An unsettling development occurring on the Disney Wonder cruise ship was brought to our attention this morning. There has been an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) which exceeds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) percentage (3%) of affected passengers and crew members.
The cruise ship still has two more days to finish its current cruise. The next cruise is the "14 Night Panama Canal: cruise which leaves from Miami headed for San Diego, California.
There was an emergency meeting in the dining room, where crew members were informed that about 99 guests and 10 crew were ill with AGE. (The official report from the CDC estimates that there were 92 of 2679 (3.43%) passenger and 5 of 991 (0.5%) of crew members affected).
A sign was posted for the crew informing them that there is a high level of outbreaks over 3% of passengers"and crews sick on the ship. The Disney Wonder has a capacity of around 2,400 passengers and 945 crew members. This will result in the crew members working longer hours to try and sanitize the ship before the next round of families and kids embarkthe cruise ship in Miami on May 1st.
There have been 9 prior outbreaks on cruise ships calling on U.S. ports this year. Disney is one of the few cruise lines which do not routinely suffer from gastrointestinal outbreaks.
Have a thought? Please join the discussion on our Facebook page.
The Disney Cruiseline Blog contains a copy of an email sent to future cruisers on the upcoming cruise.
May 2 2016 Update: The Sun Sentinel, the first major newspaper to report on the outbreak, picks up the story – Nearly 100 sickened on Disney Wonder cruise ship.
May 3 2016 Update: Gobal Dispatch says that "health officials now put the total cases at 145, 131 of 2680 passengers onboard and 14 of 991 crew members"