An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness was recorded aboard the Celebrity Eclipse during a late December cruise, resulting in a number of passengers and crew reporting symptoms during the voyage.
Data from the U.S. agency CDC indicated that 95 of the 3,042 passengers onboard reported illness during the sailing, which took place from December 20th to December 28th. In addition, 9 crew members were reported as affected.
The 8-day round-trip itinerary from Fort Lauderdale visited St. John’s in Antigua, Philipsburg in St. Maarten, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Puerto Plata at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic before returning to Florida.
The occurrence of illness was formally reported to the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program on the final day of the cruise.
The symptoms most commonly reported included vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps.
At the time of reporting, the specific cause of the outbreak had not been confirmed.
In response, the ship’s operator implemented enhanced cleaning and disinfection measures and coordinated with the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program regarding sanitation protocols and the reporting of cases.
Crew members isolated affected passengers and personnel and collected stool samples from those experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms for laboratory analysis.
The CDC recorded 22 cruise ship illness outbreaks during 2025, with the majority attributed to norovirus.
Before the Celebrity Eclipse's incident, another virus outbreak had been reported on AIDAdiva's 133-day world cruise that called at ports in the USA, UK, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa after departing from Germany (Hamburg) in November.
For more Celebrity Eclipse incidents and accidents, see the ship's CruiseMinus page.