Travel & Lifestyle

How common is norovirus on cruise ships? Should you be worried?

What’s so sneaky and highly contagious that it’s bound to cause diarrhea and vomiting? If you answered “norovirus,” you’d be right. But what is it?

Norovirus cases are increasing this winter on both land and sea. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that “the total number of outbreaks reported in the 2024-2025 season year is higher than the range reported for the same period in the 2012-2020 and 2021-2024 season years.” The increase in news reports about norovirus cases may lead you to think that cruise ships are dirty or that you might get sick if you sail. I’m here to set the record straight.

Learn why norovirus is unfairly labeled a cruise ship disease, what cruise lines are doing to minimize onboard transmission, and whether you should worry about it on your next cruise.

What is cruise ship norovirus?

Cruise lines are asking passengers with symptoms of gastrointestinal illness to stay in their cabins to avoid infecting others. Maria Koneva/Getty Images

Norovirus is the most common of several viruses that cause severe gastrointestinal illness, or acute gastroenteritis. Symptoms can include diarrhea and vomiting, as well as abdominal cramps, headaches, muscle aches and fever – an unpleasant experience at any time, but especially while on vacation.

Norovirus is highly contagious and can be spread when you touch a contaminated surface and then put your fingers in or near your mouth, such as when eating without washing your hands. It is also often spread through contaminated food, sometimes earning the nickname “food poisoning,” although there are many pathogens that can cause foodborne illness. You may also hear it commonly referred to as stomach bug or stomach flu, although norovirus is not the same as the influenza virus.

How is norovirus spread on cruise ships?

What causes norovirus on cruise ships? Norovirus spreads easily in close quarters, such as the virus found on cruise ships. While it can be spread through person-to-person contact, on ships, the most common way it is spread is when passengers fail to wash their hands after touching high-touch areas such as handrails, elevator buttons and cutlery at ship’s buffets.

Failure by infected passengers to wash their hands after coughing, sneezing or using the toilet is the number one reason these surfaces become contaminated. To avoid spreading your own germs and infecting others with them, wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds, especially before eating, and be sure to scrub around your fingernails and between your fingers.

Contaminated food can also be a cause, but this is less common on ships where staff are strictly trained to adhere to health and safety guidelines. Standards are enforced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (See the next section for more information.)

How can cruise ships prevent norovirus outbreaks on board?

Cruise ships are doing their best to keep high-touch areas sanitary and perform deep cleaning between cruises where norovirus cases are present. Guidomis/Getty Images

Cruise lines employ staff dedicated to keeping common areas and high-touch surfaces clean. Kitchen staff and servers receive extensive training in food safety and handling.

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Airlines are also screening passengers for signs of illness upon boarding. They ask passengers who feel unwell during the voyage to report symptoms to a medical center and self-isolate in their cabin.

On ships where an epidemic occurs, the crew will conduct a deep clean of the ship after the crew disembarks and before the next voyage begins. If the epidemic is particularly severe, subsequent flights may be canceled to allow for more thorough disinfection.

In addition, the CDC’s Ship Sanitation Program implemented in the 1970s stipulates that all passenger ships carrying 13 or more people on board must undergo random, unannounced inspections if they wish to dock at a U.S. port.

As part of the plan, ships must adhere to strict health and safety protocols that govern everything from the cleaning of high-touch areas to how food is stored in freezers, refrigerators and galleys.

VSP inspectors come on board and conduct thorough inspections to ensure compliance – and the standards are high. A score below 86 points (out of 100 points) is considered a failure. You can find the latest list of inspection scores and violation lists for each vessel on the VSP website.

Should you worry about catching norovirus on a cruise ship?

If you do get acute gastroenteritis on a cruise ship, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in the bathroom. RAPEEPONG PutTAKUMWONG/Getty Images

The short answer is no. In the United States, cruise ships are responsible for the lowest number of norovirus cases each year, with most cases occurring in restaurants, schools, hospitals and nursing homes. If you don’t worry about norovirus on land, you have nothing to worry about at sea.

However, you are more likely to hear about an outbreak on board a ship because ships are required to report cases while other entities are not.

“Health officials track illnesses on cruise ships,” the CDC says on its VSP Norovirus FAQ page. “As a result, outbreaks are detected and reported more quickly on cruise ships than on land.”

In a study of acute gastroenteritis cases from 2006 to 2019 (before the cruise industry’s COVID-19 shutdown), the CDC found that the number of cases on ships decreased over those 14 years. It also noted that case numbers tend to be higher on larger ships and on voyages of a week or longer.

“The prevalence of passengers and crew on cruise ships declined between 2006 and 2019,” the report states. That’s good news for cruisers.

During this period, approximately 127 million passengers sailed on the 252 cruise ships under the VSP’s jurisdiction. Of those 127 million cruisers, 26,450 reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness on board. That sounds like a large number, but over those 14 years it represented only 0.02% of cruisers (two hundredths of one percent), with the total number of cases declining from 4,507 in 2006 to 1,201 in 2019.

However, if norovirus cases are reported on land in 2025, a corresponding increase in cruise ship cases can be expected. You should take the same precautions to stay healthy while on vacation as you would at home.

If you would like to view outbreak information, you can find a detailed list by year of ships that have experienced outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (many of which are caused by norovirus) in the middle of the CDC Outbreaks page.

For more details on how to stay healthy on board, visit TPG’s story on how to avoid getting sick on a cruise ship.

Why are there so many reports of norovirus on cruise ships in the news?

Norovirus can make you feel tired and achy. Peter Dazeli/Getty Images

The simple answer is that cruise ships are required to report cases of acute gastroenteritis to the CDC, even if they are small. In contrast, other entities do not.

Specifically, each cruise ship’s medical staff is required to submit a report containing the number of sick passengers within 24 to 36 hours of the ship’s arrival at a U.S. port from a foreign port, even if no cases of gastrointestinal illness occur. They must also file a report if 2% or more of their passengers and crew become sick and the ship is scheduled to visit a U.S. port within 15 days. If that number reaches 3% or more, cases must be reported to the CDC even if the ship is not scheduled to call a U.S. port in the next 15 days.

This means that norovirus data on cruise ships is more readily available than on other entities. It’s easy to sound alarming about the number of norovirus cases, but context is important. For example, 100 cases on a single ship may seem like a lot, but on a ship like the Oasis of the Seas, which carries more than 5,400 passengers, 100 cases represents only about 2% of the ship’s population.

bottom line

Should you worry about contracting norovirus or other gastrointestinal illnesses while sailing? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cruise ships have some of the lowest annual case numbers in the country.

When you’re sailing, the chances of you finding yourself confined to your room and hunched over the toilet for a week are slim, especially if you take common-sense precautions like washing your hands and not sharing drinks, utensils, and other Items that can easily spread germs.

Have more cruise questions? TPG has the answer:

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