A cruise ship returned to port in Texas one day early on Thursday night after scores of passengers fell ill, the third time in recent weeks that a cruise has been marred by mass sickness among passengers.
The Caribbean Princess docked in Houston on Thursday evening, a full day earlier than scheduled, with almost 200 passengers and crewmembers reporting gastrointestinal symptoms,the Houston Chronicle reports. According to a preliminary report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the passengers are suspected to have contracted norovirus, a highly contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea. Norovirus was also blamed for an outbreak earlier this week that affected 700 people on a Royal Caribbean cruise. This outbreak was the third reported in 2014; in all of 2013, there were nine.
When the ship docked at 9 p.m. on Thursday, passengers were reportedly heading either home or to hotels, not hospitals.
“We don’t believe anybody will be ill getting off the ship,” said Julie Benson, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises, according to the Chronicle. “The ship did a great job stopping the spread of illness. The number of people who were ill continued to decrease dramatically over the last couple of days.”
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The ship’s passengers received overnight accommodations in Houston as well as 20 percent credit towards a future cruise. The Princess ship will reportedly depart again at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Benson said the cruise ship would be thoroughly sanitized before it departs.
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