Cruise Ship Blamed for Mass Illness

By Terry Green
Jan 9 2011

The Radiance of the Sea, a ship in the Caribbean Cruise line is back at port today after hundreds of passengers became ill with and intestinal bug while on board the ship.

The Radiance of the Sea sails out of Florida and generally carries passengers on a five-day cruise throughout the Caribbean. However, the ship returned after just three days when most of the passengers on board the 2500 capacity ship fell ill.

Now the cruise line has said that it will cleanse the ship to ensure that all traces of the problem are contained. However, the source of the contamination has not yet been established and doctors on board believe that tainted food or drink could be to blame for the incident.

However, cruise lines, such as Caribbean, have long been known for the high quality foods and drinks on board the vessels. But doctors believe that the passengers may have eaten tainted food at some point and it could be a minor outbreak. The doctors said that they do not believe any of the passengers to be in any danger at this point.

Those that fell ill have been refunded their entire cruise amount and will receive a voucher for another cruise.

While the ship is being cleaned health officials will be dispatched as well to take samples of foods and surfaces to track down the cause of the illness. This is the second major problem for Caribbean Cruise lines in the past several months.