Nearly 90 passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship that left from Florida have fallen ill with norovirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Vessel Sanitation Program.
The Holland America Line vessel, the Eurodam, departed from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 19 for a 10-day cruise with multiple stops in the Caribbean. It’s scheduled to return to Florida on Saturday.
A total of 88 people — 79 passengers and nine crewmembers, amounting to around 3% of the people onboard — have reported feeling sick, with diarrhea and vomiting the most common symptoms. Norovirus can also cause muscle aches, headaches, abdominal cramps and fever.
The crew is currently conducting enhanced sanitation procedures and isolating sick people in accordance with CDC policies. In a post on a cruise ship message board, a passenger on the Eurodam reported the crew going so far as to sterilize paddles and balls during a ping pong tournament.
According to the CDC, roughly 19 to 21 million people in the U.S. get infected with norovirus each year. It is the most common infection to cause gastrointestinal illness.
The agency reported 16 different outbreaks aboard cruise ships in 2024. Nine have already been recorded in 2025 — including on two other Holland America cruises, one of which also departed from Fort Lauderdale.
The CDC encourages cruise passengers to wash their hands often and drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.
