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More than 140 people became ill earlier this month after a gastrointestinal outbreak on a Royal Caribbean cruise, according to a report by the Center for Disease Control’s Ship Sanitation Program.
The illness was reported among both passengers and crew members on a sea voyage that left Los Angeles for a return cruise to and from Mexico’s port on July 4th.
The report shows that 134 of the 3,914 passengers and seven of the 1,266 crew members experienced symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal cramps at some point during the cruise.
Details of the outbreak were reported to the CDC’s Ship Sanitation Program (VSP) on July 11th.
The “causative agent” of the outbreak is currently listed as “unknown,” but according to the CDC report, norovirus, a term for a highly contagious group of viruses, “is the cause of the outbreak of gastrointestinal disease on cruise ships.”
In response to the outbreak, Royal Caribbean International implemented an increase in cleaning and disinfecting procedures, collected stool specimens for testing, and recruited isolated, affected passengers and crews.
According to the report, the VSP monitored the crew’s response to the outbreak “remote”.
“The health and safety of our guests, crews and the communities we visit are our number one priority,” a spokesman for the Royal Caribbean Group wrote in an email statement shared with Nexstar. “We implement strict cleaning procedures to maintain an environment that supports the highest level of health and safety on our ship, many of which are well above public health guidelines.”
In 2025, 18 illnesses occurred on cruise ships within the jurisdiction of the VSP, most of which were caused by norovirus. Despite being a common cause of illness between passengers, cruise ships are a relatively rare environment for such outbreaks, accounting for 1% of reported outbreaks in the US, the CDC said.
Meanwhile, long-term medical facilities and hospitals are more common environments for the outbreak of norovirus, as well as restaurants, catering events, schools and childcare facilities.
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