These passengers are going to need a vacation from their vacation.
Nothing is worse than getting sick while on vacation — especially when it’s an illness that causes nasty vomiting and diarrhea.
That’s exactly what’s going on aboard AIDAdiva, a luxurious cruise ship from German line AIDA Cruises that is currently on a 133-day voyage, making various stops in the US, England, Mexico, Japan, South Africa and more, according to CruiseMapper.
The journey is not off to a great start, thanks to a norovirus outbreak that reportedly affected more than 100 passengers and crew members, out of the 2,007 guests and 640 staff aboard, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.
Sufferers, whose symptoms include intense diarrhea and vomiting, are being isolated, and ” increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, and collected stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases for testing,” are being done, according to the report.
The duration of the cruise is a little over a month, as it embarked from Hamburg, Germany, on November 10 and apparently continues through March 2026, so these passengers still have a way to go to avoid getting sick.
The CDC was first made aware of the outbreak on November 30 and according to an AIDA spokesperson, this is prime time for seasonal illnesses.
“Seasonal illness peaks between November and April, and the AIDAdiva report reflects infection patterns on land,” they told told USA TODAY.
“Therefore, we’ve added more hygiene protocols onboard, and cases are already going down.”
For some reason, cruises seem to be a breeding ground for viruses, as the CDC reports this outbreak to be the 21st of the year.
More recently, a 13-night Royal Caribbean ship headed to Miami back in September fell victim to the norovirus as 71 passengers and one crew member caught it.
“Reporting gastrointestinal illness (GI) is important. When passengers and crew tell the medical center onboard about their symptoms, it helps GI illness outbreaks get detected quickly. This allows steps to be taken to limit the spread of illness,” the CDC said at the time.
“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,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement to USA Today.
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