90-Second Read: Are cruise ships really breeding grounds for illness?

A viral Hantavirus outbreak on the Oceanwide Expeditions' MV Hondius cruise ship was already commanding worldwide attention last week when health officials reported another: a norovirus outbreak on the Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess. These incidents have many travelers asking if cruises are breeding grounds for illnesses and germs? Brands that overexplain, delay, lawyer up, tend to lose that chance." While outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness at sea are nothing new, there were 23 in 2025, this appears to be the first documented Hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship. The latter marked the fourth outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on cruises to meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's threshold for public notification in 2026. Unlike land-based hotels, where guests are coming and going all day, ships are a "closed environment,".

The MV Hondius outbreak, which prompted a coordinated response from the World Health Organization and other international authorities, evoked aspects of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, cruise ships became early sites of high-profile outbreaks, including aboard Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess. Norovirus outbreaks on cruises, for example, account for just 1% of all reported cases, according to the CDC. COVID exacerbated existing image issues for cruises, according to Melissa Eaton, co-host of the business and culture podcast "We Fixed It, You're Welcome." "COVID didn't create the cruise industry's reputation problem. Whether cruise lines can recover from a crisis depends on how they respond, Eaton said.

Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The closer the proximity, the more likely travelers could spread illness to one another via respiratory droplets or surfaces. One of the things about surviving a health crisis is moving quickly, so cruise lines should learn from this that clarity, sympathy and corrective action are central to building that trust. Hantavirus is primarily spread through exposure to the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents. These events shouldn't necessarily dissuade passengers from setting sail, health experts add.

Noroviruses, you know, a little dab will do you." Expedition cruises, like the one MV Hondius was on, also center around nature and wildlife. This is not something that I would be concerned about, you know, sui generis, in thinking about taking a cruise. And while officials said the confirmed cases from MV Hondius were the Andes virus, which can be transmitted from person to person, they are still working to determine the origin. WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove previously said the organization believes the first guest to show symptoms and his wife, both of whom died, were infected on land, but that there may have also been some human-to-human transmission among "really" close contacts. Lipkin added that "this Andes virus outbreak is really an outlier," however.