celebrity cruise ship covid outbreak 2022

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Omicron prompts more cruise lines to cancel trips.

In recent weeks, hundreds of passengers have contracted the coronavirus aboard ships.

By Alyssa Lukpat and Ceylan Yeginsu

• Jan. 17, 2022

Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises have canceled several trips as the Omicron variant continues to wreak havoc with the cruise industry.

In recent weeks, hundreds of passengers have contracted the coronavirus onboard ships, with many falling ill and spending days in quarantine.

On Friday, Royal Caribbean canceled a sailing on the ship Independence of the Seas, in response to “Covid-related circumstances around the world,” the company said on its website.

The company said this month that it had called off planned trips on three ships — Serenade of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas — and delayed the return to cruising of another, Vision of the Seas, to March.

In a statement on Monday, Celebrity Cruises said it had postponed service on its ship Celebrity Eclipse. The ship was scheduled to make four trips in March and April.

The cruise industry has been battered by the pandemic. It was all but shuttered for nearly 18 months before making a comeback this past summer, but the industry has recently faced mounting criticism about its safety protocols.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged travelers to avoid cruises , even after vaccination. The agency raised its Covid-19 warning level for cruise ships to 4, the highest level.

The move came as the number of outbreaks on ships has grown, causing some ports to turn away ships. In December, clusters broke out aboard two Royal Caribbean cruises after they left port in Florida, and more than a dozen people tested positive on a Norwegian Cruise Line vessel after it returned to New Orleans .

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises require passengers who are eligible for inoculations to receive them. Younger passengers who are not eligible must test negative before sailing.

Alyssa Lukpat is a reporter covering breaking news for the Express desk. She is also a member of the 2021-22 New York Times fellowship class. More about Alyssa Lukpat

Ceylan Yeginsu is a London-based reporter. She joined The Times in 2013, and was previously a correspondent in Turkey covering politics, the migrant crisis, the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

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Cruise ship arrives in Sydney with close to 300 suspected Covid cases

A cruise ship classified as a tier 2 Covid risk by the NSW government has docked in Sydney on Friday morning.

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A luxury cruise ship carrying as many as 300 positive Covid cases has docked in Sydney on Friday morning.

The Celebrity Eclipse moored at Circular Quay as the NSW government classified the vessel as a tier 2 Covid risk, signalling there were as many as 99 positive cases per 1000 people on-board.

The cruise ship, which was carrying about 3000 people, had just completed a trip to New Zealand, including stops to Christchurch and Dunedin.

All passengers aged 12 and over had to be fully vaccinated to sail, per the Covid protocols outlined on the Celebrity Cruises website.

Vaccination certificates had to be sighted at the departure point for passengers to be allowed to embark.

It comes a week after the Grand Princess docked in Melbourne, with dozens of Covid-infected passengers allowed to disembark.

A Princess Cruises spokesperson said last week the vessel had been impacted by a spike in cases across Australia.

“Like many other tourism operators, we too have been impacted by the current fourth wave being experienced across Australia,” the spokesperson said.

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Coronavirus Updates

People should avoid cruise travel regardless of their vaccination status, the cdc says.

Jonathan Franklin

The Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Sunrise ship is seen in the port of Miami on Dec. 23, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Sunrise ship is seen in the port of Miami on Dec. 23, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new advisory Thursday that travelers should avoid traveling by cruise ship, regardless of vaccination status, after a recent surge in positive COVID-19 cases onboard ships.

The agency increased its travel warning for cruises to Level 4 — the highest level — following investigations of dozens of ships that have had outbreaks of the virus.

"Even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants," the CDC said on its website .

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Tracking the coronavirus around the u.s.: see how your state is doing.

Following the identification of the omicron variant, there has been an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among cruise passengers and crew reported to the agency, the CDC said.

More cruise ships have reached "level yellow" — the level where the CDC investigates a ship's COVID outbreak.

"It is especially important that travelers who are at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status," the agency added.

More cruise ships are under CDC investigation following COVID-19 outbreaks on board

There are 91 cruise ships currently under investigation or observation, according to the CDC website. However, the agency has not specified how many COVID-19 cases have been reported, according to The Associated Press .

An additional three ships are being monitored.

The CDC advised that those who choose to travel on a cruise should get vaccinated against COVID-19 before their trip and, if eligible, receive a booster dose.

In addition, masks should also be worn in shared spaces and passengers who are not fully vaccinated against COVID should self-quarantine for five days after travel, in addition to getting tested three to five days after their return, the CDC said.

