Ruby Princess to Dock in Haines With Gastroenteritis Cases Aboard
A Haines notice said six crew members and one passenger were isolating Sunday, and Ruby Princess’s shore excursion team would contact local tour operators about protocols.
Ruby Princess is scheduled to dock in Haines, Alaska, at 11 a.m. Monday, July 6, while reporting acute gastroenteritis among passengers and crew for a second consecutive voyage. An email to Haines borough employees said six crew members and one passenger were isolating as of 10 a.m. Sunday.
The Sunday count is an active isolation figure; CDC outbreak postings use cumulative illness reports over a full voyage. On Ruby Princess’s previous Alaska cruise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 125 norovirus cases among 4,176 people aboard before the ship returned to San Francisco on July 2.
Current voyage protocols for the Haines call
The Haines notice identified the current illness as acute gastroenteritis and did not name a causative agent. It said onboard areas were being disinfected more frequently and that Ruby Princess’s shore excursion team would contact local tour operators directly about tour protocols.
Ruby Princess departed San Francisco on July 2. The ship stopped in Sitka on July 5 before sailing for Haines. The itinerary is scheduled to continue to Tracy Arm, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, before the ship returns to San Francisco; CruiseMapper data showed no Juneau port call on the current voyage.
The 113,561-gross-ton Ruby Princess, built in 2008 and refurbished in 2023, has a 3,080-guest double-occupancy capacity and 1,542 staterooms. The prior voyage carried 3,032 passengers and 1,144 crew members, with the CDC case count split between 102 passengers and 23 crew.
CDC monitoring after prior Ruby Princess outbreak
For the June 12-July 2 sailing, the CDC said the main reported symptoms were diarrhea and vomiting. Ruby Princess crew increased cleaning and disinfection, isolated ill passengers and crew, collected specimens for testing and consulted with the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, which monitored the response remotely.
Princess Cruises said “a limited number of guests reported mild gastrointestinal illness” during the 20-day voyage from San Francisco. “Our crew responded promptly by implementing enhanced sanitation protocols across the ship, and cases have since decreased and remain low,” the company said.
After the ship arrived at its San Francisco homeport, embarkation for the next cruise was delayed while additional cleaning was carried out. The outbreak was Princess Cruises’ third CDC-reported norovirus outbreak this year, following cases aboard Caribbean Princess in May and Star Princess in March.
Under the Vessel Sanitation Program, ships under CDC jurisdiction maintain gastrointestinal illness logs and submit standardized acute gastroenteritis reports. VSP requires a special report when cumulative cases reach 2% of passengers or crew within 15 days of a U.S. arrival, and the agency’s public outbreak threshold is 3%.
Haines officials seek clearer notification standards
Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska port manager Leslie Ross said she notified Haines tourism director Rebecca Hylton and the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium clinic about Ruby Princess’s arrival and recent outbreak history. Ross said she was also aware of outbreaks aboard Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Sea Bird, which has been calling in Haines since mid-May.
“They don’t have a medical [team] on board and they’re not a foreign-flagged ship so I don’t have as much interface with them,” Ross said of Sea Bird.
Hylton said the borough does not generally receive notifications about active outbreaks on ships such as Sea Bird, though tour operators should. She said standard practice is for cruise lines to notify tour operators of disease outbreaks, not ports or the general public, and that Port Community of Alaska is advocating a standard protocol for all ports.
The 151-foot National Geographic Sea Bird has twice stopped in Haines this year while carrying an active norovirus outbreak. Its most recent outbreak affected 20 of the 95 people aboard, and the ship docked in Haines for eight hours on June 23; during a previous outbreak, it stopped in Haines on May 28 while 12 people were infected. Lindblad Expeditions did not return a request for more information about its protocol for informing local authorities.
Ross said cruise ships are not supposed to allow infected passengers ashore, though she was unsure about the legal authority to restrict a passenger’s movement to the vessel. For tour operators, she advised basic precautions: “Wash your hands, wipe down everything after they get off,” Ross said. “Don’t shake hands. Don’t share an ice cream cone with anyone.”
When a ship calls during an active outbreak, Ross said she also asks operators not to direct sick passengers to the local clinic. “We’re a small town without a lot of resources to deal with that,” she said.
