Sickness Sweeps Through Guests and Crew on Newest Princess Cruises Ship
Key Aspects:
Star Princess is dealing with a norovirus outbreak that is impacting its two March 7 sailings, which are being operated simultaneously.
More than 100 guests and 49 crew members have experienced gastrointestinal symptoms.
Enhanced sanitation protocols have been implemented onboard and embarkation will be delayed on March 14 to allow for a deep clean.
Star Princess, which debuted at the end of 2025, has experienced a lot of firsts in her first year in service. An outbreak, however, is one milestone the young cruise ship was hoping to avoid.
As of March 12, 2026, the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) has confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus on the Princess cruise ship.
This is the first outbreak ever on the 4,300-guest ship and the second official gastrointestinal outbreak of the year reported by the CDC, which only covers US-based ships. The first outbreak was caused by E.coli and struck Regent Seven Seas’ Seven Seas Mariner in January.
104 of the 4,307 passengers onboard (or 2.4% of the guest population) experienced gastrointestinal symptoms. 49 of the 1,561 crew members (or 3.1% of the workforce) also became ill.
For context, gastrointestinal outbreaks must be reported when more than 2% of the onboard population becomes sick, and the VSP publicly declares an official outbreak when numbers reach 3%.
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The impacted voyage is the current 7-night sailing to the Western Caribbean and Mexico that embarked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 7, 2026. It will disembark at the same port on March 14, 2026.
The sailing is also being operated simultaneously with a 14-night sailing, which also embarked on March 7 and combines the Sphere-class ship’s 7-night Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries.
Preventative Protocols Implemented on Star Princess
Cruise lines do their best to keep their ships clean and sanitized at all times, but are prepared to implement increased sanitation protocols in the event of an outbreak.
The crew members are following the guidance of the VSP, including isolating symptomatic passengers and increasing cleaning and disinfection of public spaces, eateries, and high-touch surfaces, such as railings and elevator buttons.
The onboard medical team also aided in collecting stool specimens to confirm the causative agent was indeed norovirus. As much as an outbreak can put a damper on the vacation experience, current guests have been laudatory toward Princess’s proactive response.
“I see staff members cleaning everywhere. They are constantly sanitizing the railings in the stairwells and the piazza stairs. Table wipe downs are thorough and I’ve seen items like salt and pepper shakers and the like being removed after use,” one current guest shared on Reddit.
Multiple guests have also said that their room stewards are taking extra time to more thoroughly clean their cruise cabins, and the effort is paying off.
“I am on Star right now. Captain just announced things are looking better with the “gastrointestinal concerns.” Staff is cleaning like crazy and they changed everyone’s bed linen last night,” another guest added.
The passengers went on to note that crew members have been stationed at the entrances of restaurants to encourage passengers to wash their hands, and added additional hand sanitizer stations around the ship.
They also said that there have been ship-wide announcements keeping passengers informed of the situation and advising them on what to do if they experience symptoms.
Next Embarkation Slightly Delayed
When the 177,800-gross ton ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale on March 14, there will be a slight delay before passengers can embark for the next 14-night Caribbean sailing.
“I am supposed to board the Star in FLL on March 14 and I just got an email that there seems to be an outbreak of Gastrointestinal issues on board. They are delaying boarding in FLL to do a deep clean,” a soon-to-be guest also shared on Reddit.
It’s not uncommon for cruise ships to delay boarding to do a deep clean of the cruise terminal and the ship with fewer passengers around.
For example, Cruise Hive reported that this same protocol was followed for Crown Princess, Coral Princess, and Sky Princess following gastrointestinal outbreaks in 2025.
The extra cleaning is not something that future guests should be concerned about, but rather one more step that crew members can take to ensure that the outbreak will not continue on the next sailing.
Sickness Sweeps Through Guests and Crew on Newest Princess Cruises Ship