Golden Princess cruise ship docks in Melbourne following gastro outbreak

HUNDREDS of travellers struck down by gastro on a south pacific cruise have docked in Melbourne.

The Golden Princess, the largest cruise ship to be based in Melbourne, arrives at Station Pier on Friday, October 30, 2015, in Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Picture: Hamish Blair

HUNDREDS of travellers struck down by gastro on a south pacific cruise have docked in Melbourne.

Passengers on the Princess Cruises’ Golden Princess were grateful to hit dry land today, after the 14-day cruise of Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

The outbreak comes a month after 158 Sydney-bound passengers became sick on sister ship ­Diamond Princess.

Kerry McNamara from Barwon Heads said she managed to escape a bout of gastro — with sick passengers quarantine in their rooms — but was hit with the flu.

She estimated that the number of people ill could have hit 300.

“A lot of people were suffering with diarrhoea and vomiting because of the gastro,” she said.

“If you didn’t get that, you got the flu.

“At one stage one of my roommates vomited on her bed and it took three hours to get the sheets changed.”

An elderly man also died of natural causes while on the cruise.

Mrs McNamara said passengers became concerned when “stretcher calls” were made across the 14 days.

“You just sort of wondered what was going on,” she said.

“I would never go on that ship again.”

Princess Cruises spokesman David Jones refused to release how many passengers had become sick.

“On any given day relatively few of the more than 2600 passengers were reporting symptoms and, highlighting the effectiveness of the on-board response, the number of new cases had fallen to a trickle in the final days of the cruise,” he said.

“As a preventative health measure, the ship and terminal are receiving heightened sanitation prior to embarkation for Golden Princess’ next cruise.”

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