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The goal: at least 40% vaxxed in all nations by year-end. this map shows how we stand.

In an email to NPR, a spokesperson for the Cruise Lines International Association said the trade group was "disappointed" by the CDC's latest advisory against cruise ship travel.

"While we are disappointed and disagree with the decision to single out the cruise industry—an industry that continues to go above and beyond compared to other sectors—CLIA and our ocean-going cruise line members remain committed to working collaboratively with the CDC in the interest of public health and safety," the trade group said .

Most cruise lines require adult passengers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19, according to AP.

For now, CDC guidanc e allows cruise ships to relax measures — such as mask usage — if at least 95% of passengers and 95% of the cruise ship crew are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

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Bare rooms, rotten fruit and boredom: Quarantine life on infected cruises

Welcome to cruises’ omicron surge, where isolation comes with windowless rooms and bare-bones meals

Frank Rebelo lined up the upgrades well before he boarded his Caribbean cruise: the dining package that would let him eat at high-end restaurants, the beverage package that would keep the drinks flowing. But after contracting covid-19 and isolating in a designated cabin, he had to order off the room service menu: turkey sandwich, pizza, burgers and three choices for dessert.

“They were like, ‘We’re going to give you the minimum you need to survive,’ " said Rebelo, 54, who owns a small trucking company and works as a DJ while splitting his time between Tijuana and Las Vegas.

His nine-night voyage on the Norwegian Getaway late last month went awry after a coronavirus surge sent cases soaring to record heights on land and at sea. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cruise lines sailing in U.S. waters reported 5,013 coronavirus cases between Dec. 15 and Dec. 29, about 30 times more than the total from the previous two weeks.

On Dec. 31, the CDC escalated its travel warning for cruises to Level 4, advising against cruise travel even for the vaccinated. By that time, it was too late for Rebelo and thousands of others to heed the message.

Every U.S. cruise with passengers has coronavirus cases on board

Although passengers must follow strict rules to cruise — with the vast majority of people onboard vaccinated and everyone required to test negative — infections have slipped through. As positive cases mount, passengers and crew have coped with less-than-ideal accommodations. Many interviewed by The Washington Post reported long waits for service, hours without water, bare-bones food and confusion over when and who to test — even as most ships maintain their course.

A box of rice for dinner

For customers such as Rebelo, waiting on room service when they paid for premium options can feel like an indignity. For crew, quarantine can be even more difficult — even without getting sick.

One crew member on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas, who did not want her name published because she is still employed by the company, said she was sent to “soft quarantine” after having contact with someone who tested positive. That means she was allowed to work but required to spend the rest of her time in her room.

She said one day she found her lunch outside her door as workers were fogging the hallway with cleaning chemicals. She decided not to eat the food.

“One night my dinner was like just a box of rice. Nothing else. Not even a roll or a vegetable,” she said. “Just rice. I was like, cool, glad I have a box of Pop Tarts in my room.”

A former member of the cruise director staff on Oasis, Ovation and Harmony of the Seas said he tested positive for coronavirus recently and was served food in quarantine that seemed inedible to him. He declined to have his name used because of concerns about endangering future job prospects.

He provided pictures that showed a rotting orange; a small seafood salad in a box with a slice of watermelon; and a box with a scoop of white rice, a hard-boiled egg and a paltry pile of corned beef hash.

“It would be different if I worked for, like, a construction company that doesn’t know anything about how to prepare food,” he said. Royal Caribbean did not address questions about meals it provides to quarantining crew members.

Aboard the Norwegian Encore, however, passenger Kelly Araujo said she and her mother took solace in room service deliveries. The 18-year-old student at Duke University said she could order anything available from the dining rooms to her quarantine room. She ate lava cake with a molten chocolate center every night.

Araujo and her mother spent four days in a windowless room without seeing sunlight. They would nap, watch TV or scroll online, losing track of the hours.

“It just felt like one really, really, really long day,” Araujo said. “Even when we’d wake up, we would do the same thing the next day.”

During part of a three-week sailing on the Seabourn Ovation, Barry Kluger was exiled to the quarantine floor. The 68-year-old retired public relations executive missed his wife, he said, getting to see her only when she would visit a balcony near his and talk to him through an opening in a wall. Kluger, who was vaccinated, boosted and previously infected, had an asymptomatic case. He spent most of his lonely days online, posting updates about his quarantine on social media. On New Year’s Eve, he wore a tux, ordered champagne and rang in 2022 with his wife over Zoom.

