Compensation claims over cruise norovirus outbreak

Some passengers on board Ventura suffered sickness and diarrhoea

A cruise operator is facing claims for refunds and compensation after hundreds of passengers were taken ill on board.

More than 500 passengers were affected by a norovirus outbreak on P&O's Ventura which departed Southampton for a two-week cruise around the Canary Islands in May.

Solicitors pursuing compensation claims for clients on that and other cruises believe "thousands" could have been affected.

P&O Cruises said it had "proven protocols" to deal with health issues on board its ships.

It claimed at the time that fewer than 1% of passengers on the sailing had been taken ill.

But a Freedom of Information request to the port health authority in Southampton later revealed that at the height of the outbreak, 519 people were affected, 12.3% of those on board.

Howard and Hazel Lunn, from Devon, paid about £5,000 for the Canary Island cruise but both were taken ill and had to isolate in their cabin.

Mr Lunn, 77, said their holiday was "effectively over" from that point.

"You spend days isolated in your cabin, and even when we were able to go back out we simply didn’t feel well enough to use the restaurants, the entertainment or any other facilities as we were wiped out and had no energy."

"It seemed everybody around us, at each side and on decks above and below, were ill too, so that led us to believe that a significant number of passengers were ill.”

Marc Dando called on P&O Cruises to fully disclose the numbers of people taken ill

Among the law firms acting for disgruntled passengers, Hudgell Solicitors said it was representing more than 50 people who experienced illness over five different cruises between April and June.

Its travel specialist Marc Dando called for P&O Cruises to be "transparent" over disclosing the numbers of people taken ill.

Stopping short of threatening court action, he said clients should be "fully refunded or offered some form of compensation for the completely ruined holiday they went on".

"We believe this could go into the hundreds, if not thousands, it's certainly not an isolated incident

"It's quite clear that when these problems started, very little was done in regard to cancelling cruises.

"Slight delays of an hour and a half to clean a ship is just not adequate. Guests were not given the opportunity to cancel or postpone the cruises and ultimately people have not been informed properly," he added.

In a statement P&O Cruises said: "We are aware that some guests unfortunately reported gastrointestinal symptoms, reflecting higher rates seen in England this summer.

"Gastrointestinal related illnesses are very common in England and Wales and predominantly spread by person-to-person transmission in environments such as hotels, schools and restaurants.

"We work with global, national and regional public health authorities on proven protocols across our ships in order to protect the health and wellbeing of all on board".