Cruise ships and viral outbreaks — name a more iconic duo. This time around, the ship in question is the Queen Mary 2, and it was on a 29-day cruise taking passengers from England to the Caribbean and back. After stopping in New York City, though, passengers and some crew members began reporting both vomiting and diarrhea. So far, more than 230 people on board have caught what has since been confirmed to be norovirus, the New York Times reports.
The cruise left Southampton, England on March 8, and Cunard Lines, the company that operates the Queen Mary 2, reported the norovirus outbreak to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 18. In total, 224 of the 2,538 passengers aboard the cruise ship have come down with the virus, as have 17 of the crew members. Everyone who is sick has reportedly been isolated, and the staff is working to sanitize the ship to keep the outbreak from spreading any further.
“Thanks to the swift response from our crew and the additional measures that we have in place, we are already seeing a reduction in reported cases,” Cunard Lines said in a statement.
Norovirus and the Queen Mary 2
Despite their promise of fun and relaxation as you sail the open sea, cruise ships have become floating petri dishes where viruses spread quickly. Last year was an especially bad year for cruise ship norovirus, marking a 12-year high in reported cases. And wouldn’t you know it, the Queen Mary 2 was part of the reason why. In 2024, the cruise ship saw two norovirus outbreaks. Those outbreaks weren’t spread across the entire year, either. They happened in the month of December.
And while April has just begun, CNN reports the CDC has already recorded 11 gastrointestinal outbreaks this year, including the latest one aboard the Queen Mary 2. Nine of those 11 instances were confirmed to be norovirus. Back in January, however, a CDC spokesperson wasn’t quite ready to say norovirus is becoming more common on cruise ships, telling CNN Travel that “while 2023 and 2024 both had higher numbers of cruise ship outbreaks than in years prior to the pandemic, we do not yet know if this represents a new trend.”
Still, it’s probably better to stick to resorts for vacation instead of trapping yourself on a body fluid boat, especially since you also don’t have to worry about resorts tipping over on you. You know, because they’re on land like God intended.