Kluger said the crew, to their credit, did their best to entertain him. The cruise director brought him trivia and board games. His meals, although served on disposable plates, looked elaborate: Two ginormous shrimp on a bed of greens and dollops of sauces, grilled prawns with roasted autumnal vegetables, an assortment of mussels and octopus over yellow rice.

“Cruise lines didn’t create covid,” he said. “Everyone’s trying to feel their way through it.”

‘They did not want to know’

Araujo, the college student who enjoyed nightly lava cake, said within three days of her family’s Norwegian sailing, her mother started feeling nauseated. The family thought it was motion sickness at first.

“When we tested positive, it was like they didn’t know what to do,” she said of the company. “It was like they had not thought that anyone was going to test positive.”

Araujo, whose father tested negative, said staff told her she and her mother were the only people to test positive, but she wondered how many other guests carried the virus without getting a test. Initially, her family was told they would disembark together on the U.S. Virgin Islands. Instead, they stayed on and split up so she and her mother could quarantine.

On the Norwegian Getaway, Rebelo said he had to argue to receive a test after he developed a cough and chills.

“They grilled me,” Rebelo said. “They did not want to know. If you were firm with them, and I was, they came up and tested.”

He said he and other infected passengers on the Dec. 27 cruise tried to provide information about their close contacts on the ship, but “they would not take it down.” The ship’s next sailing was canceled.

In response to questions about his claims, Norwegian sent a link to its protocols, which say the company has “various contact tracing methodologies to identify and notify those who may have been exposed.”

Rebelo said the cruise companies are promoting their safety precautions before people board but should be doing more before they return to land. The CDC doesn’t require disembarkation testing for fully vaccinated passengers.

“You’ve been cruising around in this petri dish for 10 days,” he said. “Shouldn’t you have to test before you can go back on land?”

‘This is absolutely awful’

Graphic designer Mike Ratliff, 33, found out his 4-year-old daughter had contracted covid because she had to get tested before the end of the cruise on the Harmony of the Seas, as Royal Caribbean requires for unvaccinated kids on trips that are five nights or longer.

His daughter had been feeling a little tired and had a cough, but he said those symptoms didn’t seem out of the ordinary, especially several days into a busy cruise.

Then Ratliff found out she was positive. He thought the rest of his group — three older kids, his wife and parents, all vaccinated — would have to isolate because everyone had been exposed.

But Ratliff said only he had to isolate because he took his daughter to get tested; his wife had to persuade staff to let her join with their 6-year-old son because she did not want to be separated from her ill, youngest child. No one else in the group was tested on the ship.

He said his father even followed up with officials on board to make sure they didn’t need to quarantine or get tested. According to Royal Caribbean International spokeswoman Lyan Sierra-Caro, passengers identified as a close contact less than 24 hours before to the end of the cruise are supposed to quarantine but are not tested on board.

During the day and a half left of the Western Caribbean sailing, Ratliff started documenting his experience with videos on TikTok, calling the account “Cruising With Covid.”

“5-Star Service” he wrote on one video where he got what sounded like a busy signal as he tried to reach room service for food and water.

“This is absolutely awful,” he says.

@cruisingwithcovid 5-Star Service. #perfectday #harmonyoftheseas #royalcaribbean #theroyalcomeback #cruise #theRoyalSETBACK #covid #quarantine #deck9 #deck6 @royalcaribbean @cruiseindustrycritic @cdc.official @jimwalker ♬ original sound - CWC

Sierra-Caro said passengers are provided with free bottled water and room service.

Ratliff said it took at least an hour to reach room service, and then another hour to get food delivered. After the first meal, he said, he made the mistake of throwing out empty water bottles, realizing too late that there was no way to collect water from the sink to drink. His efforts to get more water sent to the room were fruitless before dinner, which he said arrived nearly three hours after they ordered it and was “super cold.”

After Ratliff and his wife drove their four kids home from Central Florida’s Port Canaveral, everyone in the family got sick. His parents tested positive, but his immediate family didn’t even bother getting tested.

While Ratliff said his family knew cruising came with risk of covid, he was disappointed with the way they were treated after his daughter tested positive.

“It was just frustrating that they weren’t able to meet basic needs,” he said. “We’re still a guest on the ship that we paid money to be on.”

Even though some shows and events got canceled because of staffing issues, Ratliff said it was a good cruise early on, with stops in Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan.

“We had a good time up until we didn’t,” he said.

