CDC: Stomach bug strikes second cruise ship

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Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess, seen here, cut its seven-day trip short after at least 165 passengers and 11 crew members reported being ill, the cruise company said Friday, January 31. Click through the gallery to see some other unfortunate events that have affected recent cruises.

Nearly 700 crew and passengers fell ill aboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, which returned home to New Jersey on Wednesday, January 29. It is the highest number of sick people reported on any cruise ship in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2013, the Silver Shadow, run by Silversea Cruises, failed a CDC health inspection over concerns about hiding food in crew cabins.

On Memorial Day last year, a fire aboard Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas cut short a seven-day cruise to Port Canaveral, Florida, and the Bahamas. The ship changed its course and sailed under its own power to Freeport in the Bahamas.

Carnival Legend, shown here in 2012, had to cancel a scheduled March stop on Grand Cayman after propulsion system problems hampered its sailing speed. It arrived in Tampa, Florida, hours ahead of schedule.

The Carnival Dream, shown here at its North American debut in November 2009, lost power in March, and some of its toilets stopped working temporarily. For a time, no one was allowed to get off the vessel, docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean.

A February 2013 engine fire left the Carnival Triumph adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. More than 4,200 passengers endured power outages, overflowing toilets and food shortages.

During a surprise visit in August 2012, CDC inspectors found multiple sanitation violations on the Holland America ship ms Veendam (shown here in March 2012). The CDC found enough violations, including brown liquid dripping on clean dishes and a fly on the buffet, to give the Veendam a failing grade.

A fire in the Carnival Splendor engine room in November 2010 crippled the cruise ship, stranding passengers off the coast of Mexico for several days without air conditioning or hot showers.

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Are cruise ships floating petri dishes?

Noroviruses spread easily and are a common cause of gastroenteritis, which produces vomiting and diarrhea.

Norovirus is also suspected on board the Explorer of the Seas, though the cause of the illness there has not been confirmed.

Caribbean Princess is expected in Houston early Friday. The seven-day cruise is being cut short by one day.

Sick passengers are being asked to stay in their cabins, while staff disinfect public areas such as restrooms and elevators.

The decision to cut the trip short was made based on forecasts for heavy fog, not the outbreak, Benson said.

CNN first learned of the stricken Princess ship from a Twitter post by the Houston Chronicle.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship returns home – with a sickness record

CNN’s Miriam Falco contributed to this report.