Hundreds of holidaymakers on the Queen Elizabeth 2 have been struck down by another outbreak of the norovirus stomach bug.
More than 270 passengers and 28 crew on the world's most famous cruise ship fell victim to winter vomiting sickness as it arrived in Acapulco, Mexico, on the transatlantic leg of its world tour.
Health officials called on to the ship in Acapulco this week found that almost 17 per cent of its 1,652 passengers had fallen ill in an "unusually large outbreak". Typical infection rates on ships are only about three per cent.
The QE2, which is carrying about 450 British passengers, had to carry out a major sanitation programme when the virus escalated on Jan 19. It included confining victims to their cabins; cancelling all captain's cocktail parties; recalling all condiments; and banning self-serve items on the buffet.
All but six passengers have now recovered from the virus, which is thought to have come aboard in New York on Jan 8.
A spokesman for Cunard, the ship's owner, said: "Everything has calmed down now and the number of people still ill has fallen to the low single figures. We carried out a sanitation programme and it worked very well."
The cost of a 108-day world tour on the QE2 starts from £10,449 a person. A luxury suite costs anything from £6,000 a person for seven nights to £132,999 for the full trip.
The outbreak left many passengers disappointed that their holidays had been disrupted. On the website Cruisecritic.com, where passengers communicate with relatives via internet message boards, one person wrote: "My dad just called and is leaving the ship. He had planned on doing the 108 days [but] is leaving the ship today in Los Angeles. [It is his] first time on Cunard and he was not very happy with the way the crew has handled things." A passenger called Bobby wrote: "I am on the QE2 … There have been many adjustments … no salt and pepper service, ordering the entire meal at once so as not to exchange menus, no self serve anything (eg yoghurt) and spraying and wiping down everywhere."
Owen Benson, a 77-year-old retired engineer from Auckland, New Zealand, fell ill on his second day after boarding in New York.
He said yesterday: "I felt really weak, it was like I was dying of starvation. The whole thing was over fairly quickly but it really took the shine off my journey. I knew norovirus was a risk on cruise ships but I didn't expect to get ill on the second day."
A spokesman for the US centre for disease control and prevention, which sent a team to combat the outbreak at Acapulco, said: "All the passengers disembarked on Jan 22 so the ship could be thoroughly disinfected. The situation is now under control."
The QE2 outbreak is the latest in a series of stomach flu problems on cruise liners, which are susceptible to the bug because so many people are in a confined space.
Last December almost 400 passengers and crew caught a virus aboard the Freedom of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, in Florida.
And in November more than 680 passengers and crew fell ill on the Carnival Liberty as it cruised the Caribbean.
The QE2 is now sailing for Hawaii en route to New Zealand, Australia, Japan and China.
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