Nearly 150 Cruise Guests, Crew Sick With Gastrointestinal Illness On 3 Ships

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About 150 passengers and crew members got sick with gastrointestinal illness on three cruise ships.

Among the 2,038 guests on Holland America Line’s Eurodam ship, 64 reported being ill during its current voyage, along with a dozen crew members, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Their main symptoms were vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea, which were caused by norovirus. The ship departed from Fort Lauderdale on April 12, according to CruiseMapper.

Holland America told USA TODAY that the cases were "mostly mild and quickly resolved."

"We initiated enhanced sanitation protocols in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to minimize further transmission, including continuous disinfection of the ship," the cruise line said in an emailed statement.

Fifty-five of the 1,149 guests aboard the line’s Zuiderdam ship also got sick during its current cruise, in addition to 14 crew, with their main symptom being diarrhea. The causative agent remains unknown, according to the CDC.

The CDC listed the voyage dates as Jan. 4 through May 9. The ship is currently sailing the line’s 2025 Grand World Voyage.

A gastrointestinal issue was also identified aboard Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Sea Lion ship. Two of its 43 guests and one crew member reported being sick with symptoms including fever, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the health agency, though the causative agent also remains unknown.

The ship is currently sailing in Alaska, per CruiseMapper.

All three vessels implemented heightened sanitation procedures and isolated sick guests and crew, among other measures, the CDC said.

Lindblad did not immediately share a comment on the cases before publishing.

There have been 16 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on cruises that met the CDC’s threshold for public notification in 2025, most of which were caused by norovirus. There were 18 outbreaks in all of 2024, and 14 the year prior.

“While the number of recent cruise ship outbreaks has been higher than in years prior to the pandemic, we do not yet know if this represents a new trend,” the health agency told USA TODAY in an emailed statement earlier this month. “However, CDC data show a newly dominant strain is currently associated with reported norovirus outbreaks on land. Ships typically follow the pattern of land-based outbreaks, which are higher this norovirus season.”

The illness is often associated with cruises, but those represent just 1% of all outbreaks reported.

The agency’s Vessel Sanitation Program, which inspects cruise ships and responds to outbreaks, was among the initiatives affected by recent staffing cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services. However, a spokesperson for the CDC previously told USA TODAY the program will continue since “the VSP is primarily staffed by USPHS commissioned officers who were not subject to the reduction in force.”

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.