruise ship outbreaks reported to the CDC in 2023, only one was noted as occurring with salmonella, although E. coli was also noted in the same outbreak. This was aboard Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady in mid-October.
The rest of the 2023 disease outbreaks were all confirmed as norovirus. From 2019 through 2022, no salmonella outbreaks were noted aboard any cruise ships reporting such occurrences to the CDC.
Cruise travelers can easily protect themselves from outbreaks – whether salmonella, e. coli, or norovirus. Minimizing physical contact with high-touch surfaces such as elevator buttons, hand railings, and serving utensils, as well as washing one’s hands frequently and thoroughly with warm water and soap, are the best protective measures.
