Queen Victoria cruise ship with sick passengers departs San Francisco

Cruise ship with sick passengers sets sail from San Francisco

There’s a mystery unfolding aboard a cruise ship docked in San Francisco from February 6 through 7. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating after more than 150 passengers and crew on the Queen Victoria got sick.

SAN FRANCISCO - There’s a mystery unfolding aboard a cruise ship docked in San Francisco from February 6 through 7.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating after more than 150 passengers and crew on the Queen Victoria got sick.

The cruise ship is touted as an "extraordinary way to see the world."

"Their staff are absolutely amazing," passenger Malcom Davis told KTVU.

But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for all passengers on the weeks-long international voyage originating from Hamburg, Germany on January 9.

Passengers caught wind of trouble on day 13 after leaving Florida.

Queen Victoria ship docked along the coast of San Francisco. Feb. 7, 2024.

"We’d left Port Canaveral, and then it was announced that people were getting ill, and they had to take the extra precautions," passenger Eirlys Thomas said.

Cunard Cruise Line, the company that operates the ship told KTVU, "A small number of guests had reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness."

According to the CDC, of the more than 1,800 passengers, 128 got sick, along with 25 of the more than 900 crew.

"It’s not a massive amount but still too many," Davis said. "We took it seriously."

According to the CDC, the crew isolated those who fell ill, and activated enhanced cleaning and disinfecting of the ship, along with safety protocols.

"You can’t press any buttons yourself," said a passenger who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Graham. "Everything that’s touched has to be touched by a crew member who’s wearing rubber gloves."

"The buffet area was manned by the staff so that the passengers didn’t actually handle the serving utensils or anything to do with the food," Davis said.

The CDC said the main symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting.

"We heard about people that were sick, 24 hour thing, 12 hour thing, but that was it," passenger Wendy Gileswood recalled.

The cause of the illness is unknown.

"There was people that had it, and not that it effected the ship at all," Angela Gileswood said.

Cruise ship docked in San Francisco with more than a hundred passengers suffering from a mystery illness.

With all aboard, the Queen Victoria would set sail from San Francisco just before 8 o’clock Wednesday night, bound for Honolulu, Hawaii with a final destination of Sydney, Australia, where they are expected to arrive on March 4.

The CDC said the 153 who got sick, occurred over the course of the trip, and did not represent active cases.

The ship arrived to San Francisco on Feb. 6 and took up the space at Piers 30 to 32.

The cruise ship departed at around 7:45 p.m. on Feb. 7, according to cruise terminal information.

At around 8:30 p.m., the ship passed under the Golden Gate.