The captain of P&O’s Iona went on the public address system on Thursday, February 20, to tell passengers that a stomach bug was moving through the ship and that staff were working to stop it. The vessel was then off the Belgian coast, five days into a week-long Northern European cruise from Southampton.
Sky News spoke to one passenger who gave a bleak picture. “People have been dropping like flies,” the passenger said, adding that “a large number” of guests and staff had symptoms. Some were being sick “in restaurants, on decks, outside cabins.”
P&O Cruises confirmed that some guests had “unfortunately reported gastrointestinal symptoms” but said fewer than 1% of passengers were affected. The suspected cause is norovirus.
The sailing
The Iona left Southampton on February 15 and was due back on February 22. Reports differ on the ports of call. The Mirror listed Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, while The Independent named Rotterdam, Hamburg and Bruges. The ship can carry up to 5,200 guests and 1,800 crew, and the cruise coincided with the half-term holiday, so many families were aboard. The number of passengers on this particular sailing was not given.
Quarantine and shortages
Some guests confined to their cabins complained that a shortage of staff made it hard to get meals, fresh towels and clean bed linen delivered. The passenger who spoke to Sky News said scheduled entertainment acts could not perform and were swapped for a “cobbled-together entertainment programme.”
Medicine was the other grievance. “Not one shop or medical centre onboard could supply guests with gastrointestinal suspension medication or replacement salts/fluid sachets,” the passenger said.
P&O disputed that. It told the press that medication is “readily available through our onboard medical centre” and that an emergency support number runs 24 hours a day. The Mirror reported that the line also promised full refunds for shore excursions missed because of illness.
In its statement P&O said that “gastrointestinal-related illnesses are very common in the UK and are predominantly spread by person-to-person transmission in environments such as hotels, schools and restaurants.” It said it follows approved protocols agreed with public health authorities and had “proactively stepped up” its health measures this winter.
A run of earlier incidents
The Independent noted that this was not the first such episode. More than 100 holidaymakers sought compensation from P&O over outbreaks between April and June 2024. In January, it was announced that a P&O passenger had died of suspected kidney failure in October after becoming ill with norovirus on a cruise; the company said it was “saddened” and would investigate.
Separately, more than 100 passengers on a Holland America Line cruise around the Caribbean and the Americas fell ill with norovirus. That outbreak was reported to the CDC on February 7, with more than five per cent of passengers and crew suffering symptoms.
Sources
- Norovirus outbreak on P&O cruise ship leaves passengers 'dropping like flies'
- P&O Cruise passengers ‘dropping like flies’ from suspected norovirus outbreak
