Seven people ill on Ruby Princess cruise set to dock Monday in Haines

Ship did not dock in Juneau during this voyage

The Ruby Princess is docked in San Francisco, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

By Rashah McChesney

Chilkat Valley News

The Princess Cruises ship Ruby Princess reports a second outbreak of an illness causing “acute gastroenteritis” among crew and passengers, according to an email sent to Haines borough employees.  The ship is scheduled to dock at 11 a.m. Monday in Haines. 

At 10 a.m. Sunday, six crewmembers and one passenger were isolating. Holland America reports that it is disinfecting areas more frequently because of the outbreak, according to an email from a Holland America representative in Juneau. The ship’s shore excursion team onboard will reach out to local tour operators directly on tour protocols, according to the email. 

The ship did not make a port stop in Juneau during this voyage, according to CruiseMapper, an online vessel tracking database. It departed from San Francisco on July 2 and stopped in Sitka on July 5 before setting sail for Haines. It is scheduled to visit Tracy Arm, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, before returing to San Francisco.

This is the second consecutive trip in which Ruby Princess passengers and crew fell ill and the third time a ship with passengers and crew with active outbreaks has visited Haines this year. 

The Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Sea Bird has twice stopped in Haines this year while carrying an active norovirus outbreak.

The Sea Bird’s most recent outbreak affected 20 of the 95 people aboard the ship. During that outbreak, the ship docked in Haines for eight hours on June 23. The company did not return a request for more information Friday about its protocol for informing local authorities about contagious disease outbreaks on board. 

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that is the leading cause of vomiting, diarrhea and foodborne illness in the United States. It is the most common virus reported on cruise ships, including 17 of the 23 outbreaks reported in 2025.

During a previous outbreak, the ship stopped in Haines on May 28 while 12 passengers were infected. That’s according to Centers for Disease Control reports about the outbreaks, which the agency released earlier this week.  The CDC’s reporting threshold for outbreaks is 3% of the people on board. 

Separately, 125 of the 4,176 people aboard the Ruby Princess who traveled from San Francisco to Alaska from June 12 to July 2 were infected with norovirus. The ship arrived in its homeport of San Francisco on Thursday;  new passengers were delayed in boarding as the company disinfected the boat, according to CruiseHive.  

The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program monitored the Ruby Princess’s norovirus outbreak from afar, but sent investigators aboard the Sea Bird after the second outbreak, CruiseHive reported. 

Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska port manager Leslie Ross said Friday she has notified borough tourism director Rebecca Hylton and the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium clinic of the Ruby Princess’ coming arrival and recent outbreak. 

Ross said she was also aware of the outbreaks on the Sea Bird, which has been visiting Haines since mid-May. That ship moors at the Chilkoot Indian Association dock when in town. 

“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. 

Tourism director Hylton said the borough doesn’t generally receive notifications about active outbreaks on ships like the Sea Bird, though the tour operators should. 

Hylton said standard practice is for cruise lines to notify tour operators of disease outbreaks but not  ports and the general public. Port Community of Alaska, a professional organization based in Juneau focused on collaboration between cities impacted by cruise ship activities, advocates for a standard protocol for all ports, she said. 

Ross said cruise ships are not supposed to let infected passengers on a ship come to shore, but she’s unclear on the legality of restricting a person’s movement to the ship. She also said she wasn’t sure what the specific requirements were for ships to notify ports when they’re coming in with passengers that are infected with a contagious disease. 

Ross said generally Haines’ tourism department would notify the community when anything concerning arises, but that tour operators should take precautions regardless. 

“Wash your hands, wipe down everything after they get off,” she said. “Don’t shake hands. Don’t share an ice cream cone with anyone.” 

When a ship stops in Haines during mid-outbreak of anything such as the flu or norovirus, Ross said she asks them not to send any sick passengers to the local clinic. 

“We’re a small town without a lot of resources to deal with that,” she said. 

• This story originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News. The Juneau Independent’s Mark Sabbatini contributed reporting to this story.