Cruise passengers on holiday trips deal with outbreaks: ‘We’re sailing on a petri dish’ Listen to article 7 min

‘They were just overwhelmed’

David Beyer, a 68-year-old travel adviser from Colorado, tested positive Dec. 30, eight days after boarding the Celebrity Equinox for the “ultimate Southern Caribbean cruise.”

Beyer developed a slight cough before he woke up “not feeling good at all.” After waiting hours for a test and results, he relocated from his cabin to an isolation room a couple of floors down.

The new room was a “stripped-down” version of the original, Beyer said, with just a bar of soap in the shower, no tissues and no bath mat.

“If I’d had hair I needed to shampoo, I would’ve been [out of luck]” he said. “Thank goodness I’m bald.”

His husband, Don McCleary, kept their original room because he had tested negative; McCleary said he planned to get tested again this week because he had covid symptoms.

Until the ship returned to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 3, Beyer passed the time talking on the phone, playing games on his cellphone, watching TV and gazing at the sea from the balcony. He was able to order from the dining room menu, though the process to obtain the lukewarm food that arrived in paper boxes left a lot to be desired.

“Sometimes I was dialing upward of nine to 10 times to get through,” he said. “I think it was just so many people they were just overwhelmed, and it took a long time.”

CDC warns against cruise travel after 5,000 new coronavirus cases in 2 weeks

After a Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Reflection, Elizabeth Seguin is stuck in quarantine in Miami for two weeks before she can make it home to Quebec. The 23-year-old disembarked on Jan. 2 for a trip that was supposed to be a respite from lockdown in the cold Canadian province.

Within her group of three families, eight people tested positive on the ship, Seguin said. She wishes she knew how many passengers in total were infected.

“We would hear the announcement every morning, like, 'It’s New Year’s Eve. I hope you have a good new year,’ ” she said, "and that kind of sucked, because we were stuck and couldn’t participate in all of that.”

Still, Seguin said she thought it was just as safe on a cruise as it would be in plenty of environments on land.

“When you go to a hotel, they don’t ask for your vaccination, they don’t ask for negative tests,” she said. “If you go to a concert, or you go to a festival, you can still get covid.”

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A TikToker who tested positive for COVID-19 on a cruise reveals what it was like to isolate on the ship

• Travis Shields says he tested positive for COVID-19 during an eight-day Celebrity Cruise sailing.
• He relocated to the ship's quarantine floor where he says he spent the next three days in isolation.
• Shields documented his experience on TikTok , where the videos have over 1.7 million views.

On December 27, Travis Shields boarded his very first cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises' Apex ship.

The eight-day Caribbean journey required all passengers to be vaccinated and have a negative COVID-19 test within two days of departure .

But midway through, after experiencing symptoms, Shields said he tested positive for COVID-19 and was moved to the ship's quarantine floor where he spent the rest of his vacation in isolation. 

Shields documented the positive result and its aftermath on his TikTok account, @squatchout , with videos that have over 1.7 million views collectively. 

Insider spoke to Shields to hear more about what it was like. Representatives for Celebrity Cruises did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

On day 6 of the cruise, Shields tested positive for COVID-19

On December 30, Shields told Insider that his girlfriend's mom started feeling sick and tested positive for COVID-19.

She was moved to the cruise's quarantine floor, he said, and the rest of Shield's group also took tests, which all came back negative. They were instructed to quarantine for 24 hours in their room (which also happened to be on New Year's Eve, "which totally sucked," according to Shields).

After 24 hours, everyone in the group tested again and Shields tested positive.

Shields tested positive for COVID-19 on day six of the cruise, he said. Travis Shields/TikTok

What it's like to quarantine on a cruise: isolation and medicine delivered to your door.

After testing positive, Shields told Insider that cruise workers arrived at his door to transport him to the quarantine floor where he'd spend the last three days of the cruise. In one of Shields' TikTok videos , workers appeared to don masks, face shields, gloves, and hazmat suits, and walked behind Shields while pushing his luggage and spraying disinfectant in the air behind him.

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According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Shields would have to quarantine for a minimum of five days.

He said he was told by the cruise line that after the ship disembarked at the end of the trip in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he'd be transported to a hotel to finish out his quarantine free of charge, as part of Celebrity's health and safety policy . The policy states "If you test positive for COVID-19 during the cruise, Celebrity Cruises will cover the cost of COVID-19 related medical treatment onboard, any required land-based quarantine, and homebound travel for you and your Traveling Party."

