GALVESTON, Texas, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Investigators Sunday were trying to determine what sickened more than 300 people on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship out of Galveston, Texas.
"We had been excited about this trip for several months," Tim Dougherty told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Saturday. "We heard about past incidents where people got sick on cruise ships, but we thought those were isolated incidents and that it wouldn't happen to us.
The cruise ship, Celebration, left Monday for a five-day cruise to Mexico, but by Wednesday, Carnival contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to report ill passengers had been vomiting and had diarrhea.
By Friday, 297 of 1,576 passengers and 19 of 689 crew members were ill, according to the CDC.
CDC investigators are conducting tests on the 733-foot ship to determine the cause of the outbreak that may have affected more than 20 percent of the travelers.
A norovirus may be the most likely culprit, according to a statement by the Miami-based Carnival Cruise Line. Carnival said it will compensate passengers who got sick during the cruise, the Houston Chronicle said.
