Following five onboard illness outbreaks reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January, the first February outbreak has been confirmed aboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas.
The 90,090-gross-ton ship is currently sailing a 7-night Western Caribbean itinerary, having departed Tampa, Florida on Saturday, February 1. The itinerary includes visits to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya, before returning to Tampa on Saturday, February 8.
Guests booked on the ship’s next cruise – an identical 7-night itinerary – have been notified that the ship will be undergoing cleaning and maintenance before embarkation. This work necessitates a delay in arrival appointment windows.
“Prior to boarding, Radiance of the Seas will conduct a routine cleaning and maintenance,” the notification email explained. “During this time, the terminal will not be open for embarkation, and we will experience boarding delays.”
To accommodate the cleaning, arrival times have been shifted by 1-2 hours, depending on the original time guests selected when they checked in for their cruise. Appointments from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. will now be two hours later, from 1-2:30 p.m.
In order to preserve the ship’s departure time, the later arrival appointments are only delayed by 60-90 minutes. If guests are arriving at the ship at 1 p.m., their new arrival time is 2:30 p.m. Guests who chose 1:30 p.m. or 2 p.m. as their arrival times should now arrive at 3 p.m.
All guests must arrive at the cruise terminal no later than 3 p.m. for check-in, and must be onboard Radiance of the Seas by 3:30 p.m. The ship is scheduled to depart at 4 p.m. and there is no anticipated delay to that departure time.
While the email notification does not specify an illness outbreak, the CDC has received the initial report indicating 89 out of 2,164 guests onboard reporting diarrhea and vomiting. This represents 4.1% of passengers onboard, well over the 3% threshold at which reporting is required.
In addition, 2 of the ship’s 910 crew members (.2%) have also reported similar symptoms.
Since the ship is still sailing, it is possible the reports will continue to come in throughout the voyage. At this time, the cause of the illness has not been determined.
Measures Being Taken Onboard
While Radiance of the Seas is continuing on her cruise without itinerary changes or delays, guests onboard have noted some operational changes to help mitigate any cross-contamination or disease spread.
In the Windjammer Marketplace buffet, for example, crew members are now serving dishes rather than permitting guests to serve themselves with common utensils.
Announcements are being made onboard to remind travelers to be diligent with proper handwashing, and crew members have increased cleaning and sanitation measures. Guests reporting symptoms are being isolated in their staterooms, and specimens are being collected for confirmation testing.
The situation onboard Radiance of the Seas is the sixth reported outbreak thus far in 2025 (not counting three earlier outbreaks at the end of December that extended into early January).
Of the six outbreaks, two have been confirmed as norovirus – Holland America Line’s Volendam as well as Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess. An outbreak aboard Sea Cloud Cruises’ Sea Cloud Spirit is presumed ciguatera from contaminated fish, while an outbreak aboard Silversea Cruises’ Silver Ray was determined to be E. coli.
Along with the developing situation aboard Radiance of the Seas, a mid-January outbreak reported aboard Viking Cruises’ Viking Mars also has an as-yet unknown cause.
While norovirus is common and widespread in many areas on land, this number of outbreaks reported on cruise ships so early in the year is unusual.
In 2024, for example, there were just three total outbreaks for all of January and February, while in 2023, there were four reported outbreaks for the first two months of the year.