The fine print does add that these costs are covered for guests who have fully complied with all Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean Group COVID-19 policies and procedures in effect at the time of voyage with additional terms and conditions that may apply .

@squatchout This is what happens when you test positive for COVID-19 on a cruise ship! 🎉 #covid19 #cruise #cruiseship #vacation #outbreak #walkofshame ♬ You And Me - Lyus

Shields said the next three days in quarantine on the cruise dragged on. He could order room service from the ship's restaurants, but said it often took more than two hours to arrive and by then it was cold. 

The Wi-Fi connection was spotty, Shields also said, so he relied on a book and TV for entertainment. He "watched a couple of indie movies that I couldn't even tell you the name of because they were so bad" and texted his family, who were enjoying the rest of their vacation on the ship, he said. 

"It took a lot of patience not to get frustrated," he told Insider. "You can see Cozumel through the window, but you can't go to Cozumel. You can see The Bahamas; can't go to The Bahamas."

Each day, a doctor called Shields to see how he was feeling. When Shields started feeling sick, Tylenol, cough medicine, and other medicine arrived at his door, he said.

By the time the cruise was over, Shields said he was itching to leave the cabin, which he described as "COVID jail" in his first TikTok video about the experience. 

The cruise disembarked in Florida, where Shields continued to quarantine 

Shields said he waited for all the passengers on Celebrity's Apex ship to disembark, after which, once again, hazmat-clad workers arrived at his door and instructed him to leave through a separate exit.  

When he got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale, his teary-eyed girlfriend and family were waiting for him.

"It was pretty emotional," he said. "It was only three days, but it felt like forever."

@squatchout Covid Cruise Pt. 2 …Finally released from ship! Now to find a better place to quarantine in Florida! #covid19 #cruise #cruiseship #omicron #outbreak ♬ Freedom - Pitbull

There was also a car waiting to transport him to a hotel, he said, which was booked through Celebrity Cruises where he thought he would finish the remainder of quarantine. 

The hotel wasn't up to his standards, he said, so Shields and his girlfriend's mother, who was also finishing her quarantine, decided to rent an Airbnb.

Shields told Insider that Celebrity Cruises' aforementioned policy was to help him rebook flights home, "but they just disappeared," he said referring to the cruise company. So Shields said he booked his own flight back to Portland, Oregon.

Shields said he was told that he would be reimbursed for both the flight and Airbnb costs, in accordance with the policy , but has yet to submit his receipts.

Throughout the entire process, Shields said he was shocked by the lack of communication and that no one verified that he finished his quarantine.

"There was no structure to it," he said. "It was like once you get to Florida, you're on your own." 

Shields said he will likely go on another cruise — once he feels it's safer

"I'll probably still go on a cruise again," he said. Next time, though, he plans to wait until there isn't a surge in COVID-19 cases. 

For other travelers considering a cruise, Shields said don't go. 

"I would stay home until Omicron is over or at least mostly gone," he said. "I would not go out."

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Celebrity Summit May 2024

At a glance.

Learn about the gastrointestinal illness outbreak on Celebrity Cruises ship Celebrity Summit in May 2024, including outbreak details and actions taken in response.

Outbreak details

Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises

Cruise Ship: Celebrity Summit

Voyage Dates: May 24–May 31, 2024

Voyage number: 58044

Number of passengers who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 68 of 2,264 (3%)

Number of crew who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 5 of 943 (0.53%)

Predominant symptoms: diarrhea and vomiting

Causative agent: norovirus

Actions in response to the outbreak

In response to the outbreak, Celebrity Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:

• Collected stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases for testing.
• Isolated ill passengers and crew.
• Staged disembarkation for active cases to limit the opportunity of illness transmission to well guests.
• Sanitation of terminal and transport infection control procedures.

VSP remotely monitored the situation, including review of the ship's outbreak response and sanitation procedures.

Tips for healthy cruising

Learn how passengers can protect themselves .

More information

Gastrointestinal illness is a commonly used term for acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Cruise ships report cases that meet our case definition for AGE. We define a reportable case of AGE as

• Three or more loose stools within a 24-hour period or what is more than normal for that person OR
• Vomiting along with one of the following symptoms: diarrhea, muscle ache, headache, abdominal cramp, or fever.

Case totals

Cases reported are totals for the entire voyage. It does not mean all people are sick at the same time, such as when they arrive or leave a port or ship.

The Vessel Sanitation Program helps the cruise ship industry prevent and control the introduction and spread of gastrointestinal illnesses on cruise ships.

For Everyone

Public health.