Over 140 guests, crew sick due to a gastrointestinal outbreak on this popular cruise line

More than 140 people got sick in a gastrointestinal illness outbreak during a Royal Caribbean International cruise.

Among the 3,914 guests aboard its Navigator of the Seas ship, 134 reported being ill during a cruise that ended July 11, along with seven crew members, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their main symptoms were vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea.

The health agency listed the causative agent as unknown. The ship was sailing a week-long cruise to Mexico round-trip from Los Angeles, according to CruiseMapper.

The cruise line implemented heightened disinfection and cleaning measures and isolated sick guests and crew, among other steps, the CDC said.

“The health and safety of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit are our top priority,” a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Group, the line’s parent company, told USA TODAY in an emailed statement. “To maintain an environment that supports the highest levels of health and safety onboard our ships, we implement rigorous cleaning procedures, many of which far exceed public health guidelines.”

There have been 18 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 total last year, and 14 in 2023.

The CDC told USA TODAY in April that 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.”

“However, CDC data show a newly dominant strain is currently associated with reported norovirus outbreaks on land,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “Ships typically follow the pattern of land-based outbreaks, which are higher this norovirus season.”

The illness is often associated with cruise ships, but those represent only 1% of all outbreaks reported.

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

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 140+ sick in Royal Caribbean cruise gastrointestinal outbreak