Some guests onboard Diamond Princess’s 21-night New Zealand cruise, which concluded on November 17, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia, may feel that they need a vacation from their vacation.
The Grand-class ship was plagued by a gastrointestinal outbreak during the sailing – which was most likely related to norovirus, although this is not confirmed.
Cruise ships operated outside of the United States are not monitored by the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program that tracks outbreaks domestically – and the specific cause and case numbers have not been released by the Carnival-owned cruise line.
That said, enough of the up to 2,670 guests and 1,100 crew members must have fallen ill for guests to be asked to leave the ship not once, not twice, but three times to allow for deep cleaning and sanitization.
“It feels like the plague ship, we were ordered to vacate the ship for six hours in Melbourne, six hours in Auckland, and then again in Melbourne. This was due to the need for deep cleaning due to gastro onboard,” a passenger posted to a Princess Cruises complaint forum on Facebook.
According to cruise tracking data, the 115,875-gross ton vessel visited Melbourne, Australia, on both October 26 and November 9, and called on Auckland, New Zealand, on October 31.
Per the poster, the cruise line offered a $50 onboard credit for each time they were asked to evacuate, which the frustrated guest felt didn’t match the inconvenience.
“Essentially, that was three days of being unable to enjoy the ship’s facilities and suffering the long queues to reboard. Not good enough Princess,” the passenger continued.
While the 21-day voyage has come to an end, Diamond Princess has already continued sailing throughout Australia and New Zealand – and is currently operating a 7-night cruise and another 21-night cruise simultaneously.
Not the First Outbreak on Diamond Princess
While outbreaks aren’t super common, they do occur from time to time on cruise ships.
It’s sometimes unpreventable with thousands of people from around the world gathering in a confined space – and it only takes one sick passenger to be at the right place at the right time for germs to spread.
That said, most outbreaks impact a small percentage of the people onboard and are resolved by the next embarkation.
However, few outbreaks have been more severe or more famous than the COVID-19 outbreak on Diamond Princess at the very beginning of the pandemic – during which more than 700 cases of the virus were reported.
In response, health officials required guests and crew to quarantine onboard for weeks and would not allow anyone to disembark, even if they tested negative.
The situation went viral – partly because so little was known about Covid-19 at the time and due to public outcry on behalf of the passengers who were stuck onboard.
Read Also: 10 Reasons Why Cruise Ships Are Not Floating Petri Dishes
Interestingly, Diamond Princess is also not the only Princess cruise ship to suffer a gastrointestinal outbreak in 2024.
Earlier this year, Sapphire Princess reported that more than 100 people became ill during a voyage to the South Pacific Islands and Hawaii, which embarked from Los Angeles, California, on April 5, 2024.
But while this may sound like a lot of cases, this is actually quite a low number, considering there were thousands of people onboard. It actually equates to only 3.71% of the 2,532 guests onboard and less than 2% of the 1,066-person crew.
In general – not just while traveling – it’s always a good idea to practice healthy habits like frequent hand washing and getting enough sleep to prevent illness